sing hymn number 252. Come, every soul, by sin oppressed
There's mercy with the Lord And He will surely give you rest
By trusting in His Word Only trust Him, only trust Him Only
trust Him now He will save you, He will save you, He will save
you now. For Jesus shed His precious blood,
rich blessings to bestow. Plunge now into the crimson flood
that washes white as snow. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save
you, ♪ He will save you now ♪ Yes, Jesus is the truth ♪ The way
that leads you into rest ♪ Believe in him without delay ♪ And you
are fully blessed ♪ Only trust him Only trust Him, only trust
Him now He will save you, He will save you, He will save you
now Be seated, we'll sing hymn number 235 ♪ Pass me not, O gentle Savior
♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ While on others thou art calling ♪
Do not pass me by Hear my humble cry While all
mothers thou art calling Do not pass me by Let me at a throne of mercy Find
a sweet relief Kneeling there in deep contrition Help my unbelief Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. Do not pass me by. Trusting only in Thy marriage,
Would I seek Thy face. ♪ Heal my wounded broken spirit
♪ Save me by thy grace ♪ Savior, Savior ♪ Heal my humble While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
More than life to me. Who have I on earth beside thee? To me heaven above thee. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by We sang that song, oftentimes
I just say, hear my feeble cries instead of my humble cry. I feel
like my cries are very feeble at times. Very, very feeble. Turn to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. Start at verse nine, read down
through verse 20. Hopefully deal with these verses
tonight. I got to, you know, I had preachers in one Wednesday night, and then
I preached, and then another preacher in the next Wednesday
night. So I know you're having a hard time keeping up with what
I'm doing. But, you know, this will stand
by itself. What then? Are we better than
they? No, and no wise, for we have
proved before, both Jew and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.
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 all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. The throat is an open sepulcher,
with their tongues they have used as seat. The poison of asp
is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery
are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known,
there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that
what thing soever the law saith, is saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
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. Our blessed God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, our God and our Savior. Lord, we come into your
holy presence always thankful, always thankful that you gave
us another day. You kept us in our right mind.
You kept us, our strength and give us our strength. You enable
us to do what needs to be done. And we're so thankful for that.
Lord, there's so many people that have ill health, bad health.
And Lord, we're blessed with health. Lord, there's people
that have minds that don't work. And Lord, you blessed us with
a mind that knows you and understands you to some degree. And Lord,
we pray that for Christ's sake, you'd meet with us here tonight.
Please bless your word to our hearts, to our understanding.
Give us ears to hear, hearts to believe. And, oh, Lord, we
again pray for those who are not with us through your providence
and those who are not with us through carelessness. We pray,
oh, Lord, for mercy given to them. And our blessed Savior,
please have mercy, oh, God, on our children, our grandchildren. Lord, show them their great,
great, great, great need. They don't know they have a need.
You did, they're described here in this blessed book. They're
described what I read tonight. We had described my own children,
described my own grandchildren, described my whole family. And Lord, I pray that in sovereign
mercy, sovereign mercy, Lord, you could save a rebel like Paul,
save a deep double-died sinner like myself. So Lord, you can
convince them of their awful need of Christ. And Lord, I pray
that you'll do that. Please meet with us tonight.
Bring glory to yourself through this service. For Christ's sake,
amen. If you have your little print
out for worship him, we'll sing worship him. We have come into
this house. We have come into this house
and gathered in His name to worship Him We have come into this house
and gathered in his name to worship him. We have come into this house
and gathered in his name to worship God the Lord. Worship him. So forget about yourself and
concentrate on Him and worship Him. So forget about yourself and
concentrate on Him and worship Him. So forget about yourself Concentrate
on Him and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. So let's lift up holy faith and
magnify His name and worship Him. So let's lift up holy faith
Magnify His name So let's lift up holy faith,
magnify His name, and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. He is all my righteousness, I
stand in Him complete and worship Him. He is all my righteousness,
I stand in Him complete and worship Him. He is all my righteousness,
I stand in Him complete, and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. You know, and turn back here
in Romans 3 with me, the Scriptures tells us that we are complete
in Him. And it says the person we're
complete in is the head of all principalities, that the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in Him. So all that God is, He said we
are complete in Christ, complete in Christ. The title of my message
this evening is The Verdict of Scripture. Paul has shown us the difference
between Jew and Gentile, that there is none whatsoever. The
Gentile, the heathen like us, we didn t know God, didn t even
want to know God until God sought us out. They changed the truth
of God into a lie, and then the Jew comes along and he looks
down on them people, and you know he s thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art, that judgest another." They said in
judgment, they said in judgment on Christ, they said in judgment
upon, you know, they said this man if he were a prophet, he'd
know what kind of woman this is, she's a sinner. So they was,
you know, when you judge another, you're inexcusable, do the same
thing. And so he showed here that the
Jew It's not one that's outwardly, but one inwardly. And they asked,
what advantage then hath the Jew? Paul said, in every way,
every way. And so he comes down to show
us now, what then? What then? The whole
question of righteousness of Jew and Gentile has been dealt
with in the last two chapters. And the apostle comes to a conclusion
where he's been heading all along. He has charged. That's what that
word proved means. We have proved before both Jew
and Gentile. Proved means charged. Jew and
Gentile with unrighteousness. He charged them with unrighteousness.
