Accurate Knowledge of Self

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: Romans 3; Lord's Day 2
Psalters: 425, 1, 188, 364
  1. My wretched misery.
    1. Misery is the experience of distresses.
    2. Misery indicates there is something wrong; misery is not the cause, but the result.
      1. God gives misery as a consequence of sin.
      2. Unless we see the cause of our misery and treat it, there will be no deliverance and recovery.
    3. Aware of his misery, natural man uses the standard of himself and thus only increases his misery.
  2. The correct standard for evaluating misery and seeing its cause is God Himself.
    1. The standard of God is Himself, which is revealed in His law which identifies what is right and what is wrong.
      1. Thus the law shows that man's misery is because man is violating God and His determination of right and wrong.
      2. God’s law is good (I Tim. 1:8), so the problem is not with the law.
      3. Jesus believed in the law and did not come to destroy it (Matt. 5:17).
    2. God's law, reflecting His own perfection, requires one thing: love (Rom. 13:10).
      1. We are to love God supremely with our all, all the time, which goes deeper than the appearance of good.
      2. The demand of love examines the heart, the motive of the mind and sub-consciousness.
      3. True love of God is reflected in loving our neighbor as ourselves.
  3. Just as the bright sunshine shows all the dust, so the law shows me the deep-seated cause of my misery is me.
    1. The correct identification of me: I have a natural proneness to hate God and my neighbor.
      1. We actually hate (not just love less) God.
      2. Anyone who does not fear and love God has no respect for his neighbor.
      3. No one is righteous; all have sinned and come short (Rom. 3:10,23); man’s heart is desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9); spiritually dead in sin (Eph. 2:1) living in malice and envy, hated and hating (Titus 3:3).
    2. The true believer is the only one with the ability to admit honestly his natural and constant depravity.
      1. Grace breaks our pride, so this admission is a way of life, not just a doctrinal statement.
      2. Godly sorrow for sin characterizes the true believer.
    3. Man tells us to avoid doctrine and just focus on love, but we cannot do that either.
    4. But there is no reason to despair, for the same faith which acknowledges sin, also acknowledges justification (5:1 and 8:1).