[Applause] Bless you. Thank you, Pastor Payne. So, I did say that I'd be careful of giving a pastor a mic. But I'll say this, anytime somebody's using the mic to glorify God, it's never, never in vain, amen. So, we give him all the glory and all the honor this morning. This morning, we're heading back into the book of Romans, and I hope you've been reading along with us, family, because if there's a book that will change your life, it's the Book of Romans. So, don't miss the opportunity to read together with us in the Book of Romans, and let's break bread together. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning, you are a good, good God. You are a good, good Father. Thank you, Lord, that you have adopted us into sonship, that we can say of our Father this morning. Lord, I just thank you for this day that you've made. I thank you, Lord, for your steadfast love. I thank you, Lord, for your mercies that never come to an end. Father, we move forward this morning, not in our own strength, but we move forward according to the Holy Spirit who lives on the inside of us. Father, I give to you all that I do, that I speak today, our Lord, and I pray that you would anoint these lips of clay, and that you go before me in the Word of Truth this morning. This I pray in the mighty, mighty name of Jesus and rebirth says, Amen, and amen, and amen. I guess do we have some slides up as well. If you know me, I love to preach with a little bit of backing as well. So, we are in the Book of Romans, like I said. Does anybody remember, and I don't know if they still make those. Let's still make chapis, chapis bubblegum. And if you remember, when you open a chapis bubblegum, it has on the inside of the wrapper it says, did you know? Anybody seen that? Okay, so we're not speaking about yes to you, right? So it says, did you know when it has facts and truth in there? Is it okay if I start up this morning and lay down some truth? Okay, so from creation to fall, to redemption to restoration, there is a storyline. There is also a principle. Okay, the storyline is everything in the entire Bible, everything in the entire Bible points to Jesus Christ. That's the storyline and you've got to get this. And there's a principle. We are saved by grace through faith. According to Jesus Christ, for good works. So not by anything that we've done. So you've got to know that there is a truth and there is a principle. There's a storyline, everything pointing to Jesus Christ. And I'd look 24 verses 27, Jesus, after he was resurrected, he did this, he says, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Jesus was actually pointing to the scriptures and showing this scripture that you're reading all points to me. Okay, so all scripture, when we preaching up here, God forbid we preach a message that does not point to Jesus Christ. In the time of Moses and the prophets, we had animal sacrifices for sin. Pointing to Jesus Christ would become the ultimate sacrifice for our condition of sin. Amen? We had high priests going before God on our behalf. We had Jesus, the ultimate high priest who stormed the bell, given us access to the Father. Amen? He is now ever interceding on our behalf. He is our high priest. We have the holy temple. And remember that Jesus Christ said, in three days, I will tear this temple down. I will tear this temple down in three days. I will fold it up again, talking about his body, okay? We used to go back in the day to the holy temple. We now are in Jesus Christ. He is our holy temple. He is Jesus Christ. We are in him and he is in God. He gives us access to the Father. Amen? Jesus says in Matthew 5 verses 17, I've not come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've come to fulfill them. I've come to fulfill them. Now, here's a little bit of a question to you. And we're going to search truth. We're going to see ways our truth foundation this morning. Because as we say, all scripture points towards Jesus Christ. Sometimes we approach the scripture as if it's a story, as if it's a fable, as if it's a, was that really true? How about the story of David and Goliath? Approached from a worldly perspective, approached as a motivational story, we could say that David and Goliath, what I take out of David and Goliath, you know, in your strength, you can do lots of things. If you don't take the chance, how will you ever know? How will you ever know? So there is a truth even behind the story of David and Goliath. We see David, a representative of Israel going before this giant Goliath. And we see that David's victory becomes Israel's victory. We see Jesus Christ, Christ, the seed of David coming against sin, defeating sin on our behalf. We see the righteousness. We see the victory being imputed to us. We haven't lifted a finger, but God has done it all. The world will tell you it's a lovely story. My husband and the story is I can do all these other things in my own strength without pointing to Jesus, all scripture points to Jesus Christ family. What is your truth foundation this morning? And I want to drop that seed for the rest of what we're going to go through this morning. This is going to be so, so, so powerful. Grenville started last week and he started touching on a couple of truths. And when