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00:00 body cup to our Thai friends. As always, it is my joy and privilege uh
00:07 to have this opportunity to share with you from the word of God. The last time I stood here was I think in mid December
00:14 about four months ago. Dr. Peter may not agree, but I'm really quite comfortable with this pace of
00:20 about three to four sermons a year. Anyway, you should be aware that we are now in the midst of a series uh on the
00:27 book of Romans. Over four sermons, past few months, we have already covered
00:34 Romans 1 and also the first half of Romans 2. And this morning we are at
00:40 chapter 3 vers 1 to8. If you wonder what happened to the second half of Romans,
00:48 we will be it will be part of uh today's message because the points in the second
00:53 half of Romans are related to what we have in today's passage.
00:58 But I must first uh highlight the fact that this is not an easy passage.
01:03 But then which passage from Romans is easy? Although it was uh written as a
01:10 letter, it is really an exposition of fundamental Christian doctrines.
01:16 The language used here is largely legalistic and sometimes a bit hard to digest. But
01:23 nevertheless, a good understanding of Romans I think is beneficial to our faith.
01:30 As an overview, the first 18 verses of Romans 3 can be divided into three broad parts.
01:38 We will first look at the special status of the Jews which is really a continuation from uh chapter 2 17 to 20.
01:47 In Malaysian politics there is this Malay term katuan uh which means
01:53 supremacy. We will be talking about katuana yahoudi. The word the malay yahoudi means Jews uh
02:02 which comes from the Hebrew word Yehuda which means Judah. In the second part, we will touch on the similar situation
02:10 between Jews and Gentiles. Brother Ano already preached on this in
02:15 his sermon on the I think Romans 2 1-11
02:21 and where he described I remember how everyone is equal uh at the foot of the
02:26 cross. Lastly, we will discuss the sorry state of mankind
02:33 in the in John Kelvin's theology. This is sometimes known as total depravity but it is not something we want to go
02:39 into and this will be the outline of uh today's sermon. Shall we commit this
02:45 time to the lord in prayer?
02:52 Our father in heaven, open up these verses and open up our mind as we study
02:57 this passage from Romans so that our hearts will be open to you as we seek to
03:04 get closer to you. For this we ask in Jesus name. Amen.
03:10 More than a year ago uh I was sharing with you from Acts chapter 4. In that sermon, some of you may remember that I
03:17 talked about a trip that my wife and I made to Israel some time ago.
03:23 Well, I wish to uh relate an incident from that trip because it has something to do with our discussion this morning.
03:29 And this happened in Jerusalem. We were strolling along the beautiful Ben Yehuda
03:35 Street. Ben Yehuda means son of Judah. And it was a lovely shopping street.
03:42 Then we got hungry and it was around lunchtime and we spotted a nice Italian
03:48 restaurant nearby. Now I must point out to you that uh many
03:54 restaurants in Israel are designated as kosher. A kosher restaurant is the equivalent of
04:02 a halal restaurant here in Malaysia.
04:07 In this picture of a coffee bean outlet nearby, you can clearly see the kosher sign on the right. Without this sign, an
04:16 Orthodox or a relig religious Jew would never enter your restaurant. In fact,
04:22 not only a kosher sign on the outside, you should also display a kosher certificate somewhere inside.
04:29 This picture was taken in Tel Aviv. a kosher certificate issued by the chief
04:34 rabbi of the city. Anyway, back to the Italian restaurant.
04:40 This was also kosher. The kosher sign is hidden somewhere behind the banner, the
04:45 bunt thing on the right. We are okay with kosher because we are not all that crazy about pork. So, we sat down and I
04:53 ordered a plate of chicken spaghetti. When I took this picture, little did I
04:59 imagine that one day I'll be showing it in a sermon. Anyway,
05:04 since I hate cheese, I told the waiter not to sprinkle any cheese flakes on the
05:09 spaghetti. He reacted with surprise at my request,
05:15 almost stunned. And then he said with a puzzled look, "But sir, we are kosher."
05:24 Now, it took me a while to figure out what he was saying. What he was saying is this. We are a
05:30 kosher restaurant and we will never serve chicken together with cheese.
