Turn with me, if you would, back
to Romans chapter 2. We will begin in verse 12. Romans
2 verse 12, it says, For as many as have sinned, without law shall also perish
without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged
by the law." If that's what God's Word says, then that's so. How
do we rationalize what we just looked at a moment ago in the
Bible study? When we read what God's Word has to say, is that
so or not so? That's so. God does not write
with lies or trickery. He never says what He does not
mean. The Jews were given the law and
the Gentiles were not given the law. But He said, either way,
all are going to die in their sin. All are going to. Verse
13 says, For not the hearers of the law are just before God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified. That's the truth. 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, which
show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience
also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing
or else excusing one another." What he's saying is, the law
is written on every man's heart. He knows what's right and he
knows what's wrong. He does. And he is going to be
judged by his conscience. Verse 16, "...in the day when
God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according
to my gospel." God is going to judge the secrets of men. What is on the outside is the
least of our problems. It's the least of our worries.
It really is. What we see on the outside is
nothing compared to what's on the inside. And that's so, isn't
it? Just a little bit of what's on
the inside every now and then comes out. The sins that other people conceive,
we're going to be judged by those too. But those are the least
of our problems. Verse 17 says, Behold, thou art
called a Jew, and restest in the law. God gave the law to
the Jews, and He said, you're called a Jew, and you're resting
in the law. and makest thy boast of God." You say that you have
His favor, and you say that you're one of His people. Verse 18,
"...and knowest His will, and approvest the things that are
more excellent, being instructed out of the law." You say you
know what He demands, and you know what He desires, because
you've seen it. You've seen what He has instructed
in the law, in the Scripture. Verse 19, And art confident that
thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which
are in darkness. You're confident that you've
got it all figured out. You're confident that you're
right and everybody needs to listen to you if they want to
go from darkness to light. Because you are, verse 20, an
instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form
of knowledge and of the truth in the law. You have all this
form and you have all this outward show. He said, but let me ask
you a question, verse 21. Thou therefore which teachest
another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should
not steal, dost thou steal? You're up there telling everybody
to stop sinning. That's what people do when they
say, I believe I'm being called into the ministry. I think God's
calling me to go preach. What they want to do is stand
up in a pulpit and say to people, stop sinning. If you want to
go to heaven, just stop sinning. That's all you've got to do.
Everybody just stop sinning. He said, let me ask you this,
do you think you have stopped sinning? That's what Paul's asking
him. Verse 21, Thou therefore which
teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest
to man should not steal, dost thou steal? You know, we steal
all the time. We get lazy on the job site.
That's stealing time and money from our employer. Little bitty
things. Oh, that's alright, let that
go. It's stealing. Much less these little physical
things that we steal from other men, infinitely more condemning
is stealing the glory away from God. And that's what man does,
is he steals the glory away from God. Verse 22, Thou that sayest
to man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? He
means in the heart. in the mind. We know the answer
to that. The answer is yes. He goes on to say, Thou that
abhorrest idols, you hate idols. Dost thou commit sacrilege? Do you bow down to idols? Man's
own flesh and his own will, the will that he thinks he has, man
does not have a free will, but the will that he thinks he has
is his greatest idol. He doesn't have to look very
far at all to find an idol. Just look right here. So we said
in verse 23, Thou that makest Thy boast of the law, and that's
what saved people, you know, in quotes, saved people do. They're
making their boast of the law. All these things have I kept
from my youth up. Thou that makest Thy boast of
the law, through breaking the law dishonorest Thou God. For
the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you. as it is written, and that is
what self-righteous man-centered religion is. It's blasphemy.