he was sharing, I said, "Hey, Lord, you are in this word. You are in this word." Grenville started touching on a couple of things, and so were we this morning. So the author of Romans, as we know, was Paul. And Paul was writing from the city of Corinthia in about AD 56. He's writing to this church here at Rome who is a Gentile and a Jewish church. So the emphasis in this particular book is on the revelation of God. He's saving grace, but also God, the judge. There's also an emphasis on the solidarity of the Jew and the Gentile that comes through quite a bit here. So here we have Paul in the city of Corinth, and what he writes to, or who he writes to is the church here in Rome. Jew and Gentile church, like I've mentioned, and he expresses to them in his letter that he wants to visit three places. He says he wants to visit Rome, he wants to visit Jerusalem, and he wants to go further west here to the city of Spain. Now, he's wanting to do these type of things, talks to the mission. There is also purpose for writing this particular letter. So he's writing the letter number one, because you can see where Rome is, right? Rome is here, Jerusalem is here, Spain is somewhere out here. So Rome is between Jerusalem and Spain, he wants to actually use Rome as a launching pad, as a place of refreshment, so that he can continue his missionary, his purpose, his vision through to Spain, through to the Gentile city of Spain, where they have not heard the message. Now, Paul is pretty lengthy in his message, he's never been to Rome itself, so he's laying out a lot of principles. Now, start, quote, wait a bit, when he says, there was three reasons for Paul wanting to visit these particular places. So, I've mentioned already that he wants to go to Rome and use that as a launch pad for the rest of his ministry. But he also, these cities of Jerusalem and Spain also talks about his commitment to the Gentile and to the Jewish church. So Paul, number one, wants to go to Spain to give the Gentiles the gospel who have never heard it before, his commitment to the Gentiles, but he also wants to go to Jerusalem for a purpose. Now, we all have heard that he's going to go to Jerusalem because he's got a gift offering, right? We've heard that. But there's a little bit more to that. This gift offering comes from these churches in Macedonia and the Kale, the Greek churches. So, he's taking a Greek offering to the Jewish church, another hint to his dedication to Jew and Gentile solidarity. So, he's coming with this gift offering and in Genesis 15, it talks about, he comes with this offering, a gift offering from the Greek nation because they have received a spiritual gift first, a spiritual blessing first. So, what they are giving back now is, because they've received a spiritual blessing, they've been impacted there on how reciprocating and giving a material blessing back to the church at the church in Jerusalem to Israel. Now, once again, the theme, the solidarity between Jew and Gentile. Now, I love that these Gentiles were demonstrating the love of Christ. They were demonstrating the impact of Christ on their lives. 2 Corinthians 8 verses 9 says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake, for you and I sake, he became poor, so that in his poverty, we might become rich." How's that reciprocity that's going on here? This is what the Gentile church is doing. The Gentile church is saying, "I've been impacted spiritually. This has caused a change in my heart. I want to give from this place of where I've received. How has Jesus Christ impacted your life? Where are you giving to from today? Are you giving from a place of thankfulness, of grace for what God has done in your life? Amen? Very quickly, we're going to go into an overview of Romans 1 and 2 where we've been before and then we're going to venture on into Romans 3, our message for today. In your Bible, turn to Romans 1 and we're going to do a speed cruise through Romans 1 and 2. My wife is laughing because I'm saying a speed cruise. So Romans 1 then starts with the greeting to the church. We see that Paul is one who has been called and then is one who has been sent with a purpose. He is called by God in Jesus Christ for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and now he has been sent as an apostle to the rest of the church. He's been sent to a Jew and a Gentile church as we will see in verses 6 and 7 where he talks about to you who are called the church in Rome and also to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. So immediately Paul once again is demonstrating this all inclusive message. Remember like we said, Jews and Gentiles. If we turn the page at least in my Bible in verses 8 he then expresses thankfulness to the church at Rome and he commends them because they've grabbed the whole of this Gospel at Pentecost. Remember they've had an encounter with God and they've come back to Rome and they've exploded the church at Rome. In fact he says that your faith has become known worldwide. What is your encounter with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Who knows that you are a son and daughter of the most high? Who knows? Here Paul says I'm eager to come and break brave with you. I'm eager to come and have an iron