The Gathering Surf City

Romans, chapter three,

verses one to eight.

I remember when I sort of carved out
this little section in the outlines

for. As I was laying out all the outlines
for Romans over the last few

months, and I looked at this one and
there's a quote in the middle of

here that comes from David.

And we always talk about David and King
David and everybody knows King

David. And this is an
interesting little,

little eight verses that
I enjoyed studying.

So I'm going to enjoy preaching
it because God,

like I say,

God beats me up before
I beat y'all up.

So let's read it.

Here it goes.

Then what advantage has the Jew?

Or what is the benefit
of circumcision,

great in every respect?

First of all,

that they were entrusted with
the oracles of God.

What then,

if some did not believe,

their unbelief will not nullify
the faithfulness of God,

will it?

May it never be.

Rather, let God be found true,

though every man be found a liar.

As it is written that thou mightest
be justified in thy words and

mightest prevail when
thou art judged.

There's a little King James
language there.

Some of you like that.

But if our unrighteousness demonstrates
the righteousness of God,

what shall we say?

The God who inflicts wrath
is not unrighteous,

is he?

So I'm speaking in human terms,

may it never be.

But if through my lie the truth
of God abounded to his glory,

why am I also still being
judged as a sinner?

And why not say,

as we are slanderously reported
and as some affirm,

that we say,

let us do evil,

that good may come,

their condemnation is just.

Alright, let's pray before we
start to pick this apart.

Father, thank you for today and the
opportunity we have to hang out

together. God,

the privilege we have in Christ is that
we get to walk and talk with you

all week long.

And then on Sundays we get to come together
as the body and the family

and we get to spend this
time together singing.

We get to shake hands and hug each other's
necks and say hi again this

week. And God,

we want,

as we gather,

we want to hear from you.

We want to hear your voice from,

from your word as you speak
through the Bible.

God, we want to understand what you're
showing us and revealing to us

about yourself.

So God help us to hear
you this morning.

In Jesus name,

Amen. All right,

so I asked myself after
I read this passage,

and this was months ago,

the question that popped
into my mind is,

can I multiply God's righteousness?

Can Anything that I do in any way increase
the righteousness of God,

right? Now,

here's the truth of it is we can
help each other be righteous.

Did y'all know that?

I can encourage you.

I can read to you.

I can actually,

if I happen to notice you're
a bit unrighteous,

I can get in your face,

right? And go,

whoa. So see,

I told y'all,

I'm a good judge,

I'm a great legalist,

which makes me a great judge.

And yet God didn't call
me to be one,

right? But you see,

we are to encourage one another to righteousness
and to the walk that

draws us closer and closer to God.

So this whole argument that
Paul's making that God is,

has given for Paul to make in
Romans chapter three is.

I like it because of the way
Paul asks the questions.

He asks the questions with
an assumed answer.

And it's a practice of rhetoric
that Paul likes to use.

And that's fine because we have to answer
the question as he answers the

question.

So here's the whole point.

God is revealing himself to us.

Word of God is the revelation
of God himself to mankind.

It's the written word.

We've got the living word,

that's Jesus.

We've got the spirit of God
who opens this up for us.

You see,

we've got God revealed.

He's showing Himself to us.

So therefore,

we've got to take notice,

we've got to pay attention.

We've got to understand that God
is revealing himself to us.

And the better we get to know God or
the better glimpse of God we get,

the more God is able to
change who we are,

transform us,

refine us,

shape us into the image
of His Son Jesus,

because He's told us that's
what he's doing.

So as we look at this,

the statement that I set out this morning
was just to simply say God is

righteous.

That is a simple three
word sentence.

God is righteous,

okay? So when we understand
that God is righteous,

we don't start trying to pick
apart God's righteousness.

We understand that God is righteous.

I'm not.

You're not.

And we know from Romans chapter 1,

verse 17.

Remember, the whole outline leading
up to this point is Paul says,

hi, I'm Paul.

I preach.

