All right, let's look at Romans
chapter three. I just want to go back to verse
10. I want to read up to where we're going to go just to refresh
your memories on this. We're talking about how sinners
by nature, how human beings fallen in Adam and born spiritually
dead, and we as sinners who've all come short of the glory of
God, how God according to his standard of goodness and his
standard of righteousness, how he views the whole human race
naturally. Now we know there is the exception
of God's elect, which God has always viewed us in Christ. But
what Paul's describing here is the natural man. You remember
in 1 Corinthians 2.14, it says the natural man Receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for
they're spiritually discerned, they're spiritually understood.
And what it's talking about there is all of us as we're born naturally. None of us are born naturally
with spiritual life. And there's only two kinds of
people on earth in this realm. You're either a spiritual person
or you're a natural. And the natural there means sinful,
dead in trespasses and sins. And that applies to even God's
chosen people by nature. Paul wrote about that in Ephesians
chapter two when he said, we were by nature children of wrath
even as others. In other words, we weren't children
of wrath because God chose us before the foundation of the
world and set his mercy on us in Christ. But as far as our
experience of it, we fell in Adam. And we're no different
than the children of wrath, he says, because we all deserve
condemnation and death. So if we're saved, it's by the
grace of God. It's something we don't deserve
and don't earn, and can never earn or deserve. It's always
conditioned on Christ who earned it for his people. So he says
in verse 10, as it is written, there's none righteous, no, not
one. That means we don't have a righteousness in ourselves
naturally. We who are saved by the grace
of God, we have righteousness, don't we? We have it in Christ. His righteousness imputed to
us, but it's not in us naturally and we can't work it. We're gonna
see that as he concludes this. And understand this, now whatever
he's saying here, it applies to all human beings naturally. All the Gentiles, the Jews, the
irreligious, the religious, the immoral, the moral. It refers
to all, so it has to apply in some way. And the grand conclusion
that he brings us to, we're going to see this in a minute, is that
by deeds of law, by trying to obey the law, no flesh, no person
can be justified, made right with God, forgiven, pardoned,
righteous in God's sight. So there's none righteous, no,
not one. Verse 11, there's none that understandeth. There's none
that seeketh after God." These two verses, verses 11 and 12,
really summarize the depravity of man. There's lack of knowledge,
lack of understanding, that is, understanding God's way of salvation,
who God really is, who we really are, and how God saves sinners. He says, there's none that seeketh
after God, that is, the true and living God. People seek a
God, a God of their own imaginations, Verse 12, they're all gone out
of the way. See, Christ said, I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Man has his
own way. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man. It's the way of death. It's the
broad road that leads to destruction. They're together become unprofitable.
The ways of salvation that man devises for himself will not
profit him. That's what he say. He says,
there's none that doeth good, no not one. That is good according
to God's measure of goodness now. Now we look around and we
see all kinds of different people. Some claim to be saved, some
claim to be Christians, some don't. But they do what we call
in the human realm good things. That's according to the human
standard. There are atheists who are very
charitable people, who give money to the poor. But according to
God's standard of goodness, which is perfection, the perfection
of righteousness, there's none good, no not one. Where are we
gonna find goodness? Where are we gonna find righteousness?
It's in Christ. Christ is the standard. And how
many times you hear me quote Acts 1731? God's gonna judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
and that he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath
raised him from the dead. You see, somebody asked the question,
how good must I be to be saved? You must be as good as Christ.
Well, we can't attain that by our works. We cannot attain that
by anything we do, think, say, decide, or anything. How's that
going to happen? Only by the grace of God through his righteousness
imputed, his goodness imputed to us. Well, then he starts out
by showing the sins of the heart and the tongue, the sins of speech. Verse 13, their throat is an
open sepulcher, with their tongues they've used to see. The poison
of asp, remember what John the Baptist called the Pharisees
and the Sadducees, vipers? Christ called them poisonous
snakes, is under their lips. whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Now that's sins of the heart
and of the speech. And certainly, you know, we talk
about people cursing and all of that, and that's bad, and
all that would be included, but what he's talking about here
is false doctrine. When a false preacher, and I
know this is something that people do not want to hear today, and
I'll tell you why we don't want to hear it, because we think
too highly of ourselves and of others. Somebody said, well,
We were talking about this last week, about a false preacher
gets up and preaches a false gospel, freewillism, conditional
salvation, work salvation, decision or regeneration. Those are all
false gospels now. And somebody made a statement
years ago, said, well, they're walking in the light that they
have. Well, the problem is that the light they have is darkness.
It's not light. Listen, let me tell you something.
If it's not true, according to God's word, it is not light.
