to sixteen. If you from sin are
longing to be free, look He to redeem you died on Calvary
Look to the Lamb of God Look to the Lamb of God Look to the
Lamb of God For he alone is able to save
you, look to the Lamb of God. When Satan tempts and doubts
and fears yourself, look to the Lamb of God. You in his strength shall over
all prevail, look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For he alone is able to save
you. Look to the Lamb of God. Are you weary? Does the way seem
long? Look to the Lamb of God. His love will cheer and fill
your heart with song. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save
you. Look to the Lamb of God. Fear not when shadows on your
pathway fall, look to the Lamb of God. Enjoy your sorrow, Christ
is all in all, look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God
Look to the Lamb of God For He alone is able to save you Look
to the Lamb of God Be seated, we'll sing hymn number 290 290
290. Be still my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief. Thy God to order and provide. In every change, be faithful,
will remain. Be still, my soul, thy best,
thy heavenly frame. Through thorny ways lead to a
joyful end. Be still, my soul, thy God doth
undertake To guide the future as he has the past. All now mysterious, tell me pride
at last. Peace to my soul. His voice to rule them while
He dwelt below. Be still, my soul, the hour is
hastening on, When we shall be forever with the Lord. Disappointment, grief and fears
are gone. Sorrow for God, love's purest
joys restored. Peace to my soul, when change
and fears are past. All safe and blessed, we shall
meet at last. Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter
2. For those of you that don't know,
A visitation tomorrow for Joe McSherry out at Hood's Funeral
Home will be from 11 to 12. Service will be at 12 o'clock.
And then they're going to carry him up to Kentucky and have another
service up there on Friday. On Friday at Todd's Road Grace
Church, where Todd was his pastor for 25, 26 years. Let me read the first 16 verses
of chapter 2. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the
same things. But we are sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth against them which commit such
things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which
do such things, and dost the same, that thou shalt escape
the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches
of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? but after
thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath
against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment
of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds, to
them who by compassionate continuance and 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, tribulation, and anguish, upon every soul
of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace to
every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to
the Gentiles. For there is no respect of persons
with God. For as many have sinned without
law, shall also perish without law. And as many have sinned
in the law, shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers
of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall
be justified. For when the Gentiles which have
not the law do by nature the things contained in the law,
these having not the law are 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. in the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." Our blessed Father, our glorious
God, and our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, our surety stood
good for us, stood good for our debts, stood good to the justice
of God to pay all debts, to release us and set us free from sin,
from the law. And Lord, we bless you for that.
We've gathered here tonight to worship you, to study your precious
word, and I ask, Lord, that you'd enable me, give me understanding
how to interpret it, be true to it, be honest with it, And
Lord, not add my thoughts or opinions or feelings to it in
any way. And Lord, I thank you for this
congregation that's gathered out tonight. And I pray for those
who are not here because of the grief they're bearing and their
families being together. And I pray for the services tomorrow. Pray for the dear family just
lost a husband and a grandpa. God bless them. We lost a friend,
lost a brother. Lord, bless us tomorrow as we
gather out, that we may honor our Lord Jesus Christ, that we
may speak peace to the saints' hearts, forgive us of everything
that's unlike you, have mercy upon our loved ones, and do it
for Christ's sake. Amen. Hymn number 44. Number 44. I should gain an interest in
the Savior's blood. Died He for me who caused His
pain, for me who Him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be That
Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it
be died for me. He left his father's throne,
above, so free, so infinite His grace. Emptied Himself of all
but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race. Amazing love, how can it be That
Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it
be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? No condemnation now
I dread I am my Lord's and He is mine Alive in Him, my living
Head Enclothed in righteousness divine Amazing love, how can
it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it be That
Thou, my God, shouldst die Go back here to verse 1. You
know last week, or last Sunday night, we showed the certainty
of God s judgment, certainty of it. God gave them up, three
times it said God gave them up, and finally gave them up to a
reprobate mind, and it s certain that the judgment And because
of the condition of man, how sinful he is, that's why the
gospel is so necessary for the salvation of sinners. That's
why the gospel is called the power of God unto salvation.