None of you is unrighteous. All of you is unrighteous. You
Jews are no better off than a Gentile out here. No better off than
a Greek. No better off than a philosopher. And I tell you, He uses the Scriptures
and He uses God's Word to prove His words. He uses God's Word
itself to show that He is, and He is going to show from God's
Holy Word that righteousness, righteousness by law, by law. And a lot of folks, they really,
I was looking on a website today about Reformed churches, and
when I hear Reformed or I hear Fundamentalism, all I hear is
WORKS! All I hear is LAW! All I hear
is DISCIPLINE! And I tell you that righteousness
by law is impossible. God's Holy Word shows us that
righteousness by law or by works is an impossibility before God. And He said, and He shows us
here that every mouth is going to be stopped, every mouth is
going to be stopped, and they're going to stop claiming that they
are and have a righteousness that's acceptable. And He says
then in verse 9, What then? What a charge! What then? Are
we better than they? Jews, are they better than the
Gentiles? Oh, the Jew, you know, the Jew
who had the advantage, are we better than the Gentiles? The
charge is from God s Word. And look what He says there,
No, and no wise, no way, no way, that s what that wise means,
no way, impossibility. And look what He says, No, no
way, we ve proved WE HAVE PROVED BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES, ALL ARE
UNDER SIN. THERE'S NO WAY, BECAUSE WE'VE
PROVED THAT EVERYBODY IS UNDER SIN. YOU KNOW, THE SCRIPTURES
HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT SIN. ALL OF US ARE BORN IN SIN. JOB
SAID THIS, HE SAYS, HOW COULD HE BE CLEAN THAT'S BORN OF A
WOMAN? When the heavens are not pure in His sight, and the stars
are not pure in His sight, and the moon's not pure in His sight,
how can He be clean, born of a woman? How can He possibly
be? And then we're all sinners, not
by birth, but we're also sinners by practice. There's not a just
man on the face of the earth that doeth good, is what the
scripture says, not a one. And all of us are sinners by
nature. Davis said, I was CONCEIVED in sin. That don t mean that
his mother had an adulterous affair, that means SHE was a
sinner, DADDY was a sinner, and so he was CONCEIVED in sin, and
in the womb he was SHAPEN in iniquity. And all sinners before
God, before His Law. I mean ALL, ALL of us are, ever
human beings ever been, ALL are in bondage to sin. Paul said
in Galatians 3.22, we have concluded all under sin. Where'd you get
that conclusion at, Paul? From God's Word, from God's Word. And he said, we've proved it
before. And you know what sin is? There's
several definitions of sin. We've proved before that Jew
and Gentile, all are under sin. Jew says, I'm not. Gentile says,
I'm not. God says, you are. God says you
are. You know, there's several meanings
of sin. First, sin is missing the mark,
missing the mark. It's overstepping a boundary.
