Let God be true and every man
a liar. That is found in verse four of
chapter three of the book of Romans. Now what we have to understand
is up to this point, the apostle Paul has been bringing in evidence
that proves that the law of God condemns every fallen son and
daughter of Adam, without exception, both Jew and Gentile, based on
our works. Sinners cannot be justified. They cannot be declared not guilty. They cannot be forgiven. They
cannot be declared righteous in God's sight by their works. And not only does that pertain
to the immoral segments of our world and society, but to what
men and women, what we by nature see as moral and religious. It
pertains to the Romans who worship Caesar, but it also pertains
to the Jews who sought righteousness by the law of Moses, by their
works. The law condemns them. However,
Paul, in that light, he asked this question. Look at verse
one of chapter three. He says, what advantage then
hath the Jew or what prophet is there of circumcision? Talking
about physical circumcision. So he's talking about the Jewish
nation, the physical descendants of Abraham here. Now he'd already
made the point about what, when we talk about a person being
saved, or a person being justified before God, or a person who has
been made right with God, who has righteousness, a person who
has life, who's been born again, is not just that person which
is a physical Jew, but that one who is a spiritual Jew. He made
that point back in verses 28 and 29 of Romans chapter two. And he made this point, look
at it again, for he is not a Jew, verse 28, which is one outwardly. Outwardly meaning physically,
a physical descendant of Abraham. And the word Jew there is a derivative
of the name Judah, the son of Jacob, son of Israel, which means
praise. So you could look at it this
way, who's really praising God? in their lives. Here's a Jew,
here's a physical descendant of Abraham who's seeking righteousness
by works, seeking salvation by works, doing his dead level best,
let's say, to be good enough to be accepted with God. Now
is that person praising, worshiping, honoring the true and living
God? And the answer is no. Because that person is denying
the true and living God. The God who saves sinners by
grace through the righteousness of Christ. So who is really praising
God? Well, he is not a Jew. You could
say it this way. He is not one who praises God,
which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. Physical circumcision will not
change the heart. Physical circumcision will not
honor the law, you see. And so what circumcision is he
talking about? Well, verse 29, but he is a Jew,
which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart. Now that's
the new birth. That's where the Holy Spirit
imparts the life of Christ, the resurrection life of Christ within
in the new birth. You must be born again. You've
got to be given a new heart, Ezekiel said, a new heart, a
new mind, a new way of thinking, new affections, new desires. You see, new standards of judgment. Now, that's a big thing. That's
the conscience, you see. Before I was born again, how
did I judge myself to be saved? Well, before I was born again,
I judged myself to be saved because I walked an aisle, made a decision,
and gave my heart to Jesus. Now, you say, well, you know,
a lot of people do that, and we ought to feel sorry for them.
Okay, all right. Let me ask you a question. Is
that biblical? Do you find that in the Bible?
And the answer's no. You don't find that in the Bible,
all right? That's how I judge saved and
lost. I used to go to funerals all the time, and people who
had made professions of faith, as they say, when they're 12,
13, 14, and never come to church, never do anything, but if they
die, they're saved because they made that decision. Well, see,
that's a wicked way of judging salvation. So now how do I judge
it now? Well, it's according to the doctrine
of Christ. Do you, do I have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice? And if I do,
if I claim to have done that, how did I get it? The Jew would
say, well, I got it this way. I'm a physical descendant of
Abraham. I've been circumcised. I keep
the law of Moses. Well, that's wrong ground. Well,
what does the true believer say? I have no righteousness, I have
no forgiveness, I have no life but that which is by the merits
of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness
imputed. And that's it. I've got no other
boast or brag or claim or confidence but in Christ and him alone. So he says, that's the circumcision
of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, not in the law,
whose praise is not of men but of God. And what he's talking
about there is that God accepts and he receives those who come
to him pleading the blood of Christ. All right? Well, now,
if you look, there's no doubt, I've got this in your lesson,
there's no doubt that in the sovereign providence of God,
and throughout the history of his purpose, God's purpose, to
glorify himself in Christ Jesus by sending Christ into the world
to save his people, his elect, both Jew and Gentile. There's
no doubt that in that process of time and history, that God
temporarily and temporarily and physically chose and blessed
the physical Jewish nation through Abraham. Now there's no doubt
of that, isn't that right? I mean, most of the Old Testament scriptures
are taken up with the 1500 year period that ran from Mount Sinai
to the cross. Most of the Old Testament. And
that's the history of the Jewish nation, the physical descendants
