These two verses will actually
close out the introduction to this letter in context. It'll close out the argument
that Paul's been trying to, and actually not trying, that Paul
has been building. It will be a summary, if we can
say that. for the argument that he has
been building. And so as a way of reminding
us, we know that as Romans started out, Paul's audience are to all
those in Rome who are loved by God and called, what, to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father. Paul begins to talk about the
wrath of God and the judgment of God in chapter one, being
poured out on all unrighteousness. Keep in mind, the hearers of
this letter, the Roman Christians would hear that and go, wow,
God's wrath would be poured out on us. The Jewish people of this
audience would say, God's wrath would be poured out on them.
So, this is where Paul is beginning to develop the central core of
everything else he's going to start teaching in verse 21 of
Romans 3. Then everything he's taught thus
far will be shown and revealed throughout the rest of the letter.
And so this is the argument, if you're an outline type person,
this is what Paul is doing. He is showing that God not only
is worthy and righteous to pour out His wrath upon the Jew and
the Gentile, because the Jew and the Gentile are guilty before
God, And the Jew, though he had an advantage, was even more guilty
before God. because he had the advantage
of the scripture. And he goes on to continue to
talk about those who do wickedness, which the Jews did not do, you
know, murder and sexual immorality and things, but they did not
do those things. But yet then Paul would say, but you are the
ones, don't you say that you're the teacher? Aren't you the one
that's supposed to be walking as light? But yet you don't do
those things either. So Paul describes sin as those,
as anything that is not perfection. Paul says that all who have not
stood before God, absolutely holy from the beginning, are
guilty and thus justly condemned to death. And he goes into really
showing that the Jews who are part of this audience would need
to see the fact that they are in no better position in righteousness
and no better position spiritually than those who have never known
the truth of the word nor followed after God. The application there
for us is that we who are in our culture and in our community,
in our world, in our country, many people claim to be in Christ.
Many people come to the table of religion and say, I'm a Christian
because look at what I do, look at how I live, I'm in church,
I'm a member, I'm a deacon, I'm a pastor, I'm a teacher, I'm
a leader. And they, in turn, would be sort
of like the Jews. It's not what Paul is arguing.
There's not a direct relationship there, but that's a good application
for us, that many who claim Christ just because they say, I believe
in Christ. I mean, yesterday, going to Mr. Meek's funeral, Several of us
went to be with Billy and his family. Billy Meeks from Dublin,
his father passed away. And there was a woman outside
one of the gas stations there that Jessie said, you've got
to believe on Christ. You've got to believe the gospel
of Jesus. She says, I've been a Christian for 20 years. That
was her exact quote, right, brother? Something like that, you know?
And I mean, that's her claim. In her mind, she has not had
to deal with her faith in any kind of battle for 20 years.
I've been a Christian. So 20 years ago, she settled
her heart and mind with what she thought was the gospel of
Jesus Christ. And I pray by the Lord's mercy that it really is
effectual for her, but typically when someone answers that way,
that is their anchor. Their anchor is on what they
did 20 years ago. Their anchor is in what they
said 20 years ago. If I were to tell you how long I've been
a Christian, I would say in many seasons, several months, several
years, in different seasons, I'm not so sure because it is
by the mercy of God I stand before you today justified, not because
of what I've done. We have to get out of this idea
that we have this love affair, this idolatry with our salvation
experience in America. It is the fruit of demonic teaching
and it's the fruit of unbiblical teaching that teach people if
they do these things then they can have eternal life. It is
similar to what Paul has been trying to help his Jewish readers
see, that just because they have planted themselves in a place
of favor as a genealogical construction, there is no favoritism with God.
He does not look at them in a greater light because of who they are
and who their ancestors were, or what they've been doing, or
how well they've been living, for the well-living that they
accomplished was not righteousness. And then also for his non-Jewish
readers, he is helping them not listen to the lies of the enemy,
who would say to all of us during certain seasons of our lives,
one or the other. The lie of the enemy to the Jew
was, you're pretty good, you got it going on, you're safe. The lie to the Gentile is, I'll
never be good enough, I'll never be, I'm probably lost, look at
how these Jews live, how can I become a believer, how can
I be part of the family of God when I have lived the way I've
lived?" And so the lie goes on both sides and then the same
thing would happen when those who sort of live what we would
call a moral life could look at those that live in a moral
life and say, we're better than they. So Paul has really knocked
the wind out of all these arguments and he's come to the end of this
text and said that there is no one, no one Who is righteous? In verse 11, look at 311, we'll
read through and get to the end of verse 20. All have turned. No one seeks God. No one understands.
