...to the third chapter of the
book of Romans. And that twenty-third verse says, "...for all have sinned." instance, the word all has reference
to all flesh. That is, to every man, every
woman, every boy, and every girl. To every member of Adam's race.
To every human being. For all have sinned. For all have sinned against God,
the true and the living God. for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Now, the glory of God is the
holiness of God. All the attributes of God proceed
from the holiness of God, the goodness of God, the immutability. All the attributes of God proceed
from the holiness of God. God is holy. For all sin comes short of the
glory of God, the holiness of God. Let me talk to you just
a little bit here this morning in regard to the holiness of
God. It can be said, based upon the
Word of God, based upon what God said Himself. Remember I
told you here the other day, the best kind of preaching and
teaching that comes forth from the lips of any man, woman, boy,
or girl in reference to God Almighty is to tell back to God the things
that God has said about Himself. That is what real preaching is,
is to tell back to God what He has already said about Himself.
And throughout the whole Bible, the whole of the Bible, the tenor
of it is the holiness of God, who God is. so holy, immaculately
pure, the purity of God. All unholiness is vile, vile,
and all unholiness is opposite to the nature of God. All the dust of sin that is undiscovered
in us by the naked eye is not undiscovered by the all-seeing
eye of God. Whatever little thing that appears to be little in
our sight, insignificant act or deed or thought that is
not in perfect conformity to the absolute, immaculate holiness
of God Almighty is sin. Sin. And everything that has anything to do with
unholiness is opposite to the nature of God, who is altogether
holy. And it is such a loathsome thing,
even the dust, the little speck undiscovered
by ourselves in ourselves. Even that little thing is such
a loathsome thing that the purity of God's eye cannot rest upon
it. Over in the book of Habakkuk
and the first chapter in the 18th verse. Let me read this
to you, and I think this will show us beyond any doubt as to
the extent of the purity of God Almighty as in comparison to
our impurities. I said it is such a loathsome
thing that the purity the pure and wholesomeness of God's eye
that he cannot look upon it. Now, listen to what it says.
It says, well, first in the twelfth verse, he says, Art thou not
from everlasting? That's where God's from. Where's
God from? He's from everlasting. He's from
eternity. He's eternity himself. He always
was and always will be without change. Art thou not from everlasting? O Lord my God, now listen to
this, mine Holy One, mine Holy One, that is His greatest and
cheapest attribute, that God is Holy, my Holy One. Then in
verse 13, I said that it is Such a loathsome thing that the purity
of God's eye cannot look upon evil impurity. It says, Thou
art of pure eyes, than's to behold evil, and canst not look upon
iniquity. Now, it does not say here that
he will not look upon iniquity. look upon sin, that he is of
pure eyes, that he will not look upon it, but it says he cannot
look upon evil. God, in His nature of holiness,
it says He cannot look upon evil. He is that holy. As a matter
of fact, holiness is the life of God, and it endures as long
as God is. He must eternally be unwilling
to look upon sin, and that's because of His nature of holiness,
holiness, holiness. They said, Holy, holy, holy art
thou, Lord God Almighty. I wish that I knew more about
that than what I do. I wish I was able to deal with
this as a man ought to deal with it, that would give him at least
his partial due as to what is rightfully his by way of worship
and by way of honor. It says he cannot look upon evil,
and if he should, if he should for one instant seize If he would
for an instant cease to hate evil, he would cease to live
because holiness is his life. He hates evil. He hates iniquity. He hates transgression. He hates it because it's his
nature to hate it because he is Holy, holy, holy. So if he would for one second
cease to hate evil, he would cease to live. And to be a holy
God is as essential to him as to be a living God. You think about that for a little
bit. To be a holy God. Holy, holy, holy. To be a holy
God is as much necessary to him as to be a living God. And he would not be a living
God but a dead God if he were in the least point seized to
hate evil. To be a dead God hates evil. hates sin and all of its appearances,
even the very appearance of it he hates. And he cannot look
upon it without hating it. He cannot look upon it without
his very heart, the heart of God, rising up against it. And when I think of all that
and think of myself, as sin and nothing but sin. Oh, I must have
a covering. I must have something that he
