Turn with me this morning, if
you would, to a passage of Scripture that you've heard and read many
times. Romans chapter 3, verse 23. Romans 3, verse 23. Here the Apostle Paul writes,
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Many titles I could have given
this message, but this is the one I came up with for now anyway. All come short, but some justified
freely. Is that of any interest to you?
I've never claimed to be a bright man, but I do understand the
word all, and I do have some understanding of the word some. All come short, but some. Some are justified freely. And
it's certain that I'm in the first group of all. Guess what? So are you. All of us are. We
saw a few weeks ago in verse 3 where Paul asked the question,
for what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? And we found the answer to be
a resounding no. Paul said, God forbid. No way. That's kind of like you saying,
no way. God forbid. Paul said, yea, let God be true,
but every man a liar. And anyone who thinks, says,
or believes that our faith made a difference in whether God saved
us or not has yet to be revealed the truth concerning salvation.
Have we figured out yet that it was not our faith that saved
us, but the faith of God our Savior that did? Shall their
unbelief, Paul asks, the unbelievers in this world, should their unbelief
make Christ our substitute's faith without effect? It's not
possible. He's God. God says, yea, I have
spoken it, I'll also bring it to pass, I have purposed it,
and I will also do it. Now, is that your God? That sounds
to me like God does what He wants to. Our God is where? David said He's in the heavens.
What's He doing, David? Whatsoever He pleased. That sounds
to me like a God that does what He wants to. Whatsoever the Lord
pleased, that did He. Not that He tried to do, or that
He hoped to do, or that He wanted to do. That did He. And He did
it in heaven and in earth and in the seas and all deep places.
And let me say it again, that sounds like a God that's in control
of me. Salvations of the Lord. Of who? The Lord Jesus Christ. When the
Gospel is preached, it's always the same outcome. Some believe
it and some do not. However, in verse 23, the Apostle
Paul said, for all have sinned and come short. I was reminded
this past week of what it is to come short. I'm convinced
we don't think about it enough. As most of you know, my immediate
family and I went to the Smoky Mountains for Christmas, and
one of the things that we wanted to do was to take the grandchildren
to Dollywood. And upon entering the park, we
soon noticed what seemed to be the first stop for most everyone
with children, and it was called Dollywood Centralized Measuring
Station. And the first thing I thought
was great. They're gonna weigh me too. Everybody
wants to weigh me. The doctor wants to weigh me.
Now Dollywood wants to weigh me. I guess they think I'm gonna
break one of the roller coasters or something. But I soon realized
that it was for the kids. It was to measure the height
of the children to determine whether or not it was safe for
them to ride. And it was here at the measuring
station where a Dollywood employee measured the height of your child
and then gave them a color-coded wristband. And that color-coded
wristband corresponded to the color-coded signs on each ride. And if your color came short,
of the color required for that ride, it simply meant that you
were too short to ride that ride. No exceptions. This was Dollywood
law. I'm sure that the theme park
experts and engineers and amusement park specialists, insurance underwriters,
and everyone else had studied long and hard to reduce the risk
of injury. especially on children. And this
rule, this law, was really what was best for them. If you came
up short of the height required, you didn't ride. And you know
what? When the child was measured and
they gave them the corresponding colored wristband, I never heard
one child or one parent say, well, that's not fair. Not one
person said that Dollywood wasn't fair. The same law applied to
all. I didn't hear one child or one
parent say, hey, I've done my best to grow taller. Doesn't
that count for something? Nope. Doesn't count for anything. It's the law, and you've come
short. Some of the kids I saw getting
measured came up way short of getting to ride the big rides.
And if we'd tried to sneak our grandchildren on the big wild
eagle roller coaster, they would have picked us out. You know
why? We would have broken their law. How come it is that Man
seems to give no arguments to the world's rules and regulation. For the most part, men and women
are peaceful folks. But you tell a man or a woman
that God has yet to reveal the truth to, and you tell them that
they've sinned, and that they've come short of the glory of God,
and that they've offended God and His holy law and His holy
justice, And I'm going to tell you what will happen. They'll
get mad. The truth of the matter is, we've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. When each of us stand at God's
centralized measuring station called the holy law of God, oh
my, we too will come up way short. All of us will. We're all in
the same boat. So let's just for a few minutes
consider this familiar verse of Scripture. Look at it again
with me, Romans 3.23. First thing, for all. All. Everyone has come up short. Everyone that has ever lived
on earth. Everyone that has ever taken
a breath. Every person born of a woman
has this in common. They have all sinned. Every one of them. Genesis 6-5,
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
He had made man on the earth. This evil was common among all. And it grieved Him in His heart.