All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless.
No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave.
They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their
lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they have
not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now, verse
19, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those
who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and
the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the
law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the
law comes the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law
and the prophets bear witness to it. I'm going to stop right
there. Because that verse 21 is a new thought. It's a new
development in this argument. Verses 19 and 20 actually summarize
everything Paul has said several times. He's recapitulated his
argument with different evidence and with different views and
with different sound teachings that showed several times what? All humanity is guilty before
God and worthy, hear this, worthy of death. Now you might think
for a moment that Paul has segmented, and he has, because this was
the Jewish way of thinking, and the people of first century Palestine,
this was their way of thinking. There was everybody in the world,
and then there were the Jewish people. And Paul has said, all
the Jews are guilty, and everybody else is guilty. But remember
who he's speaking to. He's speaking to the saints. And so by way of address, Paul
then is also speaking to the Jews who are the saints, and
he's speaking to the Gentiles who are the saints. So we've
got two groups of people. What the same group of people
that we would see in Ephesians chapter 2 where Paul would argue
that God has made one man out of the two, the Jews and the
Gentiles. But at the end, there's not two
groups. There's not lost Jews and lost
Gentiles. There's lost people. And as a
matter of fact, there's the entirety of the world, the cosmos. And
out of the cosmos, God has snatched a people for himself. So there
are two peoples. There are those in the world who are not saved
and there are the elect. Those are the only two people
groups that God recognizes. His church and everybody else. Let's say it again, God sees
only two types of people, the church and everybody else. Not that I find this funny, and
I'm not trying to be droll, but I do believe that there is some
sense of sarcastic delight in my spirit, sinfully probably,
to think about all these people who are bigots, and who are racist,
and who hate people because of their color, or their culture,
or their economic status, and they feel like they are on a
God-sent campaign to do something and stand against lesser humanity. How odd They're going to be,
how odd it's going to be for them to stand as one, as one
body in judgment for all of eternity. The hater of the brethren, the
hater of his neighbor, the hater of God, no matter what our skin
looks like, what our wallets look like, what our ministry
looks like, if we are haters of God, He will surely bring
His wrath upon us. Now we know, let's go to this
text, 19 and 20. Now we know, that whatever the
law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. So this
recapitulation, this reminder, this restatement, the Jews still
could say, Well, the Gentiles are under the law. The Gentiles
could say, well, the Jews are under the law. And the argument
could go back and forth in everybody's mind. Some people even today
in the church, we forget that even though we are saved, it
is salvation by grace, we are still in our humanity under the
law of God. We are still judged according
to the law. We are still guilty according
to the law. However, we are not able, nor
even if we were, it would not justify us in the sight of God,
which is what Paul is about to close out to say. So think about
that for a moment. If a letter came to your house,
like I had a postcard come to my house the other day and it
was a parcel by the post office. You have a parcel, we tried to
deliver and no one was home, come and get it. And I look at
it and I'm thinking, I was here. I saw the mail lady drive away
and I walked out to the mailbox and waved at her and she drove
off. And I'm like, that is really odd. So I took it inside, I'm
like, I'm gonna go to the post office. I go out there and I
get in the truck and I look at it and it goes, John Bacon, that's
not me. Smith Street, that's not my street.
So I get out of the car and I go and stick it on the refrigerator
and I call the post office and say, you put this postcard in the
wrong mailbox. That wasn't for me. Now how odd
would it have been if I just showed up without looking, because
typically you just don't look, you got the little slip, you
go in there and you get it. And I had gotten a package, and I
got it home and I opened it, and it was odd to me. What would
it have been? I don't know. What if it were
just books about makeup? Some of you might have enjoyed
that, but I don't think I need it. What if it were a pair of, you know,
child slippers? If they fit Abigail, great, but
otherwise it'd be useless for me. What if it was a letter from
a relative or a certified note from some judge or a court hearing? How weird that would have been
to open it up and go, what in the world? Because you wouldn't
have noticed it was not your name when you open stuff like
that. Like if you get a letter in the mail and it has IRS in
the top left corner, by the time you stop vomiting and realize
it's just a, hey, you asked us for this information, you're
going. But if you get something that's
not written to you, it makes no sense to you. If we get a
package that's not ours, it's a little baffling. And here Paul
is saying, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those
who are under the law. Now think about that for a second.