can look upon and behold that is pleasing to his eyes, pleasing
to his nature. It is hateful to him. Sin, evilness, wickedness is
loathsome and hateful to him because it's against the glory
of his nature, which is holiness. All have sinned and come short
of the holiness of God. Oh, every one of us, every one
of us. Oh, it's an abominable thing,
the Bible says, which his old hates over in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Chapter 44, I believe
it is. I will read this to you. Chapter 44, the book of Jeremiah. Verse 4, It says this, and he is talking
about the sin of those inhabitants of the
land. Because of their wickedness,
he says in verse 3, which they have committed to provoke me
to anger, in that they went to burn incense and to serve other
gods, whom they know not, neither they, ye, nor your father. Howbeit I sent unto you all my
servants, the prophets, rising early, and sending them, saying,
O, do not this abominable thing that I hate." Sin is an abomination. It is that which the holiness
of God hates. He said, I have sent my prophets. rising up early in the morning,
saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing which my soul hates. You see, the vilest of terms
are used to describe that which God's soul hates. They are emblems
of sin, and the Bible uses some descriptions that shows the awfulness
of that which God so hates, such as the vomit of a dog. The vomit of a dog. It says the
dog vomits and walks away. And then the dog comes back and
eats his own vomit. That's a nimbling of sin. And
then he talks about the loathsomeness of swine. wallowing in the mud,
in the dirt, in the filth. That's an emblem of sin. And then he talks about, in another
place, I think in the book of Romans, the third chapter, he
talks about the stench of putrefied carcasses in a grave, in an open
grave, the smell of dead flesh. as it comes forth from the grave. He talks about that in describing
that which his soul hates. It has to do with the smell of
the off-scouring of human flesh and the stinking of human sweat
and all that goes with it, emblems of sin. He says, The soul hates
this abominable thing. The soul hates it because of
who he is, because he is holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Sin is like a body covered with
scabs and leprosy. What an awful thing to look upon.
So vile is sin in his sight. The awfulness of it cannot be
described by a poor sinner like me. So it's no little thing, brethren
and sisters, this morning, to fly against the face of God,
to break His eternal law, to break His tables of stone in
pieces to put under your feet and my feet the transcript of
God's own nature, which is His holiness. All have sinned and
come short of the holiness of God. To love and to cherish that
which is inconsistent with God's honor and God's purity. Oh, to
lift up our voices and our heels against the glory of God's nature
is a terrible crime, a terrible crime. It's to join with Satan
himself. To identify ourselves with it
in any shape or form is to join with Lucifer, Satan the devil,
in his stabbing in the heart to deprive God of His very life,
to kill God. That's what Satan would do. And
for us to line up with him makes us as bad as he is. Our holiness,
God's holy, that's what I'm trying to say, and we're unholy. And
I'm telling you the truth. If I ever told the truth, I'm
telling you the truth this morning. in every part, is in direct opposition to the
very nature of God. And if sin be such a thing, then
we need to give heed to that little verse of Scripture in
the Bible that says, If ye that love the Lord, hate evil. If ye that love the Lord, hate
evil. hate evil. And I tried to tell
you here at Wednesday night that when we remember Him, as often
as you do it, you show forth His death till it come again.
And I think it's a sad commentary on us when we fail to remember
Him, when we say we're followers of Him. when we say that it took
the very life of God Almighty Himself to hang upon a tree for
that vile thing that God hates, our sin. And we are indifferent
to remembering of our Lord Jesus Christ when He died for us because
of our sin. Oh, if all this is so, which
I know it is, then I know sin cannot escape a due punishment. If sin is as vile as I've said
it was, and the Bible says it is, and it is as offensive as
I've said that God says it is to Him, then sin deserves and
will receive a due punishment. It will do it. of unrighteousness and consequently
a will to punish it is as essential to God as for him to love righteousness. He must punish it. He must punish
it. Since he is not a heathen God,
but has eyes to see, and purity to hate every sin, he will have
an infinite justice to punish whatever is against his infinite
holiness, be it little or small. There is no such thing as a little
sin in God's sight. In our sight it's a little sin
or it's a big sin, but in God's sight it's sin and He hates it.
