Every objection that sinners
raise against the truth of God is an effort to justify their
own rebellion against God. When God starts to work in a
sinner's heart, one by one, God strips away every vain, self-righteous,
self-justifying objection. And it's painful. It's aggravating. There's nothing pleasant about
it. But my purpose to preach to you every time I stand here,
my purpose for preaching this message to you is I hope, I pray
that God will take away every inch of ground that you have,
everyone that's raising objections against Him. I pray God will
paint you in a corner. I pray He will take away every
straw that a man's grasping for and that He will head you up
in such a narrow place that you have to look Christ straight
in the face and either bow to Him or reject Him and go to hell. And I pray it will be the first.
I pray He'll bring you down to see Him in the glory of His great
name. Now all men are under sin. That's
what Paul is declaring here in this passage. The sinner's mouth
has got to be stopped. It's got to be completely stopped.
You can't hear somebody else talking when you're doing the
talking. Our mouths have to be shut up
so we can hear God speak and hear what He's saying and quit
mouthing like we know everything. God's going to shut up his people,
and he's going to make us become guilty before him, and he's going
to make us listen, and then he'll make us hear the good news. Then
this thing will be good news to us. Now the Spirit of God
declared through Paul that Jews and Gentiles were equally depraved
and corrupt. That means everybody in the world.
everybody. No sinner is justified and made
righteous by anything we do. And to come into God's presence
we have to be just, completely justified, completely made the
righteousness of God. Sinners are made the righteousness
of God by the obedience of Christ Jesus. God provides the righteousness. Sinners are made righteous when
they're created anew in righteousness by the Holy Spirit and when they're
born again. And in that new man, we're brought
to behold Christ Jesus, our righteousness. And through God-given faith,
we believe on Him. And Christ, our righteousness,
is our righteousness. He is our righteousness. Now
verse 28, look at Romans 2, 28. It says, he is not a Jew, which
is one outwardly. That is, he's not a child of
God, that's one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. That's not where the work is
done, in the outward, in the flesh, in the keeping of the
law. That's not how it is. A man's not a child of God, he's
not of the kingdom of God, of God's holy nation by our first
birth. Daddy might be a believer. That
don't mean you're going to be one. Doesn't mean anything for
you. Not by nationality. Not by being
one of a certain religious group. Not by the will and works of
man. Whether you were put through some religious ceremony when
you was a baby. They took you up and they sprinkled
you and call it dedicating you. Or whether you got old enough
and you did it yourself. And you were baptized. Or you
went and joined a church. I read your Bible all the way
through, or anything like that. It's not any outward work that's
going to take away sin and make you a new creature, and make
you a pure, holy child of God. No work can be done by you to
do it. Not ceremony, not works of righteousness
which we've done at all. How's it done then? Look at verse
29, Romans 2, 29. But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly, and circumcisions that of the heart, in the Spirit,
not in a letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." Now,
here's the first objection. I've titled this, Objections
Answered. And I want to look at three or four objections here. First objection is this, Romans
3.1. What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there
of circumcision? Somebody here might say it this
way. If God's saved by sovereign grace, not based on my works
of righteousness. Then what is the point, what
advantage do I have of even being here with you today? What's the
advantage of me even being here? Verse 2, much every way, chiefly
because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Turn over
to Romans chapter 9. God gave Israel The Old Testament
Scriptures, what we know now as the Old Testament Scriptures,
the Law and the Prophets. He gave them the ceremony. And
all of this he gave them was declaring the truth of God's
righteousness and salvation through the coming Messiah. That's what
he was telling them the whole time. They had the Gospel being
preached to them the whole time. Now, an assembly, just like this
right here, where God has established his word and committed his word
to us, an assembly like this has an advantage just like Israel
had. It's much like Israel in a way,
if you think about it, because there they were, and there were
some in their midst that were true Israel and believed God,
and there were some there that didn't believe God and weren't
of Israel, weren't true Israel. And yet all around them, outside
them, God wasn't giving that word. They had the advantage
that they were getting the word given to them, the gospel given
to them. And those heathen nations around them didn't have it. They
didn't have it. God has sent his gospel to you
like he sent it to Israel. That's much advantage in that.