If you got a letter in the mail and it wasn't for you, it would
not be speaking to you. If you got a letter in the mail,
and it wasn't even addressed to you, and it made no sense
to you, it wasn't even in a language that you could understand, it
was not for you, even if you deciphered it. Chances are you
could decipher it incorrectly. In my wallet, for 23 years, I've
carried a little note. On the top of the note, it says,
from the desk of Ogden Doremus. And for those of you who don't
know who he is, he was the state court judge for like 60 billion
years in Canada County. My wife was his secretary. And
she quit that job about the time we got married. But she wrote
me a little note about a month before our wedding. And it was
such a sweet little note, because I was traveling out of the state.
I was flying away. And I get to my hotel room, and
there's this little note in there from my soon-to-be bride. And
it talks about how much she loves me and how she cannot wait to
begin our life together and spend the rest of her life together.
I pull that out sometimes when she's mad. Doesn't work. She's off to burn
that thing. But I keep it in my wallet because
that's where I put it. And I'm sentimental, sort of,
to a degree. I'm sentimental to a degree.
But that was the first note she ever wrote me and mentioned about
being my wife. And I thought, I want to save
this. So when I die, y'all can throw it away. But until then,
it's a good reminder. And I use it a lot in marriage
counseling. And I'll pull it out and say,
I'm not lying about this letter. But there are some other small
sentences written in there. Now if I drop that on the ground,
and someone found it, they could understand some of what it's
saying. They could understand that there was this affection
for somebody named James, and he must have been in prison because
it's from the court or something. There's some weird something
going on there. Why is this on this letterhead? They wouldn't
know the story, so they could put together whatever they wanted
as to why it was on that paper, and who it was written to, and
what the circumstances were. Or maybe it was my wife going
off to jail. I mean, who knows? But the point is, is that even
when we have and understand something, if we don't understand the context,
if we're not the recipient, we're ignorant of the reality of what
it truly means. Nothing's different when it comes
to the law. Now here is when we start getting a little bit
excited. You think, oh, we know what Paul's saying. He's saying
that the Jews are under the law because the law speaks to them.
That's not a false statement, but it's a half-truth. It's not
a false statement because the law was given to Israel. The
law was given to the Jews. They were to be the stewards
of it. But the law was also given to Adam long before Israel became
a nation. Long before Abram was rescued
out of paganism to become the father of Israel. Because God
gave the law to Adam when he said, do not do this, and do
this, and don't do this, lest you die. And God gave the law
to Eve, and their son Cain, and their second son Abel, and their
third son Seth, and so on, and so on, and so on. Well, it might
have been, who knows what number Seth was, but I believe he was
the third son. Either way, the law was given
long before Israel. So it is true that the law was
given to Israel, but it's also true that the law was given to
Adam. And because it was given to Adam, it was also given to
everyone else that ever lived. Whether we have it in writing
or not, the Law of God, if we honestly understand human condition
and believe what the Scripture is teaching us, the Law of God
has been given to every person who has ever lived. A child at
the age of six to eight months knows what is right and wrong
in the context in which they live. They know that it is wrong
to hit, and wrong to bite, and wrong to lie. They know that
when they're told not to do something, that they can get away with it
when mom and dad leave the room. They understand deceit. They
understand the fact that they can do something under the cloak
of invisibility, the cloak of darkness. They know where the
cookies are and they know how to get to them. They figure out
very quickly that those drawers, if they're taken out a little
bit at a time, makes a staircase and they will climb upon the
counter and get that tasty delight that satisfies their flesh. and
they know better. They are under the Law and the
Law was written to them. So what Paul says in this statement
is that the Law, we know, we have good authority and we are
right and true in stating this, that whatever, not only is it
true, but it is general knowledge. We know. You know and I know. We know. That whatever the Law
says, it speaks to those who are under the Law. Now I don't
want to play with words so much here we lose the idea, but this
idea here of the law must be understood in the context of
what Paul has written thus far. Nowhere in Romans has Paul quoted
the Septuagint. Nowhere in Romans has Paul quoted
from the law at all. As a matter of fact, Paul is
even right there quoting from the Psalms. Paul was quoting
from the Psalms and from other places in Scripture so that he
is equating the law of God as the revelation of God's holiness.
