Romans 3, 5-9. Now, remember that Paul has been showing
us that both Jew and Greek, both Jew and Gentile, they are alike guilty of denying
God as He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures. And so Paul
Now, in chapter 3, he's been addressing some objections that
flesh raises against the gospel and against the true and living
God. We know that these are objections
which the flesh raises. What Paul is saying here, these
are not his objections as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He's
just speaking to and addressing those objections that man and
all raise in defense of their flesh. Because the flesh would
sooner throw God under the bus, would sooner deny God and speak
ill of God in defense of themselves then call God true and admit
that they are a liar and that they're sinners and full of iniquity
and deserving of the wrath of God. It's only when the Lord
has mercy and is gracious to a sinner that they are brought
to see, I'm the sinner worthy of judgment and God is true.
I'm the liar here, not God. The Lord has to do that work.
Now our title this morning is a slander against God's grace. A slander against God's grace. And we'll have two divisions.
First, we're going to look at the gospel of God. And then we'll
look at this objection, grace being slandered. So the gospel
that Paul preached was the gospel of God. He preached the gospel
of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. the word the gospel of God declares
how it is that God saves sinners the gospel declares to us that
God is righteous and that God has provided righteousness for
his people in his son Jesus Christ so that the Lord Jesus Christ
the work that he did and coming in the flesh and in going to
the cross, in fulfilling all righteousness for His people,
in satisfying the justice, the holiness of God, in putting away
the wrath of God toward His people, Christ's work declares that God
is just and that He is the justifier of them which believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so, for this cause, if you
look back in Romans 1, verses 16 and 17. For this cause, Paul
says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. for it is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. He's showing that it doesn't
matter who you are, with law or without law, all are guilty
sinners in need of this salvation that God himself has provided
for his people. And he says, verse 17, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed, from faith to faith. As it is
written, the just shall live by faith. And what he's saying
there is that we are saved by a spiritual power that's of God,
not of this flesh. God gives faith, And God reveals
to the faith that he's given that hope to see the righteousness
of God, that he is our righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ is our
righteousness. God has to do that. That's not
a work of this flesh. All right. And that's what Paul
is declaring here. Now, interestingly, it's really
wicked, but religion, they claim and they say, well, we honor
the holiness of God. by telling people that they need
to be more moral, that they need to go back to the law of Moses
and now work out to the best of their ability following the
law of Moses. By doing that, they claim and
boast that they are honoring the righteousness of God, that
they're honoring God's holiness. But what they ignore is that
what they're doing in saying that God is pleased when you
as men and women do the best you can to keep the law of Moses,
what they're doing is lowering the righteousness of God. They
are bringing it down to a work of the flesh. They're bringing
it down to the dust of man, to the level of sinful, wicked man,
and saying God is pleased with you doing the best that you can
do. That's not true. God isn't pleased with us doing
the best that we can do. God is perfect and holy and righteous. So the religionists who turned
you back to the law, thinking that they exalt the righteousness
of God, they're the ones actually guilty of bringing down the righteousness
of God to the level of dusty, filthy man. And Paul said in
2 Corinthians 5.11, he said, knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. We're not telling men to go to
the law. We're telling men flee to Christ. Get you to the righteousness
of God. Look to him whom God provided
to save his people. And so Paul isn't saying that
the sinfulness of this flesh, of what we are by nature and
our lusts and passions in the flesh, he's not giving an excuse
for that. And he's not saying it's all
right and it doesn't matter. And what he's declaring to us
is that God is so righteous and so holy and perfect that we can't
come to God by the works of the law and by the works of our own
flesh. And that's because what man highly
esteems and what man thinks is righteousness and good before
God, God calls it abomination. It's filthy in his sight. The
prophet Isaiah said of us, Isaiah 64, 6, but we are all as an unclean
thing. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. And that's a very, it's a gross
word. That filthy rags is a used bloody
menstrual cloth. That's what he says right there
in that word concerning our works. That's our works. That's this
guy standing right here before you preaching the gospel to you.