And that's, you know, that's why men need the gospel because
it's such a horrible condition. And these people that we'd been
reading about and learning about, they REJECTED what God said and
rejected the light that God gave them. Now the Apostle comes to
the moral man, he comes to the Jew who loves the Law and thinks
he's good AFTER the Law. He comes to the Jew, he comes
to the moral man, he comes to the self-righteous in these verses
that I read tonight, who think by their very acts THE ACTIONS
THAT THEY DO, THINK BY THE DEEDS THAT THEY DO, THINK THAT'S THE
WORKS THAT THEY DO, THAT THEY'RE BETTER THAN EVERYBODY ELSE AND
BETTER THAN OTHERS. THEY ESPECIALLY BETTER THINK
THEY'RE BETTER THAN THOSE FOLKS THAT WE JUST READ ABOUT. AND I TELL YOU THOUGH, THE JEWS
WHO BECAUSE OF THE LAW, THEY LOVE THEIR LAW, THEY LOVE THEIR
LAW, THEY STILL LOVE THEIR LAW, STILL LOVE THEIR RITUALS. And
I'll tell you what, and then they were so proud of their relationship
to Abraham, and then their privileges of being made a nation, separated
by God Himself, and yet they REJECTED the righteousness of
God! They REJECTED it! And that righteousness
of the Law was witnessed BY the Law! How was it witnessed by
the Law? Every time they offered a sacrifice! every time they offered a lamb,
every time they shed blood, every time they put an offering on
the altar, every time they burn a sacrifice and shed blood, that
testified that they didn't have a righteousness and they had
sinned. And then when Christ comes and
God's righteousness, they will be justified by the law than
by the righteousness of God. And then the prophets testified
of it. Prophets talked about Christ
coming, God providing the righteousness, be a LIGHT for the salvation,
and that He would bring salvation Himself, and oh my! And these to whom the Apostle
begins to address himself here, they just cannot believe that
there is a possibility that they could be condemned by God. They
really do not believe that they could POSSIBLY be condemned by
God. That's why they hated Christ,
His very deeds condemned them. But these people that I'm going
to read about tonight, they just COULD NOT POSSIBLY BELIEVE that
God could condemn them for anything they've done! And I'm going to
give you four principles of God's judgment. That's what I want
to talk about, the principles of God's judgment. Let me give
them to you. In verse 2, look at this one. Here's the first
principle of God's judgment. We're sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth. That's the first judgment, according
to truth. The second principle of judgment,
verse 6, Who will render to every man according to his deeds. That
s the second principle. And here s the third principle,
look in verse 11, For there is no respect of persons with God. Now look at the fourth one, the
fourth principle of God s judgment in verse 16, In the day when
God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according
to the gospel. Now, let s go back and go through
these things and deal with these four principles of God s judgment,
and I tell you what, the first thing the Apostle does is he
rebukes, God rebukes these people, and He says here in verse 1,
Therefore, whenever you find a Therefore, you ve got to go
back and see what is Therefore. In light of everything that He
said about these people, in light of how these people live, therefore,
in light of that, you are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are, that
you judge. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same
thing. Gentiles are without excuse.
God said it there in Romans chapter 1, verse 20, that men are without
excuse. There'll be NOBODY give God an
excuse. They sinned against light, and
here you are, and the Gentiles sin without light, and the Jews
sinned AGAINST light, against light. You're without excuse,
for you sinned against light also. You're not superior. These fellas thought they were
superior, and everybody else thought they were superior to
these people, and God got one standard for all, one standard
for everybody. And what He s saying here is
if you judge another, then YOU can be judged. If you judge,
YOU can be judged. Their condemnation is not for
judging, but look what it says, They do the same thing. Doeth the same thing you judge
a man and then you turn around and do exactly what you're judging
him for and that's why you're condemned and That's what he's
talking about here you Whosoever thou art that judges wherein
you judge another you condemn yourself Why because you're doing
what you're judging and condemning another man for doing you just
condemn yourself Huh, you know Here s the thing, just to show
you how they sowed sin against light. God brought Moses, God
gave Moses to bring Israel out of Egypt, take them across the
Red Sea, take them, and here they are. Moses wasn t gone,
but just a few days after a while they got upset. Where s Moses?
