In chapter 1 of Romans, verse 18,
it tells us that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth, who
have the truth, God's Word. They hold it down, suppress it,
arrest it or twist it or pervert it, yet for unrighteousness reasons. In verse 21, Romans 1, 21 says,
Man knows God, or that he clearly sees the things that he's made,
but they glorify him not as God, and neither are thankful, and
become very vain. They imagine things, and their
hearts are darkened Although verse 22 says they profess themselves
to be wise, they become fools. The fool has said no, God. And then verse 23 says they've
changed the glory of the incorruptible, uncorruptible God into an image
like man and so forth. Then verse 25 says they've changed
the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the creature,
serve man or Mother Earth, and so forth. And then, so it says
in verses 28 and 29, they don't like to think about God. They
don't retain God in their knowledge. They like to think about many
things, and study many things, and taken up with many things,
but God's not one of them. And so God gave them over to
a reprobate mind, a mind void of any understanding, any judgment,
call themselves wise, and Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians
1, that God hath made foolish, utterly foolish, the wisdom of
this world. And the wisdom of God is what
the world calls foolish. And then in verse 29, it says
they then become filled with all manner of unrighteousness.
And it goes on to list what mankind is full of without shame. Without shame. And then in Chapter 2, it begins
this way. I want to refresh your memory
of what he said about the unbelieving world. In Chapter 2, he's addressing
religion, and in this case, the Jewish Orthodox Jewish and non-Jewish
religious people. And he says in verse 1, Thou
art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgeth. Wherein
thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. Thou that judgest doest,
you do the same thing. Now, our Lord talked about judgment,
didn't he? He said in Matthew 7, Judge not
that you be not judged. Don't judge your brother, he
was talking about. He said there's a righteous judgment.
There's a righteous judgment according to truth. He said don't
judge according to hearing of the ears and seeing of the eye.
Just righteous judgment according to the scripture. True judgment.
But Paul is talking about those who look down on others as being
superior to them because they do certain things or don't do
certain things. This is the judgment he's talking
about. sitting as a judge over their fellow creatures, saying,
if you'd be like me. You remember the three princes
of Job came, and they first mourned with him, and were sorrowful
for him. Then they began to judge him. And our Lord said, if you would
judge yourselves, you would not be judged. Meaning, if you would
find yourself guilty on all points, You'll not be judged. That's
something. This is what Paul is dealing
with in Romans chapter 2. Alright? And he, look at verse
2 and 3 of chapter 2. They were sure, this is certain,
that the judgment of God is according to truth, according to his word,
against them which commit such things, those that do these sins. And he says, you think, thinkest
thou this, O man, Now, he's talking to a religious person that judges
them which do such thing, and you do the same. Doest thou the
same? You think that you shall escape
the judgment of God. It's certain that God will judge
sin and sinners ignorant. False religion says God loves
the sinner but hates his sin. It doesn't say that in the Bible
anyway. God's angry with the wicked every
day. God shall judge sinners. We do what we do because that's
what we are. All right? In chapter 2, verse 4, he says,
you despise, you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance. God in mercy God who is rich
in mercy, with great love, or with He loves some people, not
all people, but some, that's with great mercy, He loves anybody. We're going to see that, especially
in the next message with Christ crucified. But God rich in mercy
to confessing sinners, to repentant sinners, that's who God is merciful
to. to guilty sinners, to those who
know themselves to be what they are, but forgotten, to make no
pretense of being good or righteous or anything. This is to confessing
sinners who repent that the goodness of God is the goodness of God. The best thing that God can do
for a sinner is to reveal to them that they're a sinner. That's
where salvation begins, with us. Repentance toward God, and then
faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. But no, look at verse 5. No, at the hardness and impenitent
heart treasures unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath,
revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And he goes on, verse
6, "...who will render to every man according to his deeds." Well, Jews, the modern equivalent
of Jews, Jews were strict, moral, law-keeping. They thought. They said. They said. Remember, Paul was a Pharisee. A Pharisee, he said. Top of the
heap. He said, I would blame them. But their strict moral law-keeping,
Sabbath-keeping, now the modern equivalent would be the Amish,
the German Baptists, the Seventh-day Adventists, the Mormons, the
Southern Baptists, and on and on it goes, the Nazarenes, and
on and on it goes. Anyone who thinks, anyone. who thinks that they keep God's
law and because they are devout and pious and do good things
and don't do other things, that's who he's addressing. That's who
he's addressing. What they do or don't do. Now,
we've already, Paul's already said in Romans 1 that the gospel,
the righteousness of God, is revealed in the gospel. that
the righteousness of God, that is a perfect, holy, pristine
purity of God Himself, that you have to be as holy as God Himself
to get into His holy heaven. And that no man, that this righteousness
of God cannot, cannot, cannot be produced by man, cannot. He comes far short. And this
righteousness of God, that will enable us to be in His holy heaven
is given, is imputed, charged to, reckoned to, wrought out
by another, by the Lord our Righteousness, that He has made them. I'm summing up the whole book
of Romans. I'm summing up the whole Bible. Imparted righteousness. Imparted
righteousness, being a partaker of the divine nature, be holy
and righteous and unblameable as He is, imparted righteousness,
is a new nature that we have nothing to do with. You must
be born of God. It's of God. Do you remember
Brother David, the little, what do you call it, preposition?
Of, of, of. That means it's His to give,
His to bestow. It's not of us, it's of Him. If you hear nothing else, I've
just summed up the gospel. The good news is that for those
who know themselves to be unrighteous, for those who know themselves
to be guilty, for those who know themselves to be deserving of
God's anger and wrath, they're so grateful for Christ. They're
righteous. Christ they're supposed to be. Now, he's going to go on to tell
us of the law. and what the law requires. Look
at chapter 2, verse 6. God will render to every man
according to his deeds. To them who by patient continuance
in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal
life. But unto them that are contentious
and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation,
and wrath. You know, tribulation and anguish
upon every soul of man that doeth evil to June 1st. Because they
received the law first, didn't they? They're more accountable. And also the Gentiles. Glory,
honor, and peace to every man that worketh good, that doeth
good to the June 1st, also to the Gentiles. There's no respect
of God, no respect of persons with God. Right? Is he telling them that
if you do well, that you'll inherit, I mean, you'll earn eternal life? Is that what he's saying? No.
He's laying it, making it clear that no one can. There's a key
verse, verse 7, to them by patient continuance in well-doing. James said this, if you continue, and all of that, continue to
do. But James also said to offend
in one point is to be guilty of it all. Not just what you
know of the law, what you think you know, what you like about
the law. This is what the Amish, this
is what the German Baptists do, this is what people do, this
is what the Seventh-day Adventists do, they pick and choose. No,
no. All the law. Cursed is he that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law." But I didn't
know. I didn't matter. One time, I was speeding through
a town. I don't ever try to do that,
but I was speeding through a town in North Carolina, and I didn't
think I was speeding. It was 55, and I went through
this town. I never did see a sign anywhere.
Okay? And I didn't pull up for speeding.
It was 35. And I said, I didn't know. He
said, but it sounded like that's why I didn't see it. The law is not the law. There's
no mercy in the law. He said, well, you're guilty.
I said, well, I guess I am. One time, I was speeding again. Don't laugh, Janine. I was speeding again. All right, my speedometer was
wrong. No, really, it wasn't. It was
wrong. I'd just done something to my transmission. Where's Steve?
I'd just, like, changed the gear in the transmission when the
cable went in years ago. And, uh, I had the wrong gear,
okay? And it was, uh, like, uh, five miles per hour wrong. Well,
I had it calibrated at a shop. The judge sent me a ticket, and
I, and I, uh, he said, you're guilty of being six miles per
hour over. This was the West Virginia Turnpike.