My works are filthy rags in God's sight. The only thing that's
righteous in God's sight is his son Jesus Christ. And Christ
makes his people righteous and accepted with God. He purges
us of that filth and sin. And he said, we all do fade as
a leaf in our iniquities like the wind have taken us away right
so this is what Paul showing and he continues to show this
truth throughout the scriptures that all men are sinners all
desperately in need of the grace and mercy of God because we cannot
save ourselves by our own works right now he does this in order
that man now today you hearing this word that you would bow
before God that you would look to him and confess your sin to
him and ask for his mercy and for his grace through his son
Jesus Christ because that's what he does he stirs up the heart
of a sinner to see I'm nothing he's salvation he's provided
salvation in his son Lord have mercy on me he brings us to desire
that his child will believe they will hear and they will confess
their sin and they will cry out for mercy. And so do that now,
in the day of grace, rather than when you're standing before God
on the day of judgment, and then it's too late. There is no hope
for the sinner in that day. And it reminds us in Romans 2,
11 and 12, for there is no respect of persons with God. No one's
gonna be arguing and negotiating with God. You might be a good
talker here, on the earth and be able to speak well, it's not
going to fool God. God knows the truth, and we're
not going to negotiate with God on that day. For as many as have
sinned without law shall also perish without law. And as many
as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. And so
for this cause, because that's true, Paul preached the gospel
of Jesus Christ, knowing that it And it alone is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." Right? For that
cause, because the love that he had, that others, that the
elect of God should hear it, he went out and gave up his life
to preach this word. Now, to the sinner, The one who
knows that they're a sinner, this is glorious news. It's good
news because the Lord has brought us to see my works are not good
and I'm not pleasing God. Maybe I do a nice thing here
or there, but I'm falling far short of the glory and the worthiness
of God by my works. I can't please Him. So to the
sinner, it's glorious, but to religious man, he hates it. He hates it. because it's an
offense to his flesh and it calls all his works filthiness and
worthless in God's sight and have not merited any favor for
him with God. Now, hearing Paul preach grace,
this offends the self-righteous, He wants to defend their works
and say, no, these must count for something. It offends them.
And so this brings us to our next point, this objection that
the sinner raises, which is a slander against the grace of God. So
Paul says this in Romans 3, 5 through 7. Let's read that, Romans 3,
5 through 7. This is now the flesh. He says,
but if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what
shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh
vengeance? And he says, I speak as a man.
declaring to you, I'm speaking to you what I'm hearing when
I declare this gospel. This is what people are saying
to me. And he says, God forbid, for then how shall God judge
the world? In other words, what he's saying
is we know that God has declared in his word that he's going to
judge the world for sin. It's going to be judged. So we
know that God is not just putting away all the sin of man, because
he is going to judge sin. Now, verse 7. For if the truth
of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet
am I also judged as a sinner? So in other words, what he's
hearing is, if my sin glorifies God through him showing me grace
and mercy, doesn't that magnify God's grace? And if God's grace
is magnified, through my sin. If God's magnified and His grace
is magnified, why does He yet take vengeance on my sin? Why
is He angry with me if it's showing forth His grace? And how can
He punish sin on one hand? How can you tell me that He's
punishing sin on one hand and yet on the other hand He's showing
grace and mercy? How is that possible? That's
what they're asking. That's what they're raising.
