All right, take your Bibles and
turn with me again to Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2. This evening I will, I desire,
I desire to take you from verse 12 to the end of the chapter
in verse 29. And a lot of this section is
going to be intuitive. It's going to be just like building
blocks. He's building on top of one principle
upon another principle as he goes through these verses here. But remember, I always like to
get a running start at it. A running start. Now the Apostle
has now exposed to us the vileness of those who had not the law. He said those who had the law
of conscience and nature. They knew the wrath of God, they
knew that judgment was coming, but what did they do with such
knowledge was that they turned and worshipped the creature rather
than the creator. He tells us that God for this
cause gave them over to a reprobate mind. He gave them over to a
reprobate mind. He turns then to the religious,
to the moral. That's all in chapter 1 he does
this and then in chapter 2 he begins now to talk from from
those Gentiles. He said, this is what your ancestors
were. This is what you were. You were
without God in the world. You worshiped the pagan gods
of false religion. God gave your people over to
reprobate minds, to commit such vile acts. And you know, like
I told you, the religious people, the Jews, in that were saying,
Amen. They were saying, that's right.
You tell them. And in verse 2, chapter 2 and verse 1, Paul now
turns from them to the religious people. And he says this, you
that made judgments are without excuse. You made a judgment and your
judgment was right, it was correct. Those who do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. That judgment is right. The problem
with judgment was, is that they did the same thing. The same
things that they judged are the same things these religious people
did. And so Paul tells them that they're
not going to escape the justice of God no matter who you are.
If you are moral and religious or you are vile and corrupt,
listen, we both are without excuse in this fact that we both, moral
and immoral, both of us have sinned. And he tells us something
about the justice of God. He says, only the judgment of
God is true. Now we have judgments, but our
judgments, they're incomplete. They're not always correct. But
one who is judge of all the people, his judgment is true. He says, behold, only the judgment
of God, we are sure that the judgment of God according to
truth against them that commit such things. So Paul, he assures
us that no man shall escape or be excluded from the justice
of God. And so then how will God judge?
Seeing God's judgment is true, God's judgment is right, how
is he going to judge? Listen, what God says is righteous is
righteous. And this is just, isn't it? Everybody
has a mind of justice as any understanding of justice. You
know this. If a man is righteous, he deserves a righteous man's
reward. That's just, isn't it? So when
God says this, to the righteous, to the righteous God shall not
fail to give them glory, honor, peace, eternal life, and immortality. That's what he tells us in verses
7 and 10 about the righteous man. The righteous man is going
to receive a righteous man's reward. But in verses 8 and 10, he tells
us this, that those who have sinned will receive a sinner's
reward. And what is a sinner's reward?
Here it is, wrath. Eternal tribulation and anguish. That is a just reward for sin. Now then, after hearing this,
after hearing this, Paul's gonna, and he concludes this in verse
11, I'm gonna cover this, he said, for there is no respect
of persons with God. Now, listen, you've just lumped
all of the homosexuals in with the Jews, in with the religious,
the moral people, He's put them all together because both groups
are convicted at this point. Both groups understand that they
both have sinned. And so then there are going to
be two objections. One objection is going to come
from the Gentiles. And the other objection is going
to come from the religious folks, the Jews. Now the first objection
is this about the Jews. The Jews are going to come in
and say, well, are you sure about that, Paul? He's no respecter
of persons. Because I'll tell you, the Old Testament testifies
that he loves the Jews. And so, listen, Paul, well, I'm
sure that the judgment of God is not going to be so harsh to
us. It's not going to be so harsh
as it is to the pagans. Why? Because God surely chose
us. And so their objection to this
is that God is going to be a respecter of persons, that he's going to
respect the Jews. And the Gentiles, they have an
objection to this. They say, well, God's surely
not going to judge us harshly, because we didn't have the law.
You see, the Jews, those Jews, they got the law, but we didn't.
So obviously, God's going to cut us some slack. Surely, he's
not going to be as harsh to us As to those who had the law,
we never had it, so obviously he's got to be more lenient to
us. But Paul reveals in verse 11 the truth about this. The
true nature of judgment is this, that the judge has no respect
of persons. God has no respect of persons,
whether Jew or Gentile. Does it matter where you were
born? Does it matter if you were born with the law or without
the law? Everyone is going to be judged
by the same standard. By the same standard. And this is what all men know
in their conscience. That if justice is to be just,
it cannot be influenced by relationship. Isn't that right? This is just
natural. We even get this naturally. And if that's true, then how
much more must the justice of God be without reproach? If God's
justice is true and holy, it must have no respect of persons.
If one is righteous, he must be justified and receive a righteous
reward, no matter who he is, Jew or Gentile. He must, if one has sinned, he
must be punished under the wrath of God, no matter who he is,
Jew or Gentile. And in verses 12 through verse
29, the apostle will now deal with these objections. Now look
at verse 12, he says this, for as many as have sinned without
the law shall perish without the law. There's the Gentiles. and as many as have sinned in
the law shall be judged by the law." There's the Jews. He answers
both objections. In other words, what's his answer?
Is God going to be lenient on me because I didn't get the law?
No. Is God going to be lenient on
me because I'm His chosen people? No. The answer is no. God is going to judge everyone
by the same strict standard of justice. Everyone. He said, now in verse 13, he
says, for not the hearers of the law are just before God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified. Now here's the
first objection to the Gentiles here. He said, for when the Gentiles,
which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in
the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves. He said, listen to what he just
said. He said, for the Gentiles, which didn't have the law. Remember,
their objection is, look, we didn't have the law. Obviously,
we're pleading ignorance here. You didn't give us the law of
Moses, so we didn't really know that we were doing evil. Liar. Liar. You knew it because, listen,
the Gentiles who did not receive the law of Moses, what did they
do? They did by nature the things contained in the law. Now this
is just amazing. If you were to have any study
in history or civilizations, you would be able then to take
the law of God and put it up against the law of their governments,
the laws of men. You would take the law of God
and put it up against the pagan religions and what you're going
to find is you're going to find it's almost a mirror image. It's a distorted image, but it
is an image of the same law. In every country, murder is evil.
Why is that? It's evil. It's evil. They do the things contained
in the law. Adultery is evil. They know it. They put it in
their laws. Look at their religion. Every
religion, though it's pagan, had a priest. Where'd they get
that? They never saw the Law of Moses.
The Law of Moses demanded you had a high priest. Well, guess
what? Every pagan religion has to have a priest. The Law of
Moses said you had to have a sacrifice. Every pagan religion had to have
a sacrifice. Now, where'd they get that from?
He said they do those things contained. And what's the proof?
Look at this. Having not the law, they are
law to themselves, which shows. There's the proof. The work of
the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing
witness, and their thoughts, meanwhile, accusing or excusing
one another. Here's the proof. This is the
truth. This is why God will judge the
heathen who never received the law, because the law was written
on their hearts. And the law that they had, though
it was not complete, they didn't obey it. They didn't obey it. It was on
their hearts. Their conscience also bared them
witness. Behold, the Gentiles who will
be judged of God will be judged according to the law that was
written on their hearts. Which law is evidenced by those
two things? Conscience, first of all. Anybody
have a conscience? Everybody has a conscience. The
conscience is the witness that the law is written on your hearts.
How do you know that law is written on your heart? Because of conscience. Because they know the difference
between good and evil. All men know the evil of murder
and theft, adultery, homosexuality, drunkenness, rioting, covetousness.
They know these evils. Though men can and do over time
sear that conscience. You take a little child, a little
child, you know, that's when the conscience is really, you
know, strong. But over time, what do they do?
We keep doing these evil things and it becomes, what, easier,
doesn't it? The conscience, Paul says they seared it with a hot
iron. It's like taking a cut or a wound
and putting a hot iron on it and it calluses over. You don't
feel it anymore. That happens over the conscience. They sear it over a period of
time. But look at the laws of the pagans,
the cultures, their religion. It mirrors the law of Moses, yet though it is distorted. Yet,
listen to this. Who among all the religions that
never had the law ever obeyed the law written on their hearts? Can you not say it about yourself?