And he's doing so in such a way that he is actually indicting
the idea, indicting every person with the idea that the Old Testament
is indeed the law of God. The Old Testament. The Scriptures
as a whole. and comprehend the fact that
these first century Christians did not recognize the canonicity
of what the apostles were writing. Though they took their authority
as equal to Scripture, it would be some 150 years before it was
a normative worldwide reality that the Scripture, the list
of letters as it's known, were actually the Word of God holistically. Amongst Christians, absolutely,
but the world at large. And it wouldn't be until the
4th century until that was actually solidified at the Council of
Nicaea. They didn't choose it. They just said, these are the
lists. This is what they've had since the 1st century. This is
what we keep. This is what we keep. No more. We're not adding
any more to this list. So this law that Paul is speaking
of is talking about the Old Testament Scripture in total. as a whole,
not just the rules given by Moses. So therefore, we know that the
rules given by Moses were only for Israel, except for the Ten
Commandments. But for the totality of all of
the 614, 619 laws given through Moses that the Jews had to perfectly
obey, those were not written to any Gentile. But the Word
of God was written to all men. The Word of God, and the holiness
of God, and the law of God, and the context of God being revealed
as who He is, which is Scripture, is written to everyone, and therefore
everyone is under the authority of Scripture. Now that's what
Paul is trying to help us see here, and it's not as easy to
see in that syntax as it is unless you go and you start looking
at some of the quotations that he's written over here in the
first two chapters thus far. So when we encounter the world
and they say, well, we're not Christians and we're not the
church and we don't have to hear all that and we don't believe
in all that. The fact is, is that the Word of God is an authority
over every human being. Why? Because God is God and He
owns it all. He is the Lord of all things.
He is the creator of all things. And He created the world and
everything in it and He subjects the world to Himself because
He is the master of it. And the way that God is revealed,
of course we can see and know that there is a God through what
creation reveals to us, but specifically and particularly, we know that
God's Word is authoritative over the lives of every person. That
is one of the main things we need to keep in mind as we see
not only throughout the rest of this text, especially when
we get into chapter 10 and 11, when we start seeing the effectuality
of God's Word in evangelism. Especially as on Sunday mornings
when we're able to go through the Gospel of John and we think,
what in the world is the narrative of John? How does that work for
people who don't believe in the Bible? It doesn't matter that
they believe in the Bible. Through the hearing of the authoritative
Word of God, God will, in His way and in His timing, powerfully
and divinely wake up and save a sinner. It doesn't matter if
we don't commentate the Scripture. It doesn't matter. If the Word
of God is taught, if the Word of God is read audibly to a human
being, or in their eyes that they might hear it in their mind,
God will and can, when He chooses, save them. Why? Because it is
an authority over them. And if they do not believe in
the hearing of the Word, then God has chosen, for whatever
reason, according to the goodness of His own desire and pleasure,
God has chosen not to save in that moment. And sometimes God
even goes and puts His Word in the hearts and minds of people
to the point that it hardens them when they hear about their
sin, and when they hear about the forgiveness that comes through
Jesus Christ, and when they hear of the suffering of God the Son,
and when they hear of the passion of the cross. What is there to
be upset about? Nothing! But yet they hate God
all the more either way. Because that is what God intended
for that person to do when the Word was sent. The Word is over
every person. And what I just said coming out
of my mouth is true, and it's true in the context of all of
Scripture. And it's true in the context of all the doctrine of
Scripture, all the teaching there. It's true in the context of all
theology that is confined in Scripture, who God is and what
He does. So, the outcome of that reality,
look at the latter part of verse 19, "...so that every mouth may
be stopped." That's the first thing. The second thing, "...and
the whole world may be held accountable to God." Can you imagine that? Some people do not like the idea that God is God. Some people
do not like the idea that they need salvation. Why? If I tell you that I need salvation,
I have admitted my wickedness. I've admitted my self-reliance.
I've admitted my evil. I've admitted the desires of
my flesh rear its ugly head against the holiness of God. So, I don't
want to be subject to this cosmic, maniacal creature calling himself
God, like Hitler, worship me or die. That's what people say. I don't want to be subject to
that so-called God, therefore I don't want to admit that He
is authoritative on me, so therefore I will, according to what Romans
1, what? I will suppress the truth by
works of unrighteousness. No one, no one is ignorant of
God. You hear that? No one. No one. And we can be ignorant about
some of the details and some of the things of God. We can
be ignorant about some theology. But no one is ignorant of God. Everyone knows that God is. And
when the Law is given, when the Word of God is given and all
those in the world are under the Law, it is speaking to us. So that means that there is no
person in the world to whom the Scripture is not speaking. I
want to say that, I want you to hear it. I'll say it again.