Where s Moses? Where s Moses? Oh my, what are
we going to do, what are we going to do? And we got to have a God,
we got to have a God. And they look around and judge
everybody else, but here they are, they build a golden calf. When you judge another and murder,
oh my goodness, the Jews was, they killed all, they killed
the prophets, killed our Lord Jesus Christ. didn t like to
retain God in their knowledge. They did not like to retain God
in their knowledge. When you judge another, that s what he
s saying here, and you do the same things, you condemn yourself,
so therefore you re without excuse. Now our Lord said in Matthew
12, 37, By thy words shalt thou be justified by thy words, thou
shalt be condemned." And what you say is what you, God said,
with whatever measure you meet, that's what you're going to get,
and that's what He's telling them here. You know, it's an
awful thing to be that way, but He said, Oh, why do you want
to judge somebody? And then you turn around and
do exactly the same thing. Now, look here, let me give you
this first principle, first principle there in verse 2, first principle
of judgment, verse 2. But we are SURE, that we are
SURE, we are SURE that the judgment
of God is according to truth, according to truth, by those
which commit such things. You know, God's judgment will
be according to truth, without any impartiality. He s a God
of TRUTH! He s a God of JUDGMENT! His judgment
will be EXACTLY ACCORDING TO TRUTH, HIS TRUTH! In God s judgment
He is ABSOLUTELY IMPARTIAL in that. A lot of people say God
s not fair, God s not equal, God don t treat men the same.
Well, it says right here He does, but I m going to tell you something,
those who have been SAVED BY THE GOSPEL, the SAVED BY THE
GOSPEL I tell you what, have ALREADY been judged by TRUTH,
and I tell you what, we're THANKFUL for the TRUTH! It was the TRUTH
by the GOSPEL that come and reveal Christ to us. It is the TRUTH
that showed God punished our sins in the substitute, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We ACKNOWLEDGE that TRUTH, we
LOVE that TRUTH, and we've been JUDGED according to TRUTH! And
what truth? God s truth. And how did He do
it? And the truth was that we didn
t have a righteousness. God provided us a righteousness
and a substitute. He made Christ to be sin, who
knew no sin, and then He turned around and made a righteousness
of God to be ours in Christ. And oh, we had a surety. We had
a surety. Under the law, they didn t have
one. We had a surety. You know what a surety is? Somebody
that absolutely takes all the obligations on HIMSELF for people
that are incompetent, unable to do anything for themselves,
and that s what He says, what we got. We had a surety. We re
incompetent, we re unable to do anything to save ourselves.
God gave us the gospel and saved us. But oh, my, But here He's
talking about that if you commit such things, you practice, you
commit hypocrisy. If you judge somebody, you condemn
yourself because you're doing the same thing. And if you commit
hypocrisy and sin and wickedness, God's judgment is according to
truth against them, against them. Will it upset you and make you
angry if God doesn't save your children? Will it make you angry? Will it upset you? You say, God's
not treating us right. Would it upset you if God let
one of your children die without knowing Christ? Would it upset
you? Would you say, God's not right? God's not fair? This is
what He's talking about here, that the judgment of God is SURE
according to TRUTH! You commit hypocrisy, you commit
self-righteousness, you commit sin, you commit wickedness, you
live as if God doesn't exist, and the next thing you know,
your judgment's just as sure as God's got truth Himself, huh? And oh, my! And then look what
He says, you know, here's the first principle, look what He
says almost in verse 3. Now, this is this first principle
of judgment, and He says, Do you think, O man, that thou judgest,
which doest such things, and do the same thing, you're judging
somebody for what they do, and you do the same thing, you think
you're gonna escape the judgment of God? You think because these
fellas over here done all this wickedness and stuff, and you
judge them, and you turn around and do the same thing, you think
you're gonna escape? You think you're gonna escape
the judgment of God? Oh, no. Do you think he's gonna
escape? Oh, Joe says, yes, I'm gonna
escape. Yes, I'm moral. Yes, I've kept
the law. Abraham is my father. And our
Lord Jesus said, if Abraham was your father, you'd believe me,
because Abraham looked forward to my day. Oh, my. And under human law, let me give
you something here. Under human law, the man who
offends against human laws commits murder against some awful crime.
