Hope Beyond Your Failures ~ Kay Arthur

Failures can really loom before us, can‟t they? They come at the most, the most inopportune times. You‟re ready to do something or you‟re ready to take an adventure and all of a sudden failure comes in your face and you think, what if I fail, what am I going to do?

Listen to me, your failures never change the character of God. Your failures never nullify the promises of God.

There"s hope beyond your failures.

Romans, chapter 3 that‟s where we‟re beginning. Now remember I told you that Romans is a diatribe. It‟s not somebody off on a kick. A diatribe in those days meant that it was a discussion, a critical dissertation. And this is a critical dissertation of the gospel.

And what Paul is going to do is in chapter 3, beginning at verse 3, he‟s going to start asking questions. He is anticipating the questions and the comments and the assumptions that people will take or have against the gospel.

And so what he has done is he has laid out very clearly in chapter 1 the lostness of the Gentiles and how the wrath of God is going to come upon them because they have not honored God as God.

Then in chapter 2 he turns to the Jew and he wants the Jew to know, he wants the religious man; we‟ll apply it today, to religious persons. He wants the religious persons to know that they‟re not going to miss the judgment of God. If they are saying one thing and they‟re living another way, if they‟re playing the hypocrite, if they‟re playing the actor, if they‟re putting on a mask, they‟re not going to escape the judgment of God.

Now what he‟s done is he‟s hit those Jews very very hard. And he has hit them where it hurts the most. He has hit them in regard to their keeping of the law and he has hit them in their circumcision, a circumcision of the flesh but not a circumcision of the heart.

And so he‟s hit them very hard and he‟s explained to them, the Gentile man that is not circumcised, but has a heart to keep the law, sits in judgment on you if you‟re just trusting in your circumcision, but you don‟t have a heart to keep the law.

So he opens up chapter 3 with this question. He says, “What advantage then has the Jew?” Is there any advantage at all to being a Jew?

And he says, oh yes, there is an advantage to being a Jew.

And then he asks this other question, “And what is the benefit of circumcision?” Okay, so if circumcision isn‟t going to get me into heaven, what is the benefit of circumcision?

And so he says, listen, a Jew has an advantage, being circumcised as a Jew has an advantage. Why? It‟s great in every respect. And then he says, first of all, that they,

“The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.”

Now remember the oracles of God are special disclosures in the Old Testament, in the Jewish Bible, it‟s call the Tanak. Regarding the Messiah.

So here they have this knowledge of Messiah.

They knew that Messiah had to be born of a virgin because the Bible said that.
They knew that Messiah was going to be a man.
They knew the town that Messiah would be born in.
They knew that Messiah was going to come and he was going to rule the world.

There were 333 prophecies about the first coming of Messiah.
And all 333 of those prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Now listen, you cannot choose the place that you‟re going to be born.But the whole circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ, how His parents were from Nazereth and how they were called because of a census, a census that had been delayed several times, but now came to pass because it was time for Mary to bring forth her child and so they end up in Bethlehem. And it was in Bethlehem-Ephrata that Messiah was to be born.

And the Jews understood that. So he‟s saying, okay, you have all these prophecies. These belong to you.

But then he comes back in verse 3 with the next question. Now what he‟s going to do is he‟s going to start anticipating their questions. He‟s going to start to answer them.

If it‟s a question that is to be answered with a negative, then it‟s going to have an M-E in it. In the Greek, the equivalent of an M-E, if it‟s a question that is to be answered with a positive response then it‟s going to have an O-U in that.

So he asks the question in such way that you already know the answer before you answer. You know that he‟s expecting a negative answer or a positive answer.

Now he also does something else and I want you to see this.

Sometimes he looks at them and he anticipates some false conclusions that they are going to come to. And that‟s what you see happening and I‟ll point this out, but it‟s in verses 5 to 9.

Now as we go through the book of Romans, I mean, he‟s going to start these questions. So this is what I would suggest that you do. I would suggest that you take a green coloring pencil and that you just color every question as you come to it. And I will tell you what to color. But color the question so that you can see it‟s a question.

Now I‟ve chosen green because you know when you ask questions you get answers, you grow. So that‟s why I chose green. Okay, so let‟s look at this first question. He says,

“What then if some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?”

And this is a question that has the M-E in it. And the answer is, “May it never be.” In the King James Version it is “God forbid.” So may it never be, absolutely not.

What he‟s saying is this and we‟re going to apply it to you and to me, where we are today.

But he‟s saying that when you do not believe God that does not cancel out, that does not erase the faithfulness of God.