05:36 I had forgotten the Jewish food laws that prohibit eating meat with dairy
05:43 products. This is based on an Old Testament law in Exodus 23:1 19 repeated in Exodus 34:26
05:53 and also in Deuteronomy 14:21 which bans the cooking of mutton with
05:59 milk. This was later expanded by Judaism to
06:04 encompass a complete separation between meat and milk products.
06:10 If you learn anything from this, never offer a cheeseburger to a Jew.
06:18 During the trip, I learned a lot more about Jewish food laws. And most of them are based on Leviticus chapter 11 and
06:24 Deuteronomy chapter 14. Now, the reason why I relay this experience to you is to
06:30 tell you that when you travel in Israel, you cannot avoid the feeling that this is Bible land and much of what they do
06:37 is based on the Old Testament. Traveling in Israel is like walking through the Bible. Now, after lunch in
06:44 that Italian restaurant, we even visited a quaint museum, the Museum of Psalms,
06:52 where you can enjoy 150 large paintings, each one for each book of Psalms.
06:59 Even before we arrived, I was looking through the inflight magazine as the flight took off from Bangkok bound for
07:05 Tel Aviv. And and as I turned the front cover, there was this traveler's prayer
07:11 in the inflight magazine. And this is all all the Israeli airlines. May it be
07:17 thy will, Lord of heaven and earth, to lead us to peace and safety to fly us in peace and safety to our desired
07:23 destination to find life, joy, and peace, and so on and so forth. The last
07:29 two lines read, "The Lord bless thee, keep thee, the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto
07:35 thee. The Lord turn his face toward thee, and give thee peace." Now, if you
07:41 know your Bible well, the last two lines are taken from Numbers 6 24- 26, which
07:48 is sometimes read here in FBC when the pastor gives the benediction.
07:53 So you see when you travel in Israel you look if you look carefully you are often greeted by Bible verses.
08:01 When we were checking in into this hotel on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee
08:08 we were greeted by u this this poster with a quote from Deuteronomy 7 uh 8:7
08:15 for the Lord your God brings you into a good land. The next day we were at a svenia shop
08:22 and I chance upon this beautiful scarf on which were printed the seven
08:28 producers of the holy land. Now this is also taken from Deuteronomy uh chapter 8
08:34 verse 8. A land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive
08:41 oil and honey. Collectively this is known as the seven species. Notice that
08:47 there are seven. Even the national emblem of the state of Israel is based on the Bible. It shows a
08:55 seven branch lampstand known as the manora. Notice again the number seven
09:00 represented in the seven stems. This is based on Exodus 25
09:06 31-4 where over 10 verses God gave Moses
09:11 detailed instructions on how to make this lampstand. But we won't go into
09:16 this. Especially when you are in Jerusalem, you will see manora structures here and there. Now this is
09:24 at a roundabout near our hotel in Jerusalem. This is uh across from the road from the
09:32 Israeli Israeli parliament building. I took this picture in uh till avie the
09:40 balcony of an apartment building and you can notice the monora motive on the
09:46 metal railings. Now coming back to our passage for this morning
09:52 Paul begins by stressing the special status of the Jews. The unique position
09:58 of the Jews as I mentioned he begins with a question.
10:05 What advantage then is there being in being a Jew? And he answers it in verse
10:10 two, much in every way. And why are the Jews so special? Paul
10:16 then explains in the rest of verse two. Because the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. You see, the
10:24 Jews were God's chosen people. And it was to them that God first gave his laws
10:29 and precepts. No, not to any other nation, but to the Jews. They were the favored nation of
10:36 God to whom God entrusted his laws. Now, having seen what I saw in Israel, I
10:42 must say that I can appreciate 100% what Paul is trying to say here. The pictures
10:47 I showed you from Israel attest to the special status of the Jews, at least as
10:54 custodians of God's laws. Now, you may point out to me that is the Israelites are slowly but surely
10:60 becoming more secular, especially among the younger generation. This may be true, but Israel is still a nation
11:08 founded and grounded on the word of God. While the Americans are busy removing
11:13 the Ten Commandments from the court buildings, the Jews still subscribe to the laws of Moses.
