Alright, so we're going to look
at, first of all, Romans Chapter 2, and then we will look at Hebrews
Chapter 9. I will mention other scriptures
in the process, but those are the two I want to draw your attention
to, because they serve the purpose of trying to explain the significance
of what God said in Hebrews Chapter 9, when He said, the Lord Jesus Christ appears
in the presence of God for us. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your word. What a blessed truth revealed,
hidden in your heart, but now made known concerning your Son.
All of our salvation, all of our hope, our expectation, our
certain salvation, and our certain glorification
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, that from your
word you would do what only you can do to bring us low, even
though it's painful, even though in our lives we don't relish
it. and yet we do delight in the effect of the end of it,
which is to bring us to Christ. So we pray, Lord, that you would
do that. Thank you for our brother, Don, who wrote that song we just
sang, and for the life he lived that you gave to us as a gift,
and we pray, Lord, that we would be given grace as sinners for
Christ's sake today. In his name we pray, amen. The book of Romans is an exposition
of the gospel. That was the reason Paul wrote
it. That was Paul's commission that Christ gave to
him. In verse one of chapter one,
he says, first of all, I am a servant of Jesus Christ. He didn't make
any bones about it. He didn't have any apology for
it. In a day when those who serve Christ were viewed by the nation
of the Jews as heretics and by the Roman government as insurrectionists
who were opposed to Caesar, Paul boldly comes out and says, I'm
a servant of Jesus Christ. the one who was crucified, the
one who appeared in weakness, the one who went about doing
good, the one who only had a few followers, and yet the one who
he trusted was the only savior God provided, God accepted for
sinners. I'm a servant of him. And so
you can see the effect the gospel had on the apostle Paul He said
he was called to be an apostle and he was separated for this
purpose, the gospel of God. That's verse one of Romans one. And he says also that that gospel
was promised by God before in the Old Testament, in the prophets,
in the Holy Scriptures. And he also said here in verse
three of Romans one, that the gospel concerns his son, Jesus
Christ, our Lord, who was made of the seed of David. He was
born as one of David's descendants according to the flesh, but he
was declared to be the Son of God with power, and that by the
resurrection of the dead by the Spirit of holiness. The Spirit
of God is holy. He's called the Holy Spirit.
The fact that God raised Christ from the dead means that his
resurrection was holy, that he himself was holy because he is
the holy one. That holy thing which was born
is the son of God. He's not a thing, but he refers
to him as the holy one of God in scripture. The gospel has
to do with him, his life as the son of David on this earth and
his life and sufferings and his death and his resurrection as
the Son of God and the Son of Man. And the gospel is this. Look at verse 16 of Romans chapter
1. He says, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ. It is the gospel of Christ. His
accomplishments not only his work, but what he obtained, his
reward. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, the good news, the glad tidings of Christ, for it,
that gospel, is the power of God unto salvation. God uses
nothing else but the gospel to save people because it declares
to us what God has done in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so if we're going to be saved, it will be through God bringing
his word to us in the gospel. It will be God persuading us
of the truth of what he has said concerning his son. There's salvation
in no other way. So he says, I'm not ashamed of
it. Why would I be ashamed? It's the power of God. We might
be ashamed of a firecracker, but we won't be ashamed of the
power of God. And so he was not ashamed of it because it was
the power of God, not just power in order to impress, but the
power of God unto salvation. That's where God's power is most
richly displayed. Men boast in their power. I could
lift this great weight, or I could create this great electronic
circuit, or write this computer program, or I could give this
great speech, or whatever it is, but here, What God draws
attention to is his salvation accomplished by Jesus Christ.
That's the power of God. And so he says, I'm not ashamed
of it is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believeth.
Who are those who are saved? Those who believe. How did they
come to believe? It was a gift from God. Why did God give it
to them? Not for anything found in them, but of grace from God
himself. You're saved by grace. through faith, and that faith
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." It's not of works. Faith is not of works. Not only
is faith not itself a work, but faith doesn't come to us because
of a work. So it's not of works, lest any
man should boast. That's the whole point here, to prevent
men from boasting. No grounds for boasting in men.
All glory In open manifestation, without compromise, in the court
of heaven, all glory belongs to God only. Because there's
no place, no contribution from men. And so he says this, the
power of God to salvation to everyone that believeth, whether
Jew or Greek. To the Jew first and also to the Greek, because
it came first to the Jews. Verse 17, and here's why the
gospel is the power of God to salvation. Look at verse 17 of
Romans 1. For therein, in the gospel, is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just, the righteous ones, shall live by faith So that's the declaration. This is like, you pick up these
great writings of men, and they always start out by saying, here's
what I'm going to talk about. And they give it some abstract.
and then they dive into it. That's what the apostle does
here. I'm telling you about the gospel. But something first has
to occur before the gospel will mean anything to you and to me,
especially me. I know by experience. Like Rommel
said, have you ever been, found yourself blessing and praising
God in the midst of great times, good times? The fact is that
our sinful nature is such that we rarely call on the Lord in
times of good times. We really call on him when we're
desperately in need of salvation, and that's the grace of God to
give that to us, like the prodigal. I was a prodigal, I wandered
far, and I had no interest. And then the Lord took away everything
else, and I couldn't trust even in my own works, and he brought
me to Christ. So that's what the gospel does.