It's darkness. I even heard a man several, this
is probably about 15, 20 years ago, I heard a man stand in the
pulpit of a Sovereign Grace Church and make this statement. He said
the Pharisees were walking in the light they had. And I told
him afterward, I said, well now wait a minute, I said Christ
called them the blind leading the blind. That doesn't sound
like light to me, how about you? They walk in darkness. When they get proselytes, converts
to their way of thinking, what did he say? You make them twofold
more the child of hell than you are. That's not light. Light
is truth. Plus, this is the fact too. What's
he teaching us here? Nobody by nature walks in the
light they have. What does man do with the light
that he has? Read Romans 1, 18 through chapter three, verse
20, it tells you. We twist it. Turn it into false,
turn it into darkness. Well, now in verse 15, he begins
talking about our walk, our works, all right? Talked about the heart,
out of the mouth flow the issues of the heart. Now he talks about
their feet, verse 15, look at it. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. What are the feet? Well, they're
instruments of motion, of action, works. Remember in Romans chapter
nine, he said, it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth. Run with your feet. But it's
of God who shows mercy. What was he saying there? It's
not man's will that gets him saved, as they say. People today
say, did you get saved? And what they mean is, did you
make a decision for Christ? Well, that's not how it happens.
I'm sorry. That's not biblical. Now, it's
the way everybody thinks today, most people, but it's not biblical. God does bring us, by His grace
and power and goodness, to believe in Christ. It's what He does. Scripture says. Alright? So,
it's not by man's decisions that gets him saved. It's not by his
walking or running or working that gets him saved. Because
the feet is swift to shed blood. Some scholars say that this is
quoted from Isaiah 59 and verse 7. And that could be. We don't know that for sure,
because Paul didn't quote, he didn't reference it, you know.
He didn't say, as the prophet Isaiah said. You know, he does
that. Over in Romans chapter 9, 10,
and 11, he quotes from the prophet Hosea. He quotes from the prophet
Isaiah, and he says that. He says, I'm telling you what
was told before. And the gospel he preached, he
said at the beginning of Romans chapter 1, is the same gospel
that the prophets spoke. So I've got no I've got no argument
with somebody who says this is a direct quote from Isaiah 59-7. My point is this. What Isaiah
was doing there, that was when a very, very wicked king ruled
over Judah. His name was Manasseh. And it
was an awful time. There was moral depravity run
amuck. among human beings, murders.
In fact, Isaiah 59-7 talks about King Manasseh who shed so much
innocent blood. That's the term in the Old Testament
that Isaiah used, innocent blood, as to fill Jerusalem with it
from one end to the other. So there was a lot of murder.
There was a lot of unjust executions going on under Manasseh's rule.
And certainly, This would apply. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. But when we look at the context of what Paul's teaching
here in Romans chapter one, two, and three, we have to see that
it also applies to those who are swift to shed the blood of
animals in sacrifice. Now think about this. What was
the first murder over? It was over the gospel, wasn't
it? Cain murdered his brother Abel over the gospel. What was
Abel doing? Well, he was shedding the blood
of a lamb. All right? God instituted animal sacrifices
to be the way of worship, not teaching them that animal blood
will do the trick, because it won't. Remember Hebrews 9 and
10? He talks about the blood of bulls
and goats can never take away sin. Well that was true from
the beginning. The blood of bulls and goats
spiritually did absolutely nothing in and of itself. But the blood
of bulls and goats and lambs that they sacrificed were given
to the people that God had instituted those things, was given to them
to do what? To point them to the blood of
the Lamb of God. Pictures, types, shadows. Remember, I think it's in Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 9 and 10 are
good passages to understand that because he tells them, he says,
now look, if those sacrifices could have put away sin, then
there'd be no more conscience of sin. In other words, the conscience
would have been cleansed by the blood of animals, but it couldn't
do it. That's not what they were intended to do. And anybody who
thought that it did under that system, What was wrong? They perverted it. And this is
what happened. The shedding of the blood of
animals, the religious practice of animal sacrifices became a
replacement under the unbelieving Jews, a replacement for seeing
the need of the grace of God in the promised Messiah. And
their feet were swift to shed blood. And look at verse 16. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. Now we can certainly see that in Manasseh's rule,
destruction and misery, and in the history of mankind is a history
of destruction and misery. Somebody said, I can't remember
what famous historian, it might have been Arnold Toynbee, who
said that the history of man is written in blood because of
the wars, because of the conflicts, genocide, All of that. Certainly we can see that. That's
the history of man. But let me tell you something,
the worst destruction and misery that man can promote is preaching
salvation by the works of man. Right there's the worst poison.