But, The truth is that all these questions and all these objections
can and should and must be answered in one way. In one way. It's through the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's by His substitute sacrifice. It's by His sacrifice of Himself
and putting away the sin of His people. That's how God answers
all those objections and questions. Because God, again, is showing
us that it's not our works, but the work of His Son, Jesus Christ,
that makes us acceptable to God, and through which He receives
us. So Christ was sent of God, that is, He was conceived apart
from Adam's seed, Adam's sin nature. So that when the Holy Ghost was
speaking to, when the angel was speaking to Joseph, he said,
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost. And so this Jesus of Nazareth
was born a perfect man without sin, without iniquity. He's fully
man from Mary, but he does not have the seed of Adam. It's the
seed of the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit by which
he was conceived in Mary. Alright? And so this one, the
Son of God being perfect, He came and fulfilled all the law
of God perfectly. He did what we cannot do in the
flesh, in the likeness, because we are of Adam, and we are sinners
like Adam, and death because of sin reigns in our bodies,
We can't do that law and fulfill that righteousness, but Christ
can, and He did, and He fulfilled all the law of righteousness.
And so, He went to the cross, being perfect, as the Lamb of
God, sent to be the sacrifice, to make propitiation, to be the
means of God's forgiveness toward us, in the death and the sacrifice
of Himself. so that in the shedding of his
blood he purged us of our sins and washed them away. He satisfied
the wrath and the anger of God so that God is not angry with
us now. because of our sin. You that believe on him, who
have heard his word and rest in his righteousness, not trusting
your own works, God is no longer angry with you because of your
works. Your sin has been put away forever. And so Christ made
atonement. He made a blessed atonement so
that God receives us now and it's perfect and it's finished
and so Because we're all sinners, we all need this sacrifice. We all need this righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all need what He did. His
atonement must be made for us, else we cannot be received of
God. All right? So it says in Acts 4.12, neither
is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That is the one way of salvation
that God has provided. So how shall God judge the world? How is it that God shall judge
the world? Well, it's according to the righteousness
of Christ. And Paul tells us in Acts 17,
in verse 30 and 31, in Acts 17, 30 and 31, he said, the times
of this ignorance God winked at. In other words, God has been
patient and long-suffering, waiting till Christ should come. He forbear
long with the people. Under the Old Testament, He forbear
for a long time, and all before that, a long time He waited till
the Christ should come. and put away sins and so God
was patient and he waited for that time and then when Christ
came and established righteousness God sent that word out into all
the nations that they should hear how it is that God saves
sinners and that God would bring in not just the Jew but also
the Gentile into the salvation and he says and now he commandeth
all men everywhere in every nation Jew and Gentile to repent to
be turned from our false religion, to be turned from our idolatry,
to be turned from trusting in our works and thinking that these
things save us. Repent of that, be turned from
that, and be turned to the living God who provided salvation in
his son Jesus Christ. Because he hath appointed a day
in which he will judge the world in righteousness, perfect, pure,
spotless righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead. Carnal man, if you notice, if
you just think back to your own self and your own flesh, carnal
man is convinced and assured that God somehow measures us
and works with us and uses us in his kingdom based on our goodness
and our worth and how well we're doing up against the law of Moses. We have to be good, moral, Christian
people and go to church and things like that. That's what we look
at and say well this is how God determines whether or not we're
righteous. And in doing that we're saying God is pleased with
the dusty filthy works of man. But we see through the gospel
that righteousness must be worked. and a believer. It's a gift of
God. It's a work of God to make us
born again, to turn us from the deadness of this flesh, to deliver
us from darkness, to shine His gospel light in, in the face
of Christ, to bring us, draw us out of that prison of death
and darkness into the light of His glorious kingdom. Alright,
so by the power of God, Christ the Lord purges us of that sin
releases us from the guilt the guilty conscience that we have
because we are sinners because we are worthy of death he shows
us what we are and he releases us from that guilt in Christ
in trusting Christ and looking to him and so by his spirit he
gives us the new man He gives us the new man, which is the
seed of Christ, because all we have by nature is the seed of
Adam, which is corrupt and dead. So He gives us the seed of Christ,
whereby the new man is created, the new man has faith, hears
the Word, and believes. It's all the work of God doing
it for us, everything that He does. And so, by that Spirit
now, we believe God and walk We walk in faith, trusting him
to continue to provide all things for us. He's doing it. Now, the
carnal man, they hear this. and only being able to understand
things carnally, logically, with human wisdom and human thoughts.
