Now we're going to look at verses
16, 17, and 18 together before we go through beginning next
week where the Apostle Paul from Romans 1.18 all the way over
to Romans 3 and verse 20, that section of scripture, Romans
1.18 to Romans 3 and verse 20, what he's going to do in those
verses as he's inspired by the Spirit is to show us exactly
why we need the righteousness of God. You remember he says
in verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, the
good news of Christ, the good news of God's grace, the good
news of how God saves sinners in and by and through Christ,
upon whom all of our salvation has been conditioned. It's on
his shoulders. And he who came into this world
and assumed human nature in union with his deity, walked this earth,
not as a private person, but as the surety and the substitute
of all whom the Father gave him, Messiah, the anointed one, that's
Christ, God in human flesh, every bit God, every bit man, yet without
sin, But having our sins laid to His charge, the Lord hath
laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. Having laid upon Him
all of our sins, He bore that burden to the cross and died
that death, paying our debt. He's our redeeming, He's our
surety. Well, you can look at this, look at everything, the
fullness of Christ, He's our representative. He's our surety. He's our substitute. He not only
represents us before God, he took our place and takes our
place. And he's our surety, paying the debt. He's our substitute
who actually came and went under the wrath of God. We're gonna
talk about the wrath of God. And fully satisfied that wrath
for his people, ensuring our salvation. And that's what the
word propitiation is all about. when you see that word in the
New Testament. You see it three times, and then other forms of
it. It means that Christ, by his work as our surety, taking
our place under the wrath of God, he turned back the wrath
of God from us, so that we're not under the wrath of God, and
even though we deserve, in ourselves, we deserve the wrath of God,
we can say that. We've earned it, but Christ turned
it back in our place. That's the good news, isn't it? And not only did he turn back
the wrath of God by his death on the cross satisfying justice,
through his righteousness laid to our charge, we have all the
blessings and all the benefits of salvation. Now that's good
news. It's not on you, it's not on me, it's on Christ. That's
what it means when it says Christ is our all and in all. And so
Paul said, I'm not ashamed to tell people that. That's like,
would a doctor be ashamed to tell a cancer patient that he's
got the cure? Why would you be ashamed of that?
That's good news, isn't it? Whatever. So we all have the
cancer of sin, and that cancer is going to kill us unless there's
a cure. Well, here's some good news. Here's the cure. So I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power, the dynamite, remember last week?
The dynamite of God unto salvation. That is when the Holy Spirit
brings us under the preaching of the gospel and empowers it
to our salvation. And how do you know that's been
empowered by the Holy Spirit in the new birth unto my salvation? Unto everyone that believeth. You see, that's God-given faith
right there. Faith is the gift of God. It's
not natural. Faith is not natural to man. Gospel faith, faith that brings
a sinner to cling to Christ, that's not natural. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them, for they're spiritually discerned. And so
this everyone that believeth, that believing is the evidence
that the gospel has been empowered to your salvation to the Jew
first and also to the Greek or the Gentile. He's making the
point here that anyone who is brought to faith, anyone to whom
the gospel has been empowered as the power of God and salvation,
whether they be Jew or whether they be Gentile, doesn't matter.
Now here's the key, now there's two revelations here. We're talking
about the revelation of God. And the first one we've already
talked about in verse seven, it's spelled out in verse 17.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Now remember
what the righteousness of God is, and you can, you know, it
is so clear in the context of the Bible, and especially in
the context of Roman, exactly what the righteousness of God
is. It's the justice of God satisfied in and by the Lord Jesus Christ,
what I've just talked about, as our surety, as our substance.
It's his righteousness imputed. That's the righteousness of God.
Listen, I heard a man say one time that the righteousness of
God there is just simply the justice of God against sinners.