There's four ways that he can escape from human law. First
of all, that his crime be not known. If nobody ever finds out
about his crime, he's got by with it, he escapes it. The second
one is, is that he goes beyond the jurisdiction of the law and
the crime that he committed. He gets where they can't get
him. And the third thing is, is that there may be a failure
in the legal process when they arrest him, and this happens
all the time. They arrest the fella. They didn't give him his
rights or he got a good lawyer and he gets to go free. He gets
to go free because they made a mess in the arrest thing, in
the legal procedures. And the fourth way he may escape
from human law is escape from prison and hide himself and never
be found. Now you can escape human law,
but you ain't gonna escape God's law. And that's what he says. Do you THINK you're going to
escape? You set yourself up to be a judge, and you do the same
thing. Do you THINK you're going to escape? Do you REALLY think
you're going to escape the judgment of God? Oh, my! Oh, listen, there's nothing
that can happen if the judgment of God no escape. There's no
lack of knowledge on His part. You can't get outside His jurisdiction! You can't get any place where
He's not! And you know there's a people that, and He's got the
POWER to judge, and He's got the WILL to judge and to perform. There's this bunch that they
said, you know, said, We've We've done these wonderful works
for you. We've preached in your name. Our Lord said, It's not unto
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father. And then
there's some people stand up and say, Well, Lord, haven't
we preached in your name? We cast out devils in your name.
We've done many wonderful works in your name. We've done all
kinds of things in your name. And he said, Oh, I never knew
you. Oh, listen, God knows, God knows. And then look what he
said in verse four. You think you're going to escape?
This is that first principle, you see, the judgment of God
is sure. Or despises thou the riches of
his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Now you notice
how it says, THE RICHES OF HIS GOODNESS, THE RICHES OF HIS LONG
FORBEARANCE, THE RICHES OF HIS LONG SUFFERING, NOT KNOWING THAT
THE GOODNESS OF GOD LEADS THEE TO REPENTANCE. Do you despise
the riches? Despise thou the riches of God's
goodness? How rich is God in goodness?
Oh, how rich is the goodness of God! To despise God's goodness,
God's long suffering, God's mercy, God's forbearance, to ignore
it and trust your own righteousness and have no need of Christ, no
need to repent. Well, God's dealing with you,
He'll lead you to repentance, or you despise it. And that's
what He says, God's rich in these things, and yet you despise it? You despise it? Huh? He'll lead you to repentance,
and yes, you despise it. You despise it. And then look
what he says in verse 5. There's two treasures here now.
But this is what happens when you despise the riches of God's
goodness, the riches of His forbearance, the riches of His long-standing.
You don't know that God's goodness, what He gives it to you for,
is to lead you to repentance. And oh, he says here, But AFTER
thy hardness and impenitent hearts, you're not going to repent. You
treasure up! You've got to treasure! God's
got to treasure, and YOU've got to treasure! What's the treasure
YOU'RE treasuring up? WRATH! You're storing up WRATH! People put up treasure here. He said, Man, because of the
hardness, he's treasuring up WRATH! He s treasuring up wrath,
the wrath of God, and oh my, AGAINST the day of God s wrath,
AGAINST the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Two
treasures here, the treasures of God s goodness, the treasures
of God s righteousness, and then there s the treasure of wrath.
God s going to pay a fellow off the treasure! He s going to give
him the treasure that he wanted. He wanted a hard heart? Give
it to you! Oh my! man's treasure, he's just
treasuring up WRATH. God receives what man gives and
gives it back to him on his own account. After your hardness,
a heart that refuses to, an impenitent, just CANNOT be sorry for nothing. Your day is coming, the day of
what? The day of wrath, the day that
God reveals Himself, the righteous judgment of God. Now, let me
give you the second principle now. Look down here in verse
6, Who will render to every man
according to his deeds. Who will render to every man
according to his deeds. Oh, my! What they've treasured
up will be returned to them again. He'll give every man according
to his deeds. That's strict justice here. This
is strict judgment here. Just turn that off up here, would
you? Turn that off or turn the air conditioner on. A strict
judgment, I want you to look with me in Proverbs 24, Proverbs
24. Look with me over here, I want
you to see this, Proverbs 24, 12. You know, this is strict
judgment where he says, you know, God's going to render every man
according to his works. every man according to his deeds.
Now, I don't know how many people
I've heard say, I'm not afraid to face God. I'm not, you know,
I believe I can stand in my own self before the Lord, but oh
my, look what he said here in Proverbs 24, 12. If you say,
behold, we knew it not, DOETH NOT HE THAT PONDERS THE HEART,
GOD ALMIGHTY, CONSIDER IT? AND HE THAT KEEPETH THY SOUL,
DOES HE NOT KNOW IT? AND SHALL NOT HE RENDER TO EVERY
MAN ACCORDING TO HIS WORKS? Now, there's two works that there's
a man that will trust his own, he'll trust the work of Christ,
no middle ground, and that's what he's saying here. Oh, the
reality of this meaning here, that He will render to every
man according to his deeds. Now, a lot of folks misunderstand
what this next verse means. To them who will render every
man according to his deeds, to them who by patience, continuance,
and well-doing seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, eternal
life. And here He is showing what judgment
God will use according to the Law. And this isn't language,
you know, here he talks about the language of the righteousness
of faith. Man here is talking about a man
doing GOOD to be accepted of God. That's what he's talking
about. Or them who by patient continuance in doing good, doing
good. If I do good, I've been doing
good all my life, I've been good all my life. And oh, no, that's
not the language now. And I tell you this is not the
righteousness of a man of faith, but men are not justified by
DOING, no matter how patient they are, no matter how many
good deeds they do. The Scripture says if a man knows
to do good and does it not, to him it is sin. But watch what
else He goes on to say here, and if you DO keep the Law, you
DO do good, and you persevere in it, you know what God will
do? He'll reward you with glory, honor, and eternal life. That's the term of the Law. Keep
it, do it, patiently and continually and continually. But oh my, look
what He said in verse 8, But to them that are patient, but
here's another side of it, them that are contentious, Oh my,
they're contentious, they want to argue, they want to debate
God, they want to tell God to be contentious with God's Law,
contentious with God, contentious with the way God does stuff.
And them that are contentious, contentious, and do not obey
the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath. Oh my,
if you're contentious, you don't obey the truth, you obey unrighteousness,
look what's going to happen to you. Ah, you obey unrighteousness,
you know what God's going to do? He's indignant at you. he's
angry with you, got wrath. And you know what he's gonna
do? You that contentious with him and fight with him like the
Pharisees did and the Sadducees did and like all the Israelites
did against Moses and against all the prophets and against
the kings. But look what he said, tribulation,
that's what he's gonna send you. He gonna send you anguish upon
every soul that does evil. going to start with the Jew because
he thinks he s somebody, and also the Gentiles because they
re no better off. But oh, listen, that s what he says, but oh,
listen, he says, But glory and honor and peace to every man
that worketh good. If you re going to be saved by
doing good, then you know good and peace to you. But now let
me show you something in Galatians Look over here in Galatians,
chapter 3. You know, men are not saved by
doing good, and that s why He s talking about WORKING here.
That s why He s talking about JUDGMENT here. That s why He
s talking about no matter whether you do good or whether you re
mad at God or whether you don t want to obey Him, whether you
re impenitent, God is going to treat you according to the way
you are. And I tell you, if a man does
good and works good, I m going to reward him according to but
he says there is none good. Now look what he said here in
Galatians chapter 3 and verse 10, For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse, under the curse. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that continueth, CONTINUETH, not in ALL things,
all things which are written in the book of the law to do.
I think I told you one time that there s six hundred and thirty-something
laws that the Jews have to keep, not just the Ten Commandments,
all their ceremonies that they have to do. And then he goes
on to say, But that no man, no man nowhere, is justified by
the law and the sight of God. It s clear, it s evident. Why? Because the JUST, justified people,
justified by God, they live by FAITH! not by doing, not by doing. And that's why he says God's
promises against those who, if they don't observe it all the
time, all the time. Now let me give you the third
principle, the third principle of God's judgment. Look here
what it says, For there is no respect of persons
with God. And what he's saying is, go ahead
and try to do good. Go ahead and judge if you want
to. Go ahead and sin all you want to. Go ahead and think you're
justified by the law. But I'm no respect of persons.
I don't respect anything that anybody does. I have no respect
of persons by what they do or what they don't do. But oh my,
for as many have sinned without the law and shall also perish
without law, and many as have sinned in the law shall be judged
by the law. You know, and this principle
of judgment, God's judgment is IMPARTIAL, and it's for EVERYBODY,
EVERYBODY! Look what He says there in verse
12, For as many have sinned without the law, they'll perish without
the law. Now, there's going to be a lot of people saying, Well,
I didn't know there was any law. He just got through telling us
that the Gentiles, which know NOT the law, HAD the law written
in their hearts and their conscience. Meanwhile accuses them and says,
What you did was wrong, or else excuses you and says, Well, that
wasn t so bad. You did OK in that instance.
But oh, my! Gentiles are perished without
the law. This is one thing that Armenians
say all the time. Is God going to send all the
Chinese and all the people in Africa to hell that never had
the gospel, that never had the law, never had Christ preached
to them? We've already seen that God he
says that men clearly see the invisible things of God They
clearly said they look at the stars their things didn't get
there by themselves Look at your own conscience and that tells
you that there's something going on in this world Look at how
God governs this world look at the seasons look at all it and
God said you're without excuse because you can see what's going
on around you You can see, you got eyes to see, and that's why
men will be without excuse. And then look what he says, And
many as have sinned in the law, those who claim to believe the
law shall be judged by the law. You don't have the law, you're
still going to be judged. you sin in the law, you're still
gonna be judged. God don't respect whether you
got the law or don't have the law, whether you keep the law
or you don't keep the law. God said, I'm no respective person.
Oh my, your conduct and conscience and thoughts is what gets you.
And I tell you, those who sin in the law shall be judged by
the law. Look what he says down in verse
13. for not the HEARERS of the law
are just before God, but the DOERS of the law shall be justified."
Now, He's just showing these folks how that this don't work
this way. And he says, you know, God didn't give us the law so
we could admire it, put it up on the wall and admire it, have
it put in hieroglyphics and calligraphy or whatever, calligraphy and
have it wrote out real, real pretty and everything and put
it on the wall and decorate it all up and set it up on the wall. He didn't give it to us for us
to admire it, to be looked at and talked about, but He gave
it to us to obey. to obey. Look in Romans, look
over here in chapter 3 and verse 19. It s not the HEARERS, but
the DOERS shall be justified. Oh my, look what He says there.
Now, We know, We know this, that whatsoever things the law saith,
Now, this has to do with washings, tithes paying, sacrifices, everything,
every ceremony and every ritual, every festival that they had. To them that are under the law,
that the mouth may be stopped. Oh, I'm keeping it, I'm doing
it, I'm doing it. No, listen, your mouth will stop when you
understand what the law says. and all the world becomes GUILTY,
CONDEMNED! Who before? The preacher, the
Church, before God. And oh, he says, Therefore by
the DEEDS of the law shall NO FLESH, NO FLESH be justified
in the sight of God. The law came to make us to know
sin and expose our sin, expose our sin. Oh, my! So listen, and he says there
in verse 14, For when the Gentiles have not the law, due by nature
of things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are
a law unto themselves. They set up the law to suit themselves. And all that saying is, I remember
several years ago a fellow called me on a Saturday night, did I preach the gospel here,
and we preached the grace of God here, and he called me and
wanted to know what time services was and that, and then he asked
me this, he said, How do you discipline your church? I said,
What do you mean? He said, Well, how do you deal
with people that lie and commit adultery and steal, and how do
you deal with them? You know what I told him? I said,
Before I ever knew anything about God, I knew every one of those
things was wrong. I knew it was wrong to lie. When I was 15,
12 years old, I knew it was wrong to lie. I knew it was wrong to covet. I KNEW it was wrong to steal. I told him, I said, I KNEW it
was wrong to take another man's wife. I KNEW it was wrong to
commit adultery. I KNEW all these things. So what
in the world, what are you talking about? I said, Believers don't
live like that! If a fellow s an adult, he needs
to sit under the gospel and hope God saves him by His grace and
pray God saves him. But what THEY want to do is,
they re like this fellow, Thou art inexcusable, O man, who judges.
They want to judge. There s one preacher, one preacher
up in Owensboro, Kentucky, He gained a little weight, got a
little on the heavy side, and you know what they did? They
put him on discipline, put him on discipline until he
got his weight under control. You know somebody like that,
this is awful to say, somebody like that just needs a good slapping.
Ain't that right? Ain't that what you feel like?
Somebody like that, you need to say what you need to do is
get you a good bottle of something that'll loosen you up a little
bit. I mean, you know, somebody like
that. And that's what Paul's saying. You think you're going
to escape God's judgment? You're going to judge somebody?