His nature revolts against it. It's an injustice to His justice
and He will not put up with it. He'll punish sin whenever and
wherever it's found and it's against His infinite holiness. He hates everything. That's filthy. And that constantly, unchangeably,
forever. There's no let up with God in
His attitude towards sin. He's unchangeable in His hatred
of it. It's a terrible, terrible blight. It's a disease that only can
find its healing in God Himself. I wish people would quit looking
at themselves, quit looking at what they can do and what they
can't do and how they can find a remedy for their need and look
to Him who freely gives to whosoever will have it. As His holiness then is natural
and necessary, natural and necessary, So is the punishment of unholiness
natural and necessary to Him. Whatever is contrary to the nature
of God, which is the holiness of God, whatever is contrary
to that, falls under the justice of Almighty God, and if God would
If God would not punish sin, He would deny His own perfections
and His own holiness. He will punish sin. He will do
it. It does not look like He will,
does it? It does not look like He will. Everything is going on since
the beginning of the world. Some say it is 6,000 years old. Some say it is a billion years
old. The domain of it is how old it is. Far older than I am. It's older than the history books,
ain't it, Pat? And things seem to be running the same. Where
is he? Where is this great and glorious
God who's going to punish sin? Where is he? How come he doesn't
stretch forth his hand? How come we ain't heard his voice?
Well, he's not slack, I'll tell you that. We may think he's slack
concerning his promises, but he ain't slack. He is long-suffering. And the time will come, rest
assured, the time will come that He will call into account all
those that are charged with sin and iniquity. If God does not
hate sin and punish sin, He would cease to be a holy God. He would
be a dead God. There would be no God. God so
hates sin that even when it is imputed or charged or laid on
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and our Lord Himself being without
sin, sin is so despicable and despisable And God hates it so. When He laid it on the Lord Jesus
Christ, who had no sin, God... Now, the Lord Jesus Himself had
no sin, but He's paid the penalty that's due us against our sins. And when the sin of the believers
laid on Christ, God hates sin so He brought held down upon
the soul of the darling of his bosom. That is how he hates sin. He that spared not his own son,
oh, God would not spare his own son. Him that do no sin, the
loveliness and the beauty of his person, God would not spare
him. He won't spare me. He won't spare
me. Oh, if God could have hated sin
without punishing sin in the Son of His love, the Son of His
love would never have felt the smarting of His wrath if God
could have hated it without punishing it. God hates sin. Are you convinced
of that this morning? Are you convinced of that as
much as I am? I believe you are. God cannot
be God. and not punish sin. He cannot
be holy if he does not punish sin. To not punish sin would
be an injustice with God, and an injustice is part of unholiness. And God's holy, holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty. So I've said all that to say
this. So it follows, if what I've said thus far is true, and
it's true, so help me God. So help me before God. What I've said this morning is
true as to who God is, and His chief attribute is His glory,
His righteousness, His holiness. That's true. So it follows there
can be no justification of a sinner by anything in himself. That's
the end result of all this. He can't do anything about what
he is by himself, anything in himself or pertaining to himself.
