Paul Presents the Truth about God’s Judgment Part 2
Romans
3:5-8 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what
shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly
not! For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God has
increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And
why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”? --- as we are
slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is
just. NKJV
As we have said several times, the Apostle Paul
before his conversion was a proud and obedient Pharisee serving faithfully and
with much zeal in the Jewish ruling and Governing body the Sanhedrin. His name
during those days was Saul and he was from Tarsus. When our Lord Jesus Christ
knocked him off his horse on the way to Damascus, everything Saul believed,
relied on, and trusted to be true was overturned by the truth and reality that
Jesus Christ (whom he and all of the other Pharisee Jews persecuted) was
exactly who the followers of the way said He was
and that is God. Saul’s name was changed by our Lord Jesus shortly afterward to
Paul because everything that made Saul who he was died that day on the road.
Paul immediately began to turn completely away from the teachings of all the
Jewish Rabbis and denounced them as false and mere dead rituals that were
totally void of God’s life. Here is what the Scripture said that Saul did after
his encounter with the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 9:19-20 “Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.
Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of
God.” NKJV
The other believers in our Lord Jesus Christ
questioned the sincerity of this man initially because of his past record and
they said, Acts 9:21 “Is this not he who
destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for
that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?” NKJV
They were astonished to the point of initially refusing to believe Saul’s
conversion was true. However, the Scripture says, Acts 9:22 “But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded
the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.”
NKJV Saul then now known as Paul knew the truth about God finally for the
first time in his life and was compelled to tell as many Jews as he could
knowing they were under the same spiritual blindness as he was earlier. Paul
now knew that the greatest percentage of the Jewish people were completely
unrighteous before God because they did not understand the Old Testament
account of the Messiahs first coming to them, so they rejected Jesus Christ as
the Messiah just as Paul had done. Paul’s conversion to Christ so infuriated
the Jews they tried to kill him only days after he was born again. Our Lord
Jesus protected him because He had all of these Books of the Bible that He
would use Paul to write. This was not the last time they sought to kill Paul,
there would be several other attempts on his life.
Most of the Jews were in unbelief and it was their
unbelief that made them unrighteous before God. This is the reality for Jews
and Gentiles alike. Our Lord said that the purpose of the Holy Spirit being
sent after His death, resurrection from the dead, and ascension back to heaven was
to convict and convince sinful people of their unbelief in Him (John 16:8-11). The Jews did not want to
accept that they were considered by God to be unrighteous before Him despite
all of their religious rites, rituals, and rules they practiced, kept, and
observed all with the purpose of being pleasing to God. It is the undeniable
truth of Jewish and Gentile man’s inability to do that which is right when held
up to the Ten Commandments that makes God’s Nature and Attributes of being Holy
so many light years set apart from humanity and shines the spot light on Him
alone leaving us in the darkness of impurity and uncleanness. Neither the Jew
nor any Gentile can come into the Presence of such Purity, Holiness, and Cleanness
bringing any perceived righteousness or goodness of their own which falls
woefully short of absolute and complete spotless perfection in word, thought,
and deed. No human being ever born Jew or Gentile has such a life record. The sad
reality is there are many people who truly believe they have something of
honorable or noble character or quality in themselves to offer to God. I heard
Dr. Adrian Rogers make this statement, “The
worst form of badness is human goodness when it is substituted for the new
birth.”
Dr. Rogers is saying worse than the most violent
crimes we witness on our nightly local and national news is some Jew or Gentile
exalting their human goodness instead of or over being born again (John 3:3 & John 3:5). Paul states that he speaks as a man
acknowledging his still inadequate view and understanding of all that God is
and does even though he has been born again. Even the regenerate heart/inner
man is grossly and so woefully inadequate to search out and find and understand
all of the Divine Will and Purposes of God. Do not listen to any man or woman
who ever boast to have unraveled all of the Divine Mysteries of God and
understand His Word with complete accuracy. Yes we are to study to show
ourselves approved, but that will never bring us into complete knowledge of God
but we will grow in His grace and knowledge still never ever reaching complete
understanding. No man not Spurgeon, Edwards, Luther, Calvin, or even the
Apostle Paul can boast of having complete understanding of God. This is why
Paul said, “I speak as a man.”
The reality of the Jew and Gentile being so
faithless shows the dire need we all have and must see for our own selves as
having need to be united with Jesus Christ. This is why our Lord Jesus so
lovingly but bluntly said to one of the most religious of all the Jews
Nicodemus, John 3:7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.’”
NKJV Nicodemus and Paul were both Pharisees in the Sanhedrin and
they were sure absolutely certain they were right with God and going to heaven
until each one of them had their own personal encounter with Jesus Christ. This
is the truth that must manifest itself with every person individually in order
for them to be delivered from God’s Wrath to come that He will pour out on this
earth in flaming fire taking vengeance on all those who do
not know Him and did not obey (from the heart) the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. If a good human judge who is born sinful and unrighteous judges rightly
when the facts and evidence of a person’s guilt is placed before him, how much
much more will not the Judge of all the earth do right (Genesis 18:25). God is going to judge this world in righteousness
by that Man (Jesus Christ Only) whom He has ordained (Psalms 9:8 & Psalms 96:10 & Psalms 96:13 & Psalms 98:9
& Acts 17:31). Paul here once again uses his most trusted phrase of “God
Forbid” or let it never be that God would ever be accounted unjust in His
dispensing punishment on unbelieving Jews or will He be considered to have
broken His Covenant with Abraham if the unbelieving Jew is condemned to hell.
God never promised Abraham that unfaithful, unbelieving, and unrighteous Jews
would be spared or delivered from His Wrath. It is clearly without confusion
seen by the way Abraham was brought into the Covenant with God and counted
righteous solely based on Abrahams believing God (Genesis 15:6). After Abraham believed God then God told him to
bring the animals to sacrifice and God and Abraham entered into Covenant with
each other.
Paul is now becoming personal with his words because
he had been accused by some in the Corinthian church of being a False Apostle
and the Jews everywhere wanted him killed because they said he taught against
the Law of Moses (Acts 21:21). Paul
had been accused of teaching contrary to the truth of God by the Jews. Paul was
warned by a certain prophet named Agabus from
Judea as he and others were in Tyre by saying, Acts 21:11 “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem
bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the
Gentiles.’” NKJV Paul went anyway and the Jews formed a mob and drug him
out of the city with designs to kill him, but again our Lord Jesus intervened
and preserved his life (Acts 21:30-32).
All those submitted to God’s will as revealed in His Word are at all times
under His Sovereign Protection until He finishes accomplishing His Will through
them. Jeremiah was such a man, even though he said thus says the Lord for 40
years and none of the Jews listened to the Word of the Lord that came to him.
The people dragged him behind horses through the city streets and dropped him
into an abandoned well to rot and die, but out of all our Lord Jesus delivered
him until His Eternal Purposes were accomplished through him just as with the
Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 3:11-12).
Paul had not abandoned the Law of God but he only
now used the Law of God lawfully applying it to the sinful hearts of Jews and
Gentiles both so that he could then tell them of the Amazing Grace of God that
could free them from their bondage to sin and make them sons of living God (1 Timothy 1:8-11 & Ephesians 2:1-10).
Paul was erroneously being slandered throughout all the land as a man who no
longer obeyed the Law of God but lived by grace and in so doing the Jews
accused him of being a blaspheming hypocrite who lived licentiously and
immorally putting aside God’s Law for this grace he so frequently spoke of to
all people. Nothing could have been further from the truth for the unregenerate
Jews did not understand God’s grace for if they were partakers of His grace
they would have known that the grace of God is the source by which men and
women in Christ are enabled and empowered to live this new life in Christ with
the ability for the first time to keep or obey God’s Righteous and Moral Law
from a heart filled with love and gratitude for our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul
immediately affirms the just damnation to any man or woman who lives under such
a false grace and so teaches others to do likewise. Paul is declaring that this
sort of belief and living has nothing to do with the true Grace of God that
teaches men and women to live godly in this present world (Titus 2:11-15).
1
Peter 3:13-17 And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of
what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are
blessed. “And do not be afraid of their
threats, nor be troubled.” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts,
and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a
reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good
conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good
conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of
God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. NKJV
“How pitiful that his mind was overruled by his
emotion; his reasoning, overcome by his affection. Why is it that men ‘did not
believe the truth?’ Because they ‘had pleasure in unrighteousness’ (2
Thessalonians 2:12). It is not that the truth is unreasonable but that it
is not loved. Hence when one truly turns to the Lord he ‘believes with his
heart (not mind) and so is justified’ (Romans
10:10).” Watchman Nee
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...Sincerely in Christ,
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
No comments:
Post a Comment