He tells us what Christ has done. He says this is the righteousness
of God. But before he can dive into the details, he has another
task he must first do. He has to reveal to us what God
requires of us. He has to reveal to us our utter
failure. And he has to reveal to us the
condemnation that comes upon us from God according to his
justice. There's no compromise with God.
God will not allow sin to go unpunished. And God will not
change the standard. And so we read here in the next
verse of Romans 1, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Here we set in the gospel the
righteousness of God. What is it in contrast? To the
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Can God find one man
among all men who is righteous, who is godly? No. But we have to explain this to
our thick, hard-headed skulls. Because our pride is like an
iron adamant stone. Can't be broken. Only God can
penetrate it. God's word is like a hammer,
Jeremiah said. He breaks it. How does he do
that? He removes all defenses from
us. He brings us low. and he leaves
us utterly guilty and worthy of God's condemnation, and we're
made to know it, at least in measure, not fully, otherwise
we couldn't bear it, but in measure. And that's what he does in the
next two chapters, in the rest of chapter one and in chapter
two, and in the beginning part of chapter three. It's to prove
that we are guilty. I want to read this chapter,
a couple of verses to you from Psalm chapter 14. These words are God's words.
He's going to reveal to us what he did and the conclusion of
what he did. He says in Psalm 14, in verse
2, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men.
That includes me, because I'm a child. I'm a man. That includes you if you're a
man or a woman or if you're a boy or a girl. God looked upon every
creature, every son of Adam, every one of us. He looked on
you and he looked on me. What did God conclude? He looked
upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. And this is his conclusion. Put
your name here. I have gone aside. He said they
are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. There's the conclusion. Now back in Romans chapter one,
he explains how this conclusion of God was in particular. In
particular, God has revealed himself to us innately. We were born into this world
knowing that there is a God and that we must give an account
to him. This is a fundamental truth of
scripture. that we will stand every person ever born in all
the history of this world on one day will stand before God
and give an account. And that's meant to be imposed
upon us. It's meant to drive us to that
state of what shall I do then? But here's what we have done.
He says, because in verse 19 of chapter one, because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has
showed it to them. Whatever God is, whatever can
be known of God through creation and through that innate knowledge
God gives to each one of us, we know God and yet what do we
do? We suppress it. We don't like it. We don't want
to retain God in our knowledge. We would rather have our own
thoughts than his, our own ways than his, our own place on the
throne other than his rule. And so the rest of Romans chapter
one describes the despicable condition of us by nature. So despicable it is that, he
describes it, that men not only did not like to retain God in
their knowledge, but they set up idols. They made themselves
God. The works of men's hands, which is the best definition
of an idol. Whatever we can do, something we can create, something
that we are intrinsically. And God says, it's rubbish, it's
idolatry. And he said, because of that,
he turned them over to their own heart's wickedness, their
own heart's lust. And the result is that they profaned
themselves in perversity unimaginable. When you hear about it, you wonder,
how could anyone think of that? It's so gross. Men with men working
that which is unseemly, and women also. That's the way God describes
it. That's what he sees. That's the
way it is. He searched, and he tells us the conclusion. Ungodliness,
unrighteousness, this is the way it is. And then he gives
a list of 23 things here of what we do. Being filled with all
unrighteousness, verse 29. Fornication, wickedness, covetousness. Just think about that. What is
covetousness? Is it going out and beating somebody over the
head in violence? Well, that may be the motivation for doing
that, but that's not what covetousness is. Covetousness is simply an
attitude of the heart. It's wanting something God hasn't
given you. Entitlement. God needs to give
me some things. So men are covetous. That's just
what we are by nature. We think God owes us something,
and he lives in order to please us. Sometimes you'll see a mother
learning how to take care of her children, and she'll follow
the children around the house. You know, Barney, don't do that.
Barney, over here. Oh, Barney, here, help, let me
hug you. I'll keep you happy, keep you satisfied. But true
mothering is the children following the mother, isn't it? God doesn't
live to please us. God lives to please himself.
And we live to please God. You see, and that's the way we'll
learn when we see that. That's our problem, is that we
wanted to please ourselves, like children, out of control. So
he lists these different things. These internal heart sins, covetousness,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things, disobedient parents. Children are here. I was there,
weren't you as a child? Completely disobedient to your
parents. You gave lip service, but not true heart obedience.