There is no one in the world to whom Scripture is not speaking.
And the positive way of saying that is Scripture speaks to all
human beings. That means that whatever we teach,
whatever is written within the pages of this book, not only
is authoritative, but is speaking as authority to every person
alive. And even those who are ignorant
of it and cannot see it and cannot be saved through the revelation
of Jesus Christ, particularly through the Scripture because
they've never heard the Scriptures, the Word of God is still authoritative
in speaking to them because God has written His law on their
hearts. God has written the law on the
hearts of man, just like I gave the example about children. Even
children know the law of God. It is wrong to steal. It is wrong
to lie. It is wrong to harm. It is wrong
to murder. It is wrong to lie to our parents,
to disobey. It is wrong. And they know it.
They know it innately. So that the Word of God is written
to all who are under it, which is every person, and the outcome
of that, so that every mouth may be stopped. Remember Job? Job 40, I think, maybe. He says,
Behold, what am I supposed to say? I'm nothing. How shall I
answer you? I'm so tiny. What does he say
after that? I'll just put my hand over my
mouth. That's what Job says. I think it's verse 4 of chapter
40 of Job. Look it up. I'll just put my hand over my
mouth. What am I to say? I'll just... It's not that there's going to
be a supernatural shutting of the mouths of men in judgment.
He says, if some of you stood up today and you said, Pastor,
I saw this happen and I recorded it, and here you are saying these
things to this person, and you were very mean, you're very cruel,
and you're very ugly, and you've ruined your witness, and you
need to step down for a little bit or forever. Here it is. It's on the TV. Everybody sees
it. What am I to say? That's not me. Oh yeah, there's
four or five of your doppelgangers running around here. There's
not enough lacamelanin in the world to produce five people
like that. What do you say? When God's Word is spoken, every
mouth is stopped. In judgment, there will be no
one that will want to say, but God. Because they are guilty
and the evidence against them is absolute. And the evidence
against them is authoritative. And what is the evidence against
them? Is it the record of wrongs that God has kept? No, it's the
Word of God that says all men are guilty before God. You see,
there is no pleading of the case, but I wasn't as bad as my neighbor. The Word of God says that all
men are not righteous, that no one understands, and that no
one seeks after God, and that we've all turned aside, and we've
all become worthless, and we've all become foolish. No one does
anything good. We use our mouths for wickedness. We breathe the air. Our throat
is an open grave. The breath that we breathe is
just dead breath for a dead man, doing nothing but dead works,
waiting for a death that never ends, eternal damnation and wrath. Our hearts are the way of the
world, and the way of our flesh is that we want to murder, we
want to fight. Everywhere we go, it's misery and ruin. And
we do not know peace and there's no fear of God before our eyes. That's how, that's why every
mouth is shut. Not because there's a record
of evidence. Because the Word of God is authoritative
enough to say we're guilty and thus we are. And while we can
stand on the corners of our world, and while we can stand in the
parks of universities across the country, and we can get into
conversations, and people can argue and debate and want to
talk about why they believe that people are good inherently, they
know better. They know better. And yes, it's
a horrible tragedy that took place in Las Vegas. It's a terrible
thing when life is taken in such a way. But friends, we've not
seen anything yet. If you think that's horrible,
we have not even begun to see evil in this world. If you think
abortion is terrible, you have seen nothing yet. If God were
in some and for some reason to take His providential hand of
restriction off the unbelieving world, and if His Spirit were
to leave His people, we would murder each other and be obsolete
and annihilate the human race in a short couple of weeks. And while none of us have ever
thought, or maybe we have, contemplated the idea of mowing people down
for the fun of it, if it weren't for God's grace,
we'd be capable of it. We're guilty. We're guilty. And we will not speak against
it. No man will open his mouth in front of God because he's
guilty. Now what's that to do with the church? We'll see it
in a minute. And the whole world may be held
accountable to God. See, that's how we know Paul's
not talking about the Jew who are under the law. Because he
says the whole world. He says every mouth. Just to
make sure that his reader doesn't misunderstand him. The whole
world will be accountable to God. Beloved, there is no fear
of God before our eyes if God's Spirit does not dwell in us.