Now look at Romans 9 verse 4. They were Israelites, look at
this, to whom pertaineth the adoption. God declared to them
that He saves His children by divine adoption. You know what
God's declared to you? You know what He's been declaring
to you? Every time you've heard this
word, He's been declaring to you that He sends forth the Holy
Spirit, the Spirit of His Son, the Spirit of adoption, and He
creates you anew and He makes you cry out, Abba, Father. Why? Because you were sons before.
That's who He does that to, because they were sons before, predestinated
unto the adoption. He says here in verse 4, and
to them it pertained the glory. God showed them His glory. God's
declared to you His glory. That's what I declare every time
I come in to you, the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. I tell you where you're going
to see God, who He is, in the face of Christ Jesus. Look, they
had the covenants, verse four. They were taught God's a covenant-keeping
God. You've been taught that. My gospel
to you is salvation is by God's everlasting covenant of grace
made in Christ before the world began. He didn't leave anything
in the hands of men. He's gonna accomplish it, every
bit of it. Verse 4 says that they had the giving of the law
and the service of God. They were taught in that law
there's no coming of God except you come through a lamb, except
you come through a high priest. Somebody that's going to make
reconciliation of God for you, that's going to put away your
sin and make atonement for you and represent you to God. Otherwise
you can't come to God. That's what they were taught
by that high priest and that lamb every year in that day of
atonement. That's the gospel. I declare
it every time I come here. There's no coming of God except
in the blood of a lamb. There's no coming of God except
in a high priest. You need somebody else to represent
you. You need somebody else. We need somebody else to put
away our sin and to present us faultless before God. That one
is Christ. He's the lamb and he's the high
priest. Verse 4 says, and they had the
promises. The promises. They were taught that all of
God's purpose from the beginning was to save the children of promise
in his son of promise. That's what God told Abraham.
In that promised son, all the seed of Israel are going to be
blessed. In that seed, in that one son, all my promises are
going to be brought to pass. That's the exact gospel I teach
here. Every time you've heard me preach,
you've had it declared to you that God's faithful, that God
determined the end from the beginning, that God purposed it, that God
brings His promises to pass in and by Christ and for His Son's
sake, and it's all for His sake. Verse 5 says, whose are the fathers? These ones that were objecting
to Christ. They had Abraham as their father,
Isaac as their father, Jacob as their father, who had taught
their children and passed this down through the ages and taught
them the truth. You've had fathers who've taught you the truth. You've had mothers that taught
you the truth. He says, And as whom concerning
the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever.
You've been taught how Christ came, that He came through the
line, He's the line of the tribe of Judah, of the tribe of Judah,
of the tribe of Jesse, from David, that just as God said it would
from the beginning, that's the exact lineage He came through,
the genealogy He came through, showing that God's faithful to
fulfill all His promises and do that. God has come in human
flesh. God, Christ Jesus, who shall
save his people from their sin. You've heard that. Go back to
the text now, Romans 3. So somebody says, well, if God
saves that way, what advantage does it even do me of being here?
What profit is there coming to this place? Much every way. A
local assembly where God's committed his gospel is like that nation
of Israel. You have the gospel of God. While
many around you don't have it. Many around you don't have it.
They don't have this advantage. They don't have this advantage.
Now, this is the fact. No sinner is going to be able
to come before God Almighty in the day of judgment and plead
ignorance. That's just not going to happen.
Romans 1.20 says, 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 and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse. The light of nature is going
to declare God is, and it should have bowed to Him, and it is.
We're going to see that. We're going to know that. We
can't plead ignorance, but especially to us whom God has sent His gospel.
None here is going to be able to charge God with unrighteousness.
Nobody's going to be able to charge God as being unfair, as
not giving us an advantage. God has. He has. The day of judgment
will be far worse for those whom God has sent this truth, who
yet harden their heart and refuse to bow to Him and believe on
His Son, to whom much is given of him shall much be required."