We read a few verses later, and God looked upon the earth and
beheld it was corrupt. For all flesh, how much flesh? All flesh had corrupted His way
upon the earth. The wise man said, for there's
not a just man upon earth that doeth good. Not a just man upon earth that
doeth good and sinneth not. Ecclesiastes 7. And then Paul
wrote this in Galatians 3 verse 22. Scripture hath concluded
all under sin. How many? All. Everybody. Do you remember what John said?
He said if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
And the truth is not in us. For all, you and I are in that
group. All. Secondly, what have all
these done? Well, the first thing the Apostle
mentions is sin. Do you know that the Greek word
for sin in this verse means miss the mark? Yes, my grandchildren
missed the mark at Dollywood to ride many of the adult rides.
But you and I have sinned against God, and the penalty for us is
far, far, far more severe. The wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. We'll get quiet on that one,
don't we? Behold, all souls are mine is the soul of the Father,
so also the soul of the Son is mine, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Ezekiel 18, 4. For as many as
are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. When lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it's finished,
bringeth forth death." James 115. We say it all the time. We say it because it's true.
We sin because we're sinners. How else does a man come forth
from the womb speaking lies? Only one that is conceived in
sin, as David said he was. And only one who's born in sin
does such things as we do. And thirdly, our sin has caused
us to fall way short of the glory of God. To come short of the
glory of God for you and I is a given. If not, Paul would have
never encouraged us as he did in his epistles. In Romans 5,
verse 2, he wrote, By whom also we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. There seems to be a way for me
not to come short. I want to know more about that.
In 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 12, Paul wrote that you should walk
worthy of God. who hath called you into His
kingdom and glory." Paul said, whereunto He called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, how are you and I going to
obtain the glory of God when you and I come short of it? When
you and I have missed it, we've missed the mark. How can I obtain
that perfect righteousness that God requires in order for me
to be accepted by Him? The answer hasn't changed, by
the way. The same answer I gave you last week to the question.
Peter said, I'm a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Where does that glory come from?
Well, it can't come from me. You know why? Because I missed
the mark. I missed it by a bunch. by a bunch, come way, way short. Scripture's already plainly told
us that we've missed it. So how do we get it? Isn't it
obvious from these verses that there's only one way? Only one
way that a sinner can keep from coming short, missing the mark
of the glory of God. It's only in Jesus Christ that
we obtain it. Men and women have devised many
ways of salvation. Today's religion has given sinners
all kinds of roads to heaven. The sad thing is, it's not so. Anymore, there are many ways
to reconciliation. There are many ways to redemption.
But the Bible God's Word. Let me pause there. Do you believe
this is God's Word? Now you don't have to audibly
answer, but I'm asking you. Do you believe this is God's
Word? If you don't, then you will never believe what it says.
God will never reveal His Word to one who doesn't believe it's
His Word. This is the reality of the matter. God's going to
have to first convince you that this is His Word, and then He's
going to have to reveal it to you, and all that does is just
prove how dead we are. We can understand one though,
can't we? God has but one Gospel. God has
but one Savior. God has but one mediator. There's
but one way to be reconciled to God. There's but one way to
be saved. No man cometh to the Father but
by Me. That's what we saw this morning.
Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Sadly, what
we have in religion today is filled with those who are ever
learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. I've
met some young men lately, that's just the case. Ever learning. Oh, educated. Take more classes. Learn more doctrine. Ever learning. Never coming to the knowledge
of the truth. 2 Timothy 3.17, that should tell
us something. Friends, you can go to seminary,
you can get theological training, you can study the Scriptures
hours a day, but unless God Almighty intervenes in a sinner's life,
unless God gives us a new heart, alive unto God, a heart that
understands, a heart that believes, you'll never come to the knowledge
of the truth. You know why? Because salvation
is of the Lord. And He will not share His glory
with another. You're in Romans 4. Turn back
a page or two to Romans 2. Verse 28. Paul here says, For he is not
a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, the letter of
the law, whose praise is not of men, but of God." Now, Paul
here is speaking of believers. He's talking about true spiritual
Jews. When Paul says he is not a Jew
who is one outwardly, what he's saying is this. He's saying he
is not a believer, he's not a Christian who is one outwardly. A true
believer is one who is so inwardly. What does that mean? What's Paul
saying? Well, the circumcision Paul's speaking of is not a physical
circumcision. It's a spiritual circumcision.
