Alright brethren, let's turn
now to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Paul begins in verse 14, and
he says, I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians,
both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Are
you ready to preach Christ? That's our subject. Are you ready
to preach Christ? And for the believers here, you
could ask this question, are you ready to believe Christ?
Are you ready to believe Christ? Bear witness of Him in this earth.
Paul says four. Here was his first reason. I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, that
just shall live by faith. And here's the second reason
Paul was ready. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. And then thirdly, Paul shows
us here through the rest of the chapter how that what God does
or will do to those who insist on not preaching the truth, who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. And we'll get to that as we come
to it. Are you ready to preach Christ?
That's the question. Paul said, as much as in me is,
I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
Now, Paul is about to show the offense of men who were false
preachers. I showed you there in Romans
2 that He's working His way over to these men. He says, and you
are Jews. And these men preached what they
thought was a more excellent way, what they thought was a
better way. They may have been men who just
out and out trampled underfoot the blood of Christ and counted
the blood wherewith He was sanctified an unholy thing and did despite
the Spirit of grace. That may have been who these
men were. But most likely those men were
like Many in Paul's day, the Jews who had converted naturally,
just of the flesh, to the truth and said, we'll believe on Christ.
But they continued then teaching sinners that except you come
under the law of Moses and keep the law of Moses, you can't be
saved. That's most likely the kind of men Paul was dealing
with. But regardless, he's working towards them and I think he starts
here saying, I'm ready to preach the gospel. And he sets up these
two reasons that he's ready, because he's showing here the
necessity, what it takes to preach the gospel, and the awful, awful,
judgment men come under who don't stay truth to the gospel. And
these men that were doing this had no idea of the offense they
were committing. Paul told Timothy, those men
are desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither
what they say nor whereof they affirm. They have no idea what
they're saying or what they're doing. They don't have any idea
of the offense. Now here's what Paul does throughout
the book, and this is what I want you to get tonight. Preachers
must preach the gospel of Christ, must preach the gospel of Christ.
Believers must believe the gospel of Christ, bear witness of the
gospel of Christ. All through the book, Paul shows
what that is. Number one, he shows that Christ
is the righteousness of God. He's the righteousness of God.
We're in believers are accepted of God. He's that righteousness. And we're given this righteousness
freely by God through God-given faith in Christ. And it's apart
from any works of the law. And the second thing Paul declares
throughout this letter and through all his letters is, The chief
sin, first and foremost, the preeminent sin which believers
do not continue in after being called is the sin of turning
back to the law. of turning back to the law. Those
are the two chief points that Paul makes in every letter, especially
in this letter to the Romans. Now that's what we preach constantly,
the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is the righteousness of
God. Not in the law, not in the works, in the works of a man,
not at all. And we never, never, we preach
constantly, sinners never, never, believers are never to turn back
to the law, never to turn back to it. Now, since Paul's going
to deal with these false preachers, he begins by giving these two
reasons. They'll be our first two points, and then he goes
into showing what God will do for those who will not preach
the gospel, what He does to those. That'll be our third point. Alright,
the first reason Paul gives here for being ready to preach the
gospel of Christ is because he wasn't ashamed of it. He wasn't
ashamed of it. He says in verse 16, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith." Now Paul knew by experience that
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. This is the power
by which God calls His chosen people to Christ, our salvation. The gospel is the gospel of Christ. The whole counsel of God is the
gospel of Christ. If you want to preach the whole
counsel of God, preach the gospel of Christ. Who He is, what He
came to do, why He came, what He accomplished, where He is
now, what He's doing now, and what He shall do. It's all about
Christ. The whole counsel of God is preached
by preaching the gospel of Christ. Look back at Romans 1. In verse
1, Paul says, I'm separated unto the gospel of God. And he tells
us what the gospel of God is. He says, "...which He had promised
to for by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures." All the Old
Testament Scriptures spoke of Christ. And then he says here,
he tells us particularly what it is, "...concerning His Son
Jesus Christ our Lord." which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power
according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead. By whom? By Him. We have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for His name. The gospel of Christ is the power
of God unto salvation. the very power that's denied
by those with a form of godliness. Look over there at Romans 2.20. Romans 2.20. He says there of
those men, he said, you're an instructor of the foolish, a
teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and a form
of the truth in the law. They had the form of it, but
they denied the very power of God, which is the gospel. The power of God is the gospel.
By the preaching of the gospel, what does it mean that it's the
power of God? By the preaching of the gospel,
Paul said in another place that God through His Spirit casts
down imaginations. And every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God and brings into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's what He does.
He does it in the first hour, and He does it throughout the
rest of our days. This is what He does. By the Gospel, in the
beginning, God comes to us through the Spirit, and in power, He
reveals to us we're guilty. We're dead sinners. We're guilty
sinners, deserving of eternal condemnation from God. And He
so clearly declares it, and so clearly reveals it in our hearts,
that He brings us to the point of thinking there is no hope
for us. And then God reveals to us, Christ is our righteousness. He reveals to us that His own
Son came to where we are and His own Son, by His obedience
to the death of the cross, His own Son fulfilled all righteousness. He honored that law that I broke,
even magnifying that law I broke. And He did so, so that now by
His work, His obedience unto the death of the cross, I'm justified,
all my sins put away, I'm justified, and I've been made the righteousness
of God by what He's done. And by that, He turns us from
our obedience that we call obedience, our so-called righteousness,
and He makes us drop it, and He makes us cling to Christ. That's what He does the first
hour. And from then on, the rest of our lives, through the Gospel,
God keeps us unto the day of our salvation. To that day our
salvation is complete, and we're brought into glory with Him.
Because by continually hearing of Christ, continually hearing
of what Christ has accomplished, continually hearing of how perfect
the believer has been made by the obedience of Christ. By hearing
that message constantly, clearly, continually, God grows us in
faith, God grows us in grace, in the knowledge of Him, and
by that same message, He mortifies the deeds of our flesh through
the Spirit. It's done through the preaching
of the Gospel of Christ, the hearing of faith. That's how
it's done. That's how it's done. If a man's
preaching law and he's trying to turn somebody back to the
law to get them to mortify the deeds of their flesh by their
law obedience, That is wickedness turning to wickedness to try
to mortify wickedness. That won't mortify wickedness.
It just won't do it. But preach the gospel. You want
to see a man's flesh mortified by the Spirit of God? You want
to see a man turn from himself to believe on Christ Jesus the
Lord? You want to see a man walk the
rest of his days desiring with all his heart to honor God in
everything he says and does in this world? then instead of preaching
the law and preaching morality out of the law, preach Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I was reading some old, old preachers this past week, and this has
always been the problem. This has always been the case.
Men today stand up and they say that the reason they won't preach
Christ and take it too far is because they don't want men to
think they have a license to sin. I've never in my life met
one preacher who ever stood up and said, now because the gospel,
we have this grace from God in the gospel, now you can go sin
all you want to. I've never heard anybody preach
that. What I have heard men say, do is though, is turn believers
back to the law and mingle law with grace. I've heard that constantly. And I've read these old preachers
and they said in their day, they were saying, There's been so
many preachers claiming to preach grace in our day who are doing
nothing but preaching morality that they've turned our whole
nation into a nation of just base, lewd, immoral sinners. That's what men do. That's what
men do. And by that, Paul says in Romans
2, the name of God is blasphemed by the Gentiles, by irreligious
men, the name of God's blasphemed. And I understand why. I see why. Every time I hear of a pope,
a priest, or a preacher who's caught in some lewd sexual act,
I think about, you've sat there and preached against this, acting
as if you don't do it, when all you are is a liar. And then if
he gets reinstated back into the pulpit, he'll go right back
to preaching against sexual immorality. As if he's done it! And no man
has. Not in his heart kept the law
faithfully, fully. No man. If you use the law, preach
out of the law. I preached out of the law several
times. If you preach out of the law, show how a sinner has broken
it. Show how a sinner has broken
it. Then show how Christ has fulfilled it and justified all
the elect of God from it and redeemed them from it. and then
show how that now, through His grace working in the heart and
making us anew and bringing us to cast all our care on Christ,
we've perfectly fulfilled it. We're as dead to that law, and
that law is dead to us as a man in the grave, and we're as righteous
before God as his own son. so that that law has nothing
else to say to us. That's a lawful use of the law.
Paul does that throughout this letter. That's what his whole
objective is here. He starts in Romans 3. Look over here. He said, therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. Look in Romans 3. He tells us
here, In Romans 3 verse 20, Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
its sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. That's what it's to be used for.
It's to be used to declare men guilty. But now the righteousness
of God. Where's the righteousness of
God revealed? The righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
without man's obedience to it is manifested, without the sinner's
obedience to it is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Paul said this is what the law has been declaring
The prophets have been declaring all along. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. It's by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Look over to Galatians 2. Galatians
2. By the faith of Jesus Christ. Look at Galatians 2. And look
at verse 16. knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Even we have
believed in Jesus Christ. There's a difference between
the faith of Christ and faith in Christ. If your Bible is one
of these new translations in it and Romans 3 says faith in
Christ, scratch out in and put of there. Because we're talking
about the faithfulness of Christ. If you don't, you'll start looking
at your faith just like men look at the law. But we're justified
by the faithfulness of Christ, not by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." See it
there? By the faith of Jesus Christ, even we believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, not by
the works of the law. Now Paul has done this throughout
this letter. Paul is doing this. And he's
showing it over and over and over throughout the book. In
Romans In Romans 4, after having shown us that the law declares
us guilty and that Christ is His faithfulness that shows the
righteousness of God, then in Romans 4 he says Abraham was
justified by faith without the law, and he shows that it was
done 430 years before the law was ever given. And he had the
righteousness of God. He was made the righteousness
of God. by faith in Christ. And then he goes on in Romans
5 and he says, now if Christ has done this for us by laying
down His life when as yet we were dead in sin, now that we're
reconciled to Him and made friends with Him, He's going to save
us by His life. And he shows there that Adam
was a type of Christ. And he comes to this at the end
in Romans 5, 6, 19. He says, For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. There's only two men that are
regarded in all of Scripture as ever having been under the
law. That's Adam and that's Christ. And all who Adam represented,
which was all mankind, died when Adam transgressed. And as many
as Christ represented, all the elect of God, shall be made righteous
by the obedience of one." By His obedience. And then Paul
goes into Romans 6 and he knows what men are going to say. He
knows men are going to... When they find out they can't
be justified by turning to the law, they're going to say, well
then, if you tell men that, they're just going to sin. So we've got
to bring the law back in to sanctify folks. And Paul says this in
Romans 6. He says in verse 2, God forbid,
we're not going to continue in sin that grace may avail. God
forbid. Now listen to this statement. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Look at verse 7. For he that
is dead is freed from sin. You know what Paul is saying?
Paul is saying, believer, When Christ died, you died in Him
so literally that before the all-seeing eye of God, you're
dead. And there's no more possibility
that the believer can sin before God in Christ than a man that's
dead in the grave can sin. No more possibility. It can't
be done. It can't be done. I'm talking about as God sees
it. And how God sees it is how it is. Now you and I know we're
still in sin. We still have the sin of this
flesh. But this is how God sees it. But this is how that old
man is going to be mortified. This is how we're not going to
look to Him. This is how we're not going to run in sin. This
is how we're not going to try to turn to our flesh and our
law keeping and ourselves to mortify the deeds of the flesh.
It's by declaring we're so thoroughly dead to sin Before God Almighty,
we can't even sin. We can't sin. Not before Him.
And then he goes to Romans 7. Romans 7. And he shows there,
he says, verse 1, he tells us then we're not only dead so that
we're dead to sin, he tells us we're dead to the law. And the
law is dead to us. Verse 1, he says, Know ye, brethren,
I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he lives. as long as he lives. That's as
long as the law has dominion on a man. But he says then in
verse 5, verse 4, Wherefore, my brethren, you also, you also,
in addition to being dead to sin, you also are become dead
to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to
another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. It's by His Spirit, it's by Christ,
it's by Him that we bring forth fruit. And He says, Verse 6,
but now we're delivered from the law, that being dead wherein
we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, not
in the oldness of letter. And then in Romans 8, he says
in verse 1, there's therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. That's what a believer is. He doesn't walk after the
flesh, he walks after the Spirit. And he says, for the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law
of sin and death. I'm free, I'm dead to sin, I'm
dead to the law, and I'm dead to death. You know why? Because
he says there, because Christ came, in verse 3, and he says,
and he condemned sin in the flesh. that the righteousness of the
law, this is the righteousness of God, that the righteousness
of the law might be filled full in us. That don't mean that you
might now be able to keep the law by yourself and fulfill it.
It means that by Christ fulfilling it, the righteousness of the
law is fulfilled in us who are born of His Spirit, who walk
not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Well, you're making
it sound like as if we're not even in the flesh anymore. Well,
look down here. Look down here in verse 9. Paul
goes so far as to say, by the Spirit of God, you're not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. But he says, but you that
have him, you're not in the flesh anymore. Now, this is the message,
brethren. This is the message that through
the Spirit, the Spirit's going to mortify the deeds of the flesh.
Because we've not been given the Spirit of bondage again to
fear. And that's where these law preachers
are doing. They're trying to use the law
to strike fear in you and make you fear judgment, make you fear
that today you could be a child of God, tomorrow you could be
a child of hell. And it's trying to strike fear into you and motivate
you by the law. But we've not been the child
of God. The believer is so much not under the law. He's not under
the law so much as Christ is not under the law. He can no
more be condemned by the law than God can be condemned by
the law. He's been made the righteousness
of God by Christ so that he's perfect before God. That's the
message the Spirit uses to mortify the deeds of the flesh and he
causes us to cry out. We've been given the spirit of
adoption whereby we cry out of a father. This is the only message
that will make a believer serve God in newness of spirit and
look to faith in Christ rather than to the letter of the law
and to self. It's how the deeds of the flesh are mortified. Now
let me go over here. Let me get back to my place here. It's what I'm trying to show
you. Look, and it excludes all boasting. Look at Romans 3.26. It's the only message that excludes
boasting. The principle of law, if the
law is brought in in any place, the principle of the law will
not exclude boasting. He said to them there in Romans
2, you're Jews and you make your boast in the law. You make your
boast of God. This is the only way boasting
is excluded when we're made to see by His grace that God gets
all the glory. He's done it all through His
Son. Look at verse 26. To declare, I say at this time,
His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law? Of works? Not by
the principle of works, but by the principle of faith. That's
how boasting is excluded. So that's the first reason Paul
was ready to preach the Gospel. Paul knew the only message God's
gonna use. to call out His sheep, and keep
His sheep, and grow His sheep, and to bring His sheep to Himself
is the truth of His Son. That's the only message God's
going to bless. I know you get to thinking, well,
maybe if I just went this way a little bit, maybe that could
help a little bit. If God don't bless it, it ain't been blessed.
And if God's not going to bless anything but the truth, it don't
do any good to turn from it and try to use something else. He's
not going to bless it. You might get a man outwardly
to do something that just amazingly appears to be perfect and according
to the law. But if God hadn't changed his
heart and made him to do it because he loves the Lord and he's constrained
by the love of Christ only, and that's only going to be done
through the preaching of what Christ has done. If it's not done that
way, that man is a dead, illegal, damned sinner, and you've helped
to further it. help to further it. I'm telling
you, it's the weightiest responsibility in the world to speak in the
name of God. Weighty. A man must be sure God
sent him to preach. He's got to be sure of it. God
gives sufficiency to those he sends. And it's only by his sufficiency
that a man will be able to stand when men start gnashing on you. And they will. They will. Because
men by nature hate the gospel of Christ. Nobody will say they
do. They say we believe we're saved
by grace, through faith in Christ, apart from when he works for
ourselves. You start preaching this message. You start telling
a man that by Christ's work, he's dead to the law. His flesh
is grass. He can't do anything anyway.
Not before, during, or after conversion by his flesh. He's
dead to the law. And tell him Christ is the fulfillment
of it. And you'll find out what he really
believes. That's where the tale of the tapes is going to be shown.
because he'll gnash on you. He hates it. He'll gnash on you.
This is my advice. I've had friends who were being
courted by congregations to come and entertaining the thought
they would be called to preach for them. And they've talked
to me about it. And not being that long ago that that was the
case with us here. I told them this would be my
advice to you. Make sure they know every fault
about you. Make sure they know what an awful
scoundrel you are, so they know what they're getting. And secondly,
go in there and preach right now to them as clearly, as dogmatically,
as narrow as Christ, as the Lord will enable you, that Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Do
it now, because if they're going to gnash on you and reject the
truth, you need to find it out right now before you unequally
yoke yourself with a bunch of unbelievers. Do it now. Do it
as fully and as boldly as you can do it, and do it now. All
right, here's the second reason Paul was ready to preach the
gospel. He says there in verse 18, and you might find this odd. I've read all the commentaries,
and commentaries can get you screwed up a lot. In the Gospel
here, the Scriptures shed light on the commentaries. Just go
to the Scriptures and ask God to give you some light on it.
I've never connected it, but when I started seeing that he's
dealing with these false teachers in chapter 2, that's when I made
the connection here. Let me show you. In verse 15,
he said, "...as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the
gospel to you there at Rome also." His first reason was, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Here it is again, second reason,
"...for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness."
Paul is saying what he said over in 1 Corinthians 9.16, "...yea,
woe is unto me if I don't preach the gospel." The Spirit of God
used Peter to give the same warning. Look over in 2 Peter 2. He's speaking of false preachers.
And he says at the end of verse 1, He says, they bring upon themselves
swift destruction. Now listen to me brethren, this
goes, I know I'm talking to preachers tonight, but this goes to believers
too. We believe, we turn again to
the law after hearing the truth. This goes for us too, believers
too. So don't think that this excludes
you. This is true of those that believe
the gospel. That's what a preacher is first,
a believer. He preaches what he believes. That's what he preaches.
And so here he says this about verse 1, they bring upon themselves
swift destruction. And he says, the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against them. Look at verse 4. For if
God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to
hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved
unto judgment, so God will reserve the false preacher to the judgment
of hell. Look at verse 17. To whom the mist of darkness
is reserved forever. You see that? See that? Look
at verse 21. Look at verse 21. For it had
been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment. Go back to Romans 1.18 now. Why
would it have been better? Because verse 18 says, the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. That's why it
would be better. How does a man, particularly
a preacher, but how does any man, any sinner, how does he
hold the truth in unrighteousness? How does that happen? Christ
is the way of righteousness. Peter said there, after a man
has known the way of righteousness, Christ is the way of righteousness.
The only way. He's the only way. And the Holy
Commandment is the Gospel. He turned from the Holy Commandment.
The Holy Commandment is the Gospel. Through the Gospel, the Holy
Commandment comes into the heart, and it's this. Believe on Christ.
Believe on Christ. Continue in Christ. Preach Christ. That's the Holy Commandment.
That's the Holy Commandment. And when a man doesn't believe,
And when he doesn't preach clearly and continually that Christ is
all the believer's righteousness and acceptance with God, and
that our flesh profits nothing before, during, and after conversion,
that man holds the truth in unrighteousness. He holds it in unrighteousness.
Now Paul is chiefly dealing with the unlawful use of the law.
is what he's chiefly dealing with. Instead of using the law
only for the purpose of declaring somebody guilty, false preachers
insist that believers are yet under the law, teaching them
that except you keep the law of Moses, you can't be saved.
Some say it's for wisdom. Some say it's for righteousness.
Some say it's for sanctification. Some say it's for redemption.
But whatever the reason is, it's an unlawful use of the law. The
law was given to shut our mouths. The law was given to declare
us guilty until the faith comes, until the faith of Christ comes
and enters. But instead of continually preaching
the good news and saying Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes, the false preacher says, But don't
take that too far. He hedges it. They always hedge
it. They always hedge it. You know
why? Paul says over there in Romans
2 that men are confident that they're a light. to those who
are indoctrinated, and that they're a guide and an instructor of
those. Men are trying to usurp the authority
of God by their own hand, by the use of the law, to constrain
men to mortify the deeds of their flesh and follow after Christ.
It'll never happen. It'll never happen by the use
of the law. God's the instructor. Christ is the light. He's the,
the Spirit of God's the one that guides us into all truth. Just
stand up, preach the truth. Don't hedge it. Don't try to
subtract from what it says. Just preach it. When God speaks
into the heart of somebody, He's going to make that person love
Christ because of Christ's love for them, and He's going to make
them follow Christ. You don't have to sit there and keep on
saying to Him, but now, now, don't take that too far. You
don't have to do that. Take it far. Take it all the
way. Take it as far as it goes. Preach
it as narrow as Christ. Truth is, only the Gospel, which
reveals Christ's love for His people, that sent Him to the
cross, that made Him willingly go to the cross and lay down
His life for us, that's the only thing that the Spirit of God
is going to use to constrain us in love for Him, to believe
on Him, and to do all that we do in newness of spirit out of
love for Him. Out of love for Him. Now, go
back there to Romans 1.18. It's unrighteousness because
using the law in that unlawful way breaks both tables of the
law. It breaks both tables of the
law. Verse 18, note the words ungodliness and unrighteousness.
Look over to Exodus 20. Exodus 20. This is why Paul was
so adamant about it when he preached to the Galatians. Look at Exodus
20. Ungodliness refers to the first table of the law, which
is toward God. In Exodus 20, in verse 2, Paul
said, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And he says
to them, thou shalt have no other gods before me. No other gods
before me. In verse 5, he says down there,
he says, for I, the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children until the third
and fourth generation of them that hate me. And then unrighteousness
in our text refers to the second table of the law, verse 12, where
it begins, you got the Sabbath in the middle, because the Sabbath
is a picture of Christ, and in Christ we rest, and in Christ
we fulfill the whole law. But here's the second table of
the law, verse 12 says, honor thy father and thy mother. Verse
13, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou
shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbor, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. But when
a man believes and preaches, that his acceptance and our acceptance
and our service to God in any way hinges upon our obedience
to the law, be it without Christ altogether or in addition to
Christ, then he breaks the whole law. The first table he breaks
by setting up man as God. He breaks it because he's teaching
men to worship and serve the creature more than the Creator.
He breaks the second table by transgressing in every point
against those to whom he preaches. He dishonors, he murders, he
commits adultery, he's stealing, he's bearing false witness, he's
making merchandise of their souls through covetousness. The Apostle
Peter in 2 Peter 2 attributed all of those transgressions to
the false preacher, every one of them. And because he's turned
from Christ, to the law, from Christ who is the God-man, the
God-man. You've got the two tables, God
and man, and because Christ is the God-man, first and foremost,
He's breaking the first table against Christ who is God, and
He's breaking the second table against Christ who is man. He's
the God-man. because he's turning from Christ
and turning men back to the law. It's a mystery to a natural man.
I know a natural man can't get it. He says, how is it I can
be so sincere in teaching believers to keep the law and me myself
want to keep the law, and yet while I'm doing it, I'm actually
breaking the whole law. Well, one reason is because the
gospel is called the Holy Commandment. And the one reason it's called
that, the Holy Commandment, is because the Gospel reveals the
only way a sinner keeps all the commandments of the law is through
faith in Christ. That's what our Gospel teaches.
And the only way he teaches others to keep the law is by teaching
them to believe on Christ. Believing on Christ is what it
is to hear the law and to do the law. Believing on Christ
is what it is to hear the law and to continue in the law. Believing
on Christ is what it is, and continuing in Him is what it
is to hear the law and to be a doer of it and not forget what
you saw when you looked in the mirror and saw, I'm a guilty,
ill-deserving sinner that can't keep it. It's to go away and
straightway forget what you saw and to think, I can keep it.
I can keep it. If you've got ears to hear, Christ
preached this. He preached the same thing I
just said to you in the Sermon on the Mount. Look at Matthew
5.17. He says, Think not that I have
come to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy,
but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled. You see, I have a
zeal for the law of God. I delight in the law of God.
In my inward man, I delight in it. I never did before God revealed
Christ in me. I delight in it. I think the law and the commandment
is holy, just, and good. And I so much have a zeal for
it and so much have a desire for it to be honored and magnified
I'm not going to tell you you can't, but I'll tell you who can and
who has. Christ has. You see, He just said there,
I came to fulfill it, to fill it full. I came to do that because
heaven and earth are not going to pass until God's justice is
upheld, until His whole law has been fulfilled, until His people
are made the righteousness of God. And so He said, that's why
I came to fulfill it. And He said, verse 19, Whosoever
therefore Look at that word, therefore, whosoever therefore
shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach
men so, teach others to do it, he shall be called the least
in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no
case enter the kingdom of heaven. The righteousness which exceeds
those that are most zealous for the law, like the scribes and
Pharisees, and the righteousness we must have or else we can't
enter into heaven, is the righteousness of Christ. It's the righteousness
of God. It's to be made the righteousness
of God by Christ's obedience. And it's only done by the one
who has ever fulfilled the law. The only one who's ever fulfilled
it. And he comes in our hearts through this holy commandment
and he says, believe on my son. And through faith in Christ,
apart from our works, the righteousness of Christ is made our righteousness. So we fulfilled the whole law.
That's what I read to you in Romans 8. He sent his Son to
condemn sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us. In us. He did it. He fulfilled
it. That's why Romans 3.31. I know
this goes contrary to what 99.9% of preachers preach on it. I've
read the commentary. I say, I hear what men say on
it. But listen, Paul comes to the conclusion, he ends it with
this. Do then we make void the law through faith? Verse 31.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea,
we establish the law through faith. And we do. Now that's
the man who preaches must preach only that the law only. The law
is to be used only to declare men guilty. That's what he must
use it to only declare men guilty. And he must declare the righteousness
of the law is fulfilled by Christ, by the obedience of one. And
if men want to get mad about that and storm out, the worst
they can do, the worst men can do is take away their monetary
support. But I guarantee you this, those
that leave the gospel, you'll find out they never were supporting
the gospel with their money anyway. way. It's always the case. Men
who like that and huff and puff and carry on about their zeal
for the law, when they leave, they don't move. The church treasury
don't move one iota. They don't. They don't. But you've
got to preach this, and I'd advise any man who's thinking of preaching
to do a thorough study of 2 Peter chapter 2. It's a fearful thing
when you think about the wrath of God. He's coming on a man
who holds the truth in unrighteousness. That's frightening now. Now let
me remind you again, Paul's working his way to these Jews who were
teaching. the law. They were teaching either just
to hold to the law, period, or they were teaching that in addition
to Christ, the law must be added. And he's teaching throughout
this letter that the chief sin that the believer no longer continues
in is first and foremost the sin of turning again to the law
after we've been called to faith in Christ. You and me can't do
better than Christ did. We can't do better than Christ
did. Christ honored it and magnified it. You want to see the law magnified? You want to see the law honored?
Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Those that don't
have the Spirit of Christ, it's turning them to look at Christ,
and to follow Christ, and to look at that law, and to see
it, and to see the holiness, and the fulfillment, and the
honor, and the magnitude of how Christ has fulfilled it, and
Him alone. They can't look to the law and
really learn anything. Because they think they can fulfill
it. And you can't, brethren. The law's speaking to the heart.
The law's saying if you just have one bad thought, everything
you've done's null and void. It don't matter what else you've
done. If a man's guilty of one, he's guilty of the whole law.
That's the law. Christ has done it all, and we're
telling sinners to be shut up to Christ, not to the law. Let
men, they gonna huff and puff and say, yo, you're a antinomian. You're against the law. I'm for
the law. I'm telling you, I'm so much for the law. God's so
much for the law, He took sin in His own Son to magnify and
honor it. And I'm so much for it, I'm telling
you, you and me, sinners, can't honor and magnify it. Only Christ
can honor and magnify it. The works that the believers
are filled with are the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, love. These are things that against
such there is no law. Because the law is not made for
a righteous man and the law is not against the believer. All
right, now let's quickly, and I'll just close with this, but
let's go to this third thing and I'm going to have to be real
quick. Now let me show you what happens when men mix law with
the gospel. Now Paul first uses the Gentiles
who only had the light of nature. Now Paul's purpose in doing this
is to show if God did this to those who only had the light
of nature, think how worse the transgression is and how worse
the end will be of those who have the truth of the gospel
of Christ and yet turn back to the law and try to bring believers
back under the law. Think how bad it will be for
them. Now here's what God did, verse 19. Because that which
may be known of God's manifest in them, for God has showed it
unto them." Just like he has the man he's shown the gospel
to. 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, so that they're without
excuse. You've got to see that God made
this world. You've got to see that God created
these things. They didn't just come into being. And he says,
verse 21, because when they knew God, but they glorified Him not
as God. When they had this light they
had, it's not saying they knew God spiritually, but when they
had this light that they were given, just like if the Gospel
comes into a man's community and here's some light, he's got
some light given to him. It doesn't mean that it's going
to take the Spirit of God revealing it in him. It's going to take
God teaching him. But he's got some light here and he's responsible
to walk in the light God's given him. He's without excuse if he
don't. And he says, But when they had this light, they glorified
him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory
of God, of the uncorruptible God, to an image made like the
corruptible man, to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping
things. We saw this Sunday in Pharaoh. They had the light of
nature, but they turned from that light, and they imagined
what they deemed to be more wise. And what they imagined to be
more wise was to make an image like man, and four-footed beasts,
and creeping things, and say, this is our God. In other words,
they hardened their heart. And when they hardened their
heart, God hardened their heart, judicially, justly, because they
first turned against God. God doesn't harden anybody's
heart without a reason. He doesn't just predestinate
men to hell. He justly sends men to hell. He justly gives
men reprobation. Verse 17, he applied this to
the Jews over there. He said in verse 17, you're called
as you, you've got a form, you rest in the law and your obedience,
you make your boast of God, And He says, and you know His will.
And that last phrase goes with this. They knew God's will was
for them to believe on the Messiah. They were instructed out of the
law. They had the shadows of Christ in the ceremonies, the
blood all through the Old Testament. They had the word of the prophets.
And, or yet, you approve things that are more excellent, more
excellent to them, just like the Gentiles did. They said this
would be a better thing. Now, we know Christ is the end
of the law, but now if we bring the law back in too, then just
look how much greater and better that is. God says, it's fulfilled. Don't touch it. Leave it alone.
You're going to count the blood of my son vain and count the
grace of God vain?" He said, leave it alone. Leave it alone.
But look, now here's what God did to these men that continued
in this rebellion. He judicially, justly gave them
up to a reprobate mind. Now this is the wrath of God
that's revealed. This is what God will do to those who mingle
law and grace and keep on in it. Watch verse 24. He'll send
them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. They'll
be so persuaded in their heart that that lie is a truth, they
won't let go of it. Verse 24, Wherefore God also
gave them up to uncleanness. He gave them up. Verse 25, Those
who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections.
Verse 28, Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which
are not convenient. Now, the results we're going
to see here briefly, it describes the old world in Noah's day that
was drowned with a flood. It describes Solomon Gomorrah,
who God destroyed with fire and stones from heaven. And it describes
Israel, who in Ezekiel, the Lord said, you're doing a worse sin
by teaching sinners to turn to the law than they're committing
in Solomon Gomorrah. It's their judicial blindness.
But listen to this. It describes our nation today.
God brings it on the children to the third and fourth generation.
How long has it been in this country since Billy Graham stood
up and started preaching morality? About three or four generations
ago? And what do we have right now? Huh? What do we have right
now? You want to be a preacher? You
want to lead men into this judgment? You don't want to be that man.
Look here. By God giving them up, the land became full of queers.
And that's the name for them, they're queers. Verse 26, For
this cause God gave them up to vile affections, for even their
women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use
of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another. Men
with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in
themselves that recompense of their error which was me. That's
what's going on today. You want to know why? Because
free will works preachers have been preaching morality in this
country, and they ain't preached the gospel. That's why. That's
why. The land became filled with every
other kind of lewdness as well. You can go read the rest of this
out, the rest of that chapter. But let me show you this. This
is what Paul said. If God did this to those who
only had the light of nature, it'll be far worse for those
who turn from the gospel back to the law, after they've had
the gospel. And the chief blame goes to those preachers. Now
look here. A man gets up, he preaches free will, he preaches
the law, and his whole congregation's sitting there going, or he gets
up and he, let me back up, he gets up and he preaches against
queers, he preaches against that. And everybody, and it's wrong,
it's wrong. Everybody gets up, everybody
in the congregation's saying, amen, amen. How thankful I'm
not like them. I don't do anything like that.
And Paul knew that's exactly what these men would be thinking
in their heart. That's why he did it this way. Watch how Paul
preached. This is how to preach. Paul set
it up this way. And then he turned around to
them and he said, you do the same thing. The exact same thing. Maybe not outwardly, but that's
what the natural heart is. That's what it is. He says, You
are inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges. For in
the way in which thou judgest, you condemn, you do the same
thing. Verse 13, For not the hearers
of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall
be justified. Now, verse 26, I'm going to end
with this. If the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the
law, and he says, And he says there in verse 26,
if the uncircumcision keep the law, keep the righteousness of the
law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
In other words, shall he not be counted as really a true Jew,
a true believer, a true child of God? Now here you got a man
who never had the gospel, he never had the law, he never had
it, never was trying to keep it, but God said he's kept the
righteousness of it. And then he says there, he says,
And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill
the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision does
transgress the law? Now here you are, you got the
letter of the law and by that letter and by your own outward
circumcision you brought yourself under and you're keeping it,
trying your best to keep it. And he says, And will He not
judge you who, though you've got it, you've transgressed it?
How can that be? Look at Romans 9. Romans 9. Miss
this, we've missed the Gospel. Romans 9. Look at verse 30. What shall we say then that the
Gentiles which followed not after righteousness, they didn't even
have the law, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness
which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, tried their best to keep the law, hath
not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore, because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for
they stumbled at that stumbling stone." You see that? You see
that? Now back in Romans 2, 28, he
says, For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is
that circumcision outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which
is one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart
and the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God. You could look at a man who may not appear to you to
be a keeper of the law, who may appear to you to be a disgrace
to the name of God. And that man has been given a
new heart, and he believes on Christ, and he worships Christ,
and all his hope is in Christ having fulfilled all the law
for him. And though he desires in his heart to keep it, he don't
keep it. He knows he don't keep it. He
mourns his sin for not keeping it. But you could be a man who
outwardly looks hands above that man, and is in the church every
day, reading the scriptures every day, don't miss the service,
and doing everything you can. But because in your heart of
hearts you believe that's going to give you some credit with
God, you've missed the whole thing. Missed the whole thing. And that man goes down to his
house justified, and the other doesn't. Because the other is
saying, I'm thankful I'm not like him. You see what I'm saying? See what God's saying? So here's
the point. The man who preaches the gospel must teach that the
only way the righteousness of the law is established is through
faith in Christ. Christ alone. Christ alone. Because
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Breaking both tables of the law if you turn men back to the law.
I don't care if it's for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
or redemption. It don't matter what it is. point me into Christ. That's it. That's it. And it's
going to be hard not to do that when everybody in the congregation
is saying, but we want to hear the law. We want to hear the
law. We're tired of this light bread. Give us something we can
do. Got a big call to God to withstand that. And remember
this, believer, as accepted, as righteous, as free from sin,
as free from death, and as free from hell as Christ is with the
Father right now, so are those He's called to faith in Him.
That's right. Herein is our love made perfect.
This is how our love's strengthened. This is how it's edified. This
is how we're going to be made. Love's the fulfillment of the
law. This is how we're going to be made to serve in newness of spirit.
That we may have boldness in the day of judgment. We've got
to hear this all the time. As He is, as Christ is right
now in glory, so are we in this world right now. We're just like
He is. Perfect! That's how we are. I
don't see myself as perfect. It doesn't matter how you see
it. It matters how God says it is. And every man that's got
this hope in him, he purifies himself even as he is pure. In
other words, he doesn't turn again to the law, and he doesn't
do it by staying on Christ. He doesn't look to his life,
and he doesn't do it by looking to his life hid with God in Christ. So preach the Word. Be instant
in season and out of season. Believe on Christ and rest in
Him. Don't move a muscle from Him. Now, if you're offended,
everything about that gives God all the glory. It gives Christ
all the glory. It says God is alone the one who establishes
the righteousness of God for His people. It says salvation
is of the Lord. He didn't know it as a sinner
to go on and sin. It's the only message that will
keep him from doing it. Got a problem with that? Got a problem with
God. That's it. And those who delight in it,
delight in it by the grace of that same God. Amen.