It's all blasphemy. Verse 25, for circumcision barely
profiteth if you keep the law. You want to be circumcised? You
know, we were circumcised. Well, that's great as long as
you keep the law. Circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep
the law, but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision
is made uncircumcision. Therefore, if the uncircumcision
keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision,
which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee who by the
letter and circumcision doth transgress the law? 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, whose praise is not of men, but of
God." That means to be a child of God, you can't just please
men by what they see on the outside. You have to please God by what
He can see on the inside. And that's a tall order, isn't
it? That is a tall order. To be a child of God, to be accepted
by God, justified in His sight, one of His people, you have to
be perfect inside and out. Inside and out. And that's a
tall order. Any man who has seen something of the truth of what
he is, knows that that's not just a tall order, that's an
impossible order. With man, it is impossible. So the purpose of this message
is for us to gain an understanding of why the scripture commands
us to do something that we cannot do. that this is the purpose
of this message. And my prayer is honestly, by
the end of this, we gain a real understanding of something. Why
does the scripture command us, as God's people, to do something
we cannot do? Why does it command us that we
have to do this in one verse? And then why does it tell us
that we cannot do this in another verse? That's what we're trying
to get to. Why does the Scripture say that? Is there really any hope for
sinners like us? Because back in verse 13 it says,
For not the hearers of the law are just before God, But the
doers of the law shall be justified. To be justified, you have to
be a doer of the law. You have to be a doer of the
law. And if you look at Romans 3 verse 19, it says, Now we know
that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law, and that's all of us, 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." In order to be justified, we must perfectly, inside and
out, do all the stipulations and all the conditions that God
has given to us. We don't throw the law out. That's
just the law. You don't have to do that. Oh,
yes, you do. God says you do. In the process, though, of trying
to do the law, all that will ever be proven to us is we can't
do it. That's all that will be proven
to us. The more we try to do the law, the more our sin is
exposed to us. That's what we just read. Now,
when our Lord was here on this earth, He told some of the things
that the law said. He told us some of the things
that God requires for us to be saved. And God does require this. He said to break those things
or to fall short of those things means you can't be saved. That's
what it means. This is what He requires. If
you break it, you can't be saved. He said the greatest commandment
there was, was to love the Lord our God with all of our heart,
every piece of it. Don't take any of it and give
it to anything else. Love the Lord with all our heart,
soul, and mind. So to not do that, means we can't
be saved. And no man has ever done that.
Nobody here has ever done that. He said, if we don't love our
neighbor in the exact same way that we love ourselves, we can't
be saved. No man does. No man does. I really, really, really like
my neighbor. I do. I like that guy. But I've never loved him as I
love myself. He said, if we have ever gotten
mad one time, we can't be saved. Every man has. He said, if lust
has ever entered our heart one time, we can't be saved. That
happens every day. He said, the only souls that
will be allowed to enter the gates of heaven are those that
have clean hands, never done anything wrong. I mean nothing.
A pure heart, never had a bad thought, never had a bad feeling,
never had a bad motive, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,
never gone after or desired anything in this world or anything of
the flesh, nor sworn deceitfully, never lied. That's what God requires
to stand in His presence. Here's the truth of our condition. If you look right here in Romans
3, verse 10 says, as it is written, There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good, no, not one. Now, again, my hope for this
message is that number one, we might see Christ and glorify
Christ. And number two, that we might
learn something about the scripture. I have had many of you parents
and grandparents tell me that sometimes after the message is
over, you will ask your kids if they can remember one thing
about the message. That is a great thing to do.
Alright, that is a great, great thing to do, even for adults.
Kids, why don't you ask your parents, is there one thing you
remember about the message? If we adults could really just
get a hold of one thing, I mean one thing. I have something for
all of us, kids and adults. I have something for us to always
remember when it comes to the Scripture. When it comes to everything
about the Scripture, the demands, the stipulations. When it comes
to the truth of the gospel, alright, here it is. Christ did it all. That's it. Christ did it all. When the scripture says that
the law must be kept, but man cannot keep the law. But the
law must be kept. And if it's not kept, man is
going to suffer eternal condemnation and death. But the problem for
man is, he has never one time ever come close to keeping one
of the commandments that God has given in His law. And never
will he ever be able to satisfy God in his flesh. Never will
he be able to satisfy the law. But the law must be kept. That's
what, when we read, that's what it just keeps flip-flopping back
and forth. Every time you see that in the scripture, remember
this. Christ did it all. He didn't do half the work. He
didn't just do redemption. He didn't just pay for the bad
things and then say, well now the rest is up to you. Christ
did it all. Christ did it all. Christ did
it all for us. Christ did it all as us. That's the glory of it. Christ did it all as us. It's called substitution. Substitution is the answer. Every time you read a scripture
and you're scratching your head saying, but this says that I
have to think, substitution. Christ did it all. Substitution
is the answer. Substitution is the key. It's
the key to it all. It's everything. Substitution
is the gospel. If you don't have substitution,
you don't have the gospel. If you don't have substitution,
all you have are man's works. That's all you have. Christ traded
places with us. That's substitution. And as us,
He traded places with us. He did not tag us out. He traded places with us. And as us, He earned for us,
but more importantly as us, a perfect record of holiness before God. Dying when the law said die. Living when the law said live.