It's a circumcision of the heart. Our Lord once said to the religious
leaders of His day, He said, you call Me Lord with your lips.
Lord, Lord. You call me Lord with your lips.
You go through the motions. You follow closely the rituals
and the ceremonies. You tithe. You fast. You pray. You attend church. But your heart
is far from me. Your heart is far from me. Now listen. There's a night and
day difference in having religion and in having Christ. In your heart. What we see today for the most
part is what the scriptures call a form of godliness. But it denies
the power thereof. Religion has substituted church
membership for repentance. The message of the gospel is
repent and believe. Be baptized. Today people say
join the church. Everything will be alright. Religion
has substituted their decision, their will, their worth, their
work for the power of God, that heart work of God's grace in
the soul. Men have confused their walk
down an aisle with the work of grace. God's grace declares that
it's God who comes to us. Did you know that Christ has
never been lost? I found Jesus. He wasn't lost. I'm the one that's lost and He
came to seek and to save that which is lost. We've got this
all turned around. It's not something we work out
on our own. It's not something that we earn,
that we merit, or that we deserve. It's the gift of God. Religion
has substituted worship for activities. Religion is too busy, too busy
counting people and counting money than to worship and to
preach Christ. I kid you not. I have an acquaintance
who goes to church in Henderson. I don't even know if I remember
the name, so it don't matter. But he and his wife hold an office
at that church. You know what it is? You know
what it's called? Counters. They are counters. What do they count? They count
the people, and they count the money. It's true. We don't have
any counters here. God knows those who belong to
Him. God knows who gives what. I don't,
and I don't want to know. But God knows, and just so you
know, we post every single expense of this church on that back bulletin
board for all to see. We're not hiding anything. We're
not hiding anything. We have nothing to hide, especially
knowing that all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him,
God Almighty, with whom we have to do. God knows what we're doing. We first stand responsible to
God. And we endeavor to avoid any
and all appearance of evil. Why? For the glory of God. But
unless we have Christ, we still come short. Religion too busy
trying to make God's Gospel more acceptable. They're trying to
take all the wretches and the worms out of their preaching. They believe that everyone is
basically good and doing the best that they can and God's
okay with that. Is he? What does this book say? It says you must be perfect to
be accepted. One of the old writers referred
to religion in his day as much ado about nothing. And the child
of God sees clearly that modern day religion is no different.
It's just much ado about nothing. Self-proclaimed churches have
substituted much ado about nothing for the truth of salvation, which
is by the substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ. You leave
that out, you've left it all out. I'm not saying that people
aren't sincere, but you can be sincerely wrong. And I'm not
saying that people in religion aren't moral. To my shame, many
are more moral than I am. I'm not saying that folks don't
do good works. They do good works. No doubt
they do. And I'm thankful for the good
works they do. But what I'm saying, friends,
is this. Today's mainstream religion is
man-centered. I don't know how else to say
it. It's certainly not God-centered.
You don't have to listen long to find that out. Religion has
become man-centered. Man is his own source of his
own religion. He's not getting it from this
book. By his decision, by his will, man is the one who makes
the difference. And God's reduced to a bystander
who I suppose, long ago, made salvation possible according
to them, and he patiently waits on sinners to decide what they
want to do. That's not my God. That's not
my God. And if that's your opinion and
estimation of God Almighty, you're going to be alarmingly surprised
and rudely awakened when you find out who God really is. Men,
by nature, have no fear, no reverence of God. But one day, every knee
is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord. And men and women won't be so
cocky then. No, sir. I hear men and women
talk a lot today about what sinners should do for God. We talk about
it often. Salvation today seems to be all
about doing and giving something to God. Have you noticed that?
Give Him your heart. Give Him your life. Give Him
your time. Give Him your talent. Give Him your time. God doesn't
need you to give Him anything. But I certainly need for Him
to do something for me. Don't you? Number one, I need
Him to give me life. I lost it in the garden. I lost
it in Adam. I lost it by birth and by practice. I need God to give me a new heart.