sharpening iron experience. I'm eager to have a mutually beneficial experience with you here at Rome. How often do we neglect the gathering of the saints? How quickly do we just brush it off? Somebody's blessing could be in you being here today. Hey man, Paul says in verses 16, he's not ashamed of the Gospel. This is a big thing, this is a big thing because Paul is going to a place where the Christians are in the minority. He's going to a place where Rome is a hotbed of iniquity. Sin is life in this place. He's going forth to this place and he says I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. I'm coming to declare the Gospel. How often do we find that we are affected by society? When is society affected by us? Paul is going to a place that is rich in the culture of sin and he's declaring, "Hey, I am coming in the sun's blazing. I am coming in the sun's blazing. I am not ashamed of the Gospel." He gives a couple of reasons as to why he's coming to proclaim the Gospel. He says it is the power of God unto salvation. It is the righteousness of God revealed. But it is also the wrath of God revealed to those who would ignore such a grace of gift. He is confident about this. He is proud about this because he knows this is a life-changing Gospel. How can you keep a Gospel to you to yourself that you believe is the power of God unto salvation? How can you, does this betray what we really believe? Does this betray what we really believe? So he's saying here God's saving righteousness and the wrath of God and the wrath of God against sin is what is coming to preach and he believes that this is the power of God to change and transform your life. Amen. Romans 2 talks about God's righteous judgment. And we have immediately what we see is a doctrine of two paths in verses 6 to 8. We see a choice between life and we see a choice between death. We see a choice for life as consequences of an eternal life. But choices of death bring about wrath and fury, bring about judgment. He says also in verses 11 that God shows no partiality. God shows no partiality. If you are under the condition of sin, they will be wrath. If you choose life, they will be eternity. Amen. Now he goes on in verses 17 to 29 and he talks about the Jews who are the custodians of the law. They have been given the holy articles of God. They look Jewish on the outside. They look good and shiny on the outside. But he says having this and looking good and shiny on the outside. Guess what? It's not enough. It's not enough. He says you've got to have a condition transformation on the inside as well. So being Jewish and circumcised physically is not the saving grace that you need. It's not only physical, but it's also spiritual. So Paul starts out by commending the church. He moves on to those who are unrighteous and ungodly who have ignored the saving grace of Jesus Christ. But he also then goes on to those who are self-righteous who look good on the outside and have something else going on on the inside. And he says it's because of you who look good on the outside that God's name is blaspheme. Family, I've been one of all of those. I've been an unbeliever. I've been unrighteous and ungodly. I've been the one who stands and looks shiny on the outside, who's kept the law, who's tried to be good for God. I've been there. I've tried to do it if I own strength. I have failed dismally at that. I have become a believer. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. I am a believer. Now Paul focuses on getting doctrine, right? Paul focuses on getting doctrine, right? Because right believing here me now, right believing is critical to right living. Did you hear that? Right believing is critical to right living. Now Dr. Glenn Schutz, a Christian educator, says at the foundation of a person's life is the ability. At the foundation of your life is your beliefs, and these beliefs then shape your values. These values drive your actions. The Word of God says, "By the fruit you will know them." So you can tell me you're all shiny on the outside. You can tell me I do this and I keep the law and I don't sin and all of these things. But what is shown by the actions that come out? Can we see the values and belief of the invisible part? Can we see that the actions are the visible part? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. What truth is at your foundation this morning? Is it subjective or is it objective? So what do I mean by that? When I say it is subjective, your truth, the truth at your foundation this morning, is it based on your opinion? Is it based on your assumption? Is it based on your expectation? Or is the objective belief, is this based on truth? Is this based on fact? Let me push it a little further. Is this based on the Word of God? Is this the scriptural truth? Or are you, do you have a base that has a little bit of word and a little bit of, I know the word says this, but my opinion, I feel this about that, I feel that about this. I know the Word of God says this, but I can add a little bit of my mixture to the Word of God. Call is addressing what is called a world view. So the sum of your beliefs, the sum of your beliefs make up what is called your world view. The way that you view the world, the lenses through which