So what do we say to that? Instead of objecting about, well,
what's the purpose of me even going? If God's already got it
all summed up and sewed up and knows how he's going to do it
from the beginning. Much every way. Much every way. You'll hear
the gospel this way. So heed what advantage you've
been given. Don't miss a moment. Don't miss
a word. hang on everywhere, and then
go home. You know, when you hear a song, a new song that comes
out on the radio, you don't get all of it the first listen, do
you? Don't you put it in and listen to it again? Listen to
it a few times? I imagine there's some of us
sitting here who's probably watched movies three or four times, maybe a
dozen times. Same movie. Just keep watching it over and
over again. We don't get it the first time. Think you won't get
a message, a sermon the first time? Go home and listen to it
again. It's on the internet. Freegracemedia.com. It's right there. You listen
to it again, the notes will be right there, printed out. You
can read right through it and look up the scriptures. Take
your time, go through it. It's all there. All right, now
here's the second objection. Romans 3.3. Next objection is
this. What if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
God took Israel. He took them out of Egypt, took
them out of Egyptian bondage, and He led them all through the
wilderness and He took them right up to the land of promise. Right
to it, just like He said He would. And let them go in and spy it
out. Let them look at it. And they refused to enter in.
They refused to go in because they did not believe God. Here
again today, God's taking us, He's taking us right now, right
here where we sit, He's taking us right to the door. And He's
showing us the entrance to come into His presence. The one way
to enter into His presence. The one way to enter into that
holy land where God abides. The one way that we can enter
in. He's showing us right here today. And men will come to that
point and they'll get right here and they'll listen again and
go home and say, I don't believe. Well, what if some don't believe?
What if some here don't believe? Does their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? Just because you're unfaithful
and you don't believe, does that mean God's unfaithful and not
true to His Word? If some don't believe, does that
mean God's a failure? If some don't believe, does that
mean that what He purposed to bring to pass from the beginning,
that He's failed and can't do it? If some don't believe that
on Christ Jesus, does that mean that Christ didn't effectually
redeem everyone for whom He died? Does that mean that Christ failed,
that His blood's not effectual because some don't believe? What
if some don't believe? Does that mean that the Holy
Spirit of God doesn't have the power to birth His children anew
and give them faith and bring them to repentance and make them
call on the name of God? Does that mean that He's failed?
Does it mean God's a failure? Romans 4, 3, 4, God forbid. God forbid. Let God be true,
but every man a liar. as it is written that thou mightest
be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art
judged. A man's unbelief doesn't alter
God at all. It doesn't alter God's faithfulness
one bit. God's faithfulness is not bound by a sinner. God's
faithfulness to bring all that he determined before to be done,
it has. A sinner can't change that. A sinner that wants to
be unbelieving doesn't change that. You who are going to go
out about your day when you walk out of your house in the morning
and you start making your way to your vehicle, a little ant
that's standing there in your way, is he going to alter your
purpose at all because he crosses your path? Is he going to stop
you? No, he won't stop you. Because
you're a lot bigger than He is. God's a lot bigger than we are.
We're not going to stop Him. He's faithful. Man's unbelief
declares this, though. It declares the hardness of the
natural heart. It declares that a sinner will
try to justify his own rebellion and declare himself true by making
God out to be a liar. That's what it declares. That
little sinful man will have the audacity to try to make God out
to be a liar and say, well, what if some did not believe? He wants
to blame his own unbelief on God. God says, let God be true
and every man a liar. That's what He said through Paul.
Verse 4, as it's written, that thou mightest be justified in
thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged. Look over
at Psalm 51. What's the real problem? Look
at Psalm 51. That's where this is coming from.
What's the real problem? If some don't believe, what's
the real problem? Listen real clearly. Here's what
the problem is. You. If I won't believe, the problem's
me. The problem's not God. God's
faithful. That's not the problem. God has
clearly told us how it is He justifies a sinner. He's told
us plainly how it is He'll receive a sinner. He's told us plainly
how it is we can come to Him. If we won't come that way, if
we're that stubborn that we won't come that way, it's not God's
fault. God's told us how He'll receive
us, and the only way He'll receive us. Here's what the problem is.
