Scripture: Romans 3:1-9
Let me begin by welcoming everyone again. I am so thankful for each of you. I also always want to welcome all of our listeners online this evening, especially our friends at Faith Assembly and all around the world. I know we are praying especially for our friends across Canada and in Norway. There are many people who are in the process of taking some very difficult steps, but they can’t turn away from what they have seen.
I appreciate all the different ones that have reached out over the past week. We are praying for you all, and we know God has everything in His hands. I am so thankful for the wonderful results we are seeing. God certainly knows how to get people’s attention and hold it. And let me just encourage all of our listeners that God will protect you when you do the right thing. Don’t be afraid of the truth.
So getting to the message this evening, I am picking up in the book of Romans, chapter 3, where I left off last time. If you would like, you can turn there with me and I will read from verses one down to verse 9. When I started in the book of Romans, this is one of the passages of scripture I had in mind, which made me feel led to preach through this book. I am a little pleased to be finally getting to this passage. I am using the English Standard Version again because it makes this passage a bit easier to understand. Let me read it, starting at verse 1.
Romans 3 (English Standard Version)
- 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 their faithlessness 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 on us? (I speak in a human way.)
- By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
- But if through my lie 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. Their condemnation is just.
- What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.
Let us Pray
Heavenly Father,
We come to You in the name of Jesus Christ, asking that You help us to understand what is written in the Bible. You told us what is recorded here is for our profit and benefit. It is all good, and none should be refused. Lord, when we look at Your word, we don’t seek to twist it to fit ourselves. But Lord, we seek to understand it and obey it. And Lord, we don’t refuse what is written in the scripture. And here, Lord, we are seeking understanding, and we approach the scripture humbly, asking Lord that You open our understanding and that we might glean strength from every passage. We ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Well, I feel like this is going to be a fairly short message, but I want to spend some time looking just at these verses I’ve read this evening. Like many parts of the Bible, I don’t think I have ever in my life heard the preachers in the places we come from actually minister from this part of the Bible. So to us, this may seem like a very obscure passage.
Verse 4 there is a verse I have heard a lot of people quote in passing or use out of context quite a bit. But the rest of these verses, I don’t think I have ever heard a preacher utter these verses from a platform ever—not in the places we come from. And the majority of the Bible, it is that way. They have never preached it, they have never studied it, they had utterly neglected it. And sadly, that is why so many of them are in the condition they are in today.
What is so wonderful about being right is that time is on your side. Time will only further serve to prove what is right. And when the day is done, and we go to reap our reward, I can say with total confidence that those of us who have decided to follow Jesus are going to hear Jesus tell us, “Well done.” We are going to enter into the joy of the Lord, and we will have nothing to be ashamed of on that day because we have embraced our Savior. We have lifted Him up, and we have put our full faith and confidence in Him. And I thank the Lord for the opportunity to take another look into the Scripture tonight.
I want to seek to understand why Paul wrote these verses, and then there are some specific applications from these verses which we can apply to ourselves in the present circumstances we find ourselves in.
It is a very interesting passage of Scripture that I have read here. These are verses that have spoken very strongly to me in days gone by, and there are a few things I think we can draw from these verses that will be helpful for us.
Now let me dive into these verses that Paul wrote. And as we start to analyze them, let me just remind us of the context. Let’s recall what Paul has said in this book of Romans up to this point. Paul has been making a lot of different points, and all these different points he has made so far, by the time we get to the end of chapter 3, Paul is going to add all these points up and make his main point: that we need a Savior.
So let’s think back to all these smaller points he has made so far. In the book of Romans, Paul is telling us about the gospel. He’s telling us why we need it, what it is, and how it works. And we’re still in the “why we need it” section of Paul’s explanation. In this section, Paul has explained that there is a God and how we can know it. He explained how man fell away from God, and sin came into the world. He explained how all mankind knows the difference between right and wrong. And because we all know the difference between right and wrong, Paul concluded that God is justified in judging us for the wrong that we do.
