The sermon explores the advantage of the Jew and the profit of circumcision, emphasizing the importance of the oracles of God. It addresses the misconception that unbelief nullifies God's faithfulness and clarifies the relationship between sin and God's judgment. The sermon highlights the comprehensive depravity of mankind, presenting 14 indictments that demonstrate the need for salvation. Ultimately, it emphasizes the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ and the grace available for all who believe.

Please open your Bibles to Romans three and find verse one. Romans three, one. I'll be reading to verse 20. This is the inerrant, all sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. Romans three, verse one.

What advantage then has the Jew? Or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way. Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe?

Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not. Indeed, let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged. But if our righteousness demonstrates, if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath?

I speak as a man. Certainly not. For then how will God judge the world? For If the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, Let us do evil that good may come, as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say their condemnation is just.

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin as it is written there is none righteous no not one there is none who understands there is none who seeks after God they have all turned aside they have all together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no not one.

Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the path of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, No flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we pray that you would give us understanding to receive these words that are hard to understand.

And so, Lord, I pray that you would come and bless your people with truth, refresh us with wisdom from heaven. In Jesus' name, Amen. Please be seated. The greatest danger to a church or to an individual or to the things going on in a family is to misunderstand the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what we find here in Paul is that very same concern for the Roman believers.

And he's making sure line after line with all that we've read so far in Romans that no work of man can save. And he's destroying self-righteousness in every single section of this book of what we've read so far. And as I said the last time I preached in Romans, The apostle wants everyone in Rome to declare spiritual bankruptcy. And you know, whenever there's a passage of scripture before our church, It always hits me, Lord, why are we here? Why is this church before these words today?

Well, We believe that God speaks to his church through his word. And that's how God leads his church. He leads his church by his word. You've heard me say this many times. When somebody asks me, where is this church going, I want to say, well, we're preaching on such and such next week, that's where our church is going, to be led by the word of God.

But why, over and over again, over these past few weeks in Romans, have we been urged not to trust in our own righteousness? I can't help but think that I need to hear that and all of us in this room need to hear it. That there's not one work, there's not one lifestyle choice, there's not one ounce of pride for your ecclesiology. There's not one thing that we ought to be proud of. But to be like the apostle, to boast only in the cross of Jesus Christ.

So why is this passage before our church? I was recalling the purpose statement of Chapel Library when I was thinking about why possibly we would be in this passage of scripture. I'll read it. Our purpose is to humble the pride of man, to exalt the grace of God in salvation and to promote real holiness in heart and life. So let's be sweetly humbled by the words that are here.

So what the Apostle Paul here is, he's continuing to tell us why he's not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it's the power of God. And if you remember correctly in the first 15 verses he is saying that he's not ashamed because of what God has done in his life, he's totally transformed his life and he's made him literally a happy slave of Jesus Christ and it's changed the way he's thought about everybody. And then in 16 through 18, he makes it very clear, he says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And then he says, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. So after that, after stating that he's not ashamed of the gospel because of the righteousness of God, not the righteousness of man, he begins to really unravel all human pride for salvation.

And he does it literally one verse at a time that we've been walking through over these weeks. And He first of all talks about the people who are just so proud of their truth, and he says, you're suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. And he talks about those who are just so invigorated by their immorality, and then He speaks of those who have been emboldened by their homosexual revolution. But then he doesn't leave radical sin. He turns and he says, but you who are moral, your morality can't save you.

And then he turns to the religious and he says, your religion can't save you. And he continues to take off every excuse. And he ends up at the end of chapter two saying that the miracle of Christianity is a changed heart, that your heart is circumcised. And that results in a new life, and new affections, and actually new behavior. And God circumcises your heart.

He turns your heart of stone to a soft heart of flesh. He, you know, in circumcision, you're cutting something out. He cuts out the hardness that you once had. What a blessing it is to finally recognize that God has cut the hardness out of your heart. And so the apostle has been exposing what I've been calling the delusion of inclusion by religious duty and to be awakened to spiritual bankruptcy.