A man won't come to God the way David came to God. This is how
David came to God. That's who Paul's quoting here.
This is how David came to God. Look at this. This is when he
had gone into Bathsheba and had her husband killed. Are you that
bad a sinner? I can tell you, you are. I am.
We are. This is how he came to God. Look
at verse 1. Have mercy upon me, O God. That's
how God has said he'll receive sinners. Come begging mercy.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. We come asking God for mercy
to blot out our transgressions. He says, I'll blot them out.
Don't blot them out. He says here, wash me throughly
for mine iniquity. It's mine. I need to be washed
and I can't wash myself. God said come to me. Confessing
this, ask me to cleanse you from all sin. Verse 3, he says, for
I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. That's how God says He'll receive
a sinner. Come acknowledging your transgressions are your
transgressions. Nobody else's sin for you. It's
not anybody else's fault that I came from my mother's womb
speaking lies. It's not anybody else's fault
that I went about trying to hate God and curse God and get away
from God all my life. I used to sit in the service
and I would hear the gospel being preached, and I tried every way
to look like I was paying attention and to be thinking of something
a thousand miles away. And I did that and did that and
did that forever, but God got under my skin. He got further
than that. He got down in my soul. And I
couldn't get away from it. He was with me everywhere I went.
And he just kept bringing these things up and bringing these
things up to me and bringing these things up to me and he
would not let me go. And I had to listen to him, Cyril.
I had to face, I was confronted by God and I had to hear him. And he shut my mouth, completely
shut my mouth, made me guilty and made me start listening.
Here's what it is. He says, verse 4, Against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear
when thou judgest. It's to stop trying to justify
ourselves and call God unjust and to start justifying God and
saying, God, you're just. You're clear when you judge.
I am the despicable thing you have said I am. And you're right. You're just to do with me whatsoever
you will. A sinner that comes to God for
mercy. God delights to show mercy. There
is forgiveness with God that he may be feared. But have you
come to God the way God says He'll receive sinners? Have you
come, not questioning God's unfaithfulness, but come to God declaring Him
faithful? The question isn't, is God unfaithful? The question is, are you? Are
you? Am I? Do you believe Christ?
Will you come as God says come? Look at Psalm, you still there
in Psalm? If you are, look at Psalm 130. Psalm 130, this is
how we come. Have you done this? Have you
come this way? Have you cried unto the Lord
from the depths, being as far down as you can get, and from
the depths of your soul, cried unto God, asking God to hear,
and confessing while you do it that He don't even have to listen
to you. It's mercy for Him just to listen
to anything you and I say. The psalmist said this, Psalm
131, out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear
my voice. Let thine ears be attended to
the voice of my supplication. What about this? Have you cried
unto the Lord confessing your sin? Confessing your unfitness
to even stand before Him? Confessing that you're unrighteous
and that He's just? Look at verse 3. If thou, Lord,
should mark us iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Have you, I
mean, just speaking honest, have we talked to God this way and
owned up to this? That if, Lord, if you mark my
iniquities, I can't stand before You. I see it. I can't stand
before You. Have you cried unto the Lord?
When you cry to Him, at the same time you're confessing and you're
thanking Him and you're praising Him, that there is forgiveness
with Him? Look at verse 4. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. You see, this is the stuff of
faith right here. This is the stuff of coming to
God in faith. It's coming to Him begging mercy.
It's coming to Him confessing that, Lord, I can't even stand
before You. Nobody can. I'm unrighteous. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. I'm altogether undone. If you
mark my iniquities, I can't even stand. I need mercy. Oh, but Lord, I come to you because
I've heard there's mercy with you. I've heard there's forgiveness
with you. And I'm coming to you asking you for forgiveness because
I believe what you're saying there's forgiveness with you.