11:21 Although they often do it to the extreme, to the point of being too legalistic and too external.
11:28 I shall address this in the next segment and we shall see how that relates to God's plan.
11:34 But as I mentioned earlier, Paul is reaffirming the special status of the Jews. And not just in these two verses
11:41 in Romans 3. He was already hinting this in chapter 2 17 to to 20.
11:51 He was talking about the Jews being a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark and hence the monora
11:59 in their national emblem, a an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children.
12:07 This is so true when you consider the fact that all the writers of the Old Testament books were Jews and most of
12:13 the New Testament books were written by Jews except for Luke and Acts.
12:20 On the more academic side of things, it is pretty amazing when you look at these verses and you see how the Jews have
12:27 been a light for the world, especially over the past 100 years. The evidence is
12:33 clear when just by looking at the list of Nobel Prize winners.
12:39 There are only about 13 to 15 million Jews around the world today. That is
12:44 only about a quarter of a percentage of the world's population, 0.25%.
12:52 And despite that of all the individual Nobel Prize winners, we are putting
12:57 aside the institutional winners. We're talking about the individual Nobel Prize winners from 1901 to 2005
13:05 and an astounding 22% or slightly more than a fifth of them
13:10 are Jewish scientists or scientists with Jewish roots. This slide shows you the
13:16 figures for each of the six Nobel Prize categories. If not for the Holocaust that killed
13:23 around 6 million Jews during World War II, these numbers would be even higher.
13:29 Not only in the sciences, but they also dominant in the arts. Of all the movie
13:34 directors who have worn the Oscars, 38% of them are Jews or have Jewish roots.
13:43 And this is the other feeling that you get when you travel to Israel that this is a nation that has enjoyed
13:50 much of God's favor and also God's protection. It is a beautiful country
13:55 blessed with prosperity. It is a people bubbling with confidence even though
14:01 they are surrounded by their enemies. We often read about how they are being threatened by the Iranians who are using
14:08 Hamas in Gaza and the Hezbollah in Lebanon to create trouble. Now some
14:14 people ask me if it is safe to travel in Israel. Well, it depends on what you mean by safe. This make you feel safer.
14:23 I took this picture somewhere in the old city in Jerusalem.
14:28 Now, having cast the Jews in such a positive light, we now turn 180° and
14:34 look at the darker side of things. While Paul is reaffirming the special status of the Jews, as we have just seen, he is
14:41 also quick to chastise them for breaking the very laws that they're supposed to uphold. We go back to chapter 2, and now
14:49 from verses 21 to 23, Paul provides a catalog of their sins. stealing,
14:56 committing adultery, robbing temples and so on. What is going on? These people
15:02 are supposed to be God's chosen people. People to whom God entrusted his laws.
15:10 What happened? Did God choose the wrong people?
15:16 From verse 25 until the end of verse until the end of chapter 2, Paul schos
15:21 the Jews and calls them lawbreakers. In verse 25, he reminds them that their
15:27 special status has no value if they keep breaking the law. In verse 28, he
15:32 rebukes them, telling them that special status is not supposed to be only external.
15:39 It is supposed to start from the inside, from their heart. From chapter 2, verse 29. No point in telling others, "Oh, we
15:47 have God's laws." But you break them without hesitation. No point looking
15:52 good on the outside when it is rotten inside. Let this also be a warning to us this
15:60 morning that our status as God's children, as God's redeemed people
16:06 should come from the inside. Our worship,
16:11 our prayers, our offerings, our ministries, they are all external
16:16 expressions of an internal transformation.
16:22 No point in bringing our songs, our money, our energies to serve God if we
16:27 continue to live a life of sin. And this is why Jesus warns us in Matthew 7 21-23,
16:37 not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
16:42 only the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, do we not
16:50 prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many many miracles. Then I will
16:56 say to them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.
17:03 And coming back to the sins of the Jews, indeed if you're familiar with the various Old Testament accounts, if you
17:09 know the history of the Israelites, it is stained with rebellion after rebellion against God. Actually,
17:17 Paul's list in Acts chapter 2 21-23 is just the tip of the iceberg. If Paul
17:24 were to catalog the sins of the Jews throughout the history, it will stretch many many pages.