Right there's the worst destruction. That's eternal damnation. When
a preacher gets up, and preaches salvation conditioned on man
and not on Christ and him alone, and preaches righteousness by
man's works and man's efforts and man's decisions rather than
the cross of Christ. When a preacher gets up and preaches
that, that's the worst destruction and misery that anybody can sow
in their way. And I'll tell you what, see,
now this is the thing that turns your world upside down, isn't
it? I mean, everybody, y'all know this is true. I mean, it
makes you, it gives you a whole new view of, you know, somebody
said the Christian worldview. Well, here it is. Paul said,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's his blood, his death,
that's his righteousness. And he said, by whom what? The
world is crucified unto me. That means he looks at the world
now as being, the world that he used to think was saved, righteous,
he now says that's cursed. All the things that he thought
that used to recommend him unto God, he was a Hebrew of Hebrews,
he was a Pharisee, he was circumcised the eighth day, he went above
and beyond the call of duty, persecuted the church, what he
saw, he said, all that that I really highly esteemed and thought recommended
me unto God, now I count it but lost, but done, that I may win
Christ. See how you're thinking, Jay?
You don't know that, you've experienced it. You know Christ. And so yeah,
listen, I'll join with anybody in speaking of the condemnation
of those whose feet are swift to shed innocent blood, murderers,
thieves, robbers, all of that, who have no interest in doing
what's right by society and certainly by God. I'll join with him on,
but my friend, I've got a different view of things. And that view
tells me that the worst thing that a person can do is to lead
sinners on the broad road to destruction. And that's what
it's called, destruction and misery are in their way. He calls
it the broad road, the broad road, the broad way that leads
to destruction. Misery. Verse 17. The way of
peace they have not known. Well, we certainly can see that
in this world. Peace. Oh, there might be little pockets
of peace, pockets of time of peace. We're talking about, you
know, North Korea. You know, we want peace. The
Mideast, we want peace. And it may come a little bit,
but it's not gonna last. Y'all know that, don't you? Think
about our country. Our country's divided, isn't
it? And people that don't get their way, they're like a bunch
of brats, aren't they? They don't get their way, so
they kick and scream. Not much citizenship there is
there, not much peace. You know, the angel told the
shepherds at the incarnation and the birth of Christ, he said,
peace on earth and goodwill toward men. And people get that on their
minds at Christmas. And that's okay, we want peace.
But that's not what he was talking about was. That's not what the
angel was talking about. That's not even a good translation
of the original Greek. When he said, peace on earth,
and what he said is, God's good will pertains to those with whom
God is pleased, basically. And who's God pleased with? Only
those who are in Christ, who are washed in his blood and clothed
in his righteousness. You see, what the angel's talking
about is peace between God and sinners based upon the blood
and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, Christ
is the only way of peace. His cross, God made peace with
his people by the blood of the cross of Christ. It's His righteousness
is the ground of peace. That's reconciliation, 2 Corinthians
5. That's what that's all about. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. If
you're in Christ, God doesn't impute, charge, or account your
sins to you. He cannot condemn you. There's
no condemnation in Christ. And when he brings you to be
reconciled to God, it's on that same ground, the imputed righteousness
of Christ. For God made him to be sin, Christ
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. That's the way of peace between God and sinners. Well, people by nature don't
know that. Isn't that right? They're ignorant of. You know,
Paul writes about the Jews in Romans 10. He said they're ignorant
of God's righteousness. How do you know that, Paul? Well,
they're going about trying to establish their own. If you know about
God's justice, if you know about God's righteousness, then you'll
see that you cannot establish one of your own by your works. And you'll see that the only
way of peace, the only way of righteousness is God's grace
in Christ. And you'll submit to him as the
Lord your righteousness. Look at verse 18. there's no
fear of God before their eyes. That word fear, as you know well,
you've been taught this, that's not talking about the legal fear
of punishment, or the mercenary fear of loss of reward, because
everybody has that by nature, that's just natural to us. Isn't
that right? If you're not doing, you're dying,
That's do and live, disobey and die, that's natural. That's work
salvation. So he's not talking about that
kind of fear. The fear he's talking about here is a reverence for
God, a respect For the God who saves sinners by His grace through
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We respect
Him. We have reverence for Him. Holy
and reverent is His name. Sanctify, set apart in your minds
the Lord God. There's none like Him. He's a
just God and a Savior. Isn't that amazing? Brother Scott
Price, he's got a little group on Facebook. And he's been wanting
me to write something about a little biography. And when you get to
talking about yourself, it's hard to stop, isn't it? So I
said, well, I don't want to write a book. So I just tried to write
some highlights. And I thought about this when
I was writing this. It ended up not being that long,
though. So anyway. I was thinking about how I was
raised in religion. I mean, I was literally raised
in religion. Going to church. I mean, we just
went. We didn't even think about it.
We didn't argue about it. I mean, there were times I'd get up on
Sunday morning, I wanted to sleep in, and my mother had to come
in and sprinkle water in my face and all that stuff, but we went.