Well, I've got news for you. For me, if that's all it is,
that's not good news. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Because if that's just, if it's only the justice of God against
sinners, then where does that leave me? Where does that leave
you? The wages of sin is death. So
the righteousness of God, if it's in the context of being
good news to a sinner, it's got to pronounce and apply the cure. And that's what he's talking
about. And he says it right here. It's revealed from faith to faith. And as I said in the context,
he's talking about revelation. The root word for faith is knowledge. Now, man by nature doesn't have
this knowledge. And I know what some preachers
do. They say, well, you're just saying it's just a doctrine or
it's just intellectual. No. It's knowledge that God teaches
His people in the power of the Spirit that He convinces us of. He convinces us of knowledge. Like, for example, we talk about
sin, all right? One of the things that Paul's
going to do when he establishes why we need the righteousness
of God, beginning at verse 18 here, he's going to show us really
what sin is. Man by nature really doesn't
know what sin is. Did you know that? Oh, I know,
he knows what immorality is in the eyes of men. We know that
because we have a conscience. But he doesn't know the reality
of sin. We'll show you that. And then
he says, it's from faith. So God gives us this knowledge,
a knowledge of who God is. He's a holy and just and righteous
God and must punish sin. Knowledge of who we are, that
we're sinners who have no righteousness. God is righteous and we're not.
And we cannot make ourselves righteous by our best efforts
to obey God, our most sincere desires and efforts to obey God. Even the sincerity of the natural
man is not enough to make him righteous. Even the most charitable
acts of the natural man is not enough to make him righteous.
Everything the Bible teaches that sin has to be defined in
God's eyes as it relates to Christ. One of the first things the Holy
Spirit does when He convicts us in Holy Spirit conviction,
it says in John 16, 8 and verse 9, He convinces us or convicts
us of sin because we believe not on Christ. So without Christ,
it all falls short. It's all iniquity. It's all sin
and there's nothing else but the wrath of God. So it's from
that knowledge of faith, the knowledge of salvation. How God
saves sinners to faith, that's the gift of faith that God gives
us to receive and to believe what God has revealed to us.
And he says, as it is written, the just or the justified shall
live by faith. That's the fruit. of being justified
before God, living by faith, looking to Christ. And that's
the revelation of the righteousness of God. Now, no sinner is going
to be saved apart from the righteousness of God and the revelation of
the righteousness of God. This is the one thing that we
need to be made right with God. You have to have Christ's righteousness
imputed to you. And that settles the legal issue
of the wrath of God being turned back in propitiation. And it
also issues forth in the life-giving spirit whereby we're born again
and brought to faith in Christ. The just shall live by faith.
We have to have it. Now, as I said, from Romans 1.18
all the way over to Romans 3.20, Paul's going to, it's like he's
a skillful prosecuting attorney. And it's all set forth in logical
fashion, reasonable fashion. I had a little section, I had
to cut it out because I'm trying to keep these lessons down to
two pages. But in my notes, I've got this in there. I've heard preachers say, well,
the gospel is not logical. Well, I beg to differ. I'll tell
you what's not logical is the natural man. The natural man
in his reasoning, in his or her natural reasoning, is totally
off the wall, totally unreasonable. The moment a sinner thinks that
he can turn back the wrath of God, that he can be saved or
enter heaven's glory based on his works, that is totally illogical. What God has provided through
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the logos, the word logical. It's the most logical thing in
the world. Here's a holy God. Here's a just God who cannot,
who cannot act contrary to his justice, and yet he acts in mercy
and saves sinners. How can he do that? Man by nature
has no logic on that, but God does. And that's what he told
Isaiah to tell the people of Jerusalem. He said, come, let
us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they'll be as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they'll be as wool. How is that possible? Well, here's
the logic of God. It's the gospel wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. It's God's righteousness because
he purposed it, promised it, planned it, and provided it.
It's God's righteousness because it's in Christ who is God and
man in one person. It's not the righteousness of
man, for man has no righteousness. So we need the righteousness
of God. And if you want to see the depravity of man, look at
it in Romans 3 in verse 12. He doesn't want righteousness
God's way. That's why he's illogical. All right? So we need the righteousness
of God. Well, look at verse 18. Now,
that's the first revelation that Paul brings up here. It's the
gospel that concerns the person and finished work of Christ summarized
in the phrase, the righteousness of God. Now, Paul, why do I need
the righteousness of God? Well, then Paul begins to act
like that skillful prosecuting attorney. And what he does in
these verses is he brings in He brings the evidence, presents
the evidence that shows how the whole human race, Jew and Gentile,
fallen in Adam, deserve and have earned nothing but God's wrath.