Notorious, here for that. Right? And I wrote him a letter
pleading, I said I had calibrated and it was five mile per hour
wrong. And he wrote me a letter back and said, OK, you're guilty
of being one mile per hour wrong. Defend him one point.
Said it's too strict. This whole world was plunged
into pain and suffering. violence and hatred, anger and
filth and wickedness and darkness by one little sin? Was it a little
sin that Satan, when he said, I will exalt my, I will, it started
with I will, didn't it? For all sins are forgiven. I
will. Not Israel. I will. Adam and
Eve, is it such a little, it's just a little thing. It looks
good. It should taste good, and it'll make me... I'll be like God. No, you won't be like God. You
can't be like God. A little sin? It's like saying the Hoover Dam.
It's just a little leak. It's just a little leak. Surgeon's sterile environment. It's just a little germ. People die. They're dying more
and more every day, aren't they, from serious infections from
a little germ. Little sins get away from big
ones until finally the full-blown rebel against God. A lawyer came,
look at verse 13. Verse 13 is a The conclusion of the matter,
verse 13, not the hearers of the law are just before God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified. The law says this
do and live, no deviation from it, not in one point, not every
point. And Paul one time wrote to the
Galatians, he said, you that desire to be under the law, don't
you hear it? He said, you can't. Paul knew
the law better than any of his brethren. And when he finally understood
the spirituality of the law, we'll see that in a minute, how
the law is spiritual, he said, it slew, it killed all of my
religion. It killed all of my righteousness.
It slew me. I found out that I was worse
than the worst part of the street. That the only way Simon Peter
came back from preaching to the Gentiles one time, and those
Jews whom he reported to, the Jews were saying, they need to
be circumcised. And Peter wound up his sermon
to them saying, we're going to be saved the same way they are. Us good Jews are going to be
saved the same way the Gentiles are, by grace. unmerited labor
by the blood of Jesus Christ, by righteousness imputed, not
earned, not merited, imputed, charged with us, freely given
to us. Not the doers of the law, because
no man can. There's none that do it for good.
He keeps saying that through the book of Romans. If there's
none that do it, good as none, righteousness, that is, as righteous
as God. No, not one. That was it. You see, this gospel of a righteousness
infused, of a covering, is for the guilty. It's sinners of mercy. Mercy is for the guilty. You don't, God doesn't offer
pardon to people that don't need it. God doesn't offer pardon
to anybody. But would you, you don't offer
pardon to a person who's guilty of jaywalking. And now you go down and you find
me a death row criminal who's due to be, go to be hanged. Now you tell
him, I've got an absolutely full pardon
handed down from the highest person of the Supreme Court. That man will rejoice with joy
unspeakable." Disgusting. Not for sinners, people who used
to be sinners. This is why Paul, right in the
middle of Romans, he said, I am. This is why Paul went around
telling everybody of what made him so glad. That it's not our
righteousness, because we don't have that. It's a righteousness
given to us, freely given to us. That it's not by works of
the law, because Paul said, I tried it, I thought it would work. No, it's by the works of Christ. It's by the blood of Christ.
That's why Christ This is how serious it is. This is how serious
it is. It's not just an error in judgment. It's not an error
in doctrine. Paul said, if you be circumcised, Christ prompts
you not to. I mean, if you just be circumcised.
Well, that's innocent enough, isn't it? He said, if righteousness
come by the law, Christ is what? Died in vain. That's why the Lord had such
harsh words for the Pharisees. And all the law, and I'm getting
way ahead of myself, but who knows, you know, it's not the
end, it's probably the last message, but in Romans, he said, he said
that the law, the gospel is witnessed by the law and the prophet. The gospel is witnessed by the
law and the prophets. All of those ceremonies, all
those ordinances, all of those laws, all of those were to show
us that we're all guilty and to show us the one who fulfilled
it, the lawgiver, the law fulfiller. And all of those sacrifices are
to show us, why were there so many sacrifices? Because we're
guilty of so many sins. One old writer, one old preacher
stopped to calculate the sin that we committed. Try to. And he said if we live so many
years, we live so many, that's 25,000 some odd days, and how
many hours in a day, and how many minutes in a day, and how
many seconds, he said if we sin once every minute, do you? Of course you do. Sins of commission,
sins of omission, sins of thought, sins of words, sins... He said,
if we sin one time every minute all our lives, we've sinned,
I forget how many millions and billions of sins it was. That's
why there were so many sacrifices made, so much bloodshed. And
Paul in Romans Hebrews 3, I mean Hebrews, the whole book, went
on to say, you know, that's why there were so many sacrifices.