of Abraham. So there's no doubt that God
chose them and used them for a purpose. And in that choosing
and in that using them, they had some advantages over and
above the people that God did not choose and use in that providential
purpose. They had some advantages, didn't
they? Now that word advantage, it says what advantage, the word
advantage there means exceedingly over and above what God gives
to all people. In other words, you could say
it this way. God gave the physical nation Israel more than he gave
to the Gentile nations. You see that? And so consider
how that even though, you think about this. What profit, what
advantage did they have? What profit did they have over
that? Now here's the thing about it. The fact that God is sovereign
and the fact that God does what he does or makes his choices
and his purposes does not mean that God does not make distinctions
among nations and among individuals. God does. Think about it. Why are some people born smarter
than others? Why are some people better looking
than others? Why are some people born in Albany,
Georgia, with all the advantages of being in a free country, even in an affluent society,
I mean, you know, we talk about, we complain about taxes and all
of that, but you know, there are people who are born in some
countries, they would consider everybody in this building to
be rich. Isn't that right? Compared to
what they get. Why was I born in the United
States of America and another person born in a third world
country? Starving to death. Now who made
that choice? Well, now, modern religion, modern
Christianity says, well, God looked down through a telescope
of time and he said, oh, oh, there's Robert Margison in the
future, and you know, Robert, he's gonna be a pretty good guy,
you know, moral and responsible and all that. I think I'll put
him in Georgia. Make him a student and a football
player and give him a degree. Is that the way God does things?
And the answer is no. Why did God put Robert where
he put Robert and put somebody else in? There's only one answer
the Bible gives. And that's totally, completely,
100% up to God's sovereign free choice. It seemed good in his
sight. It had nothing to do with any
goodness foreseen or otherwise. Or any decision we would make,
foreseen or otherwise, that God saw in us. It has nothing, and
especially in the salvation of sinners. Now Paul's going to
deal with that specifically in Romans chapter 9. Why did God
love Jacob? Who didn't deserve God's love?
Who never earned God's love? Why did God bless Jacob? Who
didn't earn or deserve any of God's blessings? And why did
God hate Esau? Which is what Esau deserved and
earned. But that's what Jacob earned
and deserved, but God sovereignly chose to put his love upon Jacob. Why did God choose anybody for
salvation? Well, the answer is for his glory.
Isn't that right? It was for his glory. So God
does make distinctions. Well, God made a distinction
between the nation Israel and the Gentile nations. Now, why
did he do that? Well, you can look at passages
like Deuteronomy chapter seven, for example. And God tells him,
he said, now I didn't do it because of anything in you or done by
you. I didn't do it because you were
greater in number or better. He said it was totally his sovereign
purpose to do so. And you say, well, you know,
it's hard for us to understand that. Well, look at verse two.
Now, here's the key. Now, the Jews had many advantages
over and above the Gentile nations, and Paul's gonna go into more
detail on some of those advantages in Romans nine, but look at what
he says here. Now, this is important, verse
two. Now, what advantage then hath the Jew? What profit is
there of circumcision, being a physical Jew? Verse two, much
every way, chiefly, that means mainly, because they that unto
them were committed the oracles of God. What was the chief main
thing that they had above the Gentile nation? My friend, they
had the word of God. That's something, isn't it? You'd
think, well, you know, they had the tabernacle. Well, see, all
of that is the Word of God. That's the oracles of God. And
that's what that word, oracles, means. It's the wisdom of God. You remember you probably read
some Greek mythology where they would make pilgrimages and go
to the Oracle of Delphi, and they'd ask the question, and
they'd get the wise. The Jews had the Word of God.
Now, what didn't they have? Well, they had the Law of Moses.
They had the Psalms. They had the Prophets. They didn't
have the completed Word of God as we have it today. But I thought
about this. You know, that's an advantage.
And I thought about people in our day, people in this country.
Do you know anybody that doesn't own a Bible? I mean, I'm sure
there are people who don't. A few. I was reading somewhere
yesterday about somebody said, you know, atheism is a strange
bird. He said, because not even the
demons in hell go that far. They know there is a God. Boy,
that's something to think about. But do you know of anybody who
doesn't own a Bible? And do you not, you know, most
of the people that we know claim to be Christian, claim to read
their Bibles. But do they understand what they're
reading? Are they like the Ethiopian eunuch? Or are they like the Jews of
old who read and studied and wrote commentaries on the law
of Moses? You remember what Christ said
in John 5, 39? The force of the grammar of that statement, he
said, search the scriptures. In a way, he's commanding them
to search the scriptures, but the force of it is like this.
You do search the scriptures. You read your Bibles. Because
in them, you think you have eternal life. That's why you read it. But he said, you don't understand
this. They are they which testify of me. The Bible, Genesis to
Revelation, is all about Christ. His glorious person. His finished
work. His righteousness. It's all about
Christ. It's all about righteousness.
It's all about grace from Genesis to Revelation. Even all of those
passages of Scripture that talk about Israel under the law. And
Israel missed it. Now, why did they miss it? Well,
the Scripture says they were insistent upon seeking righteousness
by works of the law. How many people today read their
Bibles and miss it? Now, we know two things. We know,
number one, that this book, From Genesis to Revelation, is basically
as to its meaning, its real meaning, that would make a person wise
unto salvation. This book, by nature, to the
natural man, is a closed book, isn't it? Until God opens your
eyes. And yet we know also that the
same God who sovereignly chose a people, gave them to Christ,
sent him to redeem them, and sends the Holy Spirit to open
their eyes, commands us to read it, to search it, to seek him.
Now we know those things are true. And so the greatest advantage
they had was the word of God. In this book, I'll tell you what,
the reason, you know what we do here, We preach the scriptures,
don't we? Somebody says, well, we've been
thinking about coming over, and what do y'all have for the kids?
Well, I have the word of God. Well, that's not good enough,
is it? We gotta keep them busy, too. Well, you're their parents,
you keep them busy. I'll preach the word of God.
I didn't take your kids to raise. I had two of my own, I raised
them. You raise your kids. I'll preach the word of God to
them. That's what we're here for. Well, I want to keep them
off the streets. Well, I do too. You keep them
off. That's your responsibility. You keep them away from the wrong
crowd, unless they are the wrong crowd. Sometimes they are. So
understand what I'm saying. I'm not trying to be hard and
mean. I mean, I want our children to be protected. I want them
to be raised right and responsible. But my friend, I've got to tell
you something. That's not the job of the church. It's the job
of the parents. What is our job? It's to preach
the word, preach Christ. It's to tell lost sinners the
way. It's to tell those who are condemned
by the law how God justifies the ungodly. And that's what
we're here for. So he says, much in every way,
they had the word of God. Well, look at verse three. Now
he says, for what if some did not believe? That is the Jews. They had the word, but they didn't
believe. Now we know from other passages of Scripture that the
vast majority of them did not believe. And you can look, you
can, I've got some passages here that are, that prove that. You know, Romans chapter 9 and chapter
10 and chapter 11, you know, it speaks of that. There's a
lot of quotations from Hosea about the salvation of the Gentiles,
a lot of quotations, mainly from Isaiah. One from Hosea and one
from Isaiah. But you know what Isaiah said
in his day, and he was what, about 700 years before Christ
came in? I'm thinking that was right.
Isaiah said, except the Lord of Sabaoth, which means the Lord
of hosts, the Lord who cannot be defeated, the Lord of a great
army, that means the invincible God, except the Lord hath left
us a remnant, a small piece, then the whole nation would have
perished just like Sodom and Gomorrah. A remnant. The concept of the remnant goes
all the way through Israel's history. that though they be
as the sands of the sea, many, many, many, you couldn't even
count them, only a remnant will be saved. But, he says in Romans
11, it's a remnant according to the election of grace. Isn't
that right? It's a remnant, not because they
walked on out and accepted Jesus, it's because God chose them and
sent Christ to redeem them. And he'll send his spirit to
bring them to Christ. Well, what if some did not believe?
Look at verse 3, shall their unbelief make the faith or the
faithfulness of God without effect? The fact that the majority of
the Israelites did not believe, does that make God's faithfulness
fail? Is that what that means? Down
in your lesson, on page one, I left out a word. If you see
that last paragraph, It says, the unbelief of the majority
of the national Israelites does not mean that God's faithfulness,
and that word should be in there, failed. Does that mean that God's
faithfulness failed to save Israel as he promised? So put that word
in there. It'll be in the revision. Well,
the answer's no. Now, here's what this is referring
to. You can go back to scriptures.
Isaiah 45, Jeremiah 23 and 33, where it tells us that God promises
to save all Israel. God promised to save all Israel.
In fact, Paul over in Romans chapter 11 quotes Isaiah there. Isaiah put it this way, Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Paul
says in Romans chapter 11, I think it's I've got it written down
there, but anyway, you can find it. It's written here. That all
Israel shall be saved. God promises that. Now, does
that mean that when the majority of the national Israelites failed
to, you know, think about it this way. When Christ came into
the world, his own received him not. They would not bow to him. They would not believe in him.
They would not submit to his righteousness as the only ground
of salvation and justification before God. They insisted on
their own. They went about establishing a righteousness of their own
because they didn't believe and know God's justice, God's righteousness. Well, that's a summation of their
history as far as the majority goes. And that's what he talked
about in Romans 9, how Israel sought after righteousness, but
they didn't find it. Why? Because they sought it not
by faith, by looking to Christ, they sought it by works of the
law. So does that mean that God promised to save them, but that
he either failed to do so because he's unfaithful, he told a lie?
That's what he's talking about. Did God lie? Because he said
all Israel would be saved, did he lie? Or was he not powerful
enough to do so? Did he not foresee every obstacle
and provide every means to save Israel? Or, as preachers say
today, now here's religious, human, sinful philosophy. They'll say, well, you know,
God, he didn't want to spoil our dignity. And he didn't want
to encroach upon our free will. And you know, he didn't want
to force us to love him. You know, I even heard a preacher
say, forced love is rape. You believe that? And this is
a man a lot of people follow. You'll find a lot of his books
over in the religious bookstore. He said, forced love is rape.
God's not going to rape his children. And I wrote a little article
about it. I said, now let me tell you something about rape.
There is no love in rape, forced or otherwise. Rape is not about
love, it's about power. It's about self, all right? Does
God force his people to love him against their will? Now let
me tell you something. No, here's what God does. God
powerfully, wonderfully, graciously changes our will. and draws us
to himself with cords of love, showing us our sin and showing
us his grace in Christ. That's how he does it. So, is
God unfaithful? Is God not powerful enough to
make good on his promise? Well, verse three again, for
what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faithfulness of God without effect? Look at the answer, verse four,
God forbid. Oh no, brother. Yea, let God
be true, let God be faithful. But every man a liar. If you
wanna talk about unfaithfulness, don't talk about God, talk about
us. We're the unfaithful ones. Now
we all know people who are basically honest in their dealings with
people, but you know we all make promises that we can't keep. Have you ever done that? It's
either because we don't foresee the obstacles or we don't have
the ability to provide the means and we intended to keep it, but
we could, but not with God. Let God be true, and every man
a liar. He says that thou mightest be
justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art
judged. What is that talking about? You
know, God is faithful to all his promises. I think about,
I've got written down here, cited in Lamentations chapter three,
which says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,
that's his people, because his compassions fail not. They are
new every morning. Great is God's faithfulness. If God wasn't faithful, we wouldn't
be saved. But he is faithful. Now this
statement, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified
in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged, I believe
it's quoted from Psalm 51, 4, when David confessed his sinfulness
and confessed God's justice in judging him. David confessed,
I've sinned. I've sinned against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil on thy side. So what
point is Paul making by raising that up? Well, what had God promised
David? He promised David that he would
sit on the throne and that his descendants would sit on the
throne of Judah, didn't he? But here's the main promise he
promised David. The Messiah, Christ, the King of kings, would
come, humanly speaking, made of the seed of David, according
to the flesh. And you know what? In spite of
David's sins, in spite of David messing up royally, you know
what? God was still faithful to his
promise. Christ still came. Think about
it. Think about the miraculousness
of that. Think about the shape that even David's descendants
were in at the time of the conception and birth of Christ. Israel,
Judah. I mean, they weren't even a sovereign
nation. They were under the boot of Rome. Joseph and Mary, descendants
of the royal blood. What were they? Joseph was a
carpenter. Mary was a young woman. They
weren't even married yet. And then when they left and when
they went to Bethlehem, what did they have to do? Did they
put them in the royal palace? Say, no, let's go to Jerusalem
to the royal palace. No. The Lord had to be born in a
manger, in a feeding trough, basically. And yet, with all
of that, the sin and depravity of man, God was faithful. You see, this is a work of God.
Well, look at verse 5. He says, but if the unrighteousness,
if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what
shall we say? Is God unrighteous, who take
the vengeance? Notice the parenthesis, he said,
I'm speaking as a man. You know what he means there? He said,
I'm raising questions that man in his sinfulness and in his
weakness and in his ignorance would ask. You understand what I just said?
He's saying this, he said, I'm gonna raise, I'm speaking as
a man here, just as a mere man, who's just ignorant as the day
is long concerning eternal matters. In other words, my trying to
figure this out's not gonna get the job done. And you know, when
I see things like that, I think about Ecclesiastes chapter three. Over in Ecclesiastes chapter
three, you know, that's the chapter that starts off To everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
A time to be born, a time to die. You see, it's talking about
that to everything there is a time appointed. That's what that means.
You see, the Bible just never talks about man being subject
to fate, luck, or chance. It's just not in the Bible. That's
man's concoction. It's not in the stars, it's not
in the palm, it's not in the tea leaves. This is all the sovereign
work of God. Our times are in his hand. He
appointed the times. That's what the scripture says.
He's sovereign. But in chapter three of Ecclesiastes,
verse 10, it says this. It says, I have seen the travail. This is about the times now.
And verse 9 says, what profit hath he that worketh in that
wherein he laboreth? He said, well, what profit is
there? You remember he said, well, what profit did the Jews have?
He says in verse 10 of Ecclesiastes 3, I have seen the travail. You
know what a travail is? That's like birth pains. Man
wrestling with himself. What the old psychologists used
to call the angst, A-N-G-S-T. We talk about teenage angst,
well it's not exclusive to teenagers. I got news for you. He says,
I've seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men
to be exercised in it. This angst that we have is something
God's given us, even in our lost state. Verse 11 says, he hath
made everything beautiful in his time. Everything's beautiful
in his time. You know, Ray Stevens used to
say, everything is beautiful. Well, everything's not beautiful
to me. And everything's not beautiful to you. But everything in God's
time is beautiful. Why? Because God works all things
after the counsel of his own will. All things work together
for good to them that love God. Well, look at verse 11. Also
he hath set the world in their heart." Now that's eternity. That's what that's talking about.
The ages. Man has a sense, a natural sense
of eternity. Is there life, even if you ask
the question, is there life after death? You know, if you own a
dog, go ask your dog if there's life after death. You think he's
been thinking about that? See, the animals, they don't
think that way. They're not like man. That's why I say man's not,
God set this in the heart of man. What about eternity? Is there a God? Yes. But why
does that question even come up? The very fact that that question
even comes up in the minds of human beings proves to me that
there is a God. Did you know that? Why would
you even ask it? Why won't you just walk around
like a dog? You know? That's your philosophy. Live
and let live. Survival of the fittest. Where's
the next meal coming from? And that's it. Eat, drink and
be merry. But we have within us a natural
tendency to seek out these things of eternity. Alright? Ecclesiastes
11, also he has set the world in their heart. Now listen to
this, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh
from beginning to the end. What's he saying there? He says,
we have that question, we have that angst, we have that eternity
set in our hearts, but we don't know the answer. We can't figure
it out. You can go to science, you can
go to philosophy, and you can go to human religion, and you
won't find the answer. Where is the answer? Only God
can give us the answer. You see, that's the only recourse
we have, to seek the Lord. And here's the problem. By nature,
we won't do it. And when we hear God's answers
to these questions, by nature, we don't like it. Read Romans
9 again. Well, God's unjust. Well, here's
how I've got it figured out, here over here in Romans chapter
3. If the Jews' unrighteousness, or if our unrighteousness commends
the righteousness of God, what can we say? Well, is God unrighteous,
who taketh vengeance? That's just not fair to me. That's
just, that's an unfair God, an unjust God to treat us that way.
And what does Paul say? God forbid, look at verse six,
God forbid. For then how shall God judge
the world? God justly judges the world.
He judges, listen, God justly judges those who are not in Christ,
washed in his blood and found in his righteousness. He justly
judges them condemned and damned forever. And then God justly
judges his people who are in Christ, washed in his blood,
clothed in his righteousness, justly justified, saved for eternal
life. He does so. So he says, verse
seven, for if the truth of God hath more abounded through my
lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? In
verse eight he says, and not rather as we be slanderously
purported, as some say, affirm that we say, let us do evil,
that good may come, whose damnation is just. Paul's saying there
that he's been accused, and God's preachers, they've been accused.
of going around saying, well, it doesn't matter what we do,
you know, God's sovereign, so, you know, he's, we ought to just
send the more, because that promotes the kingdom of God, that good
may come. And he says, those who think that way, their damnation
is just. God is just in all that he does. There's some more I can say about
that, but I'm running out of time today, so let's stop, all
right.