We're going to pick back up at
our study in Romans this morning, Romans 3, chapter 3 and beginning
at verse 9. The title of my message is going
to be All Understand. And as our brother in the back
said, this message this morning is going to deal a lot with all
mankind, all people without exception, being understand. born of Adam,
as they come into this world in darkness, worshiping an idol
of our imagination. As I tell you this about all
being under sin, I don't want to leave you in despair, because
in this message also, I'm going to talk about that remedy, the
only hope. for a sinner is in Christ and
his righteousness alone. So as we start this morning,
if you remember, we closed out our last study. As we saw the
Jews, they did benefit from being God's chosen nation. And the
Apostle Paul answered that they benefited in every way, mainly
because they had the Word of God that was given to them. through
that old covenant law and all the sacrificial system and all
the types and pictures that should have and that did show them their
only hope, which was Christ, that true Lamb of God without
spot of blemish. We also saw that even though
that nation Israel had the Word of God preached to them, that
most did not believe, even shedding under the very Word of God that
revealed who God was and how he saved the sinner. As we begin
in verse 9 of Romans 3, once again there is a question asked.
The question is, what then? Are we better than they? The
question is, are we Jews better than they, the Gentiles? And
when we talk about Gentiles, we're talking about all the other
nations of the world, all the other peoples of the world, anybody
that's not a Jew. And Paul says, No, and no wise.
For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they
are all under sin. Now, when it says what then,
as it speaks of that in verse 9, This is the conclusion of
all that Paul had stated beginning back at chapter 1, verse 18,
that all men without exception, both Jew and Gentile, are in
Adam and under sin, under the guilt and the foulness of sin.
We are all sinners who deserve the judgment and the wrath of
God. God's elect are not under God's
wrath, but by nature we all deserve God's wrath. even as those that
are the non-elect. Are we better than they? No and
no wise, Paul says. The Jews, with all their privileges,
their religion, even in spite of the fact that they had the
oracles of God, the very word of God, were no better off based
on their efforts, their best efforts, to keep the law than
the worst Gentiles who did not have the law of Moses. The religious
Jews were just as deserving of God's wrath as any of those Gentiles. The point Paul is making is that
sinners cannot be saved by their works, but only by the grace
of God and in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Without
Christ, all are equally born in sin and in bondage to sin
and deserving of God's wrath. In verse 10 here, it says, As
it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. Beginning
here, Paul connects several Old Testament passages, Psalms 14,
1-3 and Psalms 53, 1-3, to show the universal guilt and depravity
of all men by nature. God's law requires righteousness,
and by nature no man born of Adam, whether you are Jew or
Gentile, has a righteousness that equals the requirements
of God's law and justice. If sinners are to be righteous
before God, it can only be and must be by Christ alone. Notice he did not say there is
none religious. No, not one. Or there is none
who try to be righteous. No, not one. Men can and do find
religion and seek to be righteous by their works, but they cannot
attain this goal. Romans 9.31 says, But Israel,
which were these Jews here that we're talking about, which followed
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. So we see that Israel did follow
after righteousness, but they did not attain to righteousness. And in Romans 10.4, Scripture
is clear to where righteousness is to be found. It reads, for
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. The best efforts of the best
of men seeking righteousness by their works are going to fall
short of the glory of God. Such efforts are wicked and they
are evil because they dishonor God. They deny Christ and promote
sinners in pride and self-righteousness, trying to go about to establish
the righteousness of our own, to appease God. These efforts
are the fruit of unbelief. They are the fruit of death. John 3, chapters 3, 19 and 20
reads, And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world,
that gospel light. And men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. They did not want
to come to this light. For every one that doeth evil
hateth the light." Those that are going about to establish
the righteousness of their own, unless God does a work in their
hearts, they are going to hate that light. They are not going
to come to that light. It is going to reveal to them
who they are. It says, "...neither cometh to the light, lest their
deeds should be reproved." Also here in Romans chapter 7 verse
5, For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. Now, these motions of sins here
that we're talking about, that's in this verse here, speaking