That's why some can hear what we're saying and speak back some
of these truths with a certain level of understanding. But not
having the Spirit of God, this leads Paul to say what he says
next, because this is the charge of religious men against the
truth. Romans 3.8, it says, And not rather, as we be slanderously
reported, and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil,
that good may come, whose damnation is just. All right? So we see
that they believe, well, if that's true, that can't be true, because
then you're just going to go off and do whatever you want. You're going to sin like you
want to, and God can't be pleased with that. God can't use that,
because it's got to be a good moral person And yet they forget,
like Paul referred back to in verse 4 of David, and how that
the Lord used David, a sinner, a transgressor, a lawbreaker,
over and over again, how he used him to bring forth the Messiah
through his loins, right? And so it shows us that God is
gracious to whom he will be gracious and is merciful to whom he will
be merciful but he instructs his his people he teaches his
people as we know with david david didn't continue in that
david was granted repentance to turn from his filthy works
and to trust the living god and to cry out for mercy and for
forgiveness and and for peace before his god so he did that
as we saw in psalm 51 It was, all right? So then the dead religionists,
what they do is they slander God's people who proclaim and
rejoice in the grace of God and say it's not our works. It really
is the grace and the mercy of God. It really is His salvation
that He's provided. And so they accuse us of preaching
licentiousness. which is just a reckless abandonment
in sin and just saying, well, I'm just going to do what I want
to do and everything's fine. Christ died for it and God will
forgive me for it. But again, they're the ones that
are guilty of unrighteousness because they turn us from trusting
Christ and looking to Christ. And they turn us back to the
law of Moses, which is the works of this flesh, to do what this
flesh would do. All right? So their problem isn't
with the gospel. It's not with the people, you
know, we that preach this. That's not their problem. Their
problem is with God. It's with the God who designed
this salvation and made this salvation the way that pleases
Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. And so the common offense the
self-righteous is that they hate God they hate God's gospel they
hate God's Christ and they hate God's people so that's the the
offense and that's because they're angry because God does not use
the works of man that's not how God determines righteousness
among his people all right so what's or this is what Paul is
saying here in verse 9 look at Romans 3 verse 9 He says, what then? Are we better
than they? No and no wise, for we have before
proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. And so Paul's saying it's really
not the works of man, and we're no better than them. We're not
here believing this because we're better, but it's according to
the mercy and grace of God, having mercy and grace upon whom he
will have mercy and grace. It's only by God's grace. Christ
saves His people. Christ died and saved His people. He accomplished our redemption
when He died and when He was buried and rose again. All the
works were finished in Him. And because they're finished,
He sends His Spirit, who cannot fail, who shall irresistibly
call us and draw us to Himself, cause us to hear the Word as
it pleases Him, and to hear it and to believe it by the faith
which He's given. And so grace, this grace of God,
it cannot lead Into sin it does not lead us into sin. He's not
teaching us to sin We're already sinners by nature, but he turns
us to Christ now. I want to have you go to 2nd
Corinthians 5 2nd Corinthians 5 and let's pick up in verse
14 and Here Paul is describing the
power of and the effect of God's grace upon chosen sinners, upon those whom
he set his grace and love upon. All right, now this is in opposition
to man's way of salvation. Look at 2 Corinthians 5, 14.