He elaborated on that by explaining how the Gentiles know right and wrong—it’s by their conscience. And the Jews have even more than just their conscience; the Jews know the difference in right and wrong because they have God’s own word in the Bible. So since everyone knows the difference in right and wrong but still does wrong, Paul concluded that everyone, Jew or Gentile, is a lawbreaker and a sinner bound for judgment. Everyone has sinned and fallen short, and without a Savior, everyone is doomed.
By the time we get to the end of this third chapter, Paul is going to begin telling us exactly what the Good News of the gospel is. But here at the start of chapter 3, Paul is wrapping up his explanation of why we need the gospel, why we need a Savior. And as he wraps up his explanation, Paul is anticipating arguments or disagreements some people are going to have with some of the things he has said so far.
No doubt he anticipates these objections because he has already encountered other people who made these exact same objections. He seems to indicate in verse 8 that people had already made accusations and asked these kinds of questions in the past. So Paul has experience with the Jewish people and the Gentile people. He knows the arguments of his scoffers, and he is offering answers to the questions he thinks they may ask. That is what we have read in these first 9 verses of chapter 3—it is Paul’s answer to the scoffers of his day.
And as we read through here, I will try to go through these questions or these scoffs one at a time and point out the questions Paul is answering.
Dealing with Scoffers
But before I do that, let me first point out that these verses as a whole demonstrate to us how Paul dealt with people who had critical questions. The Bible is full of people who ask critical questions. We find it all throughout Jesus’s ministry too. And by critical questions, I mean questions which probe into the very basis of something. We see Jesus faced critical questions both from outsiders and from his own disciples.
His disciples, one time, asked him why he spoke in parables rather than just speaking plainly. And Jesus had an answer; he took them to the Bible and showed them why. If you notice that, Jesus always had a biblical answer to the questions he was asked. Jesus was asked a lot of questions, and never once, I challenge you to go look and see, did Jesus say, “because I said so.” You know, with our children, sometimes they ask why, and our answer will be, “because I said so.” But Jesus never answered anyone like that. He always was able to go to Scripture and give a biblical answer, no matter who was asking the question.
Sometimes we see that both the scoffers and His own disciples ask the same question. The difference between a scoffing question and a genuine question is really the motive in the heart of the person asking the question. If we’re asking because we want to understand, that is a positive thing. But if we are asking questions just because we like to argue and disagree, then Jesus really had less to say to people like that. But the thing is, Jesus still answered their questions. Even the scoffers, even the ones asking critical questions to try and trip Him up, there was still an answer.
You could not win an argument with Jesus because the facts, the truth, the evidence, and the Bible were on His side. And if the facts, the truth, and the evidence in the Bible are on your side, you really need to have no fear of answering a question. But when the truth and the facts and the evidence in the Bible are not on your side, that’s most often when we find people are afraid to answer questions. I like how the Bible lays out a pattern for how Jesus Christ and the apostles approach people who ask questions, even scoffing questions.
Maybe we can compare this to the places that we come from. Where we come from, people who have questions are attacked, destroyed, lied about; they have their character assassinated, and every injurious thing possible is done to shut them up and silence them. They do them what the Jews did to Stephen, just like Bro Jesse preached about this morning. The goal is not to answer the question; the goal is to silence the person asking the question. No attempt is ever made to answer their questions. They deny the question is legitimate and proceed to destroy the one asking it. They are summarily dispatched and destroyed. And it is the devil who operates that way. Make no mistake about it.
But that is not how Paul deals with people who ask questions, even the scoffers. It’s not how Jesus dealt with people who ask questions, even the scoffers. The way people deal with questions in the places we come from is incredibly un-Christlike. In fact, we could say the way they deal with questions is actually quite sinful and reveals how very far away they are from achieving the stature of Christ. Wicked preachers and wicked men may be afraid of your questions and respond to them in a very un-Christlike way. But Jesus Christ is not afraid of your questions.