You did it to avoid the punishment. There was a measure of dependency
and love, but it was really mixed with self-serving motives. The
best that we do, God says, is filthy. And now in chapter two,
he addresses those who had God's written law, the Jews. Now, here's
where I want to get to, chapter two, look at this. Verse one, therefore thou art
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein
thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest
doest the same things. A person who has God's written
law says, I've got God's law. I've read it. I know what it
says. I understand it. I've memorized it. I've even
taught others what God requires of us. I really know what God
wants. Big deal. Big deal. God says that you, knowing God's
law, you look at others who don't know God's law and yet sin against
God, and you say, look at that wicked sinner. Why, he does all
these things. Seven or eight, I can name them,
and I don't do those. No, he says, the reason you're
able to judge so effectively is because you're guilty of the
same things. And if you're guilty of the same
things, then the judgment you pronounced on them from God is
coming on you. God is completely just. He's
righteous. He's not going to flex. He's
not going to change. So he says this in verse two
of chapter two, but we are sure that the judgment of God is according
to truth against them which commit such things. We know God will
be just. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which
do such things, and you do the same, that thou shalt escape
the judgment of God?" Just because you know the law and you can
see it, see sin in others, do you think you're going to escape
the same judgment? No. You'll actually be more guilty,
more accountable for knowing the truth and not keeping it.
Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance,
and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance? God's revelation of his law to
you has given you an advantage. And what do you do with it? It's
meant to lead you to repentance. But you don't repent. That's
what he's saying here. Verse five, but after thy hardness
and impenitent heart, like a stone you can't be broken, you treasure
up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God. Notice in verse six, I want
you to focus on this, who will render to every man according
to his deeds. God is so just that he's going
to give in compensation to every one of us according to our deeds.
That's what he's saying here. to them who by patient continuance
in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal
life. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the
truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation
and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew
first and also of the Gentile." In case you thought you were
left out here. Some might say, well the law was given to the
Jews, it wasn't given to me. No, he says, of the Jew first
and also to the Gentile. Verse 10, but glory, honor, and
peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also
to the Gentile. There's no respective persons
with God. God doesn't show favoritism. You were born to Abraham, so
what? He's gonna hold you accountable. You weren't born to Abraham,
so tough luck. He's gonna hold you accountable.
God is God. He's the judge. He's the law
giver. He demands from us and we have to give to Him. Now,
this is all intended here. Remember, what is it intended
to do? To lead us up to the revelation of the gospel in Jesus Christ,
the righteousness of God. Do we see the righteousness of
God in this? Do we see that God is righteous according to the
way He judges? Who can fault Him? In the government of our
land, the Supreme Court is supposedly the highest court. If they have
an issue, they take it to the Supreme Court. They decide whether
or not it's according to the law. And our land's Supreme Court
is so perverted now that the laws that men have written, they
are unwilling to hold up. Men have perverted their own
laws, let alone God's laws. God isn't like that at all. He
does not flex. His laws are eternal and unchanging
and they will be upheld and his justice will be satisfied. That's
what he's saying here. There is no respect of persons
with God. It doesn't matter if you were
born rich or poor, white or black, Abraham children or not Abraham's
children, Jew or Gentile. It doesn't matter if you are
intellectual or a simpleton. You got to answer to God. Verse
12, for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish
without law, without the written law. You're under the law, but
you don't have the written law. And as many as have sinned in
the law shall be judged by the law. Notice in verse 13, very
important, for not the hearers of the law are just before God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified. What is it that
God requires? Now let me ask this question.
How, on what basis, On what basis can God accept a man or woman
or boy or girl? On what basis can God accept
them? I'm gonna give you two choices. The first option is perfect conformity
to the law, perfect obedience to the law, keeping all the commandments
of God. And the second one is because
you trust in Jesus Christ. Which of those two is the basis
on which God can accept you, or me, or anybody? Now, don't
answer it out loud. Hold your thoughts on that. And
I'm going to read some scripture to you. This is the great question. God raises it, God answers it,
this is His glory. His glory is in the answer to
this. Notice, God is righteous. It says in Psalm 145, 17, that
God is righteous in all His ways, in all His works, He's holy.
in Genesis chapter 18 verse 25, Abraham said the God of all,
the judge of all the earth will do right. He will do right. In Psalm 89 14 he says his throne
is established in justice and judgment. The very throne of
God depends on him upholding justice and judgment. In our
land, Supreme Court, Congress, the executive branch, they don't
uphold the laws, but God does. they might change. God doesn't
change. His laws don't have to be modified
because he says, well, I guess I was a little too hard on them
there, so I'm going to have to withdraw that and change it a
little bit, something they can keep. That's not the way he works.
So the big question is, since I have to answer to God, since
I'm accountable to God, he made me and he's the judge, how then
can I stand before God in judgment and be cleared? How can I be
accepted? On what basis can God accept
me? Is it absolute, perfect obedience to his law, or is it, say, faith
in Jesus? Is that the basis? Does he accept
me because I believe in Jesus? Look at this, in Job chapter
25, Verse 4, how then can man be justified with God? Or how
can he be clean that is born of a woman? Everyone, everyone. Job was very wise. He had been
suffering and he asked this question. How then can man be justified? To be justified means God examines
the evidence. Have you kept the law? Yes or
no? Are you righteous before me?
Yes or no? If you are, then God justifies
you. Just like in a court of law,
they examine the evidence to find out if you're guilty or
not guilty. But in God's court, it's not
a difference between guilty or not guilty. It's between guilty
and righteous. You haven't just not broken the
law, but you've kept it. And from the heart, all of your
being, In Job chapter 9 in verse 2, Job answered and said, I know
it is so of a truth, but how should man be just with God? He answered that way in response
to Job 8, where his so-called friend Bildad asked him, Does
God pervert judgment? Does the Almighty pervert justice?
If your children have sinned against him and have cast them,
and he has cast them away for their transgression, if you would
seek God, the times, and make your supplication to the Almighty,
if you were pure and upright, surely now he would awake for
thee and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosper.
If you were perfect, then he would bless you. That's what
Bildad said. And Job answers, I know that's
true. But how can man be just with God? That's the big question,
isn't it? Now look at a couple of other
verses in scripture. Look at Psalm chapter 7, chapter
143. Psalm 143, the big question we're
facing here, we're brought into God's court, He's given, He's
performed an examination. In Psalm 14, He looked upon the
children of men to see if there were any that seek God and did
understand, and He concluded there's none. None righteous,
none good, all filthy. In Psalm 143, in verse 2, The psalmist prays this way,
he says, enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy
sight shall no man living be justified. What is the psalmist saying here?
Somehow, oh Lord, in your wisdom, find a way to not enter judgment with me personally,
because if I have to stand before you personally, I will not be
justified. I have no defense. There's nothing
I can excuse myself. I have no plea. There's nothing
about me I can find. The question is, how can God,
and what basis can God accept a sinner? On the basis of perfect
conformity? Perfect obedience to his law?
Or some other way? For example, because I trust
in Jesus. Look at Psalm 130. Psalm 130 says this, in verse
three, if thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, make an account
of them, O Lord, who shall stand? Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Daniel,
Jeremiah. Who? John the Baptist. No, none
of them. None of them. That's the implication
here. There's no way for a man to stand
before God. In Ecclesiastes 7.20, if I can
find that real quick, I'll read that to you. Ecclesiastes, which
is after Proverbs. In chapter seven, in verse 20,
he says this. For there is not a just man on
earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Now we would think, well,
it's because it's really strict. God's so strict, he's so picky
that he couldn't find anything good in us. You know, we are
actually pretty close here. And you would think, given the
fact that we're his creatures and we can only come so close
to it, that really God's the one that is at fault. I mean,
when you really get it down, we have to pin the blame on God,
don't we? So let's revisit that question.
Does God accept us on the basis of a perfect obedience to his
law or on the basis of something else? Did he find a reason to
change the standard because we couldn't meet it? Did he flex
his justice or flex his, he modified his law, lowered it? He said,
I know, I know that you can't do that. I was thinking about
an illustration. If you had a son and you said,
son, I want you to have a car. I know you're coming to that
age where you want a car. And I will give you a car. I
will buy it and give it to you if you do this. If you don't
miss a day of school in high school, and you get straight
A's. I will buy you a car. Completely
without any contribution on your part. You just, perfect days
and perfect attendance. So your son goes to high school,
four years, he doesn't miss a day. He goes when he's sick, he goes
when he's healthy, he goes when he doesn't want to go. He doesn't
miss a day. And he takes history and geography,
he takes math, He takes physics, chemistry, English literature,
writing. He takes a lot of hard courses,
and he takes drama. And he gets straight A's in every
course. He even takes physical education. He's an athlete. Straight A's, except in drama. Doesn't do so well there. He
tries his best, but he can't quite cut it. He's not a good
actor. So the teacher gives him a B
for effort. And at the end of the four years,
his dad, his mom, are looking at his report card. All As, a
3.98, well, except one, drama, 3.98 GPA overall, perfect attendance. Mom says, honey, you gotta admit,
he really, he gave it his all. And dad says, well, son, I really
love you, and I can see you tried. No one has really done any better
than you. None of my kids, most people,
you were valedictorian, so you like hit the ball almost out
of the park, but just fell short, and who cares about drama anyway?
And so his dad says, you know, it's good enough, it's good enough,
here's the car. Maybe he charges him a dollar
for the part he couldn't make up. Is that the way God accepts us? Is that the basis? Is that the
way we performed? No to both answers. No to both
questions. Number one, we didn't come close.
We didn't even come close. They're all together filthy. Their best works, according to
Isaiah 64 6, all of their righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Not even
close. They're full of ungodliness and
unrighteousness. But in our own thinking, in our
own estimation, we look at how we've done and we don't have
such a strict view of ourselves. We have a hard time looking at
ourselves objectively. We're like the chapter two man.