You're condemning yourself. And that fella never come that
day. He never come. He never come. We wasn't good
enough. I wasn't disciplinary enough.
You know, and I've been here 45 years, and we've never one
time ever, ever brought anybody before the church and said that
they sinned this sin, that sin, and another sin, and we need
to deal with them. Do you know who deals with people? God deals
with them, the Holy Ghost deals with them, the Spirit of God
deals with them. If there's something you're doing wrong, God'll let
you know. He lets ME know, don't He, you? And I'm gonna leave
it at that, but I tell you what, that's, alright, let me give
you the fourth principle of judgment, and that's there in verse 16. In the day, and there's coming
a day, There's coming a day when God shall judge the secrets of
men by Jesus Christ. He's going to make judgment by
Jesus Christ. He has appointed a day in which
He'll judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, according to
Acts 17, according to my gospel. Oh, I'll tell you this, I know
this, that Jew and Gentile and all these people, all of these
folks, law keepers, I mean just wicked as wicked as you can be.
Every Jew and Gentile is going to come face to face with the
Lord Jesus Christ one of these days. God says that every knee
shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. Everybody is going to
face Jesus Christ the Lord. And I tell you they are going
to be confronted with the Gospel of Christ. the Gospel of Christ. I mean there was, our Lord says,
As the Father judgeth even so hath he committed all judgment
unto the Son. The same one we LONG to see,
and that Joe s in the presence of right now, and Joe Terrell
s in the presence of right now, and every believer that s going
on is in the presence of the Lord right now. These folks,
these folks will have to face Christ without any mercy being
shown to them. That's why he says, hide us from
the wrath of the face of the Lamb. Oh, rocks fall on us. We look at His face and we want
to go be with Him, seeing face to face. They see His face and
say, oh, hide us, hide us, hide us from the wrath of the Lamb.
And we say, oh, let me see it. Huh? See the difference? That's what these folks are going
to say. And then He's going to judge
the secrets. And you know what that means? That God's going
to judge exactly how people are. He knows every secret, every
thought, everything that a soul's ever done in this world. And
the judgment will be according to the TERMS of the RIGHTEOUSNESS
revealed in the Gospel. Here s a righteousness, you ain
t got it. Here was LIGHT, you love darkness.
Here was LIFE, you want to stay dead. You see all these people
living SINFULLY over here? Well, I m going to go over and
join them, and I m going to enjoy it when I do. That s what they
re saying. And I tell you, beloved, thank
God, thank God, thank God for the gospel of the grace of God.
Thank God for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and thank
God that He caused us to believe it. But oh my, there's a certainty
of God's judgment. Oh my, and I tell you, God's
judgment's going to be for Jew and Gentile. It's going to be
according to truth. It's going to be according to
a man's deeds. according to God s no respective
persons and according to my gospel. You know, the judgment, it s
going to be awful, but God s got principles set up to how He judges
people. And there ain t nobody getting
by with nothing. I told my daughter today, she had some health problems
and found out she didn t have no bad health problems. I said,
well, you need to come hear the gospel, so I know I do, I know
I do, I know I do. But knowing it and doing it's
two different things, and oh my God, help us, oh, help us,
please. Like that, I know I gotta quit,
I know you're tired, but it's like that man, a certain man,
they brought that blind man to the Lord Jesus Christ. God help
us to bring our children and grandchildren to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, in the blessed name of
Christ Jesus our Lord, thank you for having mercy on us. Thank
you for teaching us the gospel. Thank you for saving us by your
grace. Thank you for your mercies that
are new every morning and your compassions that never fail.
Lord, I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful that the judgment's
already been done for us. But all for our loved ones and
all this world and all that goes on, we know that your judgment's
sure. We know it'll be according to
every man's deeds. We know it'll be because you're
no respective persons. And we know it'll be according
to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So Lord, please help us to believe. Oh, help us to believe. Help
us to cleave to our Lord Jesus Christ. Never ever, oh God, it'd
be awful to think that we would have to face the judgment without
Christ, more than our minds could bear. So Lord, bless these dear
saints as they go their way. Please meet our needs tomorrow
and that family's needs tomorrow. We ask for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. He's the rock of my soul. I'm claiming His praises wherever
I go. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon,
then I'll see you Sunday.