A boundary's set here and you overstep that boundary. It's
falling instead of standing. It's being ignorant instead of
knowing. It's disobeying a voice. It's disregarding a command.
and it's called WILLFULLY CARELESS. Now, that's a lot of definitions,
and we're all, I just, you know, if one of them didn't catch you,
the other one did. But they all, that's what we are, missing the
mark. You know, when it says we've come short of the glory
of God. How far short are we of the glory
of God? We don't shoot an arrow, and
it just fall right in front of the mark, right in front of the
target. No, no, we miss the glory of
God as far as Heaven is from Earth, without Christ our Lord. And oh, and then He gives a universal
proof that all have undersaid, look what He says. And the thing
is, is that the things that He uses is scripture, He uses scripture
here, universal proof. The apostle uses the Psalms,
the Proverbs and the Prophets to prove that all men are under
sin, that sin is universal. Sin, wherever you go, sin s there. And oh, look what he says in
verse 10, As it is written. Do you notice that? He s not
just giving his opinion. He s not giving his idea. He
s not telling people what HE thinks about sin. No, no, look
in Romans, I mean, excuse me, in Psalm 14. Psalm 14, almost
all this is in Psalm 14, and look what he says here, It is
written, and what does he say? There is none righteous, no,
not one. Oh, there s no one, not one soul
who is righteous. and a righteousness that can
meet God s demands. And look what he says here, The
fool hath said, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done
abominable works. Psalm 14, The Lord looked down
from heaven upon the children of men, see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. They are all together gone
aside, they are all together become filthy. There is none
that doeth good, no, not one. And so He uses this scriptures
to show us that a righteousness, gotta have a righteousness that
meets God's demand. It may suit you, it may suit
your mother, may even suit the preacher, but it won't suit God. It won't meet God's demands.
You know the righteousness that the Pharisees had, it suited
them. They were happy with it. They were happy with their righteousness,
happy with their works, happy with their, you know, in fact,
our Lord said, ìExcept your righteousness exceed the righteous scribes
and Pharisees, you canít enter the Kingdom of Heaven.î Well,
what was it about their righteousness that you got to have more than
that? Well, their righteousness was all outward, all in what
they did or didnít do, and all the laws they kept and all the
things they didnít do. It was all negative. That's why
the Lord says you gotta have a righteousness that's just not
outward. You gotta have a righteousness
that'll cover you inside, outside, and make you acceptable to God
Almighty. And then not only that, but look
what he says down here in verse 11. He says, there's none that
understands. We just read it there in Psalm
14. There is none that understands. Oh my, understand. What don't
they understand? They don't understand anything
about God. They don't understand ANYTHING
about the sin's nature. Sin's got a NATURE! Don't know
ANYTHING about Christ. Don't know ANYTHING about salvation
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, men understand a lot of
things. I mean, they understand A LOT! Most people consider themselves
pretty wise, but all human WISDOM is foolishness, foolishness in
the sight of God, apart from having an understanding of God.
And that's why He says, Canst thou by searching find out God? By searching? There's none that
understands. They don't understand anything. And I couldn't tell you how many
preachers and how many religious people I've talked to that they
absolutely understand nothing. When you start questioning them
or start asking them or start telling them something, they
don't understand it. And oh my, the natural man, you
know why? The natural man doesn't understand
the things of God. And then look what it says, not
only that I don't understand this, now listen to this, there's
none that seeks God. There's none that seeks God.
Do you know anybody that's ever seeked God? And I mean seek Him
earnestly. Seek Him with your heart. Seek
Him with your understanding. Seek Him. And I tell you, they
don't seek Him in Christ the Lord, I do know this, they ll
seek Him in the church, they ll seek Him in their baptism,
they ll seek Him in their goodness, they ll seek Him in their fundamentalism,
they ll seek Him in every word of what God says to them. But
here's the situation. Nobody will seek God until God
first, the scripture says that Christ seeks us. He come to seek
and to save. And that's why nobody will seek
God. Nobody has ever sought God. I
didn't, you didn't, nobody did until He sought us. Until He
sought us. And oh my, don't seek, they seek
Him in a lot of ways, but they don't seek Him. And then look
what else it says there. In verse 12. They are all gone
out of the way. Oh my. Now there's a way that
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death. They're all gone out of the way. And what does that
mean? That means they have actively,
purposely turned from truth and believe a lie. They turned from
God to having false gods. They turn from light to darkness. They turn from life to death.