I see this guy over here, he doesn't do these things that
I do. I tithe, I come to church every week, I pray at least twice
a day, you know, and I go down the list. Don't talk to me about
loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and spirit. I intend
to, but I just can't quite do it. So God must look at my good
intentions. My sincerity, my motivation is
really there, but it's just not quite able to. After all, he
made me imperfect, so I can't blame myself. That's the way
we think, but it's far, far from that. Nor does God change the
standards, straight A's, and perfect attendance are required.
Why? Because God is absolutely holy.
He cannot compromise. It's not like he wants to but
can't. He can't. It's against his nature
to change. He's holy in all of his ways,
just and righteous. He wouldn't change one iota of
his law, not even for his son. Though he were a son, yet he
learned obedience by the things which he suffered, not even for
his son. So God is ultimately infinitely holy and just and
righteous, and he must have a perfect obedience. And for us to think,
well, because I trust Jesus, therefore God is going to accept
me, that reveals a big problem in the way we think about God.
It puts on the balances of justice our attitude towards Christ with
God's demands for righteousness. And if God could accept something
from us, then God would not be just at all. He would not be
just. He would not be righteous. And
it's not like we've almost come up anyway. We're far, far from
it. They're all together vanity, he says. It's not that we are
almost justified by ourselves. We're not at all close. And when
God describes the contrast in Romans and Galatians and other
books of the Bible between works and faith, he's not describing
the contrast between our perfect obedience and righteousness,
he's describing the contrast between any attempt on our part
to think that some filthy thing we do could satisfy God, is the
difference between our unrighteous works and faith. But the problem
is we can't do any righteousness and that's where we're led to
here in Romans 1 and 2. And so he says here, in the last
part of it, he condemns the Jews who had the law, and knew the
law, and taught the law, and professed to keep the law. But
what they actually did is, they did those things that were outward
that men can see, but inwardly, they were doing all sorts of
corrupt things. And they've even done worse today, but that's
another story. So he says so in chapter two. He says in verse 17, behold,
you're called a Jew, you rest in the law, you make your boast
of God, you know his will, you approve the things that are more
excellent being instructed out of the law. So you know it, you
teach it, you're well-learned in it, and you are confident
that thou thyself are a guide of the blind, a light of them
which are in darkness. You're like an angel from God
sent to give light to poor sinful souls. You're an instructor of
the foolish, a teacher of babes. You have the form of knowledge
and of the truth and the law. Now, since you have this bright
light of knowledge and teach others, therefore, thou therefore
which teachest another, do you teach yourself? Thou that preachest
a man should not steal, do you? Do you steal? Thou that sayest
a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou
that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest
thy boast of the law through breaking the law, do you dishonor
God? You see what he's saying here?
We all are by nature the worst hypocrites. That's the charge
leveled here. We know the truth. We know how
to recognize when it's not kept. We know how to judge others.
We want to sit in the seat of judgment. We want to be law givers
and not only the giver, but the judge of the law. We're called
legalists, but we can't see our own sin. We're utterly blind
to our own sin, the fact that we've fallen so far short. And
so he says, it's the greatest contrast between someone thinking
they're this high when they're really the lowest. It's the contrast
between utter light and utter darkness. And we are all in this
case of utter darkness. So again, I ask the question,
how can we be accepted? On what basis can God accept
us? Is it by keeping his law? Does
God change? Does he modify his requirements? Wouldn't it be an accusation
against God that because we couldn't do it, he changed himself in
order to make us acceptable? Absolutely not. Not only is that
true, that argument true, God can't change. He's not, like
I said, he's not following his children around to see how he
can please his kids. You have to please God. He's
the Father. And so He doesn't change His
requirements at all, not a smidgen. But here is the righteousness
of God. Notice in Romans chapter three.
Verse nine, what then, are we better than they, the Jews? No,
no, we're not better than the Jews, no in no wise. Romans 3,
nine, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they're
all under sin. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. Neither Jew nor Gentile, neither
you nor me. There's none that understandeth.
In other words, we couldn't understand God. How could we believe him
if we can't understand him? There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. We're spiritually ignorant,
and we don't seek the light. We're in the totality of darkness. Verse 12, they are all gone out
of the way. Didn't just happen to fall. They
went out of the way. They are together become unprofitable.
Heap up all of mankind and their best works, and what does God
say? Totally worthless. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Again, feel the weight of God's
analysis of your own thoughts and motives and words and deeds,
and consider the fact that you have to stand before him and
give an account of yourself to God, and he already gives the
judgment here. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. No one can stand up like one
of the worms in the garden and say, I'm better than he is. That's
what we do. It's always a relative comparison.
law is not relative. God is the standard. His justice
doesn't depend on our ability to keep it. He is absolutely
just. He says their throat is an open
sepulcher. Whatever comes out of them is
death. With their tongues they have used deceit. Whatever they
say is a lie. The poison of asthma is under
their lips. They murder with what they say. Verse 14, whose
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift
to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and
the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God
before their eyes. Now, here's the conclusion. Now,
we know that what things soever the law saith, whatever God's
law says, that objective standard God has set in place that doesn't
change, it says to them who are under the law that every mouth
may be stopped. I have no defense, and all the
world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law, your doing of the law, there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
God's law is given for this reason, to expose your sin. and to make
you, show you, prove that you're guilty before God, and to leave
you helpless because God says you cannot be justified before
God by what you do to keep the law, and yet God's law requires
perfect obedience. That is a problem, isn't it?
How can man be just with God? God's law requires perfect obedience.
If he enters into judgment with us, we will be condemned, and
yet Yet, and I'm helpless to do anything, what am I gonna
do? How can God do this? How can I do this? Who can do
this? Here's the answer, verse 21,
but now the righteousness of God is manifested. What is the righteousness of
God? It's God's holy character. It's God's holy character implemented,
fulfilled. That requirement that he puts
on us in his law, God himself undertook for his own name's
sake because he is righteous to fulfill what he required. He didn't leave his law broken
and unhonored or dishonored. He actually undertook to honor
his law. How, he says, verse 24, or verse
22, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there
is no difference. The question is this, on what basis can God
accept a sinner? Is it by the perfect keeping
of his law, or is it by our faith in Jesus Christ? Is it because
we believe Christ that God can accept us? Those two options
there. Is it perfect conformity to his
law, or is it on the basis of our believing Jesus? It's a tricky
question, isn't it? We want to say, because we talk
about faith in Christ, it must be on the basis of what we believe.
But it's not. And that's the point of the gospel.
The point of the gospel is that the righteousness of God is revealed
in the gospel. In other words, God has kept
his law in the person of his son. And he's the only one in
all of history who has. There's only the 33 years or
so of Christ's life on earth that ever pleased God. You say,
well, man, God must be overly strict because no one can please
him. No, we're just exceedingly sinful. There's nothing wrong
with God's law. It's absolutely good. But the
problem is that I'm exceedingly sinful. And so we're in a predicament. We're sinful. We have to answer
to God. We can't give an answer. Our
mouth is shut. God's law already condemns us.
We're sentenced to death. And it's an eternal death. The
wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Death is one time. It says in Hebrews chapter 9,
he says, it's appointed unto man once to die. After this,
the judgment. And we're all going to stand
there on one day, every born person in the world. How are
we going to answer? What are you going to say? There's
only one way you can be cleared. Only one way God can accept you.
Only one way God can justify us. What is it? The righteousness
of God. God's righteousness has to be
counted by God as our own righteousness. How could God do that? because
he appointed his son, who came and lived as a man in all of
his life, his thoughts, his motives, his words, his deeds, everything
he did. Like Rommel said earlier, if
the whole world, if everything that Christ did was written,
the books in all the world couldn't contain it. Because if you've
ever done something good, what do you want to do? Look at that,
man. I remember I had this motive
I was going to do something, and I did it. It cost me everything.
I don't want to talk about it. I've got to be proud. But I've
got to think about that a little bit. I want to go back and remember
that. Oh, look at that picture there. There I was. I was doing
that. Such a fine lad. I was five years
old at the time, but it was a good thing. No, everything Christ
did was so perfect and holy that individual actions and thoughts
and motives of his heart, if you were to just take one of
them and explode it and look at it. it would fill the world
with books. Think of all that he did, the
perfections of everything that he did. That and that alone pleased
God. That and that alone fulfilled
his law. That is what God requires of each one of us. Nothing less
than the perfection of God in a man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we get to this. Now, let's look at Hebrews chapter
nine briefly here, because this is what he is talking about here.