The law written on our hearts. Before we ever could read this
book, we defiled our conscience even as little children. I mean, you look up at your mom
and dad and you lie. And you know you're not going
to, you know that's not right. And what'd you do? You defiled
the law written on your own heart. Why, this is who we are. We are
sinners. Sin is not what we do, friends.
It's not what we do. It's who we are. We are, from
the very core of our nature, sinners, rebels, haters of God. Paul will say that later, that
the carnal mind is enmity. It's not at it, it is enmity.
itself is at enmity against God, for, and here's the proof, it
is not subject to the law of God, not the law of Moses, and
certainly not the law of conscience. God wrote it on there, yet no
man has ever obeyed that. Therefore, as many as have sinned without the
law of Moses, God's going to judge them by the law that he
wrote on their hearts. And what is he going to find
us? Guilty. Guilty. They never saw the law of Moses,
they never heard the law of Moses, but they had the law of conscience
written on their hearts. And in that day of judgment,
all those who have sinned without the law, listen to this, shall
perish. Shall perish. See, there's not
going to be any excuse. Well, I never... No, you did.
You did hear the law. You heard it in your own heart
and conscience that God wrote it there and you defiled it.
You sinned against God. So there's no excuse. No excuse
for the Gentiles. What about the second objection,
the Jews? They said, well, you see, we're
going to have some favor with God. God's going to be more lenient
on us Why? Well, he's loved us. He gave
us his law. He didn't give it to those heathens.
He gave it to us. So obviously he has some love
for us. We're going to be lenient on
us. No, what Paul says in verse 12, he says, for as many as have
sinned in the law. What does that mean? They sinned having the law of
Moses. They're going to perish by the
law of Moses. Our Lord said to those Pharisees
who believed they were going to go to heaven based on their
obedience to that law. They really believed it. And
I'll tell you what, everybody that looked at them believed
it too. in that day. We look back now seeing they
crucified Christ and we say, oh those horrible people. Back
then they weren't looked like as horrible people. They were
admired by everybody. You know what Jesus said? He
said, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of these
people. Now you don't understand the impact that had on those
people listening to that. These were the most righteous
people in the world. And God says, You got to do better
than that if you want to go into heaven. And so they're saying, wait,
Paul, we were the God's chosen people. We were Abraham's seed,
the Jews. Surely God will not condemn us.
Surely God will favor us, seeing He gave us the law and the prophets.
Look at verse 17 now. He said, Behold, thou art called
a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,
and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent. Now look, the law is more excellent
than the law of conscience, isn't it? He's going to tell us later
in chapter 3 that there was an advantage to being a Jew in a
lot of ways, that they had a clearer understanding of what God demanded
than the Gentiles did. Being instructed out of the law. And you are confident that you
thyself are the guide of the blind, a light of them which
are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of
babes, which has the form of knowledge and the truth of the
law." He's expounding to them what they thought of themselves.
Obviously, these guys thought pretty highly of themselves.
They said, you're a Jew, right? Yeah, I'm a Jew. Oh, man, you know the living
God, don't you? Yeah, those pagans, they don't
know anything at all about God, but I do. I've been instructed
in the law and the things of God. Therefore, God must have
made me a light to the blind. I'm an instructor of the fools. This is how the Jews perceived
themselves in the church. But notice what Paul said. He
said this. They didn't catch this sleight
of hand. You have a form of knowledge. You don't have real knowledge.