If we have not been born again, we are not scared of wrath. We are not scared of righteousness.
We are not scared of justice. The Scripture says that we who
follow the law of the government that God has ordained have no
fear. For the government is an instrument of righteousness for
God. But woe to us who break the law. We fear the government. We fear
the tax officer. We fear the letter. We fear the
police officer if we're a drug dealer or a rapist or a murderer
or a thief. We fear. Beloved, without grace
we would fear God. But in God's turning over to
reprobation, unbelief, we're no longer fearing. As a humanity,
where is the fear? When the street preachers stand,
and I saw a video of one today, did a very good job of just sharing
the gospel and sharing the Word of Scripture at a concert. It wasn't at the Vegas concert,
but they were trying to say that it was, but clickbait. And I
heard this man and this guy who was thoroughly intoxicated gets
up there and starts harassing this man and harassing this man.
Somebody else comes out of the crowd and goes, I love Satan.
I saw another video yesterday of a man that said that if Jesus
Christ were to come into his store, he would abuse him physically
and sexually. Now how grotesque is it when
unbelievers can scoff and say stuff like that. They are accountable to God.
And the crazy thing is, they're not going to be destroyed because
they say such blasphemous things. They're going to be destroyed
because they live as human beings worthy of wrath and unbelief.
We do not fear God in the way that the natural man should fear
God. You might ask, well, why does God turn people over to
reprobation? Why does God do that? Because
if we were motivated enough by fear, we'd fall in line. Think
about that. If we were motivated enough by
the consequence, we would walk differently. And when we walk
differently before the Lord as believers, we're not walking
in obedience. I use the word lightly because
I don't want to make light of the idea of obedience, but that's
the only word we know in our vernacular. It's never perfect. It's never fulfilled. It's never
complete. So it's really not, by definition, obedience, but
we obey partially in seasons and in spurts and in some things
well, but not all things. But the reason that God turns
people over to reprobation, who suppress the truth through works
of unrighteousness, is so that they can't even stand before
God and say, look at all the times I've tried. And for the believer, we don't
stand before God in fear because perfect love casts out fear.
We don't hide when the Lord comes because we're not guilty in our
conscience before Him because Christ has bore the burden of
our sin on Himself and in His body and on the cross. So that
we are alive and we are called children, beloved saints. So
though it may be true that we live in this dichotomy of fleshliness
that fights against the Spirit of God within us, God doesn't
look at us as depraved. evil things. He looks at us as
children to the tune of sending Jesus Christ into the flesh to
save us in our flesh. Why? As we'll see Sunday, because
of His love for us. Because of His love for us. And
if people could be scared into following after the rules of
God, Then God might have to think,
well, these people are really trying not to, they really are
trying to honor me, but we can't fool God. We're not trying to
honor God when we do things to escape fear or judgment. Because
of fear, we're trying to do things to escape consequence. In verse 20, you might think,
do we have time? Yeah, because it's very cut and
dry and very simple. All that is to say for, You see? Verse 19, argument over. Restated. Finney. 4. By works of the law, no human
being. Let's take that piece by piece.
By works of the law, by following the Scripture, by following after
the Word of God in lockstep, no human being. No human being. No one. No one will be justified
in His sight. You see that? Now, there's some
bad news there. If we take it and don't think
about it, but ultimately, beloved, that's good news. Because I've
never met a person... Well, I'll take that back. I
have met one. I've met more than one, but I've
met one that stood on the ground that he was righteous and had
not sinned. And I tried my best to get him
to get mad with me. Just to see. Aha! You cussed
me out! I mean, you know. No, he stayed
cool and stayed obedient in his own eyes. But if it did say, by the works
of the law, some human beings could be justified in this sight. By what standard? Who among us even in our greatest
of days, actually love the Lord, listen, love the Lord our God
with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our
strength. And let's just say we're naive
enough to think we had. Do we love our neighbor as ourself? No one has done it. No one can
do it. No one will ever do it. but the God-man Jesus Christ
has fulfilled the fullness of the Law. And it says, "...no
one will be justified in his sight by the works of the Law,
no human being, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin."
See, the Law says, speaks to those who are under the Law,
and when we think we've got it going on, and we hear the Word
of God, we realize we ain't going nowhere. I know the grammar's
bad, but we know what we're saying. We're guilty. We're guilty. And that's the argument there.
We're guilty because the Bible says we're guilty. And we are
under the authority of the Bible, for it is the living Word of
God that speaks. It's the same Word, though it is written down,
that spoke the cosmos into being. It's the same Word that spoke
and the oceans formed. It's the same Word that spoke
through the hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, brings to life
a dead man and makes him a son, a woman and makes him a daughter. And if we read verse 21 and 22,
it'll give us a taste of what we're looking forward to the
next few weeks. But it answers a new state. All are guilty. What in the world
are we to do? Because God is righteous and
His law is true, and we are guilty and thus condemned. But now,"
look at verse 21, "...but now the righteousness of God is manifested,"
what? "...apart from the law." How? The righteousness of God is manifested
in the law. The righteousness of God, see,
God's justice and righteousness, synonyms. Synonyms. in this context, legally. God's
righteousness, His justice is established in the law because
He says we're guilty, He calls evil evil, He brings judgment
upon evil, He pours out His wrath upon all unrighteousness. God
is righteous and His righteousness is displayed and manifested in
the law. But now, but now, The righteousness
of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law
and the prophets bear witness to it. It speaks of it. The righteousness
of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. You see that? See, that's our
hope. This is the strength of the doctrine
of Paul in Romans. We cannot come away from this
letter next year, whenever. and be confused about the Gospel.
For the Gospel is very simply that God has satisfied His wrath
and His righteous justice for His people through the person
of Jesus Christ. As Paul would say to the Thessalonians,
for we were not destined for wrath, but to obtain life through
Jesus Christ. That's the Gospel. And when we
share it, We don't even have to put fear in people's eyes
about the consequences of sin. As Paul will say, for there's
no distinction for all of sin, and fall short of the glory of
God. Listen, you know what else proves that the authority of
God's Word, even unspoken, is in the heart of man, that we
know the law? We know we're guilty of violating the law of our conscience. We know. We know what is right,
we know what is wrong, and we know we're guilty. We know. But we don't even have to go
there to say, you're guilty. Sometimes I think when we're
out evangelizing, we can spend too much time on the street talking
about sin and not enough time talking about the One who saved
us from sin. God is a forgiving God. What
does that mean? What's the antithesis? What does
that implicate? That there is something in need
of forgiveness. God has forgiven sins through the work of Jesus
Christ. That's a statement of the gospel.
Jesus Christ obeyed God perfectly and is righteous in His eyes
and He took the cross for your sake. You don't have to list
a list of sins for people to get the picture. Why would Jesus
stop? Oh, I'm a sinner. We know that we're sinners. And
the beauty is now, as we leave this place tonight, we have peace
with God through the grace that comes through Jesus Christ. We
have authority over our lives, which is the Word of God, through
which we have been saved, beloved. Praise God that Jesus Christ
is the King over the free will of man, if there is such a thing.
Praise God that Jesus Christ is the Creator who spoke all
things into being, and can then speak into the life of a nothing
man who is deserved of death, and call him a son, call him
a brother, call him a saint, and say that his obedience is
now this man's obedience. That is the gospel. And we proclaim
it. And God will bring to life, as
He sees fit, His people. Beloved, I'm glad to be able
to be counted in that number. Amen. Let's pray. Glory to Your name, Father. For we assemble together, we're
always a mixed bag of tricks, Lord, and You know it. You know
the heart of every one of us here. You know our thoughts.
You know the things that we don't know about ourselves. You know
our fears. You know our sins. You know our
triggers. Father, You know the length and
the depth of our faith. You know every little nuance
about how our hair is attached to our head and how many have
fallen off today. How many eyelashes have hit the pillow every night.
The skin cells as they replicate. Father, You can see the crevices
of the wrinkles on our faces and the pores of our skin, and
You know the details therein with great intricacy. And we pray, Father, that in
our weakness and in our frailty and in our depravity, Lord, that
You would continue to hold us accountable to Your Word. For
we now who are made alive in Christ are not accountable to
be judged by the law, but we have been judged according to
grace. We've been judged according to the obedience of Christ. we've
been judged according to His atoning sacrifice, that we might
be justified before You, declared innocent, declared perfect, declared
holy, even though we know that we are not, we have been made
so. And Father, You have put our sin and Your judgment against
our sin on the cross of Christ, in His body, that we might be Your righteousness. And so we praise You, Lord, that
You have given us the peace that comes only through death, comes
only through the sacrifice of purity, that we will never have
to answer for our sin, for Jesus Christ has paid it all. And it's
in His name we pray. Amen.