Christ did it all. He did it all. Turn with me to
Romans chapter 8. Romans 8 verse 1 it says, There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh. Walk means live. Who live not
after the flesh but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, I couldn't do the law,
therefore the law couldn't justify me. What the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, And for sin, that means by a
sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in His flesh, in His own
flesh. Verse 4 says, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled, not for us, but in us. Who walk or live, not after the
flesh. but after the Spirit. The moment
God opens our eyes to substitution, that's that light bulb moment.
The moment God opens our eyes to substitution, the Scriptures
make sense. Have you ever heard somebody
tell you, the Bible doesn't even make any sense? Here's why. That
person has never seen substitution. As soon as God reveals that,
the Scripture makes sense. Seeing what God has to say to
us in light of substitution, that brings a perfect understanding
of how God can say in His Word. You're guilty, but you're not guilty. All at
the same time. You are chargeable, but you're
not chargeable. You are condemned to die, but
you are free to live. How? Here's how. When that time of judgment came,
Christ traded places with us. He made Himself to be sin for
us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. The Scripture clearly lays out
what is demanded of us and clearly proves to us that we cannot fulfill
what is demanded of us to point us to Christ. That's why the
Scripture says what it says. It's to point us to Christ. It
all leads to Christ. All roads in the Scripture lead
to Christ. None of them lead back to us.
Not one road leads back to us. All of them lead to Christ. Look right here in Romans 8 at
verse 13. It says, for if you live after the flesh, and that
means according to the deeds of the flesh, the works of the
flesh, you shall die. But if you, through the Spirit,
do mortify, that means kill all of the deeds of the body, completely
looking to Christ, To be the one who as your substitute fulfilled
everything God demanded. He did it for you and as you.
If you look to Him for that, the end of verse 13 says, you
shall live. Christ did it all. Substitution
is the key to it all. Turn with me over to Luke 24. Luke 24 verse 25, Then He said unto them, O fools,
and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
His glory? And beginning at Moses, and all
the prophets, that means throughout all of the Old Testament, He
expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
himself. Verse 44, And he said unto them,
These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written
in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. It's all concerning me. All of
it. Verse 45, Then opened He their understanding. And that's
what God does. That's what the Spirit does.
Then opened He their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures. As soon as men and women see
Christ to be the doer of it all, they understand the Scriptures.
All through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all through the Gospels,
it is constantly saying, Our Lord did this, that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. And He did this, that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. Turn with me to Matthew 5. Matthew 5 verse 17, it says,
Our Lord said, Think not that I am come to destroy the Law,
or the Prophets. I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled. What that means is
Christ did it all. That's what it means. Everything
God demanded of you, every dot of the I and cross of the T,
Christ did it all. He is the end of the law for
righteousness. He is the fulfillment. He is
the completer of the law for the righteousness of His people.
Seeing this brings a clear understanding of why Christ came and what He
accomplished while He was here. Everything He did while He was
here. God reveals this to His people
in His Word, by His Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel,
And once His people see it, they see it on every page. Every single
page. Everything Christ did was according
to the Scriptures. That the Scriptures might be
fulfilled. Look with me at Galatians chapter 3. This is a wonderful portion right
here. Galatians 3 verse 22. But the Scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For you are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be
Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed." That circumcision that
Romans 2 was talking about. If you be Christ, then are you
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. I told you at
the beginning of the Bible study that it was going to go hand
in hand with this message. Let's end this message with the
same verses we ended the Bible study with. Go with me back to
Colossians chapter 2. Colossians 2 verse 9 says, For
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality
and power. In Him your redemption is complete. In Him your perfection is complete. In Him is all fullness, nothing
is lacking. And may God give all of us faith
to believe that, faith to really, really believe Christ did it
all. All right, let's all stand together.