Aren‟t you glad?

Because what their question would be is this, okay, so here are the Jews, they have these special disclosures about Messiah, about Jesus being the Messiah, Yeshua, being the Messiah and they don‟t believe them. So because they don‟t believe them then does that nullify, does that negate, does that cancel out these promises of God? Does that mean Messiah‟s not going to come, uh, the second time? Does that mean that all is lost?

And he says, may it never be. God forbid. He says,

“Rather let it be found true though every man be found a liar, just as it is written.”

Now what he does in this diatribe is he reasons with them from the scriptures. The scriptures are the Old Testament. The scriptures are from Genesis to Malachi. So he‟s going to reason with them.

Now he‟s pulling up Psalm 51, verse 4. Psalm 51 is the psalm that David wrote; now listen carefully, after he sinned with Bathsheba. It is the psalm that he wrote after he had Bathsheba‟s husband put to death. So here he is now, he‟s an adulterer and he just had a man murdered and he‟s writing a psalm.

And you would think, okay David, that‟s it for you, you had this Davidic covenant, you had these promises of Messiah, but buster there is no hope for you. The promises of God are canceled. They are X‟d out.

And he says, oh no they‟re not. They‟re not X‟d out. They‟re not erased. They‟re not made null and void because of what you did.

And the reason that they‟re not, is because of who God is.
Your unfaithfulness never changes the faithfulness of God.
Your unbelief never nullifies the promises of God.

You have to go, oh, I am so thankful.

You know why?

Because we‟re all going to fail, because we‟re all going to hit sometime a wall of unbelief and we have to just say, oh God, I‟m so thankful that my sin, that my mess up, that my unbelief, that my stubbornness did not stop You from coming through. And it does not stop God from coming through. So let‟s look at it.

He says in Psalm 51, verse 4,

“May it never be, rather let God be true. Though every man be found a liar, just as it is written, that Thou mayest be justified in Thy words.”

Now David is writing to God and he‟s saying, “God, that You might be justified in Your words …,” declared righteous is what justified means. “… and that You might prevail when Thou, God, art judged.” Why?

Because His words do not fail.

Isn‟t that awesome? Isn‟t that tremendous?

And this is what he says. He says, but, so he anticipates now. Watch what he‟s doing. He‟s anticipating a false conclusion. He says,

“But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous is He? I‟m speaking in human terms.”

Now I just wanted to read you that before the break. What I want you to do on the break or now is with a pencil, take a line from verse 5 to verse 9 and then right here in the margin or in the book that we‟ve given you, write that he anticipates false conclusions from what he‟s just said.

Okay, now, what I want you to know and what I what you to understand this before we go to the break, I want you to understand, Precious One, that God will always remain God and he says this in Psalm 138, that

“God has magnified His Word together with His name.”

In other words, the Word of God stands because the name, the character of God stands.

So, just remember this, that when you blow it and you‟re so grieved that you blew it, it is not over. As my friend, Jan Silvious says, the last chapter hasn‟t been written yet. And the last chapter ends with the wonderful promises of God.

Do you enjoy learning the Word of God, moving through it verse by verse and sticking with the text and seeing what God has to say? Do you realize Precious One, what we‟re going to have when we get through all of this? You‟re going to have an understanding of this dissertation of the gospel.

It‟s like the constitution of your faith.

And listen; it‟s interesting now, but it gets gooder and gooder and gooder because right now we‟re in the part where God is trying to convince all mankind that they‟re sinners. And we‟re going to see that in just a minute.

Well now, let‟s look at these false conclusions.

All right, in verse 5, he says, but if our unrighteousness then demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?

In other words, look, if when I‟m so unrighteous, when I‟m so unlike God that it shows you how righteous God is, then what shall we say? He says, “God, who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous is He?”

And then he says, “I‟m speaking in human terms …,” and again it‟s an M-E question. It‟s an answer that says, “May it never be.”

In other words, what he‟s saying is this; okay. Your unrighteousness shows the righteousness of God. So then God should not pour out His wrath on you because you are showing others how right God is.

He says that‟s a false conclusion.

And I want you to know this that your sin, can never be used as an excuse to show the greatness of God.

Do you know in the time of the Metichis, in the church, in way way back. I‟ll take you back to Italy and I take you back to, I think it was Florence where the Metichi‟s lived. Do you know that there was a priest within that group, within that inner circle and he told the women this, he said listen, the more we sin the more it shows the grace of God.

Now Paul‟s going to deal with that later. And we‟re going to see it.