He can't do anything about it. He's hopeless and helpless. He's
lost before God for the want of a perfect covering, righteousness. You see, after sin, had set foot
in the world through our first Father Adam, through the first
Adam, through the first man, after sin had set foot in the
world, man could not present nothing God acceptable to him
in proportion to his holiness. Nothing. The first two men born
of women, Cain and Abel, one of them came to bring the best that he had
in himself and present it to God. He brought the very best
of His produce, the very best of His grain, and His corn, and
His wheat, and the very best, not the worst of the crop, but
the best that He had. He was doing the very best that
He could. And He brought that to appease
God, but God would not be appeased, and God rejected His sacrifice. Sin started by and through Adam's
fall. Man cannot bring anything unto God that would cause him,
in any sense, to be accepted before God. He cannot do it in
himself. His brother did. His brother
brought an acceptable sacrifice, a substitute. He brought a substitute. And the substitute bore the penalty
that was due him. Until God set forth a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I've been talking about this
for I don't know how long. the sent one, one anointed by
God, appointed by God, commissioned by God, sent of God to be the
Savior of them that believe. Have I mentioned that a lot of
times? I certainly have. Until God sent forth a person
upon whose account the acceptation of our persons and services is
founded, there was no hope until he sent this man. And that's
what the whole of the New Testament is about, that he's here. He's come. He who the prophets
looked for, he's come. Oh, Shimeon there in the temple,
he knew he was coming. He had stayed in that temple.
longing, looking for the desire of glory to come in a person. And when they brought the baby
Jesus to the temple, he said, Let me hold that baby
in my arms. Let me have that baby. And they
gave the old man that baby. And he hugged that baby to his
breast and he said unto him, He said, Now mine eyes behold
God's salvation. He said, I can die now because
my eyes have beheld Him. He's the sent one until the sent
one has come. Nothing a man can do in himself
or about himself pertaining to himself is acceptable with God. Because God's nature is absolutely
holy, and He will not compromise His holiness. He won't do it.
He won't do it. He didn't spare His own Son.
That shows that He won't compromise. His Son had no sin. He had no
sin. He was without flaw, without
blemish, perfect in everything. He's our substitute, and as a
man, he stood in our stead, and God didn't spare him. God didn't
spare him! And I told you the other night
that it seems like that God delighted and desired to hear the groanings
of His Son on that tree. Ah, the sword of justice was
drenched with the blood of the Son of God Himself. God did not
spare His Son. Why? Because He wouldn't compromise. His law must be established. Righteousness must be established. And sin must be punished. And
it can only be punished in the Lord Jesus Christ. One verse
and I'm about through. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
6. Chapter 1, verse 6, this is what
it says, to the praise of the glory, to
the praise of the holiness of His grace, wherein He hath, not
He will, but He hath made us accepted. in Thee, Beloved."
We're accepted in Him! Our righteousness is of Him! We're accepted on His account,
He whom God has sent. And the gist of this preaching
business is to tell people that whosoever that would believe
in his Son as God's gift of eternal life shall be eternally saved. Boy, I jump at that. I mean,
I say, yes, Lord. Oh, I believe, Lord, help my
unbelief. But I believe. I believe it. God help us to believe. Well, one more thing here, and
I'll quit. I went too long with it, didn't I? The righteousness which ye have
set forth in our justification. I'll read another verse to you.
It will tell you better than I can say it. I believe it's Romans 10. Yeah,
Romans... No, that's not it. Look with me, if you can find
it real quick, to the book of Philippians. I was looking in
Romans there for something, but I don't see it. Book of Philippians. Look there a minute. Chapter
3, I think. Chapter 3, verse 9. This is what it's all about right
here. Being found in Him, is what Paul
says. He starts off by saying, Yea,
doubtless I count all things but loss. Everything else is
just down the drain. It's forgotten. It's lost. It's
lost. a good thing morally that I've
ever done, ever thought, that I thought had anything to do
with setting me right before God. He said, I just turned my
back on Him, just turned back and said, all that's gone, all
of it's lost, nothing to it. I counted all but lost, counted
but done, that I might win Christ. Been found in Him, found in Him. not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, which is of works, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. And that's where it's at. That's
what makes us acceptable. We're accepted in Him on the
account of His righteousness, not ours. So what does that do? That renders us as nothing and
Him as everything. So unto Him, glory and honor,
world without end. Amen. Unto the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord bless these struggling
remarks.