And the Scripture says we are all like sheep. What did we do? Went astray, gone out of the
way. Going out of the way. These are all going out of the
way. God has a way. Man has a way. Man thinks my
way is the right way. Everybody says that. How many
times a day do you reckon we say, boy, I just can't believe
that's happening. I can't believe they said that. I can't believe
that's going on. And we look at all this stuff,
and then you know why? Because people go out of the
way that we think they ought to go in. And that's the way
God, you know, man thinks, well, I know the way to God, I'm gonna
go this way. I'm gonna go that way, and I'm
gonna go some other way. But oh, no. Oh, my. They, you know, they've gone
out of the way, gone all out of the way. All of them are gone
out of the way. There's this way to go. They
said, I'm gonna go that way, I'm gonna go that way, and I'm
gonna go that way, and then I'm gonna go that way, and then I'm
gonna go that way. oh my, ACTIVELY going away from God, ACTIVELY
going in a false way. And then look what he says in
verse 12 again, They are together become unprofitable, become unprofitable. What does it mean to be unprofitable?
It means to be useless. Useless. What profit, what profit
does our nature give to God? Oh, none does good. No, not one,
not one, all unprofitable, all useless. And I tell you, our
Lord says, when you've done all you know to do, still say we're
unprofitable servants, unprofitable servants. And then it says, none,
there's none that doeth good, no, not one. Oh, they don't do
good in a spiritual way. Sin and self are mixed with all
that's done. If Isaiah 64, six said, all of
our righteousnesses are as a filthy rag. That rich young ruler came
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Rich man, young man, come running
to the Lord Jesus Christ, even knelt down in front of him and
said, good master, What good thing must I do to inherit eternal
life? And our Lord said, why callest
thou me good? Why you call me good? There's
none good but God. And I'm either God or I'm just
a man. And why callest thou me? There's
only one good in this universe, that's God Almighty. And let
me say this while I'm talking about this. I hear people say
the good Lord, the good Lord. I don't like that saying at all.
I've heard people use that term. I say it's either God, it's the
Lord Jesus Christ, it's the Savior, it's the Redeemer, but it seems
like such a flippant thing to say the good Lord. The good Lord. The good Lord let me do that.
The good Lord done me that. The good Lord let me have some
good news. But God is the only one that's
good, and if there's any goodness out of us, any good thing that
comes out of us at all, God has to bring it out. He has to bring
it out. Oh my, God's the only one that's
too good. And now, you know, I just got through saying that
there's none righteous, no not one. And righteousness includes
everything about man, who he is, what he does, and he is unrighteous
then and he is unrighteous now, and there is none righteous,
no, not one. And so he shows us here the way
man is. Now look at what he does because
when it comes to particulars of what he does in verse 13,
you know, in word, I mean he sends in word in his conduct.
Look what he says there in verse, their throat is an open sepulchre. Oh my, he deals with specific
sins of the tongue. Everybody knows what a grave
is. A sepulchre is a grave. It's a grave. And it's an open
sepulchre. You know, when they had Lazarus
in the tomb, they said, ìLord, donít take that stone away because
heís been dead four days and he stinks.î And oh, I tell you
what, when the Scriptureís telling us that out of our throat, out
of our hearts, out of our natures, out of our
fallen nature, out of everything. Our throat is like a graveyard,
and it's just corrupt, it's like an open grave. The words come
from a dead, open, corrupt heart. From down in there, the words
come from a dead, corrupt heart and fallen nature. Oh, my! You just imagine the filth that
comes out of people's throat, the things that come out of people's
hearts, the things that people say, and the things that just
comes out, and it stinks, it's rotten, it's so corrupt. And
then the tongue, look what he says about the tongue. And this
is over in Psalm 5, if you wanna look at it when you get home.
With their tongues, they've used deceit. They use their tongue
to tell a lie. Deceit is to lie. It's to deceive
people. It's a lie. To manifest hatred. To manifest blasphemy. And I
tell you, you ever met anybody that you know if their lips was
moving, they was lying? I've known two or three people
like that in my life. If they was talking, I just,
Didn't, you know, I just, they were just talking to be talking,
you know. If her lips are moving, you know
that they're not, that's awful to have people,
to know people like that. But oh my, tongues like, you
know, just deceit. The only way they use their tongue
is to tell a lie, or deceive somebody, or manipulate somebody. Use it to tell a lie on somebody. Use it to tell a lie. Use it
to tell a lie on God. Use it to tell a lie on one another.