you view the world is your world view. Everything that you believe to be true. So what is going on here at the base, what you believe, what your world view is will eventually come out at the top, the actions, the actions. So, here's the question. Do you have a biblical world view or do you have a worldly world view? This is a question. What causes us to be heroes of the Word and not doers of the Word? It's what we believe, family. It's what we believe. There is a direct connection between what we believe and how we live. There is a direct connection. No matter what you say, what you do will show me what you believe, what you do will show God. What you believe. Doesn't matter what I believe. I want this morning for us to look at a couple of statements that I've borrowed from the South African theological seminary sets. And I want you today, I don't want to please, I don't want you to pick up your hands or anything like that. I want you to internally decide what it is that you believe. Now, I've done a little bit of a survey already with some folks within the church. I've sent the survey out to you, you've given it back to me, thank you very much. I hope some of those questions have bothered you. I hope some of those questions have gotten you to start searching and seeing where your views lie with these type of things. I did the same type of survey with our youth and I'm going to say this, I've said to the youth what we do is always confidential between us and them. But I'm going to say this, parents have conversations about the word with your youth. How often do we have these futile conversations at home? Faceless conversations, talking about days of our lives and the bold and the beautiful. Those are the only series I could remember from my time. But how often are we having conversations about the word, about the truth? Do you know some of the most meaningful conversations that Burns and I have is when we start breaking bread. We can start talking for hours about the word and talk about any other thing the conversation tries up just like that. Now I want to say to you, to your youth, to your family, sit around the table. Don't only talk at them and tell them what your belief is, ask them, engage them, find out what it is that they believe you would be shocked. So this morning, I want you to look at this range of questions that I'm going to read to you and there's an option where you totally believe, you partially believe, you totally agree or disagree rather or you partially disagree. So do you really believe strongly or you wish you washy or do you totally disagree? So you can engage where we've got a stretch team here at Rebirth, so if you feel really stressed about anything, put it out to us and we'll engage with our stretch team as well to take you through some of these. So let's look at some of our world views and these are some of the questions that we have this morning. So remember, like I said, do you mostly agree or totally agree? Do you mostly disagree or totally disagree? So here's some of the questions. The entire Bible is the inspired Word of God. Jesus is fully God and fully man. Human beings are basically sinful. Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins. It is sinful and unmarried couple to live together and that now means six before marriage. Adam and Eve were two real people. Jesus rose physically from the dead. Everything the Bible teaches is true. Lovely conversations to have at home. It is sent to engage in a homosexual relationship. Faith in Jesus is the only way to go to heaven. There are no errors in the Bible. David defeated the giant Goliath. Christians may not consult mediums or witch doctors. Jesus was literally born of a virgin and abortion is murder. Hey, now, and remember I said don't pick up any hands or any of those things, but from the service that we've already done, sometimes we take it for granted and we think we've been in church all our lives. I'm sure everybody believes the same thing. I'm sure everybody is on the same page. You will be shocked, family. Have the conversations at home. Find out what is the foundation of belief. Find out what is the foundation of truth. Don't take this for granted. Listen. Let's have a conversation, amen? So if you would turn your Bibles to Romans 3, and what we're going to do is I'm going to read verses 1-8, a break away for a little bit, and then we will get to the rest of that. So the theme once again in Romans 3, God's righteousness and man's unrighteousness. So let us read. Then what advantage has the Jew or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way to begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does the faithfulness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means let God be true, though everyone were a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath in us? I speak in a human way, by no means, for then how could God judge the world? But if through my life, God's truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come, as some people slanderously charge us with saying? The condemnation is just. God bless to us the reading of His word there. So verses 1 to 8, we can divide into two paths. Word verses 1 to 4, speaking on the faithfulness of God, and