And this is all along the lines of D.L. Moody's statement is you've got to get people lost before you can get them saved. So that's what we, this is where we've been in Romans. And so you have this outline in front of you. The focus here is on the Jews and the righteousness of the Jews.

And that's in verses one through eight, and then in nine through 20, he focuses on everyone. And every commentator I read pretty much said, this is the most difficult paragraph in the whole book of Romans. I agree it really is. I've really had a hard time trying to you know wrap my arms around everything that's here so be be kind to me in it because this is a difficult passage and I want to work through these verses according to these four questions and the first question is in verses one and two and then the second question is in three through six, and the third question is in seven and eight, and then the final question, which it remains to be seen whether we'll get to it, is nine through 20, 14 indictments against all of mankind and are true for all of us. So now what Paul is doing in these questions, He's stating these rhetorical questions.

He's actually answering people who've, either who might object to what he has said, or he knows they will object because of his conversations. In verse seven, we learn that he's been slandered as saying something that he wasn't really saying. It says, it has been slanderously reported. And what happens, What the Apostle Paul is anticipating is that people will have misunderstood what he has said so far about your circumcision means nothing. People have come to conclusions that aren't what he meant at all.

And so he's, I believe, trying to correct that. And this is a very common thing. When people speak or write, they put words in your mouth. They will often twist your words. They will put the worst interpretation of what you said, and it gets actually worse when someone comes in with a censorious critical spirit, and you can't, nothing you say is right.

You know, Sometimes you experience that with a spouse or a friend. You know, you can't say anything that's right. And, but, you know, sometimes people come to a place where they want to catch you in your words. And So they micromanage every single word and take it to a conclusion that you didn't mean. I think that's what Paul's doing.

He's saying it's been slanderously reported that we're saying this, but we're not saying this. So that's the whole thing. He's answering questions about this. The biggest problem though, particularly in my teaching, is that I didn't say things as clearly, or Maybe I didn't understand everything as well as I could ever should have. But he's answering these questions of some imaginary Jewish person asking these rhetorical questions.

And it really is a hard text to understand. And hard texts are there, I think, to humble us, to help us to cry out to God, and also to think more deeply than we would with something so obvious. You know, this isn't so obvious. So we have to work. It's mind-bending.

It's good to have your mind bent up a little bit and try to think across all kinds of categories. And so Paul is trying to correct what was misunderstood and then misrepresented and slandersly reported by some who had heard him. But really at the bottom of it, He's really saying, what will you do with your sins? What will you do? This is really the most important question.

What will you do? And he's gonna say here that sin runs deeper than you thought. And he's saying things that really are designed to humble the pride of man and to see the righteousness, the necessity of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So I think that's what he's doing, and he's saying everybody's in the same boat with original sin, with what this matter of total depravity is all about. We get to total depravity in verses 9 through 20.

So let's deal with the first question. What advantage has the Jew? Or what is the profit of circumcision? Well that's the question. And by the way, it's very interesting.

There are actually eight questions in pairs. The questions are in the odd numbered verses And the answers are in the even numbered verses. And there are two questions per category. It's just interesting the way that the apostle lays this out if you're interested in that. But The first question is what advantage has the Jew?

And here's what I think he's saying. He's saying, the questioner is saying, Paul, if circumcision and the promises don't save, then the Old Testament is false. The questioner is saying, you're saying that you can just wipe out the Old Testament because it's not relevant, because it doesn't save. Paul, are you saying that the Old Testament lied in its promises, that the promises don't really work? It's the Jew who says, you said circumcision made me belong to you.

Now you're saying it doesn't. I think that's the essence of that first question. And so he's saying, if there's no advantage, then why should you even listen to the Old Testament? But the Apostle says, no, there are advantages, great advantages. He says, no.

He says, you have been entrusted, you've been entrusted with the oracles of God. That it's an advantage to have the oracles of God. Even if the oracles don't save, it's an advantage to have those oracles. And it's a blessing, it's a good inheritance to have the word of God. Lloyd-Jones says, the greatest privilege that can ever come to a man is to be spoken directly by God.

