Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. All right, if you wish to follow
along, turn to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. I want
to read verses nine through 18. Romans three, nine through 18. Paul asks a couple questions.
What then? Are we better than they? No,
in no wise. For we have before proved, and
he's actually before proved in this letter. He's not talking
about it some other occasion, some other place, though that
certainly may be true, but he's talking about in this very letter,
he's already proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all
under sin. As it is written, and his appeal,
remember, is to the scripture. as it is written. And let me
also say this, he is quoting from a man who wrote these words. But the words, the truth, came
from God Almighty. When he says it is written, this
is God speaking through the prophet. 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, together become
unprofitable. That is, if we all got together
and put forth our best effort, it is still unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Weird statement, isn't it? Their
feet, not their hands. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. Their ways. That means all their
ways. And the way, see that, singular,
because there is not ways in this next verse. And the way
of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Now if I were to be asked to
come to the, whether it be here in Beckley or down my way in
Princeton, if I were to be asked to come to the first such and
such church, you all know of places like that, right? First
Baptist Church or First Presbyterian Church or whatever it might be.
I would venture to say that if I were asked to come to one of
these places and I were to read these very verses, now you say,
preacher, that'll never happen. I never thought I would preach
my papa or my grandfather on my father's side. I never thought
I would preach his funeral either. So let us never tell God what
will happen. Never, never. If I were to read
these verses amongst the religious moral socialite, and you know
what I'm talking about, the religious moral socialite, I am sure that
they would recall at the wretched state of such people described
in this verse. Wouldn't they not? Remember,
you see them on TV, if you do watch it. I'm not encouraging
you to watch it, but they're there with their little white
hats on, and the men have their three-piece suits and their ties,
and they're sitting there with their hands folded, maybe their
Bibles on their lap, and they hear these verses read, and they
would recall at the state of such miserable wretches described
here. They might even get together
and say, we need to start a soup kitchen for folks like that.
Don't you think? Well, the greatest soup kitchen
that ever was never saved one person. And that soup kitchen
was ordained and orchestrated by the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Because he took bread and fishes and fed thousands out of just
a few, just a handful. That's a soup kitchen, wouldn't
you say? And the people who were fed went to great lengths to
follow him. Why? Because they loved having
their bellies fed. But when he began to teach them
the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation, they got
up and walked away. But, If I were to read these
verses amongst the independent, fundamental, owl-walking, Jesus-accepting
crowd, I'm sure they would call for a soul-winning campaign to
be done in the neighborhood that we might help rescue such wretches
like that. Don't you figure they would?
I used to be in a group of people like that. Oh, they might say,
well, yes, some of us, some of us used to be like that. Yes,
maybe some of us used to be like that. You know, old so-and-so
back there in the back aisle. Old so-and-so over here, you
know. They used to be like that, but we're saved now. We're saved
now. Our Lord Jesus spoke about people
like that as well. He said, you will come past sea
and land to make one proselyte. and when you've made him, you
make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Paul
talked of winning some, but not winning their soul, because man
cannot win another man's soul savingly. You may win a man's
soul, but it won't be to Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ
is the one who wins men and women's souls. But, also, if I were to
read these verses, that is Romans three, nine through 18, if I
were to read them amongst the charismatic crowd, I'm sure there
would be some of them that would seek to impress such wretches
as this with their flesh-filled, outwardly religious signs, and
maybe just coax a few of them out of the dregs. And they could
do so. They could do so. But our Lord
Jesus Christ said these words, a wicked and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign. And if you need a sign other
than the one sign that Christ said was given, then you are
of that wicked and adulterous generation. And that sign was
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. But on the flip
side, on the flip side, There also are those, if I was to read
these verses, amongst the crowd of the lewd, baser sort. Do you know what I'm talking
about? James mentions people like that. Acts 17 and verse
five. Men of the lewd, baser sort. There I see you. You're redneck
trash, hmm? The people that love to gather
up their four wheelers on Sunday morning and go four wheeling
in the mud rather than going to worship God in the local assembly. If I were to read these verses
to them, they would scoff and excuse themselves because at
least I'm not a religious hypocrite. I'm not like them other three
religious hypocritical groups. I'm not trying to be anything
I'm not. You don't have to try to be this.
You are this. Whether you like it or not. Whether
you're amongst the religious, moral, socialite crowd, or you're
amidst the independent, fundamental, owl-walking crowd, or whether
you're amidst the charismatic crowd, we all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Let me read just a couple verses
here. Let me tell you something, we
preach that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
But being a sinner is not your hope. Being a sinner will damn
your soul forever apart from the free reigning grace of God
Almighty in Christ Jesus. And Jesus Christ didn't just
come to save sinners, he come to call sinners to repentance. That's what it means when he
saves sinners. That's what it means. Listen
to what is said. It's in the book of Job. And
I know the man that said it was applying it wrongly because he
was applying it to Job. He was trying to say, Job, you're
like this. But what he said's still true. And listen to what
it says. Remember, I'm not a hypocrite. I may go to hell, but I won't
go to hell with the hypocrites. No, if the hypocrite goes to
hell, you'll go to hell with the hypocrite. But you won't
even know him or her when you're there because you'll be by yourself
forever, forever. Listen to what it says. Let me
find my spot. Knowest thou not this of old,
since man was placed on earth? The triumphing of the wicked
is short. It'll come to an end. Wait a
minute. And the joy of the hypocrite,
but for a moment. So they're both short. You see,
God's not gonna save you because you're willing to call out the
hypocrite. God will save you based upon the person and work
of his son, Jesus Christ, or you will not be saved. Now hear
me now, don't turn your mind against what I'm saying here.
My text describes me right now today, standing behind this podium
with my Bible open in front of me and my notes here in front
of me. It describes me by nature. This is what I am and this describes
you. And this describes you. And this describes you. There
is none righteous. That ought to be enough. But
God says no, not one. No, not one. Now here is my title. I realize this is not a pleasant
subject. I realize it's not a pleasant
subject. I realize that if I preach this message publicly in front
of some of these people I just talked about earlier, they probably
at best would never have me come back again. They may even run
me out. I have experienced that personally. Here's my subject, our universal
wretched corruption. Now as I have tried to point
out often through this series, from this book, when we find
a passage that gives us a little trouble, when we find a passage
that seems to condemn us, then don't try to self-justify to
get away from the condemnation. You're only sticking your head
in the sand. in willing ignorance to the truth
of God. If this describes me, and it
does, then I need to know the remedy for such a state as this. Right? Sticking my head in the
sand will gain me no favor with God. Well, I just didn't know. Tell that to the police officer
the next time you're going 75 in a 25 school zone. and just
tell him, I just didn't know. If you tell him that, I hope
he socks you with a $300 bill. Because it's nothing but self-justification
before God. But we cannot justify ourselves
before God because of the wickedness of someone else. There are thousands of people
in this world that are better than me. when you compare me
to them. But this ain't what Paul's talking
about here. I have four thoughts on what
to give you. The first one is this, it's found in chapter three,
verse 10 and 11. All, all are under sin. Think of it, none righteous.
But folks, this is a specific righteousness that God is talking
about here. Even our Lord said the Pharisees
have a righteousness, because your righteousness must exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. So Mason,
he acknowledged they had a righteousness, but this is not the righteousness
the writer's talking about, whether it's Paul or the prophet he was
quoting from. This is God's righteousness. God does not require of us to
be better than some other group among us. He demands we must
be as righteous as himself. And there are preachers who deny
that in pulpits every Sunday, Sunday night, Wednesday, whatever
it is. There is none righteous. There's none that what? understand
it. Well, don't we, can't we figure
out calculus? I mean, they do things now, what's
it called, quantum physics? I mean, it's like this to me.
I've actually got online and listened to people explain quantum
physics, and I'm more confused now than I was when I began.
Man understands a great deal, but he don't understand God. He don't understand God. That's the problem. And even
when he reads this book, he will say, well, that can't mean what
it says. Why? Because he don't understand.
There's none that what? And then he says it. Wait a minute. There is none that seeketh after
God. but I see thousands of people
walking the aisles. You could watch the old Billy
Graham crusades and Jack Madison, there'd be hundreds walking the
aisles, but they weren't seeking God. Because you will seek God
as God is, revealed in this book, or you are not seeking God at
all. You see, somebody says, well,
you're a literalist. Yes, I am a literalist. I am
a literalist. But I also know that words have
far more than just one little teeny tiny meaning. I indicated
one earlier, and we'll look at it a little bit, and I don't
have time to go into all these phrases and try to describe all
the nuance. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Now maybe some karate expert
has killed someone with his feet, but I don't know too many people
going around killing folk with their feet, do you? So just hang
on to that thought for a minute. Remember it as it is written. And whose word is this? This
is God's pronouncement about us, not how we see one another. I don't see this in other people
sometimes. I look at other people and I'm
far worse than they are. Don't you? And there are other
folks I look at and I think, I'm a little bit better than
that. And probably so when we compare one worm to another worm. But this is the holy, the thrice
holy God giving his sentence about how he sees us. And we are as God sees us, not
as we see ourselves. None righteous, there's none
that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God. This
is our active discontent with God himself, these three first
phrases. It's active discontent with God
himself. The fact that we don't, there's
none righteous, there's none that understandeth, there's none
that seeketh after God is because we hate God's perfections. We
hate God's holiness, we hate God's preeminence. We don't mind
to worship God if God'll let us have a little percentage of
the fun and the merit and the credit, now do we? Don't mind
it at all. It's like God gives me a little
percentage of this thing. But God says, my glory, I will
not share with another. He won't do it. He won't do it. You see, righteousness, I don't
care whether it's religious righteousness, there is some religious righteousness
out there. There is denominational righteousness
out there, is there not? There are some people that are
better than other people, but were non-righteous before God.