verses 5 to 8, answering objections to the righteousness of God. Now, Paul uses a particular genre here, Paul's diatribe, which he also used in chapter 2. So what we have here is a question and answer session to answer objections, normally used between a teacher and his students, or a teacher, and critics. Some commentaries actually even suggest that maybe Paul is both a teacher and critic in this particular instance, because as we can remember, Paul or Saul was at some point in time an unconverted Pharisee. Now, he is a Christian. So they're saying he's being on both sides of the coin. So he knows what objections he actually put to the fore. He could actually be having this conversation and squashing or dealing with these objections right from the get-go. It also says that perhaps he was raising or reconstructing actual arguments that had occurred in the synagogue where he was evangelizing. So, let's have a look then at Romans 3, and we'll go through the questions that were asked. So question number 1, then what is the advantage, then what advantage has the Jew, or what is the value of circumcision? So now you can imagine, yes Paul, coming with this type of message, this type of view, this type of thesis, imagine the Jews who always have had the hindsight or the idea that we're okay, we have been given the articles of God, I'm Jewish, so I'm okay. And Paul comes and says, "Hey, hold on, you Jewish on the outside, you may have received the circumcision as a sign of the covenant made to you by God, but since the coming of Jesus Christ, I've got bad news, things have changed, things have changed." So, the very definition of Jew and being circumcised, he says to the Jews now, is changed. Romans 2 verses 28 to 29 says, "No one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. He is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit and not by the letter or by the law." So Paul is explaining here that, like I just said now, law and circumcision as the Jews knew it was not enough to save them, not enough to save them. After the coming of Christ, the definition has been changed. And as we saw in Romans 2, there's no partiality with God. This applies to both Jews and Gentiles. We have the condition of sin. Jesus came to address the conditions of sin. Amen? Now, Paul answers them in this way. He says, "There is an advantage, though." He says, "Much in every way to begin with the Jews who entrusted with the oracles of God." So, he's saying there is value, but not so much as value from a place of security, but value from a place of responsibility. You have been given the oracles of God what a wondrous thing to have, the revelation and access to the oracles and the truth of God. But you have a responsibility to now respond to what Jesus Christ has come with. Amen. He describes it as the prime privilege to be the library keepers of the oracles of God, the library keepers of God's Word, the heavenly treasure and indescribable gift. Now, sir, ma'am, I'm sorry to tell you this. No matter how beautiful and wonderful your gift is that you bring to the church, no matter how wonderful and beautiful your gift is that you serve with in the church, it means nothing if you have not surrendered to Christ. Because if you are serving in your own capacity, not surrendered to Christ, you are serving your own selfish needs. You are not serving and honoring the one who has sacrificed for you. The gift that you have been given is the righteousness of God. That is the true gift. Paul expands in Romans 9 verses 4 on what those gifts are for the Israelites, for the Jews rather, and I'm not going to go further into that. I'm going to go into question number 3 and he says, what if some were unfaithful? Does the faithlessness nullify the faithlessness of God? So, the meaning of the objection here is that if some of the Jews were unfaithful and were now lost, this doesn't just imply that God is not keeping to his word, didn't God make a promise to these guys? So, Genesis 18 verses 19 says, for I have chosen him, so now this is God discussing and talking about, should we let Abraham know that I'm actually going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for all of a sudden that is going on there? And he says, for I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice. So, big word. So, he says, for I've done all of these things, so means there is a condition, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him. Now, you remember when we did Genesis a while ago and we described to you about the covenant of sacrifice and the slaying of the heifer and the two parts and all of that, that was a covenant, an unconditional covenant for the land. So, here we have a conditional covenant which is talking to righteousness and unrighteousness. Are you honoring God? Are you not honoring God? And there is a condition here. There is a condition here. So, God is not unfaithful. God will never be unfaithful. We serve an immutable God. The promise that God is made to Abraham and the fathers is not kept a promise too. So, Abraham, or rather Paul is saying here, if people come here with this message that God is not true, if people come with the message that God is not faithful, that is a false doctrine right there. So, we