A heart that believes and trusts Him. My heart's deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. And sometimes God lets me see
it. Oh, and it's not pleasant. I need God to give me Christ
as my substitute and my sacrifice and my surety. Because He's the
only one whom God will accept. And we're accepted in Him and
nowhere else. We're accepted in the Beloved.
Does God have a need? When did this happen? If God
has a need, then He ceased to be God. And even if God could
have a need, He wouldn't ask you or me for help. He said so
Himself. If I were hungry, I wouldn't
tell you, for the world is Mine in the fullness thereof. And
I love the way that reads. He said if I were hungry, but
I'm not, I wouldn't tell you. And this is why the world is
Mine in the fullness thereof. I don't need your help. I don't
have any needs. Everything belongs to the Lord. It's all on loan to us. God doesn't
have a need. God provides men and women's
needs. How? My God shall supply all
your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. There it is again. Does this
make you happy? The Scriptures say Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. God did something for Noah. Noah
had sinned and come short of the glory of God just like every
other man and woman on earth whose thoughts of the hearts
were only evil continually. Noah found grace. Who called
Abraham out of the Ur of the Chaldeans? God called him out. God said, going to a land I'll
show thee and I'll make thee a great nation. It didn't add
anything to God, friends. God was already a great God before
He ever called Abraham out. God was a great God. And He's
still a great God because He's the same. He never changes. He's
immutable. All men by nature think they
don't need God. And when these men Pleasers preach. They basically agree with the
nature of man. They tell sinners that God needs
their cooperation. Now this is a cooperative effort.
And if God needed your cooperation, then you don't need God. But
He doesn't need your cooperation. And He never has and He never
will. Jonah, from the belly of a fish, cried, Salvation is of
the Lord. And the Scriptures say, And the
Lord spake unto the fish. And it vomited out Jonah upon
dry land. Salvations of the Lord. Noah
knew it. Abraham knew it. Jonah knew it. Do you know it? It's not something
I do for myself. I know that. It's something that
God does for me. David didn't talk about what
all he did for the Lord. And he did some great things.
What did David talk about? He talked about what the Lord
did for him. The Lord, He maketh me to lie down. He makes me lie
down. Well, I don't want to lie down,
Lord, lie down anyway. He makes me to rest in Him, doesn't He?
How many times do we but, you know, rest, lie down. The Lord leadeth me beside the
still waters. Who does? The Lord does. He restores
my soul. I do nothing for Him. Oh, if
you can restore something to God, you're God. When we worship
God, we're not doing anything for Him. We're only doing what
we should do. When we give, we give out of
our need to do so. You know that? God loves that
you're a forgiver, but God doesn't need our money. We have to pay
bills, and God's ordained means of doing that is through the
giving of His people. We don't beg for money and we
don't shame people into giving. We don't even pass out an offering
plate anymore. If people want to give, they'll
give. And when they give, they're not giving because God has a
need, we're giving because we have a need. Did you ever notice,
and I'm almost finished, I'm not going to keep you much longer.
Did you ever notice when our Lord Jesus was talking about
the sheep and the goats? You know, He separated one on
one side and one on the other side, one on the right and one
on the left. And when He told the sheep that they had ministered
to Him in prison, do you remember their reaction? How? How did
we do that? When did we do that? And the
Lord said, for I was hungry and you gave Me meat, and I was thirsty
and you gave Me drink, and I was a stranger and you took Me in.
I was naked and you clothed Me. I was sick and you visited Me. I was in prison and you came
unto Me. They said, Lord, when did we
ever see You like that? We don't remember doing anything
for You. And the Lord said, inasmuch as
you have done it unto the least of these My brethren, you've
done it unto Me. So these people had to be reminded
of what they had done. They didn't even remember. You
know why? Because they're thinking about
what He's done for them. All of us have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And because of that, we've been
weighed in the balances and have been found wanting. So what are
we going to do? The good news is actually there's
nothing for us to do. Look at verse 24. Being justified,
how? Freely. By His, and that being
God's grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And there you have the Gospel.
Isn't it? So simple. So plain. Being justified
freely. By God's mercy and God's grace.
Not by works of righteousness that we've done. No, no. But
by and through His grace and His mercy. It's called substitution. It's called salvation. And it's
of the Lord and He receives all the glory. And being in Christ,
we no longer come short of it. Well, may God be pleased to add
His blessings to the preaching of His Word. May God make these
things effectual to your heart.