I preach the gospel.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first,

also to the Greek,

for in it the righteousness of God
is revealed from faith to faith,

you see?

So God is revealing his
righteousness to us.

God is showing us more
about himself.

He is identifying those things about
him that we can have some semblance

of understanding.

But here's what we're learning as we
make our way through Romans chapter

one and chapter two.

I'm not righteous,

and neither are you.

Right? Sin is.

Sin is sin.

And that's what we get
in chapter one.

And remember,

everybody wants us to.

Everybody wants a preacher to
look at chapter one and go,

all right,

this is sin.

You know,

and since we sit in this church,

we're not guilty.

Since we sit in a room that's
pointed on top,

we don't have to worry about that.

We point at all the world
around us and go,

that's sin.

Well, guess what?

Sin's in here,

too. That's why Paul takes the next
chapter and a half to say,

guess what?

Sin is sin.

And all the Gentiles are sinners.

And. And all the Jews are sinners.

And then we get to chapter three,

and it's like he kind of puts an exclamation
point on it in chapter

three. Fact of the matter is,

what God is trying to reveal to
us is we are all sinners.

We're all guilty,

we'll all be judged.

And that we're not the judge.

Okay, so this.

And it was funny walking up the sidewalk
with Kyle this morning.

Didn't y'all enjoy seeing
Kyle again?

We sent him off to Burgos
for a little bit,

and now we're working out sort of how
that team looks to be sharing and

preaching up there in Burgos.

So anyway,

it's kind of cool Greg's preaching
up there this morning.

It was really funny because Kyle got
a note from Greg this morning,

said, who's preaching this morning?

Kyle was like,

what? And finally Greg said,

I'm just kidding.

So anyway,

so Greg dabs preaching up
at Burgo this morning.

So y'all pray for Greg.

Scott left just now to go up there
and lead worship up there.

So Scott and two guys,

Scott and Marvin and Jason,

yeah, all three of them are going to
be leading worship up there this

morning. So it's cool to see a team come
together to help lead up there.

So y'all pray for them.

Alrighty. So anyway,

so it was good.

Kyle and I were walking up
sidewalk and he said.

He said something about the
message this morning.

I said,

well, I said,

honestly.

I said,

we'd probably be done early.

This is the same message I've been
preaching the last two months,

three months,

January, February,

March. See?

And so basically,

now, as Paul comes to summarize
it with a Question.

He says this,

then what advantage has the Jew?

Or what is the benefit
of circumcision?

Now, what we've seen is
Paul identifies sin.

He says,

gentiles are sinners,

Jews are sinners.

And he said,

what is this advantage
of being Jewish?

And so this idea that
all of Christianity,

and remember,

Paul's audience is primarily,

or the larger part of it are those Jews
who have trusted and received

salvation in the shed blood
of Jesus Christ.

And so he's making this case.

He says,

so those of us who are Jews,

what's the big advantage?

He said,

well, it's great advantage.

It's great in every respect.

First of all,

that they were entrusted.

And I love that this translation comes
this way because a lot of them do.

Entrusted with the oracles of God.

Y'all like that word?

Doesn't it sound really important?

Doesn't it?

I mean,

oracles of.

I did that on purpose,

so it'd sound important,

right? The word's still Logos.

Logos loggia.

It's just the word of God.

The Jews were entrusted
with the word of God.

They were entrusted with the
revelation of who God is.

I mean,

think about it.

God called Abram,

right? Probably a shepherd out
in the wilderness somewhere.

And God goes,

hey, I want you to leave all this behind
and go somewhere where I'm going

to lead you to,

and I'll tell you when to stop.

And they went,

okay, right?

I mean,

just think of Abram as a normal guy.

Put yourself in Abram's shoes.

My challenge in scripture all
the time is to ask myself,

what did that look like?

What if I was the guy tending
sheep when God said,

hey, Bobby,

I want you to leave your family,

I want you to leave
all your kinsmen.

I want you to leave your land,

and I want you to go
until I stop you.

Huh? I kind of like it here.