look at the character of God always. Now, in terms of this where we say, what is somewhat unfaithful? And we saying that, no, we look to the faithfulness of God. I want to point your attention to something. How often do we in the church look to one another? How often do we look and say, "Bsh, brother Dwayne is unfaithful. Sister Paul is unfaithful. I want nothing to do with a faithful God." Who are we fixed on? Where are our eyes fixed? On men, the one whose condition is sin, the one who is in much need of a savior as you and I are, we look at the man and we say, I want nothing to do with God. Because this person, we are all in a fallen state family. We are all in need of a savior. Jesus Christ said in John 14, 6, "I am the way, not a way, the way. I am the truth and the life. Why are we looking towards man? Why do we come to church and focus on man? You know, we've been commissioned to preach this gospel. People come in. People come in. And we give them the word of God and then we sit next to them and rather speak idle words to them. And people go out. What seed are we sowing family? What seed are we sowing? He answers the question by no means. So he's actually been very strong here. He's saying not at all, absolutely not. God forbid you even believe this type of doctrine. Like I said earlier on, if somebody comes to you with this type of doctrine, it is false. Let everybody else be a liar, but God be true. In who does your truth lie? In who does your trust lie? Are you going to believe the opinion of man over the truth, the word of God, which is the foundation, which we believe in? Family. Family. There's this thing, Grenville spoke about it, about being involved in a cult. Now, how will we know about the faithfulness of who God is? How will we know if we don't go into the word? How will we know what the truth is if we never go into the word of God? We are open and susceptible to this kind of conversation. The immutable God is a strong principle for a foundation. A God who never changes is a strong principle for a foundation of belief. Amen? You know how often do we when we get a report about our physical health that is ailing? How diligently do we then go and seek answers? How diligently do we Google? Do we need a second opinion? Let me go on search. This condition, this condition that is killing this body, is it true? What's going to happen? What about the threat against our spiritual health? Have we developed a burial principle for the spiritual health that is being threatened? We've got a burial principle for the physical body that is not a permanent body. But our condition in here, which is for eternity, we leave to chance. We leave to opinion. We go and we say, tell me what your view on it. You tell me what your truth is on this. Our belief betrays us. God has not changed family. God is immutable. We are the ones who have changed. Clock says this. Should any man say that the promise of God had failed toward him, let him examine his heart and his ways, and he will find out that he has departed out of that way in which alone God could, consistent with his holiness and truth, fulfill that promise. God hasn't moved. You have. Spurgeon says this with regards to God be true and every man be a liar. It is strange. It is a strange and strong expression, but it is none too strong. If God says one thing and every man in the world says another, God is true and men are false. God speaks the truth and cannot lie. God cannot change his word like himself is immutable. We are to believe God's truth if nobody else believes it. The general consensus of opinion is nothing to a Christian. He believes God's word and he thinks more of that than of the universal opinion of man. Can I have an amen? Question number five. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way. So what is the objection here is if my son makes God look good, what's the problem? Why am I being punished if by my son I'm making God look good? So I love the way that a gusic demonstrates this with a Judas example. And I'm going to read it straight outside. I don't butcher it. He says, Lord, so this is Judas speaking right. He says, Lord, I know that I betrayed Jesus, but you used it for your good. In fact, if I hadn't done what I did, Jesus wouldn't have gone to the cross at all. What I did, even full for the Scripture, how can you judge me at all? Have you heard such heresy? The answer to Judas might go like this. Yes, God used your wickedness, but it was still your wickedness. There was no good or pure motive in your heart at all. It is no credit that God has brought good out of your evil. You stand guilty before God. That's powerful because sometimes our thinking is so flawed. There is a price to pay for the path that we choose. There is a path, a price to pay. Speaking in a human way, only a fallen man would question God's justice. God's righteous justice. He says here in verse 6, the answer, by no means, for then how could God judge the world? So Paul basically dismissing the argument from above and says that if God were to conform to that type of thinking, he could judge nobody. God, yes, can use the wicked. God can turn conditions for his good, but you will still be judged for your wickedness. But here's another