But he says, the more that we sin the more it shows the grace of God. So therefore it is fine for you to sleep with me. It‟s fine for me to sleep with all you women because then we see the enormous grace of God in saving us.

Well this is the same thing right here. And you think, stupid, wake up, wake up. Don‟t you come to that false conclusion.

That is a futile speculation like Romans 1 is talking about. You are devising something in your mind and you are playing the fool.

So then the next one is this. He says, “May it never be for otherwise, how will God judge the world?” So you can‟t come to that false conclusion.

All right now, verse 7. He says, “But if through my lie, the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I still being judged by as a sinner?”

In other words, once again, it‟s the same tenant.

If my sin shows the glory of God in forgiving me, then why am I judged as a sinner?

And then he says, “And why not say …,” and then he puts in a parenthesis, “… as we are slanderously reported and as some inferred that we say, „Let us do evil that good might come.‟”

It‟s that same thing that I told you about, the time of the Metichi‟s, when they were ruling in the church at that time.

So what I‟m saying is this, and what Paul is saying, is look.

You can never excuse your sin. You can never cover it up by saying, but my sin shows the grace of God. My sin shows the glory of God. My sin shows the truth of God.

No you can‟t say that.

All right, so what does he say? “And why not say as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm we say, „Let us do evil that good may come.‟” And then he makes a statement, “Their condemnation is just.”

You know I was just appalled and someone sent me an article from World magazine. And in that article they were telling about different pastors within different denominations, not just the Roman Catholics had sin in their camp, but different denominations had sin in their camp. And these were pastors that were counselors. And here they were, they were counseling women and seducing them and molesting them and using their molestation and their seduction as a means of telling them that this is the way that they would be cured.

I mean, what have they done?

They have twisted, they have distorted. This is why I wrote the book, “Sex According to God”. I want everyone to understand what the Bible has to say about sex.

Well this is what he‟s going to do now. He says,

“What then, are we better than they?”

Now who‟s the we? Who is Paul?

Paul is a Jew. Paul is a Jew who believes that Yeshua is the Messiah he was persecuting Christians. He hated Christians. He was throwing them in prison. He was letting them be put to death. And then one day on the road to Damascus, Acts 9 tells you about it, if you want to read it later, he met Jesus Christ face to face.

And Christ means Messiah.

He met Yeshua, the Messiah face to face. And He said, “Jesus said to him …,” He says, “„Saul, Saul!‟” that was his name before God changed it. “„Why are you persecuting Me?‟

And he says, „Who are Thou Lord?‟ And He said, „I am Jesus. I‟m Jesus.‟”

Now, watch what he‟s saying. 

We have the Law. We have the oracles of God. We have the promises of Messiah. You know, we have circumcision. Are we better than they? And listen to what he says.
 

“Not at all …,”

And when he says, not at all, the Greek says, not all together, no, no, no, we are not better than they; “… for we have already charged …,” He says, what do you think I‟ve been telling you? “… we have already charged both Greeks and Jews are all under sin.”

Now where did he show us this? He showed us this in Romans 1, the Greeks, the Gentiles are under sin. He showed it to us in Romans, chapter 2, that the Jews are under sin.

So he‟s saying, as it is written.

So he takes them back to the Word of God and what he does is he begins to string pearls, pearls of truth that he‟s going to get from the Psalms, that he‟s going to get from the book of Proverbs, the book of wisdom and that he‟s going to get from that awesome prophet Isaiah.

And listen to what he says,

“As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one.”

Now you want to underline, “not even one.”

There is none that is righteous in the eyes of God.
There is none that is righteous apart from God.
There is not even one.
There is none who understands.
There is none who is seeking after God.

You say, but I sought after God. But listen, the reason you sought after God was because God was seeking after you. That‟s God. That‟s the promises of God. That‟s the character of God.

He says, “All have turned aside. Together they have become useless.” He‟s talking about all mankind. He‟s talking about you and me before we ever come to know Jesus Christ. “There is no one who does good …,” and then he says it again, “… not even one.”

In other words, all mankind from Genesis, all the way up to the end of the earth and to the new heaven and the new earth, all are born in sin.

“Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

What is the conclusion?

He‟s going to come to it. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

And you say, whoa, whoa, we‟re lost, we‟re lost.
We‟ve failed. We‟ve failed God.
We‟re lost.

You would be lost if it weren‟t for the fact that God never fails. 

You would be lost if it were not for the fact that the Word of God is true and God stands by His Word and watches over His Word to perform it.

There‟s hope for sinners Beloved.