And for the most part, I didn't listen. You know, I went there
to see some friends and play and do whatever. And as I got
older, it didn't get any better much. But there did come a time
when I did kind of get serious about religion. I remember the
first time I walked in, I really didn't have any idea of what
I was doing. There was a guy that was up in front of us, and
he's older than me, and I liked him, so I went up too. And ended
up getting baptized, as they say, all that. But anyway, I
come up through religion. And went to college. After I
graduated from college, I went to seminary. And all that time,
this great, amazing truth never entered my mind and, to my knowledge,
was never preached to me. And that was this thing of God
being a just God and a Savior. And I remember one of the first
messages I heard on that was by Brother Mayhem from Isaiah
45, 20 and 21, where he says, look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth, for I'm God and there's none else.
Well, right before that, he says, who hath told this from ancient
time? Who hath declared? He said, have
not I, the true and living God? He said, a just God and a savior.
And boy, that just grabbed my attention. And I knew I had to
find out more about that, because that's the heart of the gospel.
But I never heard it. And so I realized that up until
that time, up until the time God revealed that to me, I didn't
have any fear of God. Oh, I mean, you know, I mean,
I was afraid. I'll never forget one time, went
on vacation with a bunch of Baptists. And we were in the pool playing
like we were baptizing each other. And one of the elders come up
and said, boys, now you better not blaspheme God. You'll commit
the unpardonable sin. I couldn't sleep that night.
I thought I'd committed the unpardonable sin. So, I mean, I was afraid,
but I didn't fear this God. I didn't have any respect or
reverence for the God of grace who saved sinners by grace. You
see what I'm saying? You know, man's religion pretty
much runs on the fuel of fear, doesn't it? You know, walk the
aisle or else, give or else, show up or else, that kind of
thing, you know. But God said in the New Covenant
prophecies, He said, it's not going to be like that in the
New Covenant. He said, I'm going to put my fear in their hearts.
I'm going to print my word imprinted on their hearts. And so here's
the grand conclusion. Look at verse 19. He says, now
we know. Now what thing soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Now I believe
what he's talking about those who are under the law are those
who are trying to be righteous by their law keeping, by their
works. And the reason I say that is
because he's talking about the natural man here, the sin and
depravity of man. There is a sense in which we
as God's chosen people have never been under the law in that we
have never been under the wrath of the law. We've always been
in Christ, even when we didn't know it, isn't that right? We
didn't know it. Even when we were enemies in
our minds by wicked works, God was gracious to us, and that's
part of our shame, isn't it? Part of our repentance, because
all that time, God had chosen me and taken care of me and kept
me from things that would destroy me, and I was attributing it
to an idol. Remember the story of Hosea and
his wife, Gomer? That's what we were. We were
attributing it to an idol. But to be under the law here,
I believe, is talking about those who are seeking to be righteous
by the law. And he says, he says to them
that every mouth may be stopped. Now what is he talking about?
He's talking about people stop justifying, stop defending themselves. When God the Holy Spirit shows
us what the law of God says and how it applies to us based on
our natural state and our works, What's gonna happen? We're gonna
shut our mouths. Oh, but Lord, you don't know what I've been
through. You don't know how, no, you shut your mouth. And
all the world become guilty before God. Now guilt means justly deserving
condemnation. And even though we've always
been in Christ, in ourselves, we justly deserve condemnation,
don't we? You know what? Right now, right
now, If God were to give me what I deserve and what I've earned,
what would it be? Condemnation. You see, my salvation
and my preservation and my entering into glory is not a matter of
what I've earned or deserve. It's totally 100% God's grace
based on the righteousness of Christ. That it. Therefore, verse
20, therefore, by deeds of law, there shall, underscore the word,
no flesh. The word's no flesh. There shall
no flesh. Now, we'll make excuses for certain
people by nature, won't we? People make excuses for themselves,
for mom and dad, for grandma and grandpa, for old preachers,
so and so. But by deeds of law shall no
flesh, no human being fallen in Adam, born dead and trespasses,
no flesh be justified, be declared by God not guilty, be made right
with God, be declared righteous, all right, in his sight. And
there's your key. In God's sight. That's the problem,
see. See, the problem is not how I appear to you or you appear
to me in this matter of justification. The problem is how do we appear
in God's sight? And so he says, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. The reason the law was given,
the law of Moses, I'll tell you what, yeah, the law of Moses,
any law, any law of God, the reason it is given mainly is
not only to keep society in check, The main reason it's given is
to show us our sin and depravity, our need of God's grace, our
need of Christ and his righteousness imputed as our only ground of
justification. That's why we need the righteousness
of God, isn't it? That's why the gospel is so precious
to us. That's why it's so glorious,
because therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. Not the righteousness of you
or me or any man or woman. at the righteousness of God.
Okay.