question, but if through my lie, God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? So once again, Paul is restating the objection. Why am I being punished if my sin makes God look good? And the answer here, and why not do evil that could make may come as some people slandrously charge us on saying. So he's like really squeezing out this particular argument. This is a perversion of Paul's doctrine here. He's doctrine of justification by faith. So we see that faith or the sin here moves from this passive state of sin to an active state of sin where I'm actually saying, okay, so if I'm helping God look good, maybe I should help a little harder. Maybe I should actively start sinning because, hey, I'm making God look good. And we look at this, we think, I have two things like that. I had a four-hour conversation with somebody who thinks like this, who said to me, no, no, no, no, no. What I do actually is for the good of me and for the good of God. I make all these mistakes because God uses me as an example. I have a testimony by these things that I've done. Hey, Lord, we pray for wisdom. We pray for wisdom. Paul says their condemnation is just somebody. He's just a mess of all this rubbish. He's just a mess of his says, you know what? This is you get what you deserve kind of a response. Romans 3, verses 9, if we turn the page there, says, what then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all both Jews and Greeks are understood as it is written. So what actually happens here is if we go to that particular question and apologies, if it's not so visible there. So the same question he's asking here now, he asked in verse 1. Remember then he said, what's the advantage of being a Jew? And then he said, there's some advantage if you have the articles of God that you are holder, a librarian, a library keeper of God's word. It's good to have this tool in your hands, but here he comes to it here and he says, but even if you have this, there is this inner cutting away that needs to happen. We can walk all we want with God's word under our arm. We can look good and shiny on the outside, but there is a matter of the heart that needs to be taken care of. We see here that it says both Jews and Greeks are understood. Sin is actually personified here. It's like you are being pressed down by the weight of sin. Sin is keeping you captive. People who say, I'm free in sin, I'm free in perversion. That is a twisted lie from the enemy. There's a consequence to that moment of freedom that you feel. There's a consequence and that is the weight of that sin. That is the weight of that sin. So if we read then from verses 11 all the way down to 18. So he says here, if we read in verses 9, once again he says, what then? Or we use any better orphan. He says, no, not at all. And then he comes to verse 10, none is righteous, no not one. None is righteous, no not one. And then everything that comes underneath that is basically supporting that statement of a person who is unrighteous, a person who is in a condition of sin, a person who has not bended need to the Father. And let's hear what this sounds like. He says, so none is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God, all have turned aside. Together they have become worthless, no one does good, no not even one. Their throats is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under the lips or their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In the parts are ruined and misery. And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear before their eyes. So what we see here, and like we said in verses 10, it says, none is righteous, no not one. We go into what unrighteousness looks like. And it gives you a picture that unrighteousness, the condition of sin doesn't only affect certain parts of you. The condition of sin affects every part of you. And we can see here, he talks about from head to toe is what is giving the idea of throats, tongues, lips, mouth, feet, eyes. The entire body is infected by this condition of sin. And this person of unrighteousness, as we can see, quoting from Psalms and from Isaiah, quoting from what is in the word of truth. If we get to the very end here where he says, there is no fear of God before their eyes. This here is the actual problem. This encapsulate why this condition exists, because there is no reverence for God. There is no submission to God. There is no obedience to God. The last sinner is a depressing picture family. There is nothing beautiful or free about it, but the world will try to sell this. The world will try to sell this of what a beautiful and free life it is. There is consequences, the weight of sin and death is one of them. There is in verses 11 here, which says, no one understands, no one seeks God. No one seeks God in our flesh, in our sin. Sometimes we have good intention, and we try to seek God, but we are seeking after our own fleshly wants and needs, after our own idols. We seek God through the Spirit, through the Holy Spirit, and only through His Spirit. Amen. I put a thought here in terms of, there is no fear of God before their eyes, and I wrote, we are open to dancing with the devil when we have no fear for God. We are open to dancing with the devil when we have no fear for