It's just a form. It's not real knowledge. It's not real spiritual
knowledge. You just got a form of knowledge
and of the truth. Behold, the Jews did differ greatly
from the pagans. The pagans had a little light
and the Jews had great light. Pagans had little knowledge and
the Jews were given excellent knowledge. And Paul will testify of this
in chapter 3 and verse 1. So the mind of the Jew was this,
he boasted in the true God. I boast in the true God. So obviously
I'm better off than they are. The Jews, they knew the will
of God concerning the law and the pagans, they stumbled in
the dark at what God really wanted. The Jews were sure that God made
them a guide and a light because they had the law, they had a
form of knowledge. Listen, how many in the church
today feel the same way as the Jews? Superior? How many in the church still
feel so proud and preach the law of Moses as a rule of life. How many still do that? These people view others with
pity, believing themselves to be superior in the wisdom of
God. They think that God has sent
them to be a guide to the blind. Paul says, all who seek to obtain
favor of God by the law He says in another place, have a form
of godliness. Many in the church today are
telling you this, that yes, you're saved by grace. Yes, God chose
a people before the foundation of the world. Yes, Christ died
for those people and the Spirit is going to call them. But I
know this, that once you're saved, you've got to go back under the
law to sanctify yourself. This is being taught, and it
gives men a superiority complex, just like these Jews. They're
the masters, they're the teachers, and if you don't have this knowledge,
they're going to enlighten you. They feel like it's their responsibility. But listen, anybody who believes
that they can obtain favor with God by the law, listen, you don't
have godliness. You don't have knowledge, you
have a form of it. It's just an illusion, friends. It's not
real. These Jews, as well as some professing
believers today, boast of their knowledge of the law of God.
They seek to instruct men to obey the law for their sanctification
before God and men. Notice the question Paul lays
to these proud people in verse 21. He says, Thou therefore which
teachest another, teachest not thyself. Thou which preachest to a man
that he should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest to a man should
not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou of poorest
idols, dost thou not commit sacrilege? Listen to me, if you take your
Bibles and go to Galatians, it's the very same language. The very
same language. Remember, the Galatian church
were seeking to be under the law. They only sought one portion
of it. They wanted circumcision. They
said, well, if you want to be saved by faith in Christ, that's
good. But if you really want to be
a Jew, you've got to be circumcised. They just wanted to take one
section of the law. And Paul says to those who desire
to be under the law, in chapter 4 in Galatians, verse 21, he
says this, you that want to be under the law, do you not hear
the law? You obviously, you that want to teach, don't you teach
yourself first? If you want to teach the law,
you need to listen to the law. Do you not hear what the law
says? You that seek to teach the law to men, do you not see this, that you have
failed to keep it? And so I want to bring the message
then to this age, to this age, to the church of our day. Are
there any who claim to believe in Christ and yet seek to be
under the law? Now this is a serious question. A whole book was written about
it in Galatians and this is just the beginning of Paul dealing
with this matter of the law and its place. If there is any who seek to be
under the law in the slightest measure, Are there any boast
in their faith in Christ and have confidence in their knowledge
of the gospel of God's great yet seek to be sanctified by
your obedience? Anybody? Anybody desire to be
sanctified before God by your obedience, by your good works?
You want to be sanctified by your good works? You have set yourself up to be
instructors of the ignorant, those that oppose... Because
this is the form of... I want you to understand, this
is Reformed teaching I'm talking about. We're talking about Reformed
theology. Those who set themselves up to
be instructors, and they just... You see the arrogance pouring
out of these people. They say, oh, we believe in grace,
we believe in grace, You see them arrogantly overruling and
trying to get you back under the law. These, like the Jews, they have
a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. Go to Galatians. Look at this in Galatians. I
want you to listen to the law. Anybody who wants to be under
the law in any part here Teach. You should teach yourself what
the law says. If you're going to be an instructor
in the law, you need to understand what the law says. I tell you, if I was going to be
a brain surgeon, I might want to study anatomy. That's just off the
top of my head. I think I should need to know
that. If you're going to be under the
law, you need to understand what the law says. Look at Galatians
10. And in Galatians 3, I'll get
it in a minute, Galatians 3 verse 2, Paul asks a question. He said,
I would only learn this of you. Received you the spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? You the believer, how
did you receive the spirit? By faith or by obedience to the
law? Well, we know it's by faith.
He said, are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? Are you now going to finish this
by your obedience to the law? He said, look, if that's true,
you've suffered many things in vain. All your suffering's in
vain. Look what he says the law says
in verse 10. For as many as are of the works of the law, what are you under? Curse. Well, how do you know that? It is written. That settles all
debate when he says that, because that's what God says. Again,
who's the judge? Who's the judge? Whose judgment
is true? It is written. God said cursed
is everyone. No respecter of persons there,
right? Everyone that continueth not
in all things written in the book of the law to do them. To do them. These Jews. Is he not saying the same thing
in our text? He said, you that teach, don't
steal. Have you not stole? You that
say, don't commit adultery. Have you not committed adultery?