From the foundation of the world, no man ever kept God's law. From
the foundation of the world, every man was a sinner. God found
them to be filthy. How can we appear? How can God
accept us? Not on the basis of our faith,
because if faith was required, why did God give the law? Here's
a better question. If faith was what God required
of us to be righteous before Him, why did Christ die? Why did He come and live and
suffer and die? If faith is all that was needed,
he could have just given us this inclination to believe him and
it would have all been done. No, not on the basis of our faith,
not even the basis of our faith in Jesus, but on the perfection
of Christ's life and on the fulfillment of his righteousness, God's righteousness
and his obedience and in the satisfaction of his justice in
his blood and his sufferings under the wrath of God. That
pleases God. In sacrifice and offering, you
had no pleasure. Therefore, in the volume of the
book, it is written of me to do your will, O God. And that's
why I came in a body. You prepared me. Hebrews chapter
9, look at this. In verse 22, almost all things
are by the law purged with blood. In the Old Testament, almost
everything was sprinkled with blood in order to cleanse it
because that represented the truth and the blood sprinkled
then represented the truth of the way things are in heaven
because everything has to be cleansed with blood. Notice,
he says, almost all things are by the law purged with blood
and without shedding of blood is no remission. There's no letting
go of sins. There's no forgiveness of sins. There's no release of the sinner
unless blood is shed. That was the teaching of the
Old Testament. Verse 23, it was therefore necessary that the
patterns or the copies of those things in the heavens should
be purified with these. The things on earth and that
earthly tabernacle, just a copy and not a substance, just a shadow,
but not the real thing. Those had to be purified with
the blood of animals, but the heavenly things themselves, with
better sacrifices than these, Christ's sacrifice is better
than all the sacrifices of the Old Testament. His blood actually
cleansed. They had to be, what are these
better things, these heavenly things? All believers and all
of their life and everything they think and do and say. is
purged, cleansed. Their sins are taken away from
them, released from them, and they are forgiven. They're set
free to come to God and have access to Him and to know Him
by the blood of Jesus. Verse 24, for Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, not on earth, which are
the figures of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear
in the presence of God for us. Here we see substitution, for
us. Here we see representation, Christ
for us. God looks upon him. Christ offered
himself to God. Not to us, he offered himself
to God. It's God who must be pleased. God's law had to be kept. His
justice had to be satisfied. Only Christ did it. So he appears
there, having fulfilled the law, having offered himself to God,
God having received that offering of himself, and in receiving
it, completely released us from all of the condemnation of our
sins. He removed the punishment of
our sins from us because he received from Christ payment in the offering
of himself, the sacrifice of himself, his blood shed. And
now he appears. a perpetual acceptance by God
of him and all for whom he died. And that is the righteousness
of God. God's righteousness is so high
that in order to accept us, the basis of that acceptance had
to be the death and obedience of his own son. That is a strict
righteousness, isn't it? We think it's strict because
it would condemn us to hell. Oh, it's far stricter than that.
It condemned his own son when it found sin on him and required
him to give obedience. He was perfect and he offered
himself. Look back at 14, Hebrews 9, 14. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God? You see, perfect, a perfect sacrifice. God accepted him. That's the
testimony of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit says Christ fulfilled
God's law and he satisfied his requirements, his demands for
justice for his people. And now he who did that, the
righteousness of God, where is he? He is in heaven. What's he
doing there? For us. for all who believe on
him." God gives us this persuasion. He causes us to agree. It's as
if we're all standing around looking at the obedience and
the sufferings of Christ and the death of Christ and God's
law answered by all of that. And we're amazed. If all the
things that were written that Christ ever did, it would fill
more than the books, more than the world could hold. and God is looking at it, God
sees the blood, He passes over us, and it's according to His
righteousness. Look at a couple of scriptures
in the book of Psalms, for example. In Psalm chapter 14, I want you
to see this. Psalm chapter 14, you know what
David did. I said 14, I mean 51. Psalm chapter
51. In David's life, he committed
adultery with a woman. Obviously she wasn't his wife.
So he murdered the lady's husband to hide it. So he committed adultery
and he murdered her and he hid it. He was a hypocrite. Tried
to cover it up. God had to make it known. It
was a terrible thing. Now I want you to read verse
14 of Psalm 51. Listen to this. Deliver me, David prays, deliver
me from blood guiltiness. That's murder. Deliver me from
the guilt of murder. Oh God, thou God of my salvation. To even realize that God could
do this is to realize the glory of God. That God could remove
the guilt of taking another man's life Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation. We think, I don't think God can
forgive me of this. And people kill themselves. They
literally take their lives because they think God couldn't forgive
me. Why do we do that? I mentioned this on Thursday
night at the Bible study. It's because we know inherently
that God is just, don't we? He's so just and we know it.
That's the reason this cloud of guilt is always on our head. Or we've just seared our conscience
so we are completely numb to our own vile nature. But if our conscience isn't seared,
then we realize that our guilt, our sin, For that, God should
cast us out and never have any communion with us. And so we
expect, yeah, God's going to get me, I'll probably drive to work
here and lose everything I have because of my stupidity, or it's
going to be a bad day, I deserve it. That's the way we think. Because we know God is just,
no one has to convince us of that, at least to a certain extent.