But this man, one person came. In the fullest
power, God sent forth his son, a man and a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. And I'm really
getting ahead of myself here, but this can't wait. We're not
under the law anymore. Law people love that. Senators
don't. Law people love to be under the
law. Senators don't. Those who know
anything about it. Those who know anything about
Christianity. It was the lawyer who came to
the Lord in Luke chapter 10. The lawyer. He said, Good Master,
what good thing must I do? What shall I do to inherit? What
shall I do and live to inherit eternal life? He said, You know
me, don't you? And our Lord went on to say,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. all thy mind, all thy soul, not
just not do things, bad things, but love God with all your heart,
all your mind, all your soul, and all of your bodily strength,
all of your days. Most of Romans is written concerning
this The law, the righteousness of the law, that's impossible.
That's impossible. Look over at chapter 5. Look at chapter 5, verse 20. Chapter 5, verse 20. Why was
the law given? The law was never, never given
to give life. The law was never given by God
to say, now if you do this, you'll live, but to show us that we
can't, we haven't, we cannot. David quoted it as a schoolmaster,
a teacher. You are guilty on all points to drive us to Christ. Verse 20, the law entered that
the offense might abound. The law was given to show us
the exceeding sinfulness of sin. In Romans, he talks about those
being guilty of the law, breaking the law before there was a law,
before the law was written. But here's the gospel. We're
sin abounded. Grace is much more abounded. Sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness. That's where we
get the term sovereign grace. through righteousness unto eternal
life by whom? Where is it at? It's all by Jesus
Christ our Lord, the Lord our righteousness. See, this is impossible with
man. The law was never given for us to earn heaven. Now, how
many people do that? Some of you probably have. Matthew
5. Go over to Matthew 5 with me, very quickly. Matthew 5. I knew there was no way I wanted
to do this. Well, that's why Peter said,
Paul wrote things hard to be understood. But Matthew 5, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lawgiver, came down, and Scripture says
He magnified the law. He ever magnified something,
it means He'd blow it up. You see, the things you didn't
see, magnification. And it says he magnified the
law and made it honorable. The Jews, the Pharisees, dishonored
the law. This is what Paul was writing
about in Romans, that you dishonored the law. Take and choose. And
you claim to do this or not do that, and yet the people know
that you're corrupt. Religion. By the millions, people
follow these phonemes, and they know they're corrupt. 95, the Lord said in verse 21, you heard it said, By them of
old time thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall
be in danger of judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause, have you ever been angry
at your brother without a cause? I guarantee you that you have
wrongly accused or something. You heard something somebody
else said, and you condemned the righteous. God says, you're
in the wrong judgment. God hates it. He hates the justifying
the wicked and the condemnation of the righteous. He hates it.
That's exactly what they did to the Lord Jesus Christ. They
said, give us the rest. Just send him free and kill this
righteous man. That's what we're all guilty
of, and we do it all the time. Now, didn't you end up by a grown
man? Our Lord said, you're in danger of judgment. Didn't He? Now, that's not me. Oh, yes,
it is to me. We don't judge righteous judgment.
Read on, verse 27. You heard it said by them old
times, thou shalt not commit adultery. I say it to you, whosoever
looketh on a woman or a man, The lust after him or her had
committed adultery already in his heart. You remember Jimmy Carter, our
president years ago, he just came right out and just said,
the truth, he said, they asked him if he committed adultery.
He said, no, but I've lusted after a woman in my heart. You
remember that? And they grilled him. They never let him forget that.