You'll have it. You'll have mercy. You'll have
forgiveness. There's just no two ways about it. You remember
the publican? That one went up and he's justifying
himself. He's talking about everything
he'd done and how he's thankful he wasn't like others. The publican
smote upon his breast, wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven,
and asked God to be merciful to me, the sinner. And Lord said
he went down to his house justifying. Remember the leper? He came to
the Lord and he said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou can make me clean,
if you will. And he went home clean. You remember
the prodigal son, he came back to the Lord, and when he came
back to the Father, he came back and he said, Father, I'm not
even fit to do anything in your house. I'm not even fit to just
slop the hogs. I'm just unfit to do anything
in your house. And the Father forgave him and
robed him and clothed him and accepted him and fed him all
his day and rejoiced over him. You see, the sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, oh God,
thou wilt not despise. We can't be that honest, can
we? That's the problem. We just can't be that honest.
Can't just come to God and say it like it is. God, you're right,
and I'm not. You're just, I'm not. You're
truthful and I'm not. You're holy and I'm not. Everything
you require, I am not, God. And the only way I'm going to
have any hope whatsoever is if you just be merciful to me. Father,
I've heard there's mercy with you. I believe it. I'm coming
to you. Just, I need mercy. But that self-justifying, Valious
heart that keeps on saying, bringing up these objections and saying,
well, what's the point of me even going there? Bringing up
the objection and saying, well, what about all those that don't
believe? They hadn't altered God's purpose or His promise
whatsoever. Look over at Romans 9, 6. And I'll close, I'll finish
up this point. But the point is this, brethren.
Unbelief reveals the hardness of man's heart. It reveals the
fact, the necessity for God to give a new heart, a new spirit.
That's what it reveals. The necessity for God to choose
us because we wouldn't choose God. It reveals the necessity
for God to come and give life because we won't come to God.
I come to God anytime I want to. I hear men say, I come to
God anytime I want to. whenever I can do whatever I
will to do whenever I want to come to it. Well, come on. Come on. Man can't a man can't stop himself
from catching a cold. How small and tiny you reckon
those germs are that causes that puts us up in the bed for seven
straight days. It makes it so we can't even
lift up our head and talk anything. What do you how big you reckon
those jumps are? And we're going to We're going to brag about
our will to do something. It manifests the fact that God's
got to call because you won't call on God. I won't call on
God. It manifests the fact that God's got to first love us because
we don't have any love in us for God until God puts it there.
Look at Romans 9, 6. Not as though the word of God
had taken on effect. Y'all don't ever think that.
God forbid. Don't think that God's word is going to... He
said, my word don't return to me void. It's going to accomplish
the very thing I sent it to. How many of those raindrops that
fell yesterday did you stop from falling? None of them. And every one of
them that fell accomplished exactly what God sent them to accomplish.
Every one of them. Every one of them. We're not
gonna stop him from, his word from going forth and accomplishing
his purpose. And it does, it has effect. Here's what it is,
they're not all Israel which are of Israel. You see some in
that nation that didn't believe, they weren't all Israel. He's
not a Jew which is one outwardly. You see some within this assembly
that don't believe, they may not all be Israel. Not a Jew
which is one outwardly, he's one inwardly. Neither because
they're the seed of Abraham, or they're all children. That
doesn't mean anything, because they're the children of Abraham. But
in Isaac shall thy seed be called. In Christ, that's who the seed's
being called. God's got to do the calling,
you see. He's got to choose the one in whom He's going to call
us. And He's got to send Him. And He's got to do the work.
And He's got to do the calling. That is, they that are children
of the flesh. These aren't the children of God, but the children
of the promise. Those are those that God promised to save. See,
God's got to promise to save some. God's got to choose to
save some. We won't choose God otherwise. I wouldn't. I wouldn't
have. I made it. I ran away from God
as hard as I could. I would not choose God. I would not choose God. This is the word of promise.
At this time, I will come, God said. That's what's got to happen.
God's got to come because we won't come to God. And Sarah
shall have a son. He's got to produce the new man
within us because we can't produce it. We're like old Abraham and
old Sarah. We can't bring forth fruit. He's
got to do it. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children not yet born, neither having done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God might stand, according to election
might stand, that his son might be the firstborn among many brethren.
The only way that's gonna stand, that's his whole purpose of election,
is to glorify his son. And the only way that's gonna
stand is if God does it. It's not of works, but of him
that calleth. We can't work it. He's got to do the calling. It's
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it's written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Jacob hated him just like Esau
hated him, but he loved Jacob. That's what made the difference.
See, God's got to do the loving and put the love in our heart,
but making us new, we won't love him. This won't happen. Well,
here's the third objection. Back in our text, Romans 3, 5.
The first one is, what's the point of me coming to even hear
this word? Much every way. This is how you're going to hear
the gospel. The second objection is, well, what about those that
don't believe? They don't make God's faithfulness
of non-effect. He's effectually saving His people
and not one of them be lost. It won't affect God at all. Third
objection, well then if our unrighteousness, if my unrighteousness commends
the righteousness of God, what shall we say? God's unrighteous
to take vengeance on me. I speak as a man. Look, a man
will say, well, if my unrighteousness, if my not believing shows the
necessity of the new birth, the necessity that God have mercy
on whom He will. If my unbelief shows that it's
not of Him that willeth nor of Him that runneth, but of God
it shows mercy. If my unrighteousness, men will say, is commending the
righteousness of God, then God's unrighteous to take vengeance
on me. Why am I yet judged as a sinner then? Look at verse
7. For if the truth of God hath
more abounded through my lie unto His glory, why yet am I
also judged as a sinner? And not rather, Paul says, as
we be slanderly reported that we're saying, and as some affirm
that we say, and not rather, let us do evil that good may
come then. If God's, men will say, if God's
glorified by me sinning more and more and me not glorifying
that, he's got to go and get me and grab me and show that
I'm a trophy of his grace. If that's the case, then why
would he take vengeance on me if I don't come to him and I
don't believe him? And Paul said, and such men who
say such things, their damnation is just. It's just. Look back at verse six. God forbid,
how then shall God judge the world? Now listen, every sinner,
hear this and get it. Don't ever flatter yourself that
you do one thing, whether good or bad. whether in any kind of
faithfulness or any kind of rebellion, don't ever think that you add
to God's glory or that you diminish it, ever. Don't ever think that
you add to His righteousness or make His righteousness to
be becoming by something you do. God's glory is His own glory. God's righteousness is in Himself. It's declared through His Son,
Himself. Your unrighteousness does nothing
to add or diminish the righteousness that He is. God's truth shines
forth of God Himself. Our lies do nothing to further
the truth of God or take from it. God's goodness is of God
Himself and our evil does nothing to make His good come or to show
it forth or anything like that. But, but now, A sinner's vain
self-conceit in thinking that he does will certainly bring
upon you God's damnation. And justly so. We can't add anything
to God. That's who God is. God, the very
essence, who God is, is solitary. If you believe on God, it don't
add anything to Him. We've been there praising Him
for all eternity. It won't add anything to Him. It won't. They just won't. Men
call God a liar and they call Him unrighteousness for choosing
to save ungodly rebels by His grace, saying God's unrighteous
because He's passing by multitudes. Let me ask you this. Be honest
now. Are you wanting to come the way God says He'll save?
You don't want to come that way. You're not wanting to come that
way. Men aren't wanting to come that way. The sinner who's calling
God unrighteous, he does not want to come that way. And God's
not withholding something that any of those multitudes that
perish in unbelief want. He's not holding back anything
they want. The multitudes who perish in unbelief do not want
God, and they don't want His way of salvation by the full
and complete work of Christ Jesus Lord. They don't want it. Search
the Scriptures, the Lord said, for in them you think you have
eternal life, and there they which testify me, and you will
not come to me that you might have life. He stood there on
that last day at the feast and he said, if any man is thirsty,
let him come to me. If any man hungers, let him come
to me. Drink freely, come, you'll have eternal life. He wasn't holding anything from
them. They didn't want what he had. They didn't want him. They
didn't want anything he had to give them. The question is not about the
multitudes who don't want it. The question is, do you want
it? Do you want Him? That's the question.
You see, when you stand in the Day of Judgment, nobody else
is going to stand there and say anything for you. And you're
not going to be able to use anybody else as an excuse for saying
why you didn't believe on God. The matter is going to be between
you and God. And if you don't come in Christ,
you're going to lose. That question is not, what about
all these multitudes that aren't being saved, that He's passing
by? The question is, Do you, are
you willing to come? All right, let's go back then.
Here's where we all are. Verse 9, what then, are we better
than they? Because we got the word, we got
this gospel, are we better than they? Paul's a Jew speaking about
Jews, and he said, are we better than they? No, in no wise. As a believer sitting here speaking
to other believers, I'm saying this to you and to all who's
listening, are we better than they? No, in no wise. For we've
proved before, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under
sin. That's the problem. We're all
under sin. As it's written, there's none righteous, not one. There's
none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. If none are willing and none seeking God, the true and
living God, and they won't seek Him until He makes them willing
in the day of His power, then that's... We need God, don't
we? To make us willing. We need Him.
We need His mercy. We need His truth. We need His
righteousness. We need Him. They're all gone
out of the way. Together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good, not a one. Well, let's look down
here. Here's the problem. Look at verse
18. Verse 17. The way of peace they've not
known. God's the way of peace. Christ's the way of peace. Men
haven't known it. And here's the problem. Verse 18. There's
no fear of God before their eyes. I guarantee you this. If you
get sick here in the next week or two, getting a car wreck or something
like that. You get laid up and you're convinced you're about
to meet God. You listen. You'll get all serious
then. You'll get real serious and you'll
get real concerned about, do I really know God or not? As
soon as that's over and you get well, you'll kick up your heels
like a hellacious rebellion, like a jackass in the wind. That's
exactly what you'll do. God's... Alright, let's look,
let's go now. Every sinner is under sin. You can make all excuses and
object all you want. This is the problem. Under the
power of sin, the guilt of sin, the curse of sin, the condemnation
of the law, the soul of the sinner is going to die. Now verse 19
says, We know that what things whoever the law says, it says
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Now, let
me ask you, sinner, has your mouth been stopped? Has our mouths
finally been stopped? Have we become guilty before
God? Has God shut you up? Has he shut us up and made us
tremble, made us see He's right. He's just. Everything He said
about me is so. Has He done that? Has He made you see that you're
under sin? Then listen then. If your mouth
stopped now and you're through with the objections, now let's
listen. Listen. Here's what God said. There's
righteousness to be had. It's to be had one place. in
Christ Jesus. Look at verse 21. But now the
righteousness of God without the law is manifested. The righteousness
of God, the most valuable thing a man could possess without man
having to do anything whatsoever is manifested. What if somebody,
you know, I, I'll give you an example. All those folks that
was in that office pool over there in Philadelphia, and they
won that lottery here a month ago. Biggest jackpot, I think,
you know, all after they divvied it up, was 20 or 30 of them after
they all divvied it up, they still all got four or $5 million
a piece. And most of them quit working. Paid for, they just I might work
if I want to, but I ain't got to. I bet the ones that kept
working, I bet the boss treats them different, too, because
they ain't got to be there if they don't want to be there.
It's there because they want to be there. Those are good employees.
I'm working because I want to, not because I got to. If you
had knew that righteousness, the most valuable thing in the
world, could be had free of charge, without you doing anything, wouldn't
you stop working? Wouldn't you stop objecting?
Nobody over there in that office pool called up the people at
the lottery and said, hey, man, don't you know how many millions
of people live in this country? Don't you know how upside down
our economy is? Take that money and give it to
the government. Let's get out of this mess we're in. Now, none
of them did that. They all took it. It went up
to there. That's who God, verse 25, He
sent Him forth to be propitiation, mercy, the mercy seat, the place
of mercy, the place where God will meet with a sinner. How?
By works? Nope. Through faith in His blood.
He's come trusting His blood to have done what God says it
did. What did God say it did? Here's why He sent Him forth,
to declare His righteousness. That's what it does. It declares
God's righteousness. His blood does. For the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, it declares,
I say at this time, His righteousness. It declares God is just and He
is the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. Now, is your
mouth stopped? There's justification. Totally
free. Totally free. Verse 24 there
says, "...justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus." It's free. Righteousness is only going
to be had one way. Believe Him. You know, there's one thing in
this world that no man can do. One thing that no man can do. And that is to stop doing anything
to be accepted of God. The only thing God requires you
stop trying to do anything to be accepted of God and trust
his son to have done it all and to be that acceptance with God.
And that man can't do it. Just can't do it. We've sent
rockets to the moon. And rest assured, the heavens
are going to be destroyed, just like the earth is, because we
went out there and polluted it and defiled it, just like we
have here. We can do that. We've done some wonderful things
by God giving some understanding of things. But we can't stop
and just believe on God. Well, where's boasting then?
If it's only by faith, look at verse 27, where's boasting then?
It's excluded. Is it excluded by the law of
works? No. If you could come to God some other way. And you
know this is so. If I was telling you there was
something, you know, they came to Nahum and they said, if that
prophet had told you some great thing to do, wouldn't you have
done it? They just told you to come down off your high horse.
They just told you to come down to the River Jordan and dip in
it seven times and you'll be healed. I'm saying... Come down
and wash in the blood of Christ and you'll be healed. Come down
off your high horse. That's it. If it gave you some
big, great thing to do and swelled up your head with knowledge and
some worldly wisdom and philosophy, go out of here clapping your
hands just like you do out of the movie theater. Just like
you do when you hear music playing and some new song on the radio
or whatever. Because that's a man. And you'd
say, man, that's good. I like that. But saying that
it's all done, there's nothing else to do but trust it? I don't
know about that. Now, now, now. How do you know
there really is a God? What good does it do me to come
and hear that gospel? Look at all these people that
don't believe. What are you going to say? If then, if all this is showing
how much I need God's grace, I'm just gonna go out and sin
much more than that damnation to be just, they will be just. No, here's what we conclude.
No, it's excluded by the law of faith. He that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Does that
go for the Jews and the Gentiles? Is He the same God to the Jews
as He is to the Gentiles? Does He save one one way and
one another way? Is He going to save one group
of people this way and another group of people that way? Nope. He's the God of the Gentiles
also. It's one God which shall justify the Jews by faith and
the Gentiles through faith. Same way. Same way. He justifies
the circumcision of the Jews by faith and justifies the uncircumcision
of the Greeks and Gentiles by faith. Same way. Well, what about
the law then? What about my doing and everything
I've done? Verse 31, do we then make void
the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
it. Christ fulfilled it in every jot and tittle for each one who
shall believe on him. And Christ is in the law for
righteousness to everyone that believes on him. And the law
is not made void through faith, but through faith in Christ,
the believer has established the law, magnified it, and made
it honorable, not by our obedience to it, but by his. It's satisfying. The law says that right there
is a righteous, perfect man. That's what God's own law says.
Well, here's the last word. I do pray that God will make
you stop hearing the gospel as aggravating bad news and that
he make you understand that the gospel is good news. It's good
news. It's good news. Man, here's a knock at his door.
This mailman's out there and he's got Man just don't want
to have nothing to do with it. So he just goes off somewhere
and pretends like nobody's home. Man takes it with him. Got to
sign for it. You can't have it if you don't say this is who
I am. And all the while the man had,
he had riches that had been brought to give you. And you run off
and hid because you didn't want them. All you had to do was come
up here and say, that's me. I'm the sinner. That's me. This
is my name right here. That's me. And he just said here,
all this is yours. Take it. It's all yours. I hope that he does shut your
mouth because you got to be made guilty. The gospel is not only
going to be good news to the guilty. Are you guilty? Is a perfect righteousness brought
by another good news to you? Is justification freely given
by grace good news to you? Is being wholly accepted by God
through the righteous person of His only Son good news to
you? Do you believe God? This is the good news. You're talking over my head.
I can't understand all that. That's just too much for me.
I can't digest it all. All right, just go home with
this and mull this over. Stay with it. I hope it stays
with you. Here, just think about this.
I hope it'll be simple enough. It's what Paul told that Philippian
jailer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I hope he makes it so.