That's the issue. We know inherently, innately,
God is gonna hold me to an account. What we can't believe is what
David prays here. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation. What would ever inspire him to
think that way? Only the revelation of God's
glory in Christ. He says, deliver me from blood
guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall
sing aloud of thy Righteousness. That is amazing, isn't it? Because
if God delivers us from the guilt of our sins, then God did it
according to his righteousness, in fulfillment of his righteousness. The gospel comes to us, we're
under the wrath of God because of our sins, we're totally guilty,
we're hypocrites, we can judge others, we can't judge ourselves,
and we can't fix it. We can't stand before God, we
have no answer, our mouth is shut, God has already declared
us to be guilty, and we can't, by doing something, fulfill God's
law. And so, in our guilt and helplessness,
in our hopelessness, then God reveals His own righteousness. And He didn't just reveal it,
He provided it. Provided it in His Son. He made
Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. God chose us in Him and therefore
fulfilled His law for us in Him and He appears now in the presence
of God for us. Our righteousness is not in us,
it's in heaven, it's in Christ. And so we are not, there is no
basis on which God can accept us except the perfect fulfillment
of His law and that alone Christ did. And so faith, God given
faith now, it sees, it agrees with God, it looks upon Christ
and finds him to be the fulfillment, the revelation of the righteousness
of God. His prayers, his tears, his sorrow,
his compassion, his mercy on sinners, and his justice, his
hatred for sin. He loved righteousness, he hated
iniquity. God imputes that to us. He credits
us in believing Christ. He credits us with all that Christ
is and has done. And we come to God as guilty
sinners saying, Lord, be propitious. Look upon the shed blood of your
Son that fulfilled all righteousness. You are holy and righteous. You
accept nothing less than perfection. And that perfection is found
in Christ alone. And yet you've imputed to sinners
His righteousness, you provided it, you gave it by grace, and
you've given me this faith to know it and see it and be in
agreement with you. I'm fully persuaded that what
you said concerning Him is enough for you to accept me on the basis
of Christ and Christ alone. It's not a list of doctrines
that we believe, we believe Christ. He's the whole summation of all
the revelation of who God is and what He's done throughout
time and eternity. So the gospel is the great news. It's good,
it's glad, it's great. Because God's righteousness... See, we're not saved merely because
God says, you've done enough, almost, and we're gonna let you
go. So if God changes, how do we know he's not gonna change
the other way? I'm tired of you, you've been around all these
years and you still aren't right. Straighten up. Or, We would never
have any assurance because we're constantly striving to find,
have we done enough? Did we do it right? Was it the
right motive? Absolutely not. Judge yourselves
objectively. Absolutely not. I'm a total hypocrite. My motives are all wrong. Sin
isn't the best that I do. Bad sin isn't the best that I
do. And God can't receive me on the basis of anything except
the obedience and the sufferings of his son in my place. So I
come to God and I say, Lord, cause me, accept me for Christ's
sake and cause me to know it too. All of our doctrine is Christ
and Him crucified. If we say we have no sin, we
make God out to be a liar. But if we confess our sins, He
is faithful and He is just. God's justice provided our salvation. And God's grace provided our
salvation. God, in all of his holy perfections,
has done this. Because all that God is is holy,
and it came from him alone. He thought of it, he provided
it, he performed it, he tells us about it, he gives it to us,
he makes us to know it. We contribute nothing. Faith
divest itself of any contribution. Everything I do will damn me
to hell, but only what Christ did will be my everlasting life. He says this in Colossians chapter
3. If you then be risen with Christ, then seek those things
which are above. Set your affections on things
above, not on things on the earth. For we are dead and our life
is hid with Christ in God. We died when he died. Our sins
were put away when he bore our sins on the tree. When he rose,
we were justified before God, and God tells us about it, and
we're convinced of it. And so we live our life not looking
at what we're going to do, not looking at the world and what
it's gonna give us. at the right hand of God where Christ appears
for us. There's all my righteousness, all my inheritance, all blessing
from God is in my Savior. And in every trial of our life,
we look and we say, yes, it seems like that I've been holding out,
thinking that God is going to bless me for Christ's sake, but
this trial, these troubles, I'm just getting tired. I'm getting
weary. My body's failing. I'm getting
ugly, or whatever it is. I can't do what I thought. People
around me are seeing what a sinner I am. So what? You've never been
more than a sinner. Christ alone is all my righteousness. We don't say this in order to
give ourselves a license to do wrong. It's just a fact that
we're sinful. But now we want to seek those
things which are above. We look to Christ and find our
acceptance before God in him alone. And the only basis for
God giving us life and eternal glory. And we're so happy that
God would be so holy. And yet gracious, he would do
all this at the cost, full cost to himself, even at the cost
of his own son. And so he exalts his son. Look
at him. Look at him. Can you find anyone
but him who's righteous? No. Anyone worthy but him? No. And what do we do? We cast our
crowns at his feet and say, the Lamb is worthy. All glory be
to the Lamb. Let's pray. Father, we pray that
you would so knit our hearts to you in the bundle of life,
that you would give us this faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to know
that Christ is our life. He sits seated enthroned on the
right hand of God with all glory and honor. He is our wisdom,
our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. He is our all,
our life, our wisdom. The treasures of wisdom and knowledge
are in him. Everything, truth, the way, Life itself is in our
Savior. So we look to Him. Faith, this
faith you give, this blessed, precious faith, causes us to
see Him and lay hold on Him with both hands of our spiritual nature
you've given to us, this life you've given in our souls to
lay hold on Christ, our righteousness. Help us to trust Him. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen.