Romans, Romans chapter 3, and
I'll read a few verses here for our edification, and the glory
of him who alone is worthy. But first we'll pray. Father
in heaven, blessed and holy art thou, Lord
God Almighty. our Maker and Creator, Controller
of the affairs of men, Sovereign, Glorious, and Holiness, worthy
to be worshipped and worthy to be praised. We bless you and
thank you that you are God, and there is no other. Thou art our
God in ages past, and thou art our God even now and will be
our God throughout the eternity. And we thank you for this privilege
of arranging things so that we might be in this place at this
time to bless and praise and worship thee and to hear from
thee from thy word. May the Spirit enable us to set
forth thy glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we would not be remiss,
Father, in remembering him whom thou didst
send. whose name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. We thank you
for his coming. We thank you for his appointment
and anointing. We thank you for his willingness
to come. We thank you for his love for
us. and the revelation of that love,
Father, that has been shed abroad in our hearts and enabling us
to cry out, Father, we thank you for his atoning
work, that by the shedding of his blood he atoned for our sins
and made an end of them. and cast them into the depths
of the sea, and will not remember them against us anymore. That's our comfort and our peace. That's our rock of refuge, the
Lord Jesus. May he be honored and glorified
here this morning. Bless those that have gathered.
May thy word rule and reign in the hearts of all of us. May
we bow before him and on him as our Redeemer and Savior and
live for him and be obedient to him. In his precious name,
amen. Here in the book of Romans, in verse 19, the apostle Paul, who is the
human instrumentality of the compiling of these words under
the inspiration of God, he says, Now we know There are some things that can
be known, and there are some things that cannot be known.
And the things that cannot be known, I'm not bothered with. It's the things that we can know. And Paul says, now we know. We're
assured. We know that whatsoever that
what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped." Just shut your mouth. Come before God, just shut your
mouth. You haven't got nothing to say. The only thing you can do and
I can do is confessed that we are guilty as charged, saith to them that are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
become guilty before God." And that word guilty in the text here means subject. to the judgment of God, that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become subject
to the judgment of God." There's a judgment. There's all kinds
of judgments. There's human judgments, and
there's judgments that you and I make probably every hour of
every day. But there is a great judgment
called the grand assize, a judgment where the whole world will stand
before God. And all of them will have to
admit their guilt. So if you admit your guilt before
God that you are a lawbreaker, You're just doing something ahead
of time, because you will, you and I and all the members of
Adam's fallen race, will one day have to admit their guilt. Some do it beforehand, and some will do it later on.
The whole world is guilty before God. That is, there is not a
real good man that ever lived on this planet earth. Not one. Only the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Every individual, man or woman,
boy and girl, came into this world born in sin, conceived
in iniquity, and go astray from their mother's womb, speaking
lies and hypocrisy." Now, that's the way it is. That's
our situation. That's how we are. Everything
else, apart from that, is a lie. There's no good men on the face
of the earth. Never was and never will be.
They're all guilty of violating the law of God. Nobody has ever loved God like
God requires to be loved. We're in bad shape. that the
whole world might become guilty before God. The whole world,
for the most part, don't give a hoot about what I'm saying
here or what I'm reading this morning. They're not interested. They're
not interested. They will be one of these days.
When God calls them to account, men will be interested in. That
will do them no good, then, it's too late. Therefore, Paul says in verse
20, by the deeds of the law, by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the
knowledge of saints. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifest. Righteousness is what God demands. The end of the law is righteousness. That's what the law points to.
Thou shalt love God with all your heart, all your mind, all
your soul, all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself,
and so forth. If you did that, That would be the fulfillment
of the law. But no man has ever done that
except this one man, the Lord Jesus. He's the only man that has ever fulfilled the demands
of the law. So in verse 21 he says, But now
the righteousness of God, without the law, is manifest, being witnessed
by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe. For there is no difference, for
all have sinned and come short. of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Whom? Whom? That refers to a person. Whom? Whom God hath set forth. to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remissions
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time,
His righteousness, that He might be judged. God being God must
be just. And if judgment falls upon us,
it'll be a just judgment. That is, it'll be what we deserve. But I declare, or he declares,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just. That is,
God is holy and just. And he will not in any wise save
any soul apart from a righteousness. He might be just and the justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus.