Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. The Lord created Adam exactly
as he pleased, knowing exactly what he would do. Some have even
suggested that there was the possibility that Adam might have
obeyed the Lord and thereby saved the human race from the death
which he brought upon them. This is simply a philosophical
argument meant to make it seem that men are able to choose good
and eschew evil, to walk in obedience and to shun disobedience. There
is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Some have opined
that God would be unjust in his condemnation of men if they don't
have a self-determining free will. In the first place, the
potsherds of the earth should never even contemplate some situation
wherein they could accuse God of injustice, even hypothetically. He is the Rock. His work is perfect,
for all of His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Woe unto him
that striveth with his maker! Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him that
fashioneth it, What makest thou? In the second place, man does
willingly act according to his sinful nature, and because of
that nature cannot choose the things of God. Surely the wrath
of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou
restrain. Were it not true that the Lord in his mercy does restrain
the wickedness of men, they would soon destroy themselves and all
around them. So it is quite clear that men
do not possess a self-determining free will, since they are slaves
to sin by nature and will act according to that nature. It
is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. When the
Lord gave the coded law to Moses, he made it plain that this law
was conditional. If a man kept the law, he would
live, and if he broke the law, he would perish. The Jews erred
in thinking that a partial keeping of it, even as the multitude
of men still do, would suffice to gain the blessings set forth
in the law. This error rests upon three other errors. One
is a disregard of the fact that God will by no means clear the
guilty. The other is a disregard of the fact that for whosoever
shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is
guilty of all. The third is that they do not
believe that the law is powerless to enable a man to keep it. Thus
they go about to establish their own righteousness by their supposed
adherence to it. It is in the darkness of their
natural minds that men think they are able to keep the law.
Yet this is an impossible task, not because the law is not holy,
but precisely because it is. The law was never given in order
that men might gain life by it, but rather to reveal the sin
that doth so easily beset us all. Is the law then against
the promises of God? God forbid, for if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. The problem that men have and
the solution to that problem is set forth by Paul. For what
the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. The need of a sinner is
not a code which promises life if he will keep it in its jot
and tittle. Rather, the need of a sinner
is to have one who will perfectly keep that law in his behalf and
impute that righteousness unto him. Yet that is not enough even
then, for he has already broken the law, and must either pay
the penalty of a broken law, or else have one who will, and
can, pay the penalty for him. This is an impossible task which
no mere man in the flesh can perform for himself or another
due to his own corrupt nature. Yet there is one who is without
sin of his own, who has willingly taken upon himself the wickedness
of those sinners whom he has loved from the beginning. He
has fully paid the price demanded by the law, and removed the condemnation
due to them by bearing it himself. The things which are impossible
with men are possible with God. Christ has undertaken an impossible
task and has accomplished the eternal redemption of those who
flee to Him for refuge. It is not possible that the blood
of bulls and goats should take away sins. We are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus hath died, and there is remission. Do you think you can
keep the law of God perfectly? You need a Savior who has already
done so.