There's none that understands God as we are by nature. And the dilemma for us was we
was created in the image of God. But we are so depraved that that
cannot be seen now. Mason, I believe to a degree,
in some way, it's still true. James talks about that. And we
ought not be cursing men, you know? I mean, just damning everybody,
because everybody's bad. No, I'm not damning everybody.
I'm telling us what God says we really are. Somebody said,
but preacher, some of these people might be one of God's elect.
No! No, some of them are one of God's
elect. But we're dealing with them like
they are in this, in God's sight. And we need to quit wondering,
well, they might be one of God's. That's not the point. This is
the point. This is what we are by nature. and we need to expose ourselves
and others to what we really are rather than patting them
on the back and placating them thinking they might be one of
God's elect. They may be a reprobate too. They may be a Judas Iscariot
waiting to sell you out for less than 30 pieces of silver. Let
us tell the truth to men and women about what they are in
God's sight. and not placate them. Why? Because there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. But here's number two. See our
active, reckless abandon. Do you hear what I said? See
our active, reckless abandon. They are all gone out of the
way. Do you hear it? They're all gone
out of, now it's an amazing thing. Because one, in our daddy Adam,
we all at one time were in the way. We were okay. God said about us in our parents,
Adam and Eve, that we were good. Did he not? And yet in our daddy
Adam, what did we do? We went out of the way. But I'll tell you this, man also
still has a conscience. and that conscience lets us know
that some things are right and some things are wrong. We also,
most of us, have eyes to see the glory of God's universe,
and even creation testifies to the very Godhead of God Almighty. There are no true atheists. There are people who want to
be atheists. They want to believe that there
is no God. But their hearts and minds tell
them better. It tells them better. Because
even they, if you mess around with the atheist's wife, you
think he gonna love you? Well, we just all, we're here,
we're evolving, and whatever we evolve into, that's just what
we are. So if I evolve into someone that
takes your wife away from you, what's wrong with that, Jack?
Huh? How many people you know wanna
live like that? Oh, wait a minute, except for maybe that redneck
trash. That's the way they live anyway. I ain't supposed to say
stuff like that, am I? I'm supposed to preach sovereign
grace. Now, I'm talking about what God says we are. And we're
all the same. Because God's looking down inside
here. He's not looking out here. You
see our reckless abandon? They're all gone out of the way.
They are together become unprofitable. Unprofitable to who? To God. To God. God don't need us. If God saved one individual,
it wasn't because God needed them, it's because God was pleased
to manifest his grace and mercy in Christ. There together become
unprofitable. Now think about this. You read
this and you look out here in the world. I watch these commercials
for St. Jude's crippled children, the
cancer hospital. I tell my wife, I couldn't work
there. I couldn't watch those little babies suffer and die. I couldn't do it, but I thank
God there's some folks who can. Aren't you? I'm sure those parents
that get invited to come there and take their babies there are
glad there are men and women who do such good, but we're not
talking about that kind of good. We're talking about God good.
in the sense that when the rich young ruler came and was very
respectful, even bowed down before Jesus, ran to him and said, good
master, what good thing might I do to inherit eternal life?
And Christ didn't even acknowledge that to start with, did he? He
said, why callest thou me good? There is none good but God. You see, the rich young ruler
had missed it from the get-go. Christ was good because Christ
is God. But the rich young ruler, Mason,
he didn't know Christ was God. He was just trying to kiss up. He was just trying to kiss up.
And that's what some of your relatives, your blood kin are
doing. They're just kissing up. and God takes everything from
you and makes you a pauper, see how long they hang around. God puts you down and lets you
fall back into the dregs of what you still are by nature, see
how much they come around. Or just preach the truth of Christ
to them and preach the truth of what they are to them, they'll
quit coming around. unless God Almighty moves in
grace and sovereign mercy. We have reckless abandon. Their throat, and this ain't, I'm a literalist,
but this ain't talking about having bad breath. You understand
what I'm saying? Their throat is an open sepulcher.
Does that mean you got bad breath in that literal? I'm saying there's
more to these words than just the physical meaning or some
physical meaning. What comes out of us is rotten
death before God. You see it? Their throat is an
open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. And I'm guilty of it and you're
guilty of it. God says so, whether we see it
or not. That's the whole point. It's not whether we see it. God
says we're like this. God says this is your condition.
You know what the glorious thing is, or aglorious thing is? Is
when God actually exposes that to you. When God actually lets
you see what you really are. Because until you begin to see
how bad you really are before him, you'll never really seek
him as he is. You'll pretend him in your mind
as you think he, just enough to get me where I need to go.
Won't you do that? That God can be as sovereign
as he wants as long as it ain't over me.