God, no.

Abram said,

okay. So he takes his family,

packs them all in,

heads up to Canaan,

up to.

You know,

first they stop in Haran,

and then they go to Canaan.

You see,

Abram, he has this promise.

You know,

I'm gonna be the father of a nation.

I'm a hundred years old,

75, probably,

at the time of the promise.

But anyway,

then he has a son.

Wow. And then the son
has a couple sons,

And Jacob has 12 sons.

And you see,

so the Jewish people,

this family group,

understand, that's how it started,

right?

It started as a family.

And they go into slavery,

into Egypt,

and they multiply and
expand to millions.

They come out and in the Wilderness.

God shapes them into a nation and shares
through Moses all of the law,

the specificity of how to be a
people separated unto God.

So yes,

it was a privilege that God
reached down and went,

I called you,

I formed you,

I made you,

I grew you up,

and now I have made you
a people and a nation.

You know why I wanted to
go through all that?

Because I want you to think
about when God called you.

I want you to think about what
God's done in your life.

You know,

quite honestly,

I like to think I'm pretty good guy.

I like to think I do things right.

You know,

the word right is simply the first
part of the word righteous.

I know I'm not righteous,

but I like to think I'm right.

Right?

You see my point here,

right? We tend to like to think
of ourselves as right.

And so when I look at this and I
look at what he's saying here,

he says,

first of all,

they were entrusted with
the word of God.

What then?

If some did not believe,

their unbelief will not nullify
the faithfulness of God,

will it?

You see the argument he's making Because
God is always righteous.

And God revealed himself
to the Jewish nation,

called them,

made them,

made them who they are.

Just because they refuse to believe.

Does that mean God's not righteous?

No, absolutely not,

is what he's saying.

Matter of fact,

that may never be.

Is this double,

double argument in Greek that makes
that like a absolutely not.

My Greek professor said,

no, you can translate that.

No way,

Jose. I was like,

dude, that doesn't even sound right.

Anyway, but the point was,

is that what he's saying is,

no, no,

no, in any case,

ever does the unbelief of mankind make
God unfaithful or unrighteous?

God is always faithful.

God is always righteous.

And even if we want to put
the charge against God,

that in my life something
didn't work out,

so God,

you didn't treat me right.

The argument is,

God's always right,

God's always righteous.

And that's the case that Paul's
making right here.

But that's when he goes in to say,

may it never be.

Rather, let God be found true,

though every man be found a liar.

And then he quotes from Psalm 51,

which is David's great confession
of his sin with Bathsheba,

remember? And he says that you might
be justified in your words.

What David is saying is that God,

in judging me,

you are righteous,

you are just in judging me.

That's what David saying
in that psalm.

And that you might prevail that your
words are true when you judge.

See? So I look at this
whole thing and I go,

God, I'm not that great.

Which brings up the next argument
that Paul makes here.

But if our unrighteousness demonstrates
the righteousness of God,

what shall we say?

The God who inflicts wrath
is not unrighteous,

is he?

So here's the whole point.

Well, you know what?

If I'm as bad as I can be,

doesn't that just magnify the
righteousness of God?

I am crushing something up here.

You see what I mean?

If I can be just as bad as I am,

doesn't it just magnify the
righteousness of God?

Because I am so bad,

and a righteous God says,

me, who is so bad?

And that's kind of the argument that
was sort of going on among

Christians and those who
were not during Paul.

And he said,

no, God's not unrighteous
in punishing sin.

God's not unrighteous in
judging the sinner.

God's not unrighteous in being
the judge of the world.

For otherwise,

how will God judge the world?

God's the judge.

I'm not.

You're not.

Do you know that when we decide somehow
that God's unrighteous or God

didn't treat us fairly,

you realize we're putting ourselves
in a place of judgment over God?

Whoo.

Be careful.

Be careful.

So I got angry twice this week,

just so y'all know.

Think it's funny?

When I get to confess sin,

I do it to 100 people.

It's okay.

I was at Dad's house this week.