17:31 The Old Testament doesn't attempt to hide the repeated cycle of the
17:36 faithfulness of God followed by the rebellion of his people. In each cycle,
17:42 God's faithfulness is met with disobedience, ingratitude, and evil.
17:48 For example, when God rescued the Israelites from bondage to slavery in Egypt, they responded with complaints,
17:55 and they even made a golden calf to worship. After God eventually led them
18:01 into the promised land, they soon turned to idols. If you read the book of Judges, you will see that when the
18:08 Israelites turn to idols, God would send judgment by allowing their enemies to defeat them. Then they will turn back to
18:15 God and will be victorious again. And again, they will turn to the idols. And
18:22 this pattern will be repeated over and over again in their conquest of Canaan.
18:27 Eventually, God in his faithfulness caused the Israelites to defeat the Canaanites and establish for them a
18:35 kingdom. And this happened around 1,000 BC. And it was the golden age of the
18:40 Israelites. The apex of this period was the reign of King David. And I took this
18:46 picture inside the old city in Jerusalem. King David was God's favored one, the anointed one. He was described
18:54 as a man after God's own heart. But even David eventually fell when he
18:59 committed adultery and murder. He was succeeded by King Solomon who
19:05 started well but also ended poorly. After that the nation of Israel
19:11 went into rapid decline. Now Paul is well aware of all this as he
19:16 writes these chapters. He's well trained in the word of God and he has the history of the Israelites at his
19:22 fingertips, especially their failures. As he presents his exposition of God's
19:28 plan, he's aware of a counterargument arising from the sins of the Jews.
19:33 Actually, Paul offers two counterarguments in our passage this morning. One is in chapter 3:es 3 and 4
19:40 and the other in verses 5 to8. Let us first examine counterargument number
19:46 one, which is does Israel's unfaithfulness nullify God's
19:53 faithfulness? Verses 3 to 4.
19:58 Is God's faithfulness in vain given the Israelites repeated rebellion?
20:05 Paul asks in verse three, "What if some were unfaithful? Will the unfaithful nullify God's faithfulness? And he
20:13 proceeds to answer in verse four, not at all. Let God be true and every human
20:21 being a liar. Paul is fond of fond of asking a hypothetical question and then answering
20:27 with an emphatic not at all or certainly not. And he does that seven times in the
20:33 book of Romans. Notice again the number seven. And in chapter three alone, he does it four times. Often when he does
20:40 that, not at all or certainly not, he doesn't really answer the question. And
20:45 let me rephrase the question here. Did God's faithfulness come to nothing when
20:51 his people kept turning away from him? Or how is it possible that that God an
20:59 all knowing God would do something in vain? Paul merely says, "Not at all. Let
21:05 God be true and every human being a liar." But that is not answering the question. Is it because he thinks it is
21:12 unnecessary to give the answer or because he thinks the readers should know the answer already? Actually the
21:19 fact is Paul did give an answer but much later eight chapters later in Romans 11
21:27 and it is an elaborate answer spanning the entire chapter 11 but I don't wish
21:33 to touch too much on that because Romans 11 will be preached sometime in August and I don't wish to spoil it for the for
21:39 the preacher but I can give you a glimpse of the answer so that you don't have to wait until August.
21:45 Interestingly, there is a short passage in Acts 13 where Paul gave a short
21:51 answer to this question. Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness?
21:58 In Acts 13, there is an incident where Paul was preaching the gospel to a mixed
22:03 crowd of Jews and Gentiles in a city called Antioch. Not the Antioch where his home church was located, but another
22:10 Antioch in the middle of modern Turkey. Towards the end of the of that chapter
22:17 13, we find that the Jews hardened their hearts and they rejected the gospel. And this is what Paul and Barnabas said to
22:24 the Jews from Acts 13 46 to 48. We had to speak the word of
22:32 God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourself worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the
22:38 Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us. I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring
22:45 salvation to the ends of the earth. When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord. And
22:52 all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
22:57 Now, what this means is that with the Jews turning their back on God, it sets
23:02 the stage for the extension and the expansion of the gospel to the Gentiles,
23:08 which is well documented throughout the book of Acts. It led to the establishment of the church to which you
23:15 and I belong today. So was God's faithfulness nullified?