That really is the most precious privilege, is to hear the word of God. And Paul sees God's favor to Israel, and he actually, he explains it even more deeply in Romans chapter nine, where he says that, we are Israelites from whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises of whom are the fathers from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is overall the eternally blessed God. So he does see great advantages of being a Jew. So he was slanderously reported saying it doesn't matter if you're a Jew or not. And he's saying that the oracles of God are at an advantage.

When you hear the Word of God, you are put at an advantage. When you hear the preaching of the word of God, God has put you at an advantage. When you open up your Bible in your private devotions, it's an advantage. When your parents read the word of God to you, you have been given a tremendous advantage in that sense. When you memorize the word of God, something very good has happened.

David said the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. He said the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. That's a tremendous advantage, to hear that your whole life long. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The word of God pulls you out of your despondency to rejoice your heart, to tell you how to think about everything instead of just follow your own despondent heart down the rabbit hole of despondency.

No, no, there's a tremendous advantage to have the word of God. You know, in 2 Timothy, Paul says, from childhood you have known the holy scriptures. That's a real advantage to grow up like that. And frankly, you know, when the word of God is understood and obeyed, it actually creates a superior culture. It creates a superior culture.

There are cultures that are superior to others. Pagan cultures are inferior to truly Christian cultures. And it's easy to see how it's the word of God that fomented science and medicine and industry. And these are all outgrowths of a Christian worldview. The reason people are lazy in one nation and diligent in another is because of a biblical worldview.

There are superior cultures, there are diligent cultures, and there are wastrel cultures in the world. It's a tremendous advantage to have the Word of God. I was just reading a book recently where the author is contending that it was, it was really the Bible that made the very best things happen in modern India. Because the Bible came through the British, and earlier than that through Bible translations. So the word of God is an advantage.

And you know, of course, what kind of advantage is it? You know, everybody's thinking about that now with the war in Israel against Hamas, and everybody is thinking, how should we think about Israel? And everybody and their brother and their sister and their grandmother is commenting on the internet about Israel because of the terrible things that have happened there. Is the nation of Israel sacred? Are they God's people?

And those things are in the news like never before. We've already read in Romans 2.25 who the Jews are. Or look at Chapter two verse 28, look at that. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. In other words, the Jews aren't defined by an ethnic or a national identity, but by an inward identity.

And then he goes on, he says, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. So he's saying, it's not from outward circumcision. A Jew is not a Jew because he's circumcised. And then he says, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not for men, but God. So a Jew is one who is one inwardly, not outwardly.

And of course, you know, it's the power of the gospel that brings both Jews and Gentiles together because the church is not an ethnic unity either. It's a spiritual unity. It's not based on any national or color of skin or anything else at all. It's based on the unity that is in Jesus Christ. And, you know, the two, the wall, dividing wall has been broken down and the two have begun, become one.

And, you know, I think, you know, is there a promise to the nation state of Israel? But I don't believe, I know some people do, I don't believe the promises are given to a nation state, particularly a secular nation state that has broken covenant with God. And those, you know, it's given to those who have the faith of Abraham. When we get to chapter four, we'll see what the seed of Abraham is and it's not an ethnic seed. It's a spiritual seed.

It's so clear in the next chapter that we get to, but if you want real, even if you want more clarity, open your Bibles now to Romans 9 and find verse 6. Romans 9, 6, this is Paul's whole argument about the Jews and the Gentiles in the book of Romans. And he's making it very clear who the Jews are, who the true Jews are. You know, of course there is an ethnic identity, but in God's eyes, the Jews are those who are those inwardly. So in Romans 9, six, he says, but it is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel.

They are not all of Israel who are of Israel. Just because you live in Israel doesn't make you part of the Israel of God. And then he goes on in verse seven. Nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called.

That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. It's so clear, these are not the children of God. The nation state of Israel does not compose the people of God. And then he says in the last phrase in verse eight, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. And it's a spiritual promise that's by faith, and it's by faith alone.

It's not by being born into the right family. It's not by having common ethnic features. It has to do with the spiritual matter. And so the seed of Abraham is not ethnic, it's spiritual and true circumcision is the circumcision of the heart. I mean, many believe that there will be a revival of Jews over, you know, at the very end that may be, I don't know.