And if a man is afraid of your questions and is unwilling or unable to open his Bible or present the facts and evidence to verify what they want you to believe, then that is an un-Christlike person. You have no obligation to follow someone who is un-Christlike. Jesus is not afraid of your questions. Questions are not unbelief; people who tell you that are lying to you. Rather than answer your questions, they are responding with a personal attack. That is of the devil, not of God. They have not a scriptural leg to stand on for their behavior. Jesus would not insult you for asking an honest question and looking for an honest answer, and He would not tell you a question is in unbelief.
In fact, Jesus commands us to ask questions. He said, “Ask, and it shall be given.” He commands us to seek to understand. And unless we ask a question, how shall we understand? Understanding begins with questions. And if you have no questions, then you must think you know everything, which is also a sin. So we could say a person who has no questions is someone who is deluded, someone who has stopped having a desire to know and understand. Because the question indicates the desire to know. And if you have the question in your heart, you might as well ask it. Because God sees what’s in your heart; it’s already there. Keeping your question quiet does nothing to hide it from God. God knows the question you are thinking, regardless of what you are pretending.
When we ask questions of God, He is just and faithful to answer us. He’s just and faithful to increase our understanding. Now Paul is someone who is Christlike; that’s what he is striving for in his life. And he follows Christ’s example, and he offers an answer to those who have questions, even the scoffers. The best I can understand from Scripture, the difference in how you approach a scoffing question and an honest question is the amount of time you give to it.
So here, in chapter 3, Paul is engaging with the scoffers, and he answers their questions. Paul deals with the people who had critical questions by giving reasonable answers to their questions. If Paul could not offer a reasonable answer to the questions that people asked, why in the world would you want to listen to what he had to say? If you can break apart what a person is saying and show there are flaws in it, you would be a fool to believe it. Everyone with any common sense knows that. And so when serious questions are asked, even from scoffers, there has to be an answer to those questions.
Think about that. Truth has evidence, and evidence is on the side of the truth. The creation, the world around us, has evidence in it. And up to this point, Paul has been building everything he has said on evidence. Creation is the evidence there is a Creator. Sorrow and suffering from sin is the evidence there is something wrong with the world. Our conscience is proof we know right and wrong. Paul has offered evidence for everything he has been saying. He doesn’t ask people to believe just because he said so; he gives evidence.
By using our common sense and looking at the evidence, we should be able to understand what Paul is saying. And as servants of God, His ministers should be able to answer questions, even critical questions like the ones Paul is answering here, by offering evidence.
What Good Is There Being a Jew Then?
Now, as we come to the first question Paul is going to address, we can fairly easily understand the question. Paul ended Chapter 2 by explaining that the Jews, although they had the law and circumcision, were still sinners bound for judgment. Not because the law failed them, but because they failed the law. They failed to keep it because their fallen nature made them incapable of fulfilling the law.
So then, the scoffer might ask a question. He might say, if the law did the Jews no good, then what was the point of being a Jew or having a law? That is a reasonable question, isn’t it? If having the law didn’t save the Jews, then what good was it? If circumcision didn’t save you, what was the point in having it? From one angle, the law almost seems silly. And that is the first question Paul is answering. Paul is addressing that question in verses one and two. Let me read those two verses:
- 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.
So here Paul begins to explain the value of the law. The law was not bad; the law was good. The problem is the law was never intended to save you; it was intended to show you that you needed a savior. The law and the prophets—the Bible—they are the oracles of God. One important aspect is that they are there to point you to something, to tell you about the future. Bro. Jesse mentioned that this morning.
When you use the law and its rules for their intended purpose, it’s good. When you use the law to show people they need a savior, it’s a good application of the law. And if the Jews used the law to point to a savior, they made a good use of the law. But when you use the law to try and save people, or make it part of the formula for salvation, then you turn the law into something bad—something it was never intended to be.
To turn the law into a means of salvation is actually to pervert the purpose of the law. Because, as Paul is going to explain to us later, the purpose of the law was to make us fully aware of just how imperfect we are, to help us grasp that we have a fallen nature. That was the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law was not to save us. Because, to be justified by our works, or by the law, we have to be perfect every hour of every day, for our entire lives. God demands perfection.