That's why I need the righteousness of God, because I don't have
one of my own. I can't work one of my own. He
starts off here, he says, now this is why we need the righteousness
of God. Look at verse 18. For the wrath
of God is revealed. Now there's the second revelation
that Paul brings up. A revelation of God's wrath,
it's revealed from heaven, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. Now if you wanna know the essence
of ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, read the next phrase.
Who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now that's a summation of the
sin of unbelief, which is the root of all sin. And so, the
wrath of God. Now, I've got in this lesson
and in the next lesson that I'm gonna do these issues of the
wrath of God. What is the wrath of God? Well,
people talk about God's wrath in a hurricane, for example.
Or God's wrath in a tornado. Or God's wrath in some awful
act of what we think is injustice. You know, when Hurricane Katrina,
is that the one that hit New Orleans years ago? When Hurricane
Katrina came by. There were many preachers who
were talking about how sinful New Orleans was, and therefore
God brought his wrath down upon them. Well, let me tell you something. Let me tell you about God's wrath.
Now, God's wrath is not just God throwing a temper tantrum.
It's not God just picking out this one and that one because
this, you know, New Orleans is more sinful than Albany. Heck,
we got a church on every street corner and probably one raising
up right now. Is that what it is? Is it a hurricane
or a tornado? Well, sometimes we can talk about
those things as manifestations of God's wrath. But here's what
God's wrath really is. God's wrath is his just punishment
of sinners to whom sin is charged. Now that's God's wrath. And what
is the magnitude and the intensity and the degree of the punishment
that comes along with God's wrath? Well, what does the Bible say? Bible says the wages of sin is
what? It's death. And it's talking
about eternal death and eternal damnation. Technically speaking, God's elect
have never been under God's wrath. We're vessels of mercy, marked
out for mercy from the very beginning in Christ. And when people come
to me and say, well, before I did this or before I did that, I
was under God's wrath, I'm always asking this question, define
God's wrath for me. Well, now, if you want to really
see an example of God's wrath, the example of God's wrath, I'll
tell you where to go. Look to the cross. Now, that's
God's wrath. That's where the Son of God incarnate,
as the surety and substitute of God's people, His elect, went
under the wrath of God, and took the full measure of God's punishment
unto death to satisfy justice. Remember when he was hanging
on that cross, one of the saints, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, you
remember that? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? That's the equivalent of separation
from God. That's God's wrath. Now that's
a whole lot worse than a tornado, isn't it? That's a whole lot
worse than a hurricane, or a flood, or a sickness. Plus, understand
now, you see manifestations of God's wrath against sin in the
Old Testament and in the New. But you remember when Christ,
now I'm getting a little ahead of myself, because I'm gonna
bring this out next week. You remember when Christ gave the people of
Judea Two examples of disasters. One was out of the evil of men. When Pilate commanded his Roman
soldiers to slaughter those people who were going to sacrifice,
those Jews, in Galilee. And then he talked about what
we call a natural disaster. It's what the insurance companies
call an act of God. When the tower at Siloam fell
on those people, You remember what was his point in that lesson? He said, do you suppose that
those Galileans who were slaughtered and those people on whom that
tower fell, do you suppose they were greater sinners than all
people, that they deserved what they got? Remember what he said?
He said, I tell you nay, except you repent, you will likewise
perish. So when you look at New Orleans,
we often kid about California, because they've been crazy out
there for years. I'm sorry if anybody from California's
listening. They talked about how Governor
Brown is trying to outlaw what he calls hate speech against
the, what is it, the LGBT, I don't know how many letters they got
there. And somebody said yesterday that it would ban the Bible,
ban sales of the Bible. Now, my brothers and sisters
in California, I'm not talking about you. But that's crazy stuff. And I'm gonna tell you something,
they outlaw the Bible, and if they say, well, we're gonna put
you in jail, we're all going to jail, aren't we? They'll have
to build bigger jails to fill us, because I'm gonna preach
the scriptures. And that's just the way it is.