If not in your body, in your mind you have. curses everyone that continued
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. So then I ask anyone who wants
to, I say this to anyone who wants to be under the law, have
you kept it? It's a very serious question.
If anyone wants to be under the law, that's exactly what Paul's
asking. Have you kept the law? then why would you ever try to
put these chains on others if you yourself can't keep it? These Jews, like many professing
believers, give lip service to the law. But look at what he
says. He said, continue not in all things written in the book
of the law to what? Do them. Oh, I love the law. Oh, the law
of God is so good. It's so great. God doesn't want
your lip service. He demands your obedience. If
you want to be under the law, you must be under the whole law. I told you this before. How many
laws are in the Old Testament? How many laws? 613. Do you know? How in the world would anybody
ever desire to be under the law? You don't even know that. And yet people still say, well,
you need to obey the Ten Commandments. Ten? That leaves 603 left. Even if you obeyed the Ten, you
didn't obey the Ten. I know that. You already messed
that up. And what are you going to do
about the other 603? James says this, to be guilty
at one point, James 2 and verse 10, he said to be guilty in one
point, in one point, you're guilty of the whole law. So then in verse 25 through verse
29, the apostle shows by illustration that the justice of God is blind
when it comes to a man's Look at verse 25 now. Let me get back in my text because that
wasn't right. I was in Galatians. I wasn't
going to read right. In verse 25 he says, For the
circumcision verily profiteth. Being a Jew is profitable if
what? If you keep the law. That's the
only way it's profitable. But if thou art a breaker of
the law, thy circumcision is made what? Uncircumcision. In
other words, he just threw them with the pagans. He said, if
you hadn't kept the law, your circumcision is as good as theirs. Uncircumcision. Again, we're all Gentiles here,
don't mean much, but believe me, that was an insult. That
was a slap in the face to these Jews. And he says, therefore, if the
uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not the uncircumcision
be counted for the circumcision? And shall not the uncircumcision,
which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the
letter and circumcision does transgress the law? He's saying,
look, if you're a Jew outwardly, and you did not obey the law,
what good is all your heritage? Remember, God's justice is blind
to your heritage. It will do you no good. And so
he's saying to the Jew, well, what if that pagan over there,
and this is the word if, remember, underline that. He said, if the
uncircumcised obeyed the law in fullness, guess what? He's
going to be your judge. He's going to be over you. So what then does circumcision
have anything to being a Jew have to do with the justice of
God? How will that sway the judge of all the earth? It won't. If
you break the law, you will be judged by the law. If you break
the law of conscience, you that did not receive the law, you
shall be judged by the law that was written on your hearts. So
what's the truth? God's no respecter of persons. And notice what Paul says in
verse 28. Who then is a real Jew? And this is going to be
dealt with later in Romans chapter 9 in great detail. He says this,
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 the circumcision is that of the heart,
in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of
men, but of God. He who is a Jew. Now, what does
he mean by this? Who is God's chosen people? That's what a Jew was. A Jew
considered himself to be chosen of God. So who are God's real
chosen people? It's not one who is a Jew outwardly. That has nothing to do with it.