If you slip up and sin just once in your entire life, you are bound for judgment in hell, and there is nothing you can do ever to change that. You are doomed. And the law proves to the people who follow it that their case is hopeless, that they can never keep it. The only way out of that predicament is a savior, to save you from that predicament. And the thing is, every single person is already doomed. Every single person has already sinned once in their life.
Whether it was a big sin or a little sin, there is no one who is innocent. And every single person is already doomed for judgment—Jew, gentile, pagan, moralist, secularist; it doesn’t matter who. So everyone needs a savior. And Paul’s aim through these verses is, over and over again, to show us that we have to make a choice: either we are saved by our works, or we’re saved by a savior who shows us grace. It can’t be both. They’re incompatible concepts. It’s either grace or works. And if you mix even a little bit of works into grace, then the grace is not grace anymore; it is works.
So you have to choose—grace or works. Which one are you trusting in to save you? So the Jews have the law, they have the Bible, they have the prophets’ writings, which are the oracles of God. They had a roadmap pointing them to a savior. They had the ability to look ahead and see the outline of their coming redeemer through the law. And that had value.
So let me read those verses again:
- 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.
The Bible itself, the writings of the prophets, the knowledge of the savior to come—that was itself worth something. And that is noteworthy and important for us to remember. Paul is not telling us the law was worthless and had no value. But Paul is telling us the law could not save us. And there are lots of things in the law that cannot save you. But that doesn’t mean they have no value.
I have heard Bro. Jesse mention the feasts and the patterns in the law. You know, that feast of trumpets points to something that has never been fulfilled yet. The other feasts point to different things. And there is value in knowing those things. The law tells you to cover your mouth when you are sick. There is value in that. The law tells you don’t kill, or steal, or commit adultery. There is value in that. The law has value, but the law can’t save you.
It’s easy to get hung up there, and sometimes people can do that. Just because Jesus has come doesn’t mean we tear the Old Testament out of the Bible and throw it away. It still has value. Much in every way, says Paul, because it contains the oracles of God. Amen, so I hope that explains the first question Paul is answering.
Paul’s point is not that the Old Testament is worthless. His point is that it’s not enough to save you.
The Jews Didn’t Believe on Christ
So now Paul goes to the next question he is answering, and I think we can understand this one pretty easily as well. Because in Paul’s day, the overwhelming majority of the Jews rejected Jesus. The overwhelming majority of the Jewish people, who had the law, who had the oracles of God, should have been most prepared to accept Jesus. But they actually rejected him. So what about that?
The majority of the people who knew the Old Testament rejected Jesus. Isn’t that a sign? That could seem like a reasonable question. Isn’t that proof something is wrong with the gospel? If the Old Testament was really foretelling that a savior would come, then why did most of the people with Old Testament knowledge reject Jesus? That is the next question Paul is going to answer. Let’s read it in verses 3 and 4:
- What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?
- By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”
So Paul’s answer here is a very good one. You have heard the saying, if everyone else is jumping off a bridge, should you jump off too? Is the crowd proof that something is true? Do people automatically believe the truth? Do people automatically reject lies? Is truth determined by majority opinion? No, it is not. The standard of truth is not determined by crowds or majorities, but the standard of truth is God.
Remember what Jesus said? He said, “I am the truth.” Truth is what God says it is, and God says Jesus is the truth. And just because people refused to accept the truth about Jesus, it doesn’t mean they are right. The majority may reject Jesus, but that doesn’t mean anything. We see how that played out in the days of Paul; it plays out again today. The majority reject Jesus.
Some are secularists; they reject their need of a savior. Some are pagans; they reject their need of a savior. Some are in pseudo-Christian religious systems; they incorporate Jesus, but they reject the idea that he is enough to save them. Lots of people find lots of ways to reject Jesus. But he is the truth, he is the way, and he is the life. And no one goes to the Father except by him. And that is the truth. Everything else is a lie.