23:21 As a matter of fact, we see God's faithfulness multiplied many times over
23:26 as the Gentiles embrace the gospel in huge numbers over the centuries, including you and I today in this hall.
23:35 But what about God's faithfulness to the Jews? In Romans 11, Paul prophesies that when
23:41 the full numbers of Gentiles has come in, all of Israel will be saved. So in
23:48 the fullness of time, God's faithfulness to the Jews will be evident and they will turn to the saving grace of Jesus.
23:55 But like I said, I do not wish to elaborate on this and I shall leave it to the preacher for Romans 11. And but
24:02 nevertheless, I would like to say this that I don't accept the view that the church has replaced Israel in God's
24:08 eternal plan. That Israel is no longer relevant. Well, it is correct to say
24:14 that we are the spiritual Israel, but based on Romans 11, God is not done with
24:20 his chosen people. His faithfulness to the Jews will be manifested soon. And
24:26 the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 clearly point to that direction to
24:31 the direction of the salvation of the Jews which also suggests that we are
24:37 undoubtedly living in the end times. Before I move on to counterargument
24:42 number two, I said there are two counterarguments in this passage. Before we leave counterargument number one, I
24:48 wish to digress a little and discuss an important biblical principle so that we can take home a useful point of
24:55 application and that is God will remain faithful
25:00 despite our unfaithfulness. God's faithfulness will prevail in spite
25:08 of of our sins and failures. It will never be nullified. As a matter of fact, not only does our
25:15 unfaithfulness not nullify God's faithfulness, it often sets the stage
25:20 for the further unfolding of God's perfect plan. I hesitate to say that our un our
25:27 failures are a part of God's plan. You may misunderstand me and think that God actively plans for us to fail.
25:36 Perhaps it is more accurate to say that God works around our failures. But that
25:41 is also not right because it implies that God sidesteps our failures. Maybe it's best to say that God factors in our
25:50 failures in his perfect plan. Whatever the choice of words, the biblical
25:55 principle I'm driving at is this. God will remain faithful in spite of our
26:01 unfaithfulness. Because God is not capable of going against his promises. Psalms 117:2 says,
26:10 "For great is his love toward us. The the faithfulness of the Lord endures
26:15 forever." I would even go on to say that God will remain faithful to us even when we face
26:22 misfortunes and tragedies that we not we may not be able to understand. Just as
26:28 Paul asks, "Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness?" We can also
26:33 ask would our misfortunes nullify God's unfaith God's faithfulness.
26:40 The answer is certainly not to borrow a phrase the phrase from Paul.
26:46 Sometimes God does seem very far away when we have to deal with a difficult or
26:52 painful episode in our life. the death of a loved one, a severe ill,
27:00 a disastrous business failure for example, the breakdown of a relationship
27:05 that we treasure etc etc. Are you going through a difficult or painful period in
27:12 your life? Does God seem far away?
27:17 Whatever our our trials, whatever our tears, we can be comforted in the fact
27:22 that God will remain faithful over time as we saw how he has and will remain
27:29 faithful in Acts 13 and Romans 11. The faithfulness of the Lord endures
27:35 forever. Just the other day, a friend was sharing with me this interesting quotation. He
27:42 said, "It will be all right at the end. If it is not all right, then it is not
27:47 the end. If you understand what that means, we have to move on to counterargument
27:54 number two in verses 5 to8. Here Paul asks an an
28:00 amazing question. But what but if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteous righteousness more clearly,
28:08 what shall we say? Also, if my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so
28:13 increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?
28:19 To put it in normal language, it means God, you shouldn't be so hard on me. My
28:26 being bad actually makes you look good. So what? So you should not condemn me.
28:31 Once again, Paul answers with an emphatic certainly not. And once again, he doesn't explain why. But this time
28:38 perhaps no explanation is needed because the argument if you think about it is really quite silly. The argument that
28:45 our unrighteousness is justified because it brings out the glory of God's righteousness more clearly.