And he says, for the love of Christ constraineth us. Not the
law of Moses, that doesn't constrain us. The love of Christ constraineth
us. because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then we're all dead. If Christ had to come
and give his life for all his people, then every single person
in the world is a dead sinner. None of us is righteous by our
own works. Look at verse 15. And that he
died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live
unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose
again." So here he's telling us in verse 15, this is the will
of God in your salvation. Christ didn't lay down his life.
delivering you from your sin, giving you the Holy Spirit, that
we should continue to be servants or slaves of unrighteousness. That's not why he gave us the
Spirit, and the Spirit doesn't leave us there as slaves of unrighteousness. But he gives us the Spirit so
that we are turned by the power and grace of God Working in us
through the new man, which he has given to us to make us servants
or slaves of righteousness So that we're not Seeking to continue
to feed the flesh and to do the works that the flesh loves and
delight in And we know what they are because we have this flesh
We know what this flesh does and how it works and how it manipulates
and does the things that it does That's not what Christ saved
us to do and he's telling us that right there in verse 15
Wherefore, henceforth, know we no man after the flesh, yea,
though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth
know we him no more." Paul isn't just speaking about people in
his day who may or may not have seen Christ in the flesh. What
he's saying there is that now that we have the Spirit of Christ
in us, Our understanding of Christ and of God's righteousness, of
God's grace and what pleases Him, it's not a carnal, natural
understanding. We don't know Christ after the
flesh. We don't even know each other after the flesh anymore.
We understand that we're all sinners in need of His grace.
And so we're not judging one another in that same manner and
dealing with one another in the flesh. We're under grace, and
we know that we're all sinners, and that we've all been saved
by grace and mercy. And so we're dealing with one
another in light of what God has done for us in Christ. And
we look to Christ, trusting him, not after the flesh. There was
a time when all we knew was Christ after the flesh. Paul hated him
and persecuted the church as a result of knowing Christ after
the flesh. But God changed him. He turned
him, giving him his spirit and delivering him from that darkness. Just as he's turned us all from
the darkness of that flesh, thinking it's my works that have saved
me. No. He turns us from that, alright? So, we're all sinners saved,
now righteous in Christ. Therefore, verse 17, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things are become new. See, you have the Spirit
of Christ now. It's in the new man that he's
given to us. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. Paul here is declaring our regeneration. We've been renewed and regenerated
by the Holy Ghost that dwells in us, and he's declaring grace
to us. It's of grace, not of works.
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Do you see anything so far about
our works? Has God rested anything on what
we've done or not done? No, everything so far at this
point is all rested on Christ, and it's all His work apart from
you, and we are just the happy recipients of His grace and power. All right, verse 20. Now then,
we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God to beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. In other words, believe. Believe
salvation really is of grace and of mercy. It really is through
his son Jesus Christ. It's not your works. Not that
we're looking to go on in filthy works, but it's not looking to
the law. It's not in the flesh. It really
is through the grace and mercy of God showing us guilty sinners
grace and mercy. Being kind to us when we don't
deserve it. for he hath made Christ to be
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him." Alright, so it's all the grace of God apart from
our works. And so you might ask, well then, what of good works?
Doesn't Paul speak of good works? He does very clearly in Titus.
He says, remind them to be full of good works, to do good works.
Well, I'll just close with Ephesians 2.10, where he says, for we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So the good works are what God
has ordained for us to walk in. And that begins with him teaching
us what we are by nature, not trusting in ourselves, having
no confidence in this flesh, but he fixes all our hope and
faith and confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's how
we speak to and deal with one another is in that same grace
and mercy. All right, so brethren, Walk
in the light that God has given you of the grace of God in Christ. Walk in that. And if it's of
Him, by His Spirit, you'll believe Him and rest there and you'll
deal with one another in that faith and in that hope. All right?
So, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your mercy and the grace which you've shown to your people
in Jesus Christ. not just to your people, Lord,
but to this people here. Lord, we thank you for your kindness
and mercy. And Lord, we ask that you would
indeed shine the gospel of your Son, Jesus Christ, into our dark
hearts, cause us to hear it, cause us to believe and walk
in faith, not as servants of unrighteousness, but as servants
of righteousness, in the light and the glory of our Savior Jesus
Christ, to the praise and honor of your name. It's in his name
we pray and give thanks. Amen.