And just because some do not believe, just because some are not faithful, does that nullify or void the truth of God? Of course not. If everyone else jumps off a bridge, I am going to say no thank you. The sky is blue, and it doesn’t matter how many people you find to say otherwise; the sky will still be blue. Jesus is the savior of the world, and what he did is enough to save me. And it doesn’t matter how many people don’t believe that; it is still true.
People will choose to believe myths and lies for many reasons. Sometimes it suits them to believe it. It feeds their ego, or it feeds their need to feel special. Maybe it reinforces their worldview, so they want the lie to be true. They want to believe a lie. Sometimes the truth is too painful, and the lie is just easier. But we have to look beyond our present; we have to look at our eternal destiny. We have to know in ourselves, what is our faith in? Is it in Christ and Christ alone, or is it in something else? Because unless our faith is in Christ alone, I am not sure you are going to make it.
My Bible tells me Jesus is the only way to the Father, and if you think there is some other way to the Father, or if you need someone besides Jesus to make it to the Father, I have my doubts that you are going in the right direction.
How Could God Judge the World?
Now this brings us to the next question Paul will answer, which seems a bit disconnected from the first two questions. But let’s read the question, it’s in verse 5:
- 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 this question is another interesting one. Maybe I could paraphrase it: “God looks good when I am bad. And if my badness makes God look good, then it would be unfair for God to judge me.” That’s a paraphrase of what Paul says in verse 5.
Let me read it again:
- 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.)
Or I am giving the argument of a man.
So what is the answer to that question? Verse 6:
- By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
If badness makes God look good, then everyone has a get-out-of-jail-free card. God could not judge anyone for anything. And this is where these verses started to hit home with me a few years ago when I read them. It doesn’t matter who we are or what we do; we cannot use evil or wickedness in any form to make God look good. It’s not possible. You cannot make God look good by using evil. God does not accept that. He cannot profit or be made to look good by evil. He is not going to accept anyone who says, “I did evil to make you look good.”
As we get to the next two verses, I think you will understand what I am getting at. Let me read verse 7:
- But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?
And verse 8:
- And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
Let me just analyze these verses before I start applying them. “Why not do evil that good may come?” That is the title of my message tonight. “Why not do evil, that good may come?” And in Paul’s example, the evil he is talking about is a lie, as in verse 7. “Why not tell evil lies, that good may come?” And make no mistake, when we tell lies, we are doing evil. So the question is very simple, and I could ask it even more specifically: “Why not tell lies, so good may come?”
These are some verses that, when I was still in the place we came from, condemned me very hard. And maybe we have read over them, and they don’t mean much to you. But to me, there is an important meaning in these verses, and I pray that the Lord helps me to share that with you.
Contrary to what many people probably say about me, I knew many of the exaggerations and made-up stories about the message for many years, and I believed the message anyway. I knew the bridge vision was fake for years. I knew the cloud was made by a rocket for years. I knew William Branham was not in Arizona that day for years. I knew all that and more. And do you know how I know those things? And this is why they hate me. I know those things not because John Collins told them to me but because the other message preachers told them to me. And now they are all lying as fast as they can to deny that. Shame on them. God knows they are liars.
But I knew those things were fake for years. One preacher I talked to said, “So William Branham just made all this up then?” He said, “That’s pretty much how it is.” Another preacher said, “Yeah, I heard that cloud was made by a rocket back in the ’80s.” On and on it went. And those men who are condemning me today are the very ones who told me these things were the truth. And make no mistake about it, they know they are lying. They are the ones who told me this stuff. And today they stand on their platforms and lie through their teeth. And it doesn’t matter if no one believes what I am saying; I know the truth. They know the truth. And God knows the truth.
I was faced with a dilemma: Was I going to be like them? Was I going to tell stories I know are not true because I am expecting some good thing to come from it? Am I going to tell lies, that good may come? Am I going to do evil, that good may come? Because make no mistake about it, that is exactly what they are doing.