God. So Romans 19 and 20, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The law, no man that has walked the earth, except Jesus Christ as Kit. The law has come to illuminate the wretched beings that you and I are. The law has come to show that we need a Savior. The law comes to point to Jesus Christ, our Messiah. The law comes to show the universal guilt of man. So back to where we were early on, Paul pointing out that man is falling, his foundation of belief is warped. It's warped if it's not centered on Christ Jesus. No matter what we tell ourselves and no matter how good we say that we are, if our foundation is not in Jesus Christ, it's no foundation at all. So here's a question, how does one actually build this world view that we're talking about, this public world view? And I'm going to go very quickly through this for you. So we build a world view by having a sure foundation. A sure foundation is the Word of God. A sure foundation is the Word of God encompassing the truths, encompassing the principles, everything that is inside of the Word of God. But we have a lot of things in the Word of God. How do we develop it into a world view? We've got to have a superstructure. So when you build on a solid foundation and the practicality that comes out of that on a sure foundation brings a solid world view. Now, Barnas says that there are seven questions that you need to reconcile with yourself when building a solid world view. Remember the questions we did earlier on? And we were talking about these particular statements. These are truths in the Word of God, if you can search hard enough. And here's the question. We need to ask questions of ourselves to find out, can we have a sure foundation and begin to build a superstructure in terms of the belief? What are the questions that we need to reconcile? So question number one, and very quickly, does God exist? We need to answer this question because we need to determine, do we give attention to a divine being? Do you believe that God really exists? What is the character and nature of God? Because who we are as a person has to correspond to the nature of God. He is righteous, he is just, he is a triune God. We've got to get these things right. How and why was the world created? If we can understand why the world was created, how the world was created, we begin to understand who God is, what God's purpose is and what our purpose is. What is the purpose of humanity? If we give value to humanity, if we have value of our lives, if we value the person that we're looking at, we see them as God sees them, it changes everything. What happens after we die on earth? Do you have a perspective for the here and now? Or do you have an eternal perspective? Are you building for eternity? Are you just building for now where moth and rust destroys? What spiritual authorities exist? This affects our experience here on the earth. Do you believe that there is a spiritual enemy that we need to God ourselves again, that we need to get into the word of truth against? The weapons of our way are not carnal family. Do you believe that spiritual authorities exist? The big one. What is truth? Our foundation of truth, like I said early on, determines our behavior. By their fruit, you will know them. In closing, just in terms of pointing back to Jesus Christ and the worldview that Jesus Christ had, his foundation was clear, it was accessible in some of the pivotal times in Jesus's life, he said it is written. It is written. Jesus's focus was on God's world and not on his own. I've come to do the world of the Father, the one who has sent me and not my will. Jesus's falter was defined by his time alone with God and by the Scripture. His falter defined what the rest of his decisions in his life were with or all about. There was no subjectivity where Jesus was concerned. There was no, this is the way that I feel, Father, your truth is where I stand. And there is faith. Without faith, we cannot please God. Jesus showed us this through his actions. He's given us everything as an example. My question once again, family, what is your worldview? What is the foundation? What is the basis of your beliefs? There's an order that needs to happen in terms of what we really believe because what we really believe talks to how we behave. Why is there so much infighting in the church? Why do we attend church but we walk in a state of unforgiveness? Why do we say that Christ lives on the inside of us but we still walk in, I know the word of God says this, but there is my opinion. Does my opinion not matter? Sir ma'am, the word of God is truth this morning. We are the creation. We are under the Creator. We are subject to the word of truth of the Creator. There is a way that seems right unto man, its end is death. Today you've got to make a choice and decide. Do I stand on the word of God which is truth, or do I bring my subjective opinion as to what I think the word of God should be for my comfort? Last we get to a point where God says, "Depart from me, I know you're not." Father, give us the grace, the revelation of your word of truth that we might bold issue a foundation this morning. A man, and a man, and a man, and a man. I'm going to ask Pastor B or as Pastor Payton says, "Poster."