Here's what I do know. Someday we'll know. Because these things God is in control of. We should definitely pray for the people in Israel, and we should also pray for the Palestinians. They're all undergoing tremendous trouble, tremendous trouble, and I know our hearts go out to them.

It's good to pray for them all. So there are advantages to the Jews in that they have the oracles of God. They have the phraseology of God. And it's such a blessing. Now, when the sort of this is a two-edged sword.

Because when there is more knowledge, there's more responsibility. And that would be true of all of you who have who had been under the hearing of the Word of God. When there's more knowledge, there's more responsibility. And that would be true of all of you who have been under the hearing of the word of God. When there's more knowledge, there's more responsibility.

If you're not responding to the oracles that you hear, if you hear and do nothing about it. I mean, Jesus compares a person like this to children in the marketplace. He says we piped to you but you did not dance. Second Timothy three, six and seven talks about it is you're always learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. I mean all this to say don't don't ever underestimate the power of the Word of God and how important it is that you have heard the Word of God.

Just being here this morning to hear the scripture read in your hearing, just to be here and hear preaching and songs that pull phraseology out of the Word of God and enrich even your mouth and your whole body as you sing with sound doctrine. Just recognize how privileged you are to have the word of God. What's the advantage? The oracles of God are such a tremendous advantage. So Paul is answering that question.

Oh, you're saying there's no advantage. Well, Paul says no, there actually is an advantage in the oracles of God. And then the second question is in verses three through six. For what if some did not believe, will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not.

Indeed, let God be true and every man a liar, but as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged. So here, the person with the question is, he's saying, Paul, you're attacking God's promises. They're asking, for what if some didn't believe? And Does their unbelief make God a liar? Does their unbelief make God unfaithful?

Because he didn't save all of them. He made promises and he didn't save all of them. Just this morning I was reading in Isaiah 56, 57, 58, and there are several promises made to the people of God. But they are actually, many of them are conditional promises. If you obey me, if you love me.

So, God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as the sand of the seashore and I believe they are today. When you see the expansion of the Church of Jesus Christ. There are people who say the church is shrinking. I do not believe that for one second. The true church is growing in every country that I'm aware of.

The false church is leaving the institutional church. That's what's happening. So just because Gallup says the church is shrinking, don't think, you need to think a little bit deeper. But Paul wants us to realize that these promises are conditional. One of the commentators said, it cannot be that the truth of God would lose its stability through man's wickedness.

So there are many who identify with Israel, but they do not believe. That's true of modern Israel. They may identify as Christians in some kind of vague identification, but God knows their hearts. Romans 8, six says this, It is not as though the word of God has failed, for they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel. So the accusation is, if you're sovereign in salvation, then the unbelief is your fault, God.

You made them unbelief. And that nullifies the promises of God. But unbelievers do not nullify the promises of God. They actually fulfill the promises of God because it's very clear that God and God alone is sovereign in salvation. That God elects from before the foundation of the world.

That means that salvation is in God's hands. It's not in man's hands. It rather shows the faithfulness of God, but it's difficult, isn't it, because you pray for things that you know please God. You know it pleases God for your friend or your son or your daughter to be saved, and you pray and then they're not saved. And you say, we've prayed for years and it never happened.

God, it's your fault. This is the kind of, you know, kind of slanderous misunderstanding of the sovereignty of God, but you can see why people would come to that conclusion. Paul says, verse four, certainly not. In other words, absolutely no way in a billion years. No, it's not true.

That's a misunderstanding of what I've been teaching. May it never be. It's translated, it's the strongest phraseology in Greek that the apostle uses, certainly not. May it never be, no way. That's sort of the thrust of his answer.

And then he quotes Psalm 51 verse 4 where David actually is admitting that God sees his heart and that there's nothing hidden from his sight. And so then the third question, for if the truth of God has increased through my lie to his glory, why am I also still judged a sinner? And why not say, let us do evil that good may come? So this questioner I think is saying, why am I being condemned? Because the truth of God has already increased through my lie.