of, are those self-righteous acts done by a sinner attempting
to obey the law in order to be saved. That's those motions,
those motions of sins. Men by nature call these religious
deeds good works, but God calls them sin, motions of sin, and
fruit under death, deeds that will only result in eternal death. Those deeds that once God does
a work in our hearts, revealing Christ to us in our only hope
of salvation based on his righteousness alone, we repent of. All those
works in false religion. that we thought so highly of,
we repent of, we are shamed of them, because we know that it
did cast shame and reproach on the work of Christ. And that
Christ that we were worshiping was no Christ at all, no God
at all. Now, in Romans 3, chapter 3 and verse 11, it says, There
is none that understandeth. And we need to do a little explanation
here on that. There is none that seeketh. after
God. Now, men by nature do not understand
the real issues of truth in salvation. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14,
it says, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. We do not understand
our sinfulness and God's holiness by nature. We do not understand
God's way of salvation by his free and sovereign grace in Christ,
who is the only way of salvation for a sinner. And in John 14,
verse 6, where Christ is speaking to Thomas before he went to the
cross, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the No
man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Christ is the only way. And in Acts 4, verse 12, it says,
"...neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none
other name unto heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved." In 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, "...for there is one God and
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Because
we do not understand these things naturally, we will not of our
own wills seeketh after God, as it says in verse 11. That
is the true and the living God who reveals himself in Christ. Now, we will seek after a God
of our imagination, as I said, one that we build up in our own
mind due to what we have been taught as we're raised up as
a young boy, young girl coming up, what we've been taught and
what our nature will agree with. Christ says in John 5.40, And
you will not come to me that ye might have life. And in John
6.44, our Lord says, No man can come to me except the Father
which hath sent me drawing. And I raised him up at the last
day. As I said earlier, man will seek
a God, but not the true God. But instead, by nature, men seek
a God of our own imagination, a God that is like ourselves,
that will accept what we believe that is good enough and what
we have been told is good enough. Look at Psalms. 50 and verse
21. 50 and verse 21 in the book of
Psalms, these things hath thou done, and I kept silence. Thou
thoughtest that I was altogether such as one as thyself, but I
will prove thee and set them in order before thine eyes. So
it says that we, by nature, as we look at God, we think He is
like us by nature. We do seek a God, but it is a
God who cannot save unless we do something. Unless something
that we do, some work on our part, he won't save us. In Isaiah
45, 20, this God we seek by nature, he's an idol and he cannot save. Isaiah says, assemble yourselves
and come. draw near together ye that are
escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save. Men by nature just will not seek
the true and living God. Men by nature will not come as
a sinner with nothing to offer but only to beg for mercy from
a holy God who must be just when he justifies an ungodly sinner. Men by nature will not bow to
this Christ and submit to his righteousness as the only way
of justification before God. God is a righteous God. He is
a just God and a Savior. The only thing that men naturally
understand is righteousness earned by their works or righteousness
infused Because this exalts the flesh and it feeds the pride
of men. But men do naturally, do not
naturally understand the way of Christ. They understand these
other things. But they don't understand the
way of Christ and his righteousness imputed. One that's legally charged
to their account. If any man understands and seeks
the Lord, he must be brought and taught by God's sovereign
power. We see something about God's sovereign power in the
following verses. Sovereign power in the following verses. In John,
in chapter 6, beginning at verse 37, this is Christ speaking of
the Father, of the Father's sovereign electing grace and the calling
out of the elect by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Christ
says here, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. those that the Father give Christ
in that everlasting covenant of grace, wherein Christ stood
as our surety and representative. All that the Father gives me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which is sent me, that of all
which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I raise him up at the
last day." Sinners must seek God in Christ by faith. This
is what it means in verse 40. that we just got through reading
when it says, seeth the Son. And in Hebrews 11, in verse 6,
it says, But without faith it is impossible to please him.