But you see here, somebody said, well, if something would come
through and wipe out California, do you suppose that they are
greater sinners than we are here in Georgia? No. Listen, here's
what the wrath of God says. If God were to give any of us
in California or Georgia and every place in between, if he
were to give any of us what we deserve and what we've earned,
it would be his wrath. Isn't that right? That's why
we need the righteousness of God. That's the cup that Christ
drank, isn't it? Remember he said, if it be possible,
let this cup pass. It's the cup of God's wrath.
He was experiencing the weakness of just humanity there, because
he had never suffered like that. The wrath of God. Well, look
here in verse 18. That's revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Unrighteousness simply
states what we've been talking about, that man by nature and
by works has no righteousness. Romans 3.10, there is none righteous,
no, not one. We don't have it. Now ungodliness
is, listen to me now, ungodliness refers to everything we do in
a state of unrighteousness, in unbelief. Even the religion that
we engage ourselves in. Even the morality that we engage
ourselves in, in God's sight, it's not enough to make us righteousness,
it's all ungodly. You see, we just don't measure
up. And here's the key to it all. He says, who hold the truth,
verse 18, in unrighteousness. What truth? Well, obviously he's
talking about the gospel truth. But in reality, he's talking
about any truth. Now think about God's revelation of himself.
Now he's going to make the case here on down into the passage
and we'll get to that next week. God has many ways of revealing
truths about himself. For example, creation. Creation
itself is a revelation of God's power. Look at verse 20. He says, well, he says, for the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen being understood by the things that are made.
Even his eternal power in Godhead, there is a God. And he's all powerful, he created
this world, he created this universe, so that they are without excuse.
You know what he's actually saying there? He's saying that there's
enough revelation in nature, in creation, to hold people accountable
for not seeking the Lord. And he's going to tell us, now
here's what happens. You see, we look at this world, we look
at this creation, we look at the trees, we look at the animals,
we look at the stars, the sun and the moon. And what does God
reveal about himself? Man, whoever created that, he
must be powerful. Well, what does man do with that
revelation if he's left to himself? He worships it. And that's what
Paul's gonna say. He turns, like, for example,
you ever heard of sun worshipers? I'm not talking about women laying
on the beach. I'm talking about people that really worship the
sun as a god, all right? They worship the creation rather
than the creator. What they ought to do is say,
the one who made that, I want to find him. I want to find more
truth about him. I had a fellow tell me one time,
he said, well, I just believe if a person walks in whatever
light they're given, that they're going to be saved. You know,
I agree with that. Here's the problem. Man by nature
will not walk in the light that he's given, not even in the light
of creation. And then on down, we'll get to this next week,
he says they become vain in their imagination. And actually what
they end up doing, they end up worshiping themselves. I've talked
to you about environmentalism. And I've told you that I am adamant
that we should do our very best as believers, as human beings,
to take care of the place we live, the earth. Now I'm not
gonna go out and hug a tree or anything like that. But we ought
to take care. I don't want to live in a trashy
place. I don't want dirty water and
dirty air. We ought to take care. We ought
to be good stewards of what God's given us. But the environmentalism
movement is where man becomes vain in his imagination because
he imagines that he can save this world, and he can't. Somebody said, well, it's all
our fault. Yes, it is. Adam brought the whole human
race into sin and death, and this world is cursed as a result
of it. But we can't save it, only God can. And of course,
God says he's not going to save this present earth, he's going
to burn it up and create a new heavens and a new earth. Well,
when he says here that they hold the truth in unrighteousness,
it means they suppress the truth and they replace it with something
they think is better. The son, who made the son? Let's
seek him. Oh no, let's bow down and worship
the sun. That kind of thing. And man becomes vain in his imagination. You know that's what brought
about the fall of man? God told Adam and Eve, he said, in the
day that you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. Satan comes
along and he tells Eve and he deceives her. He says, thou shalt
not surely die. And what did Eve do? She suppressed
the truth that God gave and chose the truth that Satan. Adam did
the same thing when he took sides with Eve against God. And man's been doing it ever