There are some who are doing it on purpose, and there are some who are doing it because they have been deceived. And I knew these things for quite a long while. There are many exaggerations and made-up stories that I excused for years. And I ultimately quit believing the message because I discovered a key part of our interpretation of the Bible was built on top of one of those exaggerated, made-up stories. The thing that made me stop believing the message was when I discovered that William Branham did not get the seven seals from God. He had just copied them from other people. And people who tell you that is not true are people who either have not bothered to look for themselves or are lying to you. William Branham did not receive the revelation of the seals from an angel or from God. He read them out of the writings of other men. And then he misled us about where they came from. That is the truth, and to say otherwise is to lie. That is the truth, and to continue the lie is to do evil expecting good to come from it.
I think perhaps these verses, more than any other verses, made it impossible for me to go along anymore. “Why not do evil that good may come?” And the evil specifically Paul is talking about there is the lie he mentions in verse 7. “If through my lie God’s glory abounds, why not do evil so that good may come?” And really, that is a dumb question. It’s a really, really dumb question. That is the whole reason Paul asked the question, to point out how dumb it is. Because any reasonable person who reads that question realizes what a dumb question it is. “Why not do evil, so good may come?” Let’s tell lies so that God can be glorified by it. It’s a ridiculous and absurd thing to say.
But that is exactly what is going on in the places that we come from. They are using things that many of them know are lies and thinking they can glorify God with it. I have not listened to any of them, but I’m sure they’ve come up with all kinds of explanations for why I am wrong. And I can just guess what they are because I came up with all those kinds of explanations myself when I first discovered the truth. Because I didn’t want to believe the truth. I didn’t want to believe I had been the victim of a hoax.
But anyone who is honest and has actually looked at the evidence knows deep in their heart that their own explanation is garbage. It is obvious we were deceived. And we were not a little deceived; we were greatly deceived. And that says something about ourselves. And we do well to come to grips with that. We were deceived, and we need God’s grace to help us as a result. And whether the people in those places admit they were deceived or not, they also need God’s grace to help them out.
Jesus Did Not Come Back in 1963
Jesus did not come back in 1963. The Lord did not descend from heaven with a shout in 1963. Not in any form, not in any way. It never happened. That never happened. That is a hoax. Everyone building their faith on that lie is destined for a great disappointment. You can’t get to heaven on a lie. You can’t glorify God with a lie. You can’t build your life on a lie.
But we were doing exactly that. There’s no way around it. And when we become aware of the truth, God gives us space to hear that truth and come to it. Today, God is giving people space to hear the truth and come to it. That’s not a particular place you need to go, but a spiritual place. Come to the truth, and let the truth play out in your heart.
Jesus did not come back in 1963, not in any form, not in any way. The Lord did not descend from heaven with a shout in 1963. Angels did not bring William Branham the Revelation of the seals; he read them out of a book. That shout, which was the midnight cry according to our former beliefs, did not happen in 1963. The whole basis on which they told us we were the wise virgins is fake. It was a hoax. The very heart of their beliefs, on which they believe they are the bride of Christ, is false and based on a hoax. That is the truth, and many of them are capable of recognizing it. Many of them already do recognize it.
The question is, how long will you go on with the lie? How long will you do evil expecting good to come? I want to tell you the truth: good will never come from evil. It’s impossible. It’s dumb to even think it’s possible. It’s ridiculous and absurd. And we pray for our friends who are trapped in that ridiculousness and absurdity.
There is a reason today all their churches are dying. There is a reason they are all drying up. It is because they are doing evil, expecting good to come. But evil just brings bad results. The rapture is not going to happen on their timetables because they built all that on a hoax. They are not special and elite, like they think, because they built all that on a hoax. Instead, all that evil has begotten a terrible devil, and something very terrible is coming. Cults do not end well. And when the countdown clock reaches zero for the last time, what is going to happen?