What has to do with it is a spiritual circumcision. a spiritual circumcision. Circumcision is not of the flesh,
but of the heart. This statement clearly testifies
that being a Jew outwardly gives no release from the favor of
God's judgment. And so who are the people of
God? Who is the nation that God swore to save? You know, in the
Old Testament, listen to what God said about the Jews. He said
this, He tells him how he's going to condemn, condemn the evil,
condemn the pagans. But this is what he says. But
Isaiah 45 verse 17, but Israel shall be saved. In the Lord. Listen, with an everlasting salvation. Think about that. That's not
speaking of the Jewish nation, is it? Why? Because the Jewish
nation, they constantly were up and down. Their salvation
was up and down as a nation. And where are they today? Really,
that nation over there is not anything. They can't trace their
lineage back anywhere. And so who is going to receive
an everlasting salvation? He's talking about spiritual
Israel. Listen, and you shall not be ashamed nor confounded,
world without end. God's going to save these people,
these Jews, eternally. Eternally. And Paul deals with this in Romans
11 verse 26 when he says, And so all Israel shall be saved. All Israel shall be saved. He's
talking about both Jew and Gentile, those who are spiritual Israel
shall be saved. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion a deliverer, and shall turn away the ungodliness
from Jacob. For this is my covenant with
them, with Israel, when I shall take away their sins. So how is one a real Jew? How are we the Israel of God? To whom is the promise of God
to send a deliverer? Listen, they are the elect of
God, both Jew and Gentile. As we just sang in that hymn,
"'Tis not that I did choose thee." Look, Lord, that could not be. It's impossible. Jesus said,
no man can come to me. Us choosing him was an impossibility.
The only hope for salvation of man is that God made a choice.
God made choice among His people, among the inhabitants of the
earth. He chose a people that He would
save. This is the true Israel of God.
And it was for the people of God that Christ the Deliverer
came. And by His offering and by His
righteous obedience to the law, what did God promise? To take
away their sins. That's what God promised. And so then behold, Jesus is
that Deliverer. Jesus has obtained for His people
a perfect righteousness. Isn't this what God's justice
demands? Perfect righteousness? And this is what Christ was sent
into the world to do. He was sent to provide a righteousness
acceptable to God. When God came to speak about
His Son, what did He say? This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Do you realize that's the only
person God had ever said that to? The only person God said he's
well pleased with righteousness is that man, Jesus Christ. He
obtained righteousness. Paul's going to say this again
in Romans 3.22. even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. How is your righteousness
made? How is your righteousness made, Eric? How did you get that
righteousness? Where did that come from? It
didn't come from you. My righteousness didn't come
from me. My righteousness was made by Jesus Christ Himself
as a man, as a representative of all His elect. He made that
righteousness for us. And by His death, by the death
of Jesus Christ, when He was made sin for us who knew no sin, it was then He took away our
sins. I can't help but think of the
Great Day of Atonement. Can you? The scapegoat? Christ, our scapegoat, the sins
were confessed on the scapegoat. A strong man would come and lift
up that animal in his arms and he would carry it away. That's
exactly what Christ did with our sins. God made Him to bear our sins. Glenn, you finish sinning. Are
you done? You're not going to do it anymore?
Or you got something left, you're probably going to, yeah, you'll
leave here, he's going to keep piling up, isn't he? Listen, all of those sins that
you haven't even yet committed, God made them to meet on His
own darling Son. And pay attention, He justly
punished our sins in the death of his son. I remember one of the kids there
was having trouble and he went to jail. And they let him out. They let him out. And he don't
know why they let him out. It was a mistake or something.
They let him out. What is he going to be doing?
Always looking over his shoulder, wondering when they're going
to come back and get him. God didn't let you skirt
the law. Did He let you skirt it? His
justice could not show mercy at the expense of His justice.
Get that very clearly. God does not show mercy at the
expense of His justice. We do it all the time. God can't
do that. He can't show mercy to you and
then deny His justice. His justice demanded your death.
Your death. And you rightly deserve death. But the glory of it is that Jesus died. He died bearing my sin. And God was such a just judge
that it didn't matter if it was his son. God killed his only son when
sin was found in his own body on that tree. I don't know how that happened.
I can't tell you. God made him to be sin for us. Who himself knew no sin. I can't
reconcile that. He was holy. He was just. He didn't do anything wrong while
he was on the cross. And yet God made him to bear
our guilt. God's not going to punish an
innocent man. Mark that down. God will not punish an innocent
man. He can only punish the guilty.