28:52 Let me explain by way of an analogy. Let us say there is a robber who got
28:57 caught by the police after he has just robbed a convenience store. Imagine him
29:02 telling the policeman, "Hey officer, you know, you should really just let me go. It is because of people like me that you
29:09 have a job. If you get rid of all of us, there will be no need for the police department.
29:15 So, you should just release me for your own sake. Do you think that the policeman will buy this argument?
29:21 And so, I will not dwell too much on this counter argument number two. By the time Paul finished these two
29:27 arguments on the faithfulness and the unrighteous unrighteousness of the Jews,
29:33 he's ready to sum to wrap up to sum up uh the second part of this passage.
29:40 The first part, if you remember, took us through the special status of the Jews. In the second part, Paul listed the sins
29:48 of the Jews as we have seen and his conclusion was the similar situation between Jews and Gentiles.
29:57 He says in uh verse 9, what then uh what shall we conclude then? Do we have any
30:03 advantage? We meaning the Jews, do we have any advantage? Not at all. For we already have for we have already made
30:10 the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. Remember
30:15 what Arnold say? All are equally sinful at the foot of the cross.
30:20 At the foot of the cross, Jews and Gentiles, they all come as wretched sinners before God.
30:27 Since brother Arnold already explained this at length in his sermon, I don't wish to repeat the point, but allow me
30:33 to just illustrate this point with one last picture from Israel before we move
30:38 on to the third and last part. I took this picture somewhere in Tel
30:45 Aviv near the seafront. From where I was standing to the left is the beautiful
30:51 Mediterranean Sea. But what do you see in this picture? Isn't this the familiar look a familiar
30:58 looking car? Well, this is none other than our ever popular MV.
31:05 But if you look carefully, it is called Sirion,
31:10 which is a name taken from Deuteronomy 3:9 and Psalms 29:6.
31:17 And it means a Hebrew word that means breastplate or a body armor. As I said
31:22 earlier, traveling in Israel is like walking through the Bible. Anyway, they can call it Sirion and by
31:28 any other name, but when I saw this, I said to Lean, "Look, they also have my in Israel.
31:36 What is the point I'm trying to make? Now, this is my wife's MV.
31:45 Well, you may say that ours is a gentile MV.
31:50 And when you put it side by side with a Jewish MV or a kosher MV for that
31:56 matter, what is the difference? They are both designed by the Japanese.
32:02 I must admit this is a silly way of illustrating how Jews and Gentiles are equally sinful before God.
32:10 Anyway, as we conclude this second part of the passage, you will soon see that it paves the way for Paul to present the
32:18 third and the final part, which is the sorry state of mankind.
32:26 What we have here is a depressing really depressing group of nine verses.
32:32 Half of today's passage that that describe how depraved, how
32:38 evil men have become. Paul is using really extreme language
32:44 here which makes this part a bit hard to digest. Just the first three verses, verses 10
32:50 to 12, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who
32:56 understands. There is no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have
33:01 together become worthless. There is no one who does good. Not even one.
33:08 And in the next few verses he uses the metaphors of a open grave and the poison
33:13 of vipers to drive home his point. And then he goes on to list uh these various
33:20 body parts, throats, uh tongues and lips and mouth, feet and eyes as if to imply
33:28 that our entire being is utterly corrupted.
33:33 What is Paul trying to say here? He puts together this portion of chapter
33:39 3 by quoting from the Old Testament. He knows his scripture well because he's well trained in the in in the Old
33:45 Testament. And he selects at least eight verses or phrases from the Old Testament, mostly from Psalms and one
33:51 from Isaiah, and weaves together this indictment of mankind. For example, in
33:58 verse 13, their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit. This is taken from Psalms 5:9.
34:07 Now when I said that this part of Romans 3 is a bit hard to digest, it is not as if we don't understand its meaning.