Use it to tell a lie on your neighbor. Use it in a lot of
ways, tell lies. Oh, use it, and then look what
it says. And then verse 13 there, and the poison of asp is under
their lips. The throat is corrupt, dead,
rotten, corrupt, The tongue is lying, deceiving, hatred, blasphemy,
all the things that they use it with. And then when, not only
that is your throat and your tongue, but now look at your
lips. Poisoned, poisoned. And it says
that the poison of asp is under the lips. Now that means that
you got poisoned. Not only is your throat corrupt,
your tongue lies. but that there's poison in your
lips. And when you spit that poison
out, you know how many people have been poisoned with people's
words? Oh, the slander, the gossip.
Oh my, just poison. I never will forget one time
I was in a place and somebody We stopped to get something to
eat and somebody said, did you know, did you hear about such
and such and such and such about a preacher? Man, I stopped right
then and there and I said, that's a lie, that's a lie, I know it's
a lie. But they was using that tongue
to tell a lie, using that tongue to spread poison, using that
tongue to poison a man's character, use that tongue to poison a man's
Reputation using that poise to destroy and I'll tell you what
that's what poison is you get poison The only remedy for it
is is you got to have the same snake that bit you to cure you Ain't no cure for that except
Christ. Oh my Poison poison poison. Oh my such poison And oh, Paul
s not talking about original sin here, where we got it from
Adam fallen, but with the truth of universal sinfulness. Many are as bad, many are not
as bad as other people are, but everybody s as bad off as they
are. Self-righteous and indifference toward God Almighty, what an
awful thing. Then look what else it says,
now down here in verse He goes on to say there, you
know that, and he goes on down here to talk
about the tongue, and oh my, and then he says,
oh look what he says. He said the mouth is full of
cursing and bitterness. That's awful. You know, there was a man the other day,
I seen he was in an emergency room. Cuss, cuss, cuss, cuss,
cuss. The nurse finally says, listen,
I'm sick and tired of your cussing. Tired of your cursing. Everybody
else is tired of your cussing. Ain't you got no respect for
yourself or nobody else? But there's people that curse.
They want to curse everything. Curse everything. And oh my,
I remember a guy cussed me one time, and trying to talk to him,
and he cussed me like, called me everything, but I mean, it
was awful how he cussed me. A fella right down the road down
here, got a business, and I was trying to witness to him. He
went to cussing me, cussing me, oh my, he called me everything
you can imagine. Mad, mad, mad. And oh my, but
I tell you, here it goes on to say, full of bitterness, cursing
bitterness. There's ought to be bitter, that's
an awful thing. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Oh my goodness, instead of, you
know, that's in Isaiah 59, if I'm not mistaken, that's where
it's at, Isaiah 59. And I tell you what, the tongue,
and oh my, and his character, none seeks God. None, none, none. And all his mouth was full of
speaking harsh. Indeed, their feet are swift
to shed blood. Look at Isaiah 59. Let's look
at that. Isaiah 59. Look at Isaiah 59. Look what he says over here about
these people. This is God's estimate. This
is God's estimate. And you know, I'm not telling
you anything that you don't know, but yet when we're dealing with
the Scriptures, and that's what Paul's dealing with, he's dealing
with the Word. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. And look what it says here in Isaiah 59, verse 6. Their webs shall not become garments,
neither shall they cover themselves with their works. Their works
are works of iniquity, and the acts of violence is in their
hands. Their feet run to evil. Now,
you know, it s one thing to run, but it s another thing to take
off and run towards evil, and run for evil, and run to do evil.
They make HASTE to shed innocent blood. Oh my, they find somebody
that s innocent, find somebody that ain t done anything, they
shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of
peace they have not known. There is no judgment in their
going. They made them crooked paths. Whosoever goeth therein
shall not know peace. And that s exactly what we re
dealing with right here. They go the way of whose feet are swift to shed
blood, destruction and misery are in their way. Can you imagine
somebody, and then you know they were swift to shed Christ's blood,
destruction and misery in their life. Their lives leads to misery. Misery. I tell you what, I've
had some, you know, misery and destruction. That's their whole
life, misery and destruction. They're miserable and they want
everybody else to be miserable. They want to destroy. They want
to destroy their lives, destroy their homes, destroy their marriages,
destroy their children. Destruction for themselves and
others. Sin always destroys. Sin always
brings misery. And then we read it over there,
the way of peace. Look what it says. The way of
peace they've not known. They don't know the way of peace.
I don't know how many unconverted people I've heard tell me, said,
you know, I'm at peace. I have peace. I don't know how
in the world anybody can, but there's a lot of people that
have false peace. And when they cry peace, peace,
when there is no peace. The way of peace, they don't
know it. They just don't know it. The way of true peace, oh,
peace of heart, peace of mind, peace with God, peace with Christ,
Oh, they don't know how to get peace. Always wanted, but they
don't know how to get it. Don't know how to get it. And
then the cause of it all. Here's the kicker right here,
verse 18. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. That's the reason everybody's
in the condition they're in. They don't fear God. They have
no fear of God whatsoever before their eyes. God's everywhere
when you look at it. They don't know that, though.
That means they have no reverence for God. You know, they use their,
when they speak about God, they use it in a cursing, bitter way. Use His name in vain. There's
no awe of God, no worship of God, no affection for God. In
fact, most people have great contempt for God. Before their
eyes, they can't see God, they can't see themselves, they can't
see the state that they're in. But oh my, and then look what
he says now, down in verse 19. Now we know, now we know. This is what happens when he
shows all these people. When I showed you what you are,
proved it, proved it, used the Bible to prove what a miserable
condition the human race is in. And then he says, now we know,
we know this thing. It's an evident truth. What thing
soever the law saith. And now when I was talking about
the Law, he's talking about, I believe, all the Bible. I believe
especially the first five books of the Bible, what they call
the Decalogue, what they call the Jews, that's their Bible
more than any other part of it. And he's using Psalms and Proverbs
and the Prophets. This is the Law, this is the
Word of God. We know it's an evident truth.
And look what he goes on to say. It says to them that are under
that Law, You want to bring yourself under the law. I seen today down
in Louisiana, they passed a law that they got to put the Ten
Commandments in every school building in the state of Louisiana. You know what that's going to
do? That's either going to make a self-righteous pharisee or
it's going to make people sit there and say, Oh, my, what in
the world? How am I going to do that? But oh, that's what he's
saying, SUBJECT, and he says, Oh, every mouth may be stopped.
It's subject to the judgment of God. STOPPED! And that's what
he says, every mouth has to be stopped. Quit claiming that you've
got any goodness. Quit claiming you've got a righteous.
Quit claiming that you're a good person. Just quit claiming it.
And therefore, in verse 20, Therefore, because of the works of the law,
shall no flesh, no flesh, nobody shall be justified, we're at
in God's sight. That's where it counts. That's
where it counts. No, you know why? Because by
the law is the knowledge of sin. That's what the law is given
for. That's what the scripture is given for. Show us how weak
we are, how unable we are to do anything. The law is given
for the giving us to understand scripture, give us to understand
how sinful we are. And the supreme question, the
question we all have to ask, can we provide ourselves a righteousness,
an adequate righteousness, A lot of people think they can.
A lot of people think they can. Can we provide an adequate righteousness
for ourselves or must we have a righteousness from God? This
is where the word brings us. It shuts our mouth. It shuts
our mouth. We have nothing we can claim
before God Almighty. except Christ. And I tell you,
our mouths must stop the knowledge of our sin. And what did knowledge
of sin does? It makes you see your need of
a Savior. That's all sin. You know, people
don't see their sin and then see Christ. No, they see Christ
and see their sin. And I do know this, that everybody,
you, I know that we all have the righteousness of Christ,
and that's a righteousness by faith. God has to give it. And
I pray that he and his sovereign mercy would keep us, keep us,
from ever trusting ourselves in any way, shape, or form before
God Almighty. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Savior, Lord, I thank you for your word. Your word
describes a human race. Your word described everyone
that's ever lived and ever will live on this earth. And it does
it to show them, show them that they don't have a righteous,
can't produce one. That everything they've touched,
taste is rotten and corrupt. It's tainted with sin, tainted
with self-righteousness, tainted with self-wisdom. And oh Lord,
we pray that you'd make us to understand how to pray for people
like this. Lord, we know that the gospel,
the gospel's only hope we have, the good news in Christ, that
Christ put sin away, that Christ changes the heart. that Christ
gives us a new mind, that Christ himself gives us his righteousness,
and we're accepted before God, holy and without blame, uncorruptible
in every single way. God bless the word, to our good
and your glory, for Christ's sake, amen, amen. Well, I'll see you Sunday morning,
God willing. That's how it's supposed to sound.