And how God made Him to bear our guilt, I can't understand
it. But I know why He did it. He did it because He would manifest
His love and grace toward us. Christ willingly lay down His
life. And Jesus did in three hours
what a man could not do in eternity. He satisfied the justice of God. When God saw his son die, he
said, that's it. I like that picture of Isaiah,
don't you? He says, I have blotted out my
sins as a thick I'm sure some of you know that
liquid paper. I may have that. I used to write papers and stuff,
and I still write, so you know, I mess up, I put some liquid
paper on it. You know, I still make it out. I still make it
out. God said, I ain't never gonna
make it out. The blood of Christ literally took away the guilt
of our sins. When He died, I died. What more can the justice of
God demand of us? Will the justice of God ever
come back and charge me with that sin? Can it? Can you be
just and twice demand payment for sin? Can you? You can't. God will never come back on us
with that sin. Why? Christ paid it all. He paid it all. So I'm not skirting
the law. I'm being saved through the law.
Just not me doing it. He did it. He did it. He satisfied the justice of God
forever, so therefore Jesus has obtained our righteousness by
His obedience. By His blood He paid the justice
of God and now has sent His Holy Spirit to give us a new nature,
a holy nature by which we now live and believe in Him. Why? Look at the last verse of
this. Look at the last verse, look
at the very end. whose praise is not of men, but
of God. Believer, who do you praise for
saving you? Who do you praise? Can you give yourself any praise? What did you do? What did you
do to earn it? Merit it. What part did you play? None. This is exactly what he says
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. This is why he did it. He said
that no flesh should glory in his presence. Who's going to
glory in his presence? When you stand before the judge
of all the earth and God declares you innocent, will you give yourself any praise
for that? Absolutely not. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus. Who of God has made unto us wisdom? Man, how'd you get so wise, Joanne?
How did you get so wise to know how God is just and the justifier
of the ungodly? So many people don't understand
that. They don't see Christ as the only means. They still think
they can justify themselves. We have wisdom. We know we can't
justify ourselves. We know Christ is all our justification. Where's that wisdom come from?
God made him to be our wisdom. and our righteousness. Oh, do
I have anything to claim of my own and my righteousness or is
it all of Christ? God made him to be my righteousness.
Sanctification. Am I having part in my sanctification
or is Christ all my sanctification? God made him to be all my sanctification
and all my redemption. I'm not going to have anything
to offer God. Christ already offered the only
thing God required. Listen, that according as it
is written, oh I like that, there it is again, end of debate, end
of argument, as written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord. So then the true Jews who have
favor with God, we have favor not because of ourselves or our
knowledge, we have favor because of our union with Christ. We sing this hymn, To thee, O
Lord, alone is due all glory and renown. Ought to ourselves
we dare not take or rob thee of thy crown. Thou wast thyself,
our surety, in God's redemptive plan. In thee his grace was given
us long ere the world began, safe in the arms of sovereign
love. we ever shall remain. Nor shall
the rage of earth or hell make thy sure counsels vain. Not one
of all the chosen race but shall to heaven obtain. Partake on
earth the purpose grace and then with Jesus reign." The point of the Apostle is this,
and he's going to get to this in chapter three. I'm just going
to skip ahead. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There's none that understandeth,
there's none that seeketh after God, there altogether become
unprofitable, and all your works are filthy rags. What he tells
you. That's his point. Jew? Gentile? Pagan? Religious? Moral? Immoral? In this sense we are
all guilty, we have violated the law of God. What then is
our hope? Is it the law? Nobody's going
to be justified by the law of God. But the righteousness of
God by the faith of Jesus Christ is unto all and upon all them
that believe. Isn't that what we need? Righteousness?
Isn't that what we couldn't provide? Who did it? Jesus did. Who do
we believe in? I believe in Him. I trust Him. He's my hope. of standing justified
before God in the day of judgment. What's your hope? How are you going to stand in
that day when God judges all men without respect to persons? I'm going to stand in Him. I'll
stand in Him. He's all of God. Not many ways
to be accepted with God. Not many ways at all. There's
one way. You're either in His Son, accepted, or you're outside
of His Son and damned. There's no other place to be. God keep us looking always to
Christ. Always. In everything. Looking
to Christ. I pray God will bless us. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Land dismisses, brother, please.