since. Well, there's also the revelation of God in the law. Now think about it this way,
on the back of your lesson there on page two. Now we know Satan's goal in keeping sinners condemned
is to suppress and hide the truth of the gospel. If our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. See, that's
2 Corinthians 4.3. There's the revelation of God
in creation. And Paul talks about that from
verse 19 to verse 32 of Romans 1. And then there's the revelation
of God in the law and in the conscience. And he deals with
that in chapter two. And then there's the revelation
of God in the gospel. He deals with that mainly in
chapter three. all the way down, and what happens, here's what
happens, men and women by nature, if left to our, you know, somebody
said, well, we all have a choice. Yes, we have a choice, but if
we're left to ourselves without the power of God and the salvation
through the Holy Spirit, we'll always make the wrong choice. Isn't that right? We'll always
choose evil over good. And granted, it's evil that we
don't recognize by nature, But here's what happens. They
hold the truth in unrighteousness in three ways. That's all of
us by nature. Number one, by suppressing or changing what
we can naturally know of God in creation. The natural order
of things. And he's gonna deal with the
sin of homosexuality, even on down there. Because what's natural,
according to God's creation, how God created me and how he
created you, They suppress or they change that truth. And they
make it something that's vain. All right, secondly, by suppressing
or changing what God reveals of himself in his law. Now that
specifically goes to the Jews who had the law of Moses, that's
chapter two. And you know what he's doing
there? A lot of preachers will say, well, verses 19 through
32 of chapter one, that deals with the Gentiles. Well, it does. It deals with all people, though,
not just the Gentiles. But he does hone in specifically
on the Jews, the lost religious Jews in chapter two who had the
law. And he says, now, when we talk about these Gentiles in
Sodom and Gomorrah, You unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem, do you think
you're better off than them? Do you think you deserve God's
blessings more than them because you have the law and you're connected
with Abraham and you've been circumcised? And he says, absolutely
not. And you remember he concludes
over in Romans 3 verse 9. Look at verse 9 of Romans 3. He says, what then, are we better
than they? No, in no wise. For we have before
proved that both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. So here's a, let's say here's
an immoral Gentile in the eyes of men. And here's a religious
Jew. Here's like the woman at the
well. in John 4, and here's Nicodemus
in John 3. Now, which one of them deserves
God's blessings, and God's favor, and God's salvation? Which one
of them could be called righteous in the sight of God based upon
their work? Well, the world says, oh, obviously
Nicodemus. God says no. Nicodemus, you're
just as much in need of the righteousness of God as that old immoral woman,
that Samaritan. Grace, grace, grace. Somebody said, well, I was raised
in a Christian home. Well, I hope you were. But let
me tell you something, if God still gave you what you've earned
or what you deserved, it'd be wrath. You need the righteousness
of God. And then thirdly, by suppressing
or changing what God reveals of himself in the gospel, even
in the gospel. You know, Stephen, he preached
the gospel to a bunch of people. What did they do? They suppressed
the truth and threw stones at the preacher. That's what they
did. That's what we'll do with the
gospel if left to ourselves. You see, it takes the power of
Christ through the Holy Spirit to bring a sinner not to suppress
the truth and change it, but to submit to the truth and to
believe it unto salvation. Well, one more and then I'll
quit. Turn to John chapter three. Who deserves the wrath of God?
Well, based upon our works, we all do. But you see, now remember
what I said, the wrath of God is God's just judgment of eternal
damnation and death against sinners. You know, people say, well, against
sin. Well, that's true, but it's against sinners to whom sin is
charged. But what if there could be a
way that I could stand before God and not be charged with my
sin? Now that's some good news, isn't
it? I like that revelation. There is a way. Well, look at
John 3, 36. It says, he that believeth on
the Son, Christ, hath everlasting life. That's one to whom God
will not impute iniquity. That's one to whom God has imputed
righteousness. The wrath of God is not upon
that person. And he that believeth not, the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
You know who that's talking about? That's talking about sinners
who go through this life and die in their sins without Christ,
without being washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness.
without believing in him under salvation. With the heart man
believeth under righteousness, scripture says. All right.