ROMANS 3:5-18

Sunday Morning: April 24, 2005

Text:  Romans 3:5-18  But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) 6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 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? 8 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. 9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

REVIEW

Romans 3:3  For what if some did not believe (the oracles of God, v2)? shall their unbelief [lack of faith] make the faith (faithfulness) of God without effect?

FAITH DID NOT COME

Romans 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

DID NOT PRODUCE FAITH

Hebrews 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

NO HOPE OR EVIDENCE OF HOPE

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

GOD IS TRUE THE REST LIARS

Romans 3:4  God forbid (NO): yea, let God be true, but every man a liar (David); as it is written, That thou (God) mightest be justified in thy sayings (what He says), and mightest overcome (unchargeable) when thou (God) art judged (judgest).

AS IT IS WRITTEN

Psalms 51:4  Against thee, thee only, have I (David) sinned (confession), and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

TWISTED THINKING

Romans 3:5-6  But if our unrighteousness commend [stand with, (acclaim)] the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance [inflicts wrath]? (I speak as a man)  6.  God forbid (NO): for then how shall God judge the world?

GOD WILL JUDGE EVERY WORK

Ecclesiastes 12:14  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

GOD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE

Hebrews 10:30-31  For we know him that hath said, Vengeance [wrath] belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

TWISTED CONCLUSIONS

Romans 3:7-8  For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory (as you think I say); why yet am I also judged as a sinner?  8.  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 [judgment] is just.

UNTWISTED TRUTH

Romans 3:9  What then? are we better than they? (those who slander Paul) No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews (Paul included) and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

NONE JUST?

Romans 3:10  As it is written, There is none righteous [just], no, not one:

THEY HAD THE FEAR OF GOD

Luke 1:6  And they (Zacharias, Elizabeth) were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

THE UNJUST HAVE NO FEAR

Romans 3:18  There is no fear of God before their eyes.

NONE SEEKING THE LORD

Romans 3:11  There is none that understandeth [present tense], there is none that seeketh [present tense] after God.

THE WICKED

Psalms 10:4  The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

NO GOD

Psalms 53:1-3  The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. 2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. 3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

THAT THEY SHOULD SEEK THE LORD

Acts 17:26-27  And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

IF YOU SEEK HIM

Deuteronomy 4:29  But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

OUT OF THE WAY

Romans 3:12  They are all gone out (to go out you must be in the way) of the way, they are together become unprofitable [useless] ; there is none that doeth [present tense, practice] good, no, not one.

THE NARROW WAY

Matthew 7:13-14  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

THE TONGUE

Romans 3:13-14  Their throat is an open sepulchre (foul); with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:  14  Whose mouth is full [present tense] of cursing and bitterness:

THE WALK

Romans 3:15-16  Their feet are swift to shed blood:  16  Destruction and misery are in their ways:

THE MIND

Romans 3:17  And the way of peace have they not known:

THE KEY, NO FEAR OF GOD

Romans 3:18  There is no fear of God before their eyes.

THE FEAR OF GOD IS TAUGHT

Psalms 34:11  Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

FEAR OF THE LORD HIS TREASURE

Isaiah 33:6  And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM

Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

THE FEAR OF GOD IS TAUGHT

Deuteronomy 31:12-13  Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law: 13 And that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.