34:14 Rather it is more of finding it difficult how these verses uh difficult to
34:21 understand how these verses can be applied to us. We can console ourselves and say that maybe Paul is not referring
34:28 to us. Perhaps Paul is talking about the Jews. But I'm sorry to have to disappoint you
34:35 because just a few verses later in verses 23 and 22 and 23 Paul writes
34:41 there is no difference between Jew and Gentile for all have sinned and fall
34:46 short of the glory of God which is really a repeat of verse 9.
34:52 So it is clear that when Paul mentions all or they uh in these verses I fail to
34:60 show you uh that passage the n the nine depressing verses when Paul talks about
35:06 all or they in these verses he's really talking about all of us
35:13 but if you show these nine depressing verses to an average Christian he's not going to agree that these verses refer
35:20 to H he's not going to identify himself with the all or they here. Similarly, if you
35:28 show these verses to a non-Christian who is a decent fellow, he's also going to
35:33 think likewise. I mean, we cannot be all that bad, can we? We give to charity,
35:41 we help the needy, we are nice people, we don't commit murder, etc., etc. Hey,
35:48 we do have a lot of good in us. But if you look at the tone of these verses, it
35:53 is bad, bad, bad all the way. So, how do we make sense of these verses? How can
35:60 we take home some applications from this? Now, let me show you, let me share with
36:06 you an experience when I was a young man that might shed some light on this.
36:11 This is from the 80s. Throughout my primary and and secondary education,
36:18 I was I'm proud to say I was the pride of family. Each time I brought home my
36:23 report card to show my parents my position in class would be first or second or sometimes third. Once and only
36:30 once I was placed fourth and I cried and cried. I felt I was such a failure. And this
36:37 thing about finishing top of the class is still very much in me. Although subconsciously each time my children
36:44 come home and tell me the marks they got for the various subjects in the exam I would say so what but what is the
36:50 position in class these children today you must not let them outsmart you know they'll come and
36:56 tell you their marks and they also tell you the marks of their friends who score lower never those higher
37:02 and Jeremy will come and say daddy I got 75 for for history but so and so got 65
37:09 and so and so got 58 you Now this I said very simple don't talk
37:15 so much what is the position in class anyway I did well in my SPM SPM exam as
37:21 expected and those day was called the MCE Malaysian uh certificate of education exam I was also very active in
37:28 a few school clubs and armed with these credentials in 1978 I applied for the
37:34 scholarship at the Japanese embassy here in KL at that time the Japanese
37:39 government was selected ing and sending between five to 10 students from Malaysia each year to pursue their
37:45 tertiary education in Japan and they were also sending from Thailand as well. I think there were many uh applicants
37:55 but praise the lord I was one of the 10 selected many applicants because it was a very
38:01 attractive scholarship apart from free tuition subsidized accommodation it
38:07 included an allowance of at today's exchange rate of about 4,000 ringit a
38:12 month we are talking about the late '7s that was a lot of money for a young man
38:18 and so on 2nd of April April 1979, I arrived in Tokyo.
38:24 A confident young man representing the cream of the Malaysian students.
38:32 I spent a year in intensive Japanese language course. Before I arrived, I
38:37 knew a few words. Toyota, Yamaha, Honda.
38:44 But by the time I finished this one-year course in Japanese, I could more or less follow a lecture in Japanese. And after
38:51 one year of language, I got a place in Osaka University, one of the top universities in Japan.
38:58 And that was when the bubble burst. I was the only foreign student in my
39:04 electrical engineering class of 45. And who were my classmates? All Japanese.
39:10 But they were the top students from high schools all over Japan. By the time I returned home in March
39:17 1984, I was a very humble young man.
39:23 Of course, I graduated, but nowhere near the top of the class. It was a five-year
39:28 lesson in humility. I thought I was so good, but my Japanese
39:34 classmates were far better. Partly it was because of my language handicap. But
39:39 I don't wish to offer any excuses. Perhaps we can better understand these
39:44 verses from a similar perspective. The nine depressing verses. I think the key here
39:52 is this thing we call frame of reference. What is the frame of reference? Who or what are you comparing
40:01 with? When I was stopping my class, it was in an unknown school in a small little town
40:08 in Johor. We have a Malay term for this Jago Kong, the village champion.