Well, it's true of everybody. It's true of everybody. Our Lord
even says that covetousness is idolatry. The worst form of sin, actually,
not idolatry, is people being more interested in things than
God. People are more interested in
things than the Son of God, who laid down His life for such worthless
creatures. People, I don't care. Ooh, that's
what God is after, man. That's what He's after, man.
And that was us. That was us. Well, that was me. Our Lord, what our Lord is showing
us is the spirituality of the law. In Romans chapter 7, Paul
said, the law is spiritual. Romans 7, 14. He says the law
is spiritual. And anyone, the Jews, or anyone
in religion today, or anyone for that matter, says, I've never
done this, I've never done that. You're a liar. You may not have
done it out, but you thought about it, and before God, you're
guilty. Say, that's too strict. My dad made this statement years
ago, and it's so revealing. He said, so many people mistake
the restraining grace of God for their own personal righteousness. So many people mistake the restraining
grace of God for their own personal righteousness. In other words,
here's a sweet, kind woman, devout, religious, and good, and moral,
and all the rest, and never done this, never done that, like Bell,
Reverend Bell, you know, I never done this, never done that. Why? What's the difference between
her and that heart of the street? The restraining grace of God,
that God kept her from this, and allowed this one to do that.
But here's the wondrous mercy, and where God gets the most glory
is that one who knows that the guilty-ass child, completely
never done anything good, that's the one God has mercy on. That's
the one Christ came to save. And this one says, I've never
done that. They don't need Christ. They don't need a substitute.
They don't need his righteousness. They got one! That's what God
hates more than anything. Paul is laying this out, being
a Pharisee himself, is laying this out through the book of
Romans to show these Jews, I was just like you. That's why I had
such compassion. And you cannot preach these things
with a smile on your face. Paul didn't. They beat him to
a pulp, and he was standing on the stairs drinking his breath.
They wanted him dead. But tell them the truth. But
tell them the good news. But they didn't like what he
had to say about their religion. They didn't like what he had
to say about their righteousness. They didn't like it. They liked
their righteousness. They hated the truth. And Paul
said, I did too. This is why Christ came, you
see. This is why he came. This gospel is for those who
know themselves something of themselves. Let me hurry. There's a couple more verses,
okay? It says in verse 12, those who have sinned without the law
shall perish without the law. Those who have sinned in the
law shall be judged by the law. Verse 14, the Gentiles, they
don't have the law. You go to the jungle, and the
worst, the most savage heathen in the jungle doesn't have the
books of Moses. But, verse 14, they do by nature,
the things contained in the law. They have a law in themselves
that shows the work of God and the work of the law written in
their hearts, their conscience, their witness, their thoughts,
their accusing or accusing meaning, that even a jumbled native knows
it's wrong to steal. Why do they know that? Because
God said that the law was written in the heart, even before the
law came. Why do they know it's wrong to
kill? Why do they know it's wrong to take your neighbor's wife?
Why do they know these things? The law. So are they innocent? No. They're not handsome. And verse
16 says, though, that God in the day is coming when God shall
judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
He'll judge the secrets of men. David was a wise man. He knew
sin. He knew what sin was. He knew
the righteousness of God. He knew how man is saved. He said over and over again to
John, I'll be delivered. Deliver me of thy righteousness.
And that's why he went on to say, deliver thy servant from
presumptuous sin. I'm a sinner through and through,"
he said. And if I'm going to be saved, it's going to be by
the mercy of God through a substitute. That's gospel. And this is what
Paul was laying out in the book of Romans. It's not just ignorance
on people's part, although it is. It's willful ignorance. Paul hated this. No, he didn't. He was very zealous, he said
more zealous than anybody, more sincere than anybody, that he
hated this way of righteousness and purity. Let sin charge, no
matter who it is. He hated it. Later on, he said,
I love it. I love it, and I'm going to go
tell all my Jewish brethren about it. If they kill me, so be it. to be the only one. OK.