Dad's doing well.

Thank y'all all for asking.

He's doing fine.

He does his thing,

and that's cool.

He gets outside more when I'm there.

So he rode around in his golf cart
and watched me work all week long.

That's not what I got mad about.

But my sister told me a story
this week that made me mad.

That wasn't her.

It was something that something
had happened,

something had been done.

And I just.

I. In the moment,

I just had to be quiet.

I learned something years
ago in my life.

Things kind of rocked
along pretty good.

In my life.

Things happened the way I'd
like them to happen.

And not that I didn't suffer some things
or experience some bad things in

my life,

but, you know,

the only time I get mad is when things
don't go the way I want them to.

Y'all know that.

You know,

they tell me now they call
It OCD or something.

I'm a control freak,

just so you know,

right?

And so when things don't go
just the way I want them,

I get frustrated.

I look for who to blame,

right? If they don't go the
way I want them to,

then somebody's at fault.

And if I can't find
somebody in reach,

then I.

Am I susceptible to going,

God, why didn't that happen
the way I wanted it to?

See my point here?

I got angry.

I get angry when.

All right,

so when I was thinking about this little
part of this thing in my own.

Because I have to.

I have to take the text every Sunday
and look at it like a mirror.

God, what are you revealing to me?

What are you revealing about me?

God, what is it you're showing me about
myself before I ever get up and

share with you guys what I believe God's
word is teaching us right here?

So the idea that God somehow
is unrighteous in his.

In his judgment or in his dealings or
in the way that he conducts himself

among his creation,

I mean,

we wouldn't be here without him,

right? That he could somehow be.

No, no.

May it never be.

You see that twice in this text?

Verse 4,

verse 6.

May it never be.

Under no circumstances
is God unrighteous,

for otherwise how will
God judge the world?

So when I look at this thing and
I thought about it this week,

I thought,

you know,

Wednesday before I.

No, it was Thursday morning
at about 5:30.

And we were talking and I was like,

that just isn't right.

And in the moment,

here's the true confession of this.

In the moment,

I was thinking,

what can I do about it?

I want some vengeance.

I want to go correct this thing.

I want.

And then it happened again Friday,

I heard another story,

and I was mad because of something
that had been done.

I was like,

mmm, I wanted to strike
out in anger.

Then I remembered Paul also
wrote in Ephesians,

it's okay to be angry.

Just don't sin in your anger,

right?

Don't let the sun go
down on your wrath.

So in my anger about an event that I
heard about on Thursday morning,

and then on Friday,

I heard about another event.

And so it was two days in a row.

I started to yell for y'all,

but I decided not to.

But in my anger,

I was just like,

I want to do something about it.

And God used that to shine this mirror
back on me and ask me this

question.

Do you think sin in the
world angers God?

Listen to what it says.

But if through my lie the truth
of God abounded to his glory.

Why am I also still being
judged as a sinner?

And why not say,

as we are slanderously reported,

and as some affirm,

that we say,

let us do evil,

that good may come,

their condemnation is just.

But when you flip that back up
to what he says right here,

the God who inflicts wrath
is not unrighteous,

is he?

That's up in verse five.

Sin. You know,

when we make light of our sin,

that's the injustice.

When we don't really look at ourselves
and recognize that God called us

like he did Abram,

that God revealed himself
to us like he did Abram.

These oracles of God.

As I made a big deal about
the word of God,

guess what?

God's revealed himself to us.

We've got the word of God.

What is the advantage of being Jew?

Ask yourselves the question,

what's the advantage
of being Christian?

We've got the word of God,

the revelation of God.

We should pay attention to it.

We should bow before God.

We should submit and surrender ourselves
to him and recognize that he

loved us so much that in
the face of my anger,

in the face of my sin,

in the face of my unrighteousness,

when the court of heaven was held,

Jesus stood in my place and took my
sin and died the death that I

deserved. See,

and I want to go back and read this.

If some did not believe,

their unbelief will not nullify
the faithfulness of God.