If God gets glory from my sin, then why does He judge me? It's God's fault that I've sinned. Maybe God should thank me for my sin because it's His fault because through my lie He's glorified. Paul is just correcting this kind of thinking and in verse 8 there's a very similar, it's a very similar thrust of the question, and why not say, let us do evil that good may come, as we are slanderously reported, and some affirm that we say, and then He says, hey, hey, hang on, their condemnation is just. That's not what I'm saying.

So the idea here is if election is true, then why does it matter what I do? Why be holy? Why seek the Lord? Why evangelize? Why don't I just live for my pleasures?

I'm gonna be forgiven anyway. That's his argument. We run into this regularly down at the abortion clinic where women will say, or the men who brought them there, they say, well, we know this is wrong. We know this is wrong. We hate it, but God's gonna forgive us.

They say that all the time. I had a really good friend for years who when he was telling me he was gonna do something that was clearly sinful I would say you shouldn't do that and I'd he would say yeah I know but God's gonna forgive me anyway. That's what these people are saying. No, thinking about sin like that is so corrupt, and Paul is resisting that. So here are just some applications of these first eight verses, okay?

And then we're gonna press on. Hey, spiritual blessings, the blessings of the word of God are real. Fill up your home with the oracles of God. It's such an advantage. It's an advantage in every way.

You know, some of your children don't believe, just let them see the goodness of God every day. Let them see the beauty of the Lord, the greatness of his sovereignty, his wisdom, his majesty, his mastery over every king who ever lived, his goodness, his loving kindness, his work to come and save sinners. And just the practicality of His wisdom for every single day of your life. Help them to see that. It's such an advantage.

And recognize that you yourself, you, we, us, we've been hearing the word of God for years. We are at such an advantage. Don't let the advantage go to waste. We have so much, we've been entrusted, entrusted with the oracles of God. God has given this treasure and entrusted a treasure to us every time we hear it, and so often it just goes in one ear and out the other.

It does with all of us, you know, But I think what the apostle is saying is, don't miss the value of what you have been entrusted with. Treasure it. What a blessing. The Bible is not an ordinary book. It tells the truth about everything.

And we need it, I need it every day to set my soul aright and my thinking aright. And then the other thing is just recognize God rules, God is sovereign in salvation. And at the same time man is responsible to walk with God. So then the next section, Paul brings everything together, all these arguments that he's been making, and he's summing up the whole section of the condemnation of man. I mean, you've noticed, this whole first part of Romans is dark.

It just proclaims man's depravity and man's hopelessness without Jesus Christ. He's just saying, don't hope in that, don't hope in that, don't hope in that, don't hope in your religion, don't hope in your morality. He's trying to take away every false hope, take away actually every dark hope from us and then he brings us to this summary statement verse 9 and verse 9 is a charge. He says what then? What then?

Are we better than they? Not at all. Okay, no, we're not better than they. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. That's the summary statement.

Jews and Greeks, they're all under sin, all under the condemnation of the wrath that is due because of original sin. And Then the apostle delivers 14 indictments that make it clear that all are sinners. By the way, in this passage is the first appearance of the word sin in Romans. And then He uses it like 50 times from here on out. But in these verses, he's quoting all over the Old Testament, in Psalms and Ecclesiastes and Isaiah.

And he's saying, this is nothing new. All the Jews should know this. It's not new revelation. And he says, all are under sin. All are under sin.

This is so important, hey, for us as a congregation, but also for us as we witness to people in this world. You know, most people that you talk to, they say, I'm a decent person. I'm not that bad. We overestimate our goodness and we underestimate our sinfulness. Now, these verses that are right before us, This is perhaps the flagship text that describes the doctrine of total depravity of man.

It's right here before us. And It isn't just that we do the same things that Adam did, but it's that we do the things that are the results of what Adam did. Do you see the distinction? It's not just that we sin, we commit sins, it's that we have sin, original sin, and there are results from that original sin. It's not just that we do the things that Adam did, it's that we have the results of what Adam did.

And total depravity though does not mean utter depravity. This means that people are not as bad as they could be. Because of the image of God in man, because of the constraining, sovereign work of God, men are not as bad as they could be. But all men have the residue of being that bad, and the reason that people are not as horrible as they possibly could be is because of the image of God in man. And thank the Lord for his image.