For he that cometh to God must believe that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him, and faith is a gift of God. And in Ephesians 2 and 8 and
9, For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself, it is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast." And what is faith here that we are
talking about? This faith that we must have. What is it other
than the revelation of the gospel of Christ, who is our justification
and our salvation? They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good, no, not one. They are all gone out of the
way here. We, by nature, go our own way, which is the way of
death. Proverbs 14, 12 reads, There
is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death. We by nature go our own way,
which is the way of death. Salvation by works, which is
the way that all men go by nature, just seems right to us. It just
seems right. We think we got ourselves into
this mess. Surely we must do something to
get ourselves out of it. And so we go about trying to
appease this God that we know, doing things or abstaining from
things, trying to establish righteousness of our own. This way which seemeth
right unto a man is called the broad way, the broad way of destruction. And in Matthew 7, verse 13, it
reads, Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there
be which go in thereat. As men and women who are born
into this world, we are all like sheep. who have gone astray and
turned to our own way. The prophet Isaiah tells it like
this in Isaiah 53, 6, All we like sheep have gone astray,
we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. Our way is the way of self-righteous
works religion, and that is our way by nature. Friends, we need
to know something about What God says is the right way. When it speaks of how they're
all gone out of the way, it's speaking of the right way. And then the one and only way
of salvation by God's grace and by the Lord Jesus Christ. It
says that they're all together become unprofitable. The way
of man by nature is the way of failure and vanity. Psalm 39
5 read, Behold, thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth."
That is that short, measured period of time. In mine age is
there nothing before thee, verily every man at his best estate,
altogether vanity. The word vanity here means the
state of fact of being futile, worthless, or empty of significance. Sinners who seek salvation by
their own works are useless in pleasing God or in leading others,
sinners, to know the right way of salvation in and by Christ.
They are unprofitable. And that's what we are by nature,
is we walk this earth until God reveals this gospel to us. We're
going about trying to worship a God of our imagination, a Christ
that cannot save unless we do something. God also tells us
that there is none that doeth good, no, not one. This is a
very strong statement that offends many people, but it is true as
we consider goodness in the sight of God, and according to God's
standard of goodness. In God's sight, there is no man
good, and no man can produce anything good by nature. In Matthew 19 and verse 16, Christ
taught this as He dealt with a rich young man who came to
Him asking, Good Master, what good things shall I do that I
may have eternal life? And in Matthew 19, 17, our Lord
answers, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but
one, that is, God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. The Lord was not denying His
own goodness. But the young man did not believe
that Jesus of Nazareth was God in human flesh. Therefore, our
Lord asked him, why do you call me good when there is none good
but God? Goodness according to God's standard
is never found among sinful men, not even the best of men. The
Lord told the young man the standard of goodness, keep the commandments,
which is perfect righteousness. No sinner can do this. Therefore,
the only hope for any sinner is to find goodness by God's
grace in the person and finish work of Christ in Christ alone. Now, in closing this morning,
I will again read Romans 3, beginning in verse 10. As it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh. after God. We're talking about
the true and living God. Folks, this includes us all by
nature. Before and until God, the Holy Spirit, does a work
of grace in our hearts and brings us from that darkness that we're
in, that darkness that we're in where we're going about worshiping
a false God, a false Christ, trying to establish the righteousness
of our own. He brings us to the light, to
the gospel, revealing Christ to us, enabling us to behold
His glory, the glory of God in the person and work of our Lord
and our Savior, Jesus Christ. So I pray today, while it is
still called today, I pray that God will call those that listen
to this message to seek the true and living God in Jesus Christ
whom He sent. flee from the wrath to come,
there is only condemnation outside of Christ. There is only salvation
in Christ. And remember that if you are
able to trust Christ alone for salvation, be assured that God
enabled you to do this. He made you willing in the day
of His power when He came to you. When you are in this state,
when you are in this state of darkness, not knowing who God
is, who Christ is. You are going about worshiping
a God of your imagination, trying to establish your righteousness
of your own, and He comes to you by the power of the Holy
Spirit. He chose you from the beginning.
He gave you to Christ. Christ came in time, and He worked
out that salvation by His life and death on that cross as He
shed His blood. And in time, the Holy Spirit,
all those who Christ represented, stood in their place and died
on that cross, he's going to come to them. And he's going
to reveal this gospel to you that your only hope is what Christ
did. And you're going to repent of
everything that you could do something to appease this God.