See, God is always righteous.

God is always righteousness.

If you want to know what
righteousness is,

study more about God.

Discern what it now.

It doesn't give us the right to
act like God or be the judge.

Understand? God is righteous.

God righteously reveals
himself to us.

God righteously acts to accomplish salvation
and redemption and to do for

us on our behalf that which
we can't do ourselves.

We can't accomplish it ourselves.

We don't deserve it.

And yet God says,

because I love you,

I'm calling you my child,

and I'm giving you a redemption that
you can't accomplish on your own.

God is righteous when he created and
made and formed and shaped the

Jewish nation,

the people.

God is righteous in
choosing Gentiles.

And I look at God,

I honestly,

as I study.

And God took me all right,

yesterday morning.

I don't know why,

something crazy overtook me.

So I went for a run yesterday morning
for the first time in eight years.

I ran six miles.

I haven't run that far since
I ran that marathon in 2017.

But it was throughout the run that God
started leading me in my own heart

and mind down a purity question.

What does righteousness
look like in my life?

What does purity look
like in my life?

Do I make light of my sin?

Do I let my angry thoughts
result in.

I mean,

you know,

Jesus is one.

He says,

you heard it's wrong to murder,

but if you hate your brother
in your heart,

you've committed murder already.

See, God.

God took me on a journey on that
six mile run yesterday to go,

Bobby, before you get up
to preach tomorrow,

you got to examine your heart,

got to examine your motivations,

you got to examine who you are against
the backdrop of who God is.

See, God's righteous and I'm not.

And I somehow believe
I can put myself.

And maybe it's because I've been in
ministry and a pastor for so long,

I think some God's given me
some sort of special place.

Then what advantage has the Jew?

Well, okay,

I've studied the Bible
for decades now.

Doesn't give me a right to act
unrighteously in anger.

Doesn't give me any added
sort of right.

I've got to examine my
heart every day,

every moment of the day.

And can I just go ahead
and tell you.

So do you see,

God loves you.

And yeah,

we're dealing with judgment.

Over and over and over again we're
talking about judgment.

Because what I heard one preacher say
this week when I was listening to

him say,

one of the reasons why people struggle
with the gospel being for them is

they're not convinced they're lost.

They don't think they're that bad.

They don't see themselves
as unrighteous.

But we all are.

And God said,

I love you,

which takes me back to the first
verse we ever memorized,

right? For God so loved you the world
that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him will not
perish but have everlasting life.

God loved you that much,

right? It all starts with Jesus,

folks. If you don't know Jesus,

you need Jesus.

That's where the book
of Romans takes us.

It explains to us the how and the
why God did it the way he did it.

And we'll get there.

There's 16 chapters.

We just started three.

That means you got to be here every
week for the next decade,

right? I mean,

God's.

God's blessed us with his oracles.

Let's study them together,

okay? If you don't know
Jesus this morning,

we want to introduce you to
him because you're loved.

And if this is the first time
you're here this morning.

I hope somebody hugged your neck
because we love you too.

We're glad you're here.

Alrighty. We're going to sing one more
song and gives you the opportunity

to respond to God and his word.

And I want to encourage you.

I think one of the things I learned
yesterday on that run was God was

just saying,

be careful,

Bobby. And I thought about it after
the fact because I know that that

whole statement of the devil's
crouching at your door,

look out,

pray with me if you will.

God, thank you.

Thank you that you love us and God,

you have called us and provided for
us to have salvation and actually

healing God,

in many ways,

sin can be seen as a
sickness in a way.

We're incomplete,

we're broken.

And God,

the only thing that can make us
whole is redemption in Christ.

So God,

this morning,

if there's somebody here that doesn't
know that redemption.

God, I just pray.

Pray for them to see you
and to acknowledge you.

God, I pray for Christians
in the room today.

God, that as we examine
not just the world,

but examine our own lives,

God, help us to see your truth.

Help us to surrender
and bow before you.

And we pray it in Jesus name,

Amen.