Every time their end-of-the-world predictions fail, they get crazier. We have watched it happen, slowly but steadily, for the past twenty years. They are reaching a fever pitch today of absolute lunacy. Men possessed of Satan stand on their platforms, foam at the mouth, screaming like madmen—literally. And they are incapable of recognizing it. They are in serious danger.
I thank God so many of them are listening to us. And I thank God for all the ones who are reaching out. To all those listening today, I want to ask you the same question Paul asked here: How long are you going to do evil and expect good to come from it? How much longer?
I cannot glorify God. I cannot enhance the kingdom of God with lies, with stories, with legends, with myths. And the truth is, that’s exactly what the people we came from are trying to do. They have a myth that Jesus came back in 1963. Not in any form, not in any way. The man who told us that was deceiving us. It was a lie; it never happened. We can prove it was a lie. They have a myth that a man was baptizing people down by the river in 1933 and a voice spoke from heaven, and thousands of people heard it, saying he was sent to forerun the second coming of Christ. That is just a myth; it never happened. We can prove it never happened. They have a myth that someone prophesied 16 men would fall off the Second Street Bridge and drown just a couple miles from here. But that is just a myth; it never happened. We can prove it never happened. We were told that God came and gave supernatural revelation to a certain man. But that is just a myth. We have copies of the books he copied his revelations from. It’s just a myth. And we can prove it.
We are not the ones believing lies. They are. They are building on lies. They are preaching lies. And I say again: a lot of them know it is lies. And verse 8 tells us the end of the matter: their condemnation is just.
- And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
Now verse 8 contains one more interesting tidbit. Paul says, “Why not do evil that good may come,” as some people say we are saying. You see, Paul was being accused of preaching that way. Paul was being accused of telling lies. People were putting words in Paul’s mouth. And that’s what the enemy does. He can’t argue with what you actually say, so he has to pretend you said something else and then argue with that. That is called a strawman argument—arguing against something you never actually said. And there are lots of people doing just that today. And when people turn to that, it exposes just how bankrupt they are. It proves they can’t refute what you actually said.
Let me read verse 9:
- What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.
And that is the ultimate point here. Paul is trying to show that everyone has sinned. That is the chief point of everything he has said in chapter 2 and leading up to this verse. And you know, you and I were once in the exact same situation as others are today. We were in a system that was deceiving us, telling us Jesus was not enough, telling us we needed special revelation to make it to heaven, telling us we needed to follow special rules to make it to heaven, telling us we needed to follow a special man to make it to heaven.
There is nothing wrong with rules, or knowledge, or Bible teachers. Those are all good things in their proper place. But none of that can save you. But that is exactly what we formerly believed. We did not believe Jesus was enough. And today, that is why we are hated—because we are saying Jesus is enough. And they don’t believe that.
They need Jesus. That is the problem. They need Jesus. They need to see their savior. They need to realize he is enough. And like Paul here, we must remain humble because not long ago we were ourselves in the same delusion. I myself preached the very lie about Jesus descending from heaven with a shout in 1963. That never happened. And most of those people have been in the delusion just as long as we have, and longer. Expecting some good thing to come from that evil lie. But it never will. Never, ever. But thanks be to God that so many have seen the light just in these past months. So many have woken up and are in the process of waking up, realizing it was a lie. And coming to the knowledge that it’s okay. There is life after the lie. Because there is still Jesus. There is still a savior. And he was there all the time, waiting patiently.
Maybe we can finish by singing that song together:
He was there all the time,
He was there all the time,
Waiting patiently in line,
He was there all the time.
Thank you, Lord God, for being patient with us. Lord, teach us also to be patient with those who still do not recognize you for who and what you are. Help us to be a light to them. Touch their hearts and their lives. They are living in a land of drought and famine, but you, Lord, have delivered us into a land of plenty. And there is plenty here for them. We thank you for all the ones you have enabled us to help so far. And Lord, we pray for those who are being harassed every time they walk into their churches by screaming madmen who tell them they are going to hell because they have a question. Deliver our brothers and sisters, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.