But the fall made a very serious indelible mark on man's character and it affects our hearts, it affects our minds, it affects our emotions, It affects our will. The fall even affects our bodies, and we get cancer, and we die, and we decline, and we fall into sickness. These are effects of the fall, And every part, every part of man is poisoned. And it's almost like if you poured a little bit of dye in water, it would tint the water. And...

RC Sproul suggests that we change the language from total depravity to radical corruption. And it's only in regeneration that this process begins to reverse itself. The mark of original sin doesn't disappear, but the power of sin declines over time in progressive sanctification. And that's why David cried out in Psalm 51, verse five, he said, oh God, I was born in sin and in sin my mother did conceive me. This is the doctrine of original sin.

And so the apostle is dealing with this matter of original sin. And he's destroying self-righteousness. There's much to say about original sin. He works through these various quotes from the Old Testament. I think there are three categories of this depravity.

I don't believe he's saying that everyone does all these things to the fullest extent. He's saying that these things are manifestations of the fall. And notice the, when we read this, notice the parts of the body that are affected. The mind and the speech and the motivations, nothing is left out in this disclosure of radical depravity. And notice also there are six negatives, none, no not, none, no not.

And there are the positives, all, three times all. And so let's go into the text. As it is written, verse 10, there is none righteous, no, not one, depraved in our righteousness. There is none who understands. We are depraved in our understanding.

Man cannot understand how deep the depravity runs. This is why no one ever was able to repent of their sins fully. People say, well, I don't know if I've repented deeply enough. You'll never repent deeply enough because you don't know the depth of your sin. Your sin blinds you from your understanding of your sin.

Your pride blinds you from your pride. But he says there's none righteous, no, not one. And then there is none who understands, and then we're depraved in our motivation. There is none who seeks after God. We're depraved in our staying on the path.

They have all turned aside. We're depraved in adding value to the situations that we are called into. They have all, they have together become unprofitable. We're depraved in seeking positive good. There is none who does good, no, not one.

We're depraved in our conversation in verses 13 and 14. Their throat is an open tomb. The heart speaks, the mouth speaks what's in the heart. We're depraved in our speech. With their tongues, they have practiced deceit through flattering and buttering people up and misrepresentation and deception and exaggeration, all these things we have done.

The poison of asps is under their lips. In other words, we use words that are meant to kill, meant to poison. We're depraved in the use of our tongue whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Words that actually flow from bitterness, not love. Often confronting really comes from bitterness, not love.

Or even words or sweet words can actually come from the same root. And then he turns in verses 15 through 18 to matters of conduct and we're actually depraved in the movements of our feet. Their feet are swift to shed blood. We're actually, We fall short in the impact of our life. In the wake of our life, in the wake of every life is some misery.

Destruction and misery is in their ways. We fall short in peacemaking, verse 17. The way of peace they have not known. We fall short in taking God seriously enough. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

And then the final verdict is in verse 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped. There you have it. This entire section is designed to stop every mouth from pride. Pride in intellectual capability, pride in morality, pride in religion, pride of any sort, that every mouth may be stopped, that all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And then verse 21, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ and all and on all who believe there is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness. Remember that goes back to verse 16. He's not ashamed because the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Because In his forbearance, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon said, you cannot become a Christian until your mouth is stopped, until you're speechless, until you have nothing to say, until you put up all your arguments and all your righteousness. You cannot be saved until you have nothing to say about your own righteousness. And this is the gospel of Jesus Christ that the Apostle Paul has been preaching through these words over these last many, many weeks. What a blessing it is to have the oracles of God. What a blessing it is to have the oracles of God.

What a blessing it is to have the grace of God that covers all unrighteousness. This is the grace that we celebrate when we gather on Sunday. What a blessing it is to have your mouth stopped with pride and then opened up with praise. Would you pray with me? Lord, Lord these words are difficult.

I pray that you would give us help to understand them and that you would do such a work in us to humble us in all of our pride and to find all of our hope in you and in your wonderful oracles. Amen.