40:16 But when the frame of reference changed to one of the top universities in Japan, it was a completely different picture.
40:25 Similarly, if we compare ourselves to robbers and to murderers, of course, we
40:31 will be like saints. We may even see hellos above our heads.
40:37 But here the frame of reference is not to compare with those worse than us. The
40:45 frame of reference here is the Christ, holy God. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty whose
40:54 righteousness reaches to the heavens says the psalmist.
40:59 Let me offer you a few verses from the book of Isaiah so that we can correctly take in these nine depressing verses
41:07 from Romans 3. Take in the way Paul intended.
41:13 It is not Paul's intention to run us down nor to belittle us. His intention
41:19 is to prepare our mind to put us in the right frame of reference so to say
41:25 before he proceeds to expound his next point in Romans 4 which is our salvation
41:33 by the grace of God through faith and that will be preached I think two weeks from now.
41:39 The right frame of reference when it comes to righteousness is well put by the prophet Isaiah
41:46 when measured against God's righteousness. Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 64:6,
41:53 "All our righteous acts are like filthy rags. We all sh up like a leaf and like
41:59 the wind our sins strip us away." I think we are familiar at least with
42:05 the first part of the verse. And Isaiah knew what he was talking about because earlier on in Isaiah
42:13 chapter 6, the prophet had an encounter with God in a vision. He found himself in God's holy
42:20 presence before his awesome throne. And Isaiah's reaction was one of panic and
42:27 desperation. He thought he was going to die because of his sins. And this is what happened to him in Isaiah 6:5. Woe
42:35 to me. I'm I cried, I'm ruined, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among
42:42 a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.
42:49 In this third and last part of our passage this morning, Paul is talking
42:55 about the sorry state of mankind. You have two choices. You can choose to
43:00 say, "Oh, this doesn't apply to me." Or you can choose to say like Isaiah,
43:06 "Woe to me, I'm ruined for I'm a man of unclean lips."
43:13 Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have come to the end of the sermon. After 40 minutes of explanations, my
43:21 main message to you is this. We need to humble ourselves. We need to
43:27 come before the Christ holy God in full humility
43:32 so that we can taste the full measure of his grace.
43:37 And how do we know a Christian has tasted the full measure of God's grace? It's very simple. A Christian who has
43:43 tasted the full measure of God's grace will dispense grace and will not be so
43:49 judgmental. And we when when we have tasted the full measure of his grace, we
43:54 can then enjoy the full power of his transformational work in us.
44:01 Why is it that some of us do not or cannot enjoy the abundant life that Jesus promised us? It is because we
44:08 think that we have a lot of good in us. While we acknowledge that we are sinners
44:13 and our that our sins condemn us and hence we accepted Jesus as our savior. But at the same time, we think that we
44:19 are already good and perhaps God can make us better. I'm sorry to have to
44:24 burst your bubble and to tell you that God cannot work in us if there is any
44:31 hint of selfrighteousness, self-praise or self-sufficiency.
44:38 The Jews thought that they were very good. They were proud that they were God's chosen people, custodians of God's
44:45 laws. But they forget that at the foot of the cross they are no different from the
44:50 lowest of criminals which is the thrust of Romans 3:es 1-18. Our passage this
44:57 morning before God's throne of grace we are also no different all of us each of
45:04 us from the most despicable sinners described in this passage.
45:09 The Lord takes delight when his children come to him in full humility
45:16 in brokenness. I shall close with one more verse from Isaiah from Isaiah 66:2.
45:25 Has not my hand made all this? And so they came into being, declares the Lord.
45:32 These are the ones I look on with favor. Who are they? those who are humble and
45:38 contrite in spirit and who tremble at my word. Shall we pray?
45:49 Our Father in heaven, cause us to tremble before you.
45:56 Cause us to strip away our pride when we come before you.
46:02 and to come before you with a humble heart and a contrite spirit.
46:07 We recall the words of our Lord Jesus that blessed are the poor in spirit for
46:12 theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We ask this so that we can enjoy the full measure of your grace
46:20 so that the power of Jesus' blood can have its full impact on us and so that
46:25 the Holy Spirit can fully transform us. For we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
