Let's open our Bibles now to
Romans chapter 2. The title of the message this
morning is without excuse, but not without hope. In chapter
1, you remember how Paul dealt with the corruption and sin of
the Gentile world. That's people who today we would
call the heathen. People who don't have any religion,
don't want anything to do with religion. And if they do want
any religion, They certainly don't want anything to do with
the true living God. They love their idols, but they
don't want anything to do with God. That's the heathen. Now
in chapter two, Paul begins to deal with the Jew. That's the
people that we would call religious. And this is especially applicable
to all of us. What was different from the Jew
and the Gentile? What's different from the Jew
and the Philistine? Well, the difference was, God
gave his word to the Jews, didn't he? He gave them the priesthood.
He gave them the prophets. He gave them the law. He gave
them the right worship of God. He didn't give that to the Philistines.
So you and I, everybody in this room can identify with the way
those Jews grew up. God in his mercy and grace has
given us the gospel. He's given us a man. He's given
us some understanding of the word, given him some ability
to preach it. And for most of us, our entire
life long. We've come every Sunday and every
Wednesday to hear the gospel preached. That's a blessing. I hope that
gets your attention. We have been exposed to the truth
of the gospel. I pray that this morning that
the Lord is going to teach us how both of these chapters, Romans
1 and 2, apply to us. At the end of chapter one, Paul
sums up the corruption of the heathen. They sin against the
light of nature. Nature tells them that God is,
but they don't seek God. Look here at the beginning of
verse 28 of Romans one. Even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant
breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing
the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are
worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in
them that do them." Now there's a list, isn't it? What a list. As I read that list, did you
think, oh, that's awful. I'm glad I'm not as bad as those
people. It crosses our mind because this
is our nature. And when we think that, you know
what we show? We show we have the exact same nature as the
Pharisee who prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you. I'm
not as other men are. Look at all these religious things
that I do. Look at these things I don't do. Well, the point that
the Apostle Paul drives home here in chapter two is this,
that the religious person who'd been taught the truth by nature,
we are just as guilty just as vile, just as lost in sin as
a heathen person who never has seen the Bible and who bows down
to a stone statue. Look over at chapter three of
Romans, verse nine. This is what Paul says. He says,
what then, are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we
have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they're all
under sin. As it's written, there's none
righteous, no, not one. By nature, there is none righteous. So just because we've been taught
the truth, just because we know the truth in our head, doesn't
mean that we're not as guilty and we're not as vile as the
heathen. Because we are. Matter of fact, and I'll show
you this, Lord willing, in this text this morning. Matter of
fact, if you want to say one person is guilty of a greater
sin or greater rebellion than another, It's not the heathen
who've never seen a Bible. It's us who have heard the truth
of the gospel, who've had Christ preach to us and refuse to believe. Let's see if we don't see that
in the text. Verse one of chapter two. Therefore
thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest.
For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For
thou that judgest doeth the same things. Now the heathen who have
not been taught the scriptures, who have not been taught like
you've been taught, absolutely they're vile. Absolutely they're
guilty. They're no denying that. There's
nothing wrong with judging that those things that they do and
making a determination, that's wrong. You know, if they try
to get you to run with them to the same excessive riot, you
ought to make the judgment to say, that's wrong. I ought not
do that. That's a good judgment, a good
decision to make. But that's really not what Paul's
saying here. Our problem is that we are just as guilty as they
are by nature, even if we don't outwardly do those things. Because
God says, even if we thought those things, even if we think,
man, I'd like to go with them and do those things, even if
we thought, oh, I hate that guy, we're guilty of murder. Even
if we look on a woman. lust after in our heart. We're
guilty of adultery. We're guilty of lying and stealing.
We are just as guilty as they are because God looks on the
heart. So what Paul's saying here is
we shouldn't judge them and say we're better than them or they're
worse than us because we're not. We're just as evil, just by nature,
just as guilty as they are. What an awful attitude of self-righteousness
to judge people for doing the very same things we're guilty
of. What an awful attitude of self-righteousness. Now, they've
sinned against the light of nature, and they're guilty. They're without
excuse. Paul told us that here in chapter one, verse 20. For
the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
They're without excuse because they've sinned against the light
of nature. But we here this morning have
not yet believed on Christ, even those of us who spent many years
hearing the gospel. We've sinned against the light
of the gospel more than just the light of nature, we've sinned
against the light of the gospel, and that makes us without excuse
to. Without excuse, is anyone worse
off, more without excuse than us, who've sinned against the
light of the gospel by refusing to believe it. The right judgment
to make about that is no. Nobody's worse than us. And God
will justly condemn us, just like he'll justly condemn the
heathen, because we're both without excuse. Verse two, but we're
sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against
them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man,
that judges them which do such things, and doest the same? Do
you think you'll escape the judgment of God? You know, we might be
able to fool each other into thinking, you know, we're not
just as guilty as these other folks that we condemn. We all
get together and we condemn them for doing all these horrible
things, you know. And we might be able to fool
each other into thinking we don't do those things, that we're not
as sinful, we're not as wretched as those people. It's easy to
fool one another. But we can't fool God. I mean,
it doesn't really matter if we fool one another. We're not the
judge. God is the judge who always judges in truth. You can't hide
these things from God. In verse 16, Paul says in the
day of judgment, when God shall judge the secrets of men, God
knows the secret things. He knows the secret things of
our heart, and he will judge every man in absolute truth. So we can't look down on that
heathen sinner, can we? We can't look down on them. Someone
who's never been taught the truth, we can't look down on them when
they sin against the light of nature because we've sinned against
the light of the gospel. And you know what? We who have
sinned against the light of the gospel will receive greater punishment
because we've sinned against a greater light. Look here at
verse four. Or despisest thou the riches
of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after
thy hardness and impentinent heart, treasurest up unto thyself
wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God. Now Paul says, when you despise
God's riches and goodness, all you're doing is treasuring up
for yourself wrath. Well, how do we despise the riches
of God's goodness? How do we despise God's forbearance?
Well, simply by refusing to believe the gospel of God when we hear
it preached. That is despising God's goodness. The gospel declares God's goodness
and God's grace to sinners. And when we refuse to believe
it, we're showing we despise God's goodness. God, in the gospel, declares
to us He saves sinners. And He saves sinners by sending
His Son into this world, the Lord Jesus Christ, who accomplished
all of their salvation, all the salvation of His people, without
any of their works whatsoever. God saves sinners freely in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what grace, what goodness,
what wonderful good news to sinners. But by nature, this is what every
one of us say. Well, you know, I like that,
but now I got some good works to contribute to the matter here
to help Jesus out a little bit. That's despising the Son of God. That's despising salvation by
grace alone through faith alone. When we refuse to believe the
gospel, we show we are haters of God. That was in that list
that Paul gave us, haters of God. When we refuse to believe
the gospel of God, we show we're haters of God, just as much as
those heathens. And really, we show our hatred
even more because God showed himself to us more clearly through
the gospel than he has through the light of nature. We show
we're haters of God. And we despise God's long suffering
by thinking, God overlooks my sin. I attend the right church. I know all the right doctrine.
I've been a five point Calvinist all my life. So God overlooks
my sin. That's despising God's long suffering,
thinking, well, just because he didn't destroy me immediately
means he's just always going to overlook my sin. We despise
God's long suffering by thinking. Yeah, I've got plenty of time. I have plenty of time to seek
Christ. This matter of seeking Christ
just really isn't all that urgent. that's taking for granted God's
long-suffering. It's taking for granted tomorrow.
All we've got is today. We're not guaranteed tomorrow.
That's despising, taking for granted God's long-suffering.
And we do well to remember this. The only reason I'm not in hell
at this very moment is God's long-suffering. If God had given
me what I deserve, that's where I'd be. And the longer we refuse
to believe God's gospel, the longer we refuse to believe Him
and bow to Him and come to Christ, the more of God's wrath we're
storing up for ourselves. Now, on that day of judgment,
when Christ returns, God's wrath and His punishment of sin will
be universal. It will be upon all men. Judgment
will be universal. No one will escape it. It'll
be universal, but it won't be equal. Let me show you that.
Matthew chapter 10. God's wrath won't be equal because
some have sinned against greater light than others. In Matthew chapter 10 verse 14.
The Lord here is talking to His disciples.
He's sending them out to go into all these different cities and
preach. He says in Matthew 10 verse 14,
And whosoever shall not receive nor hear your words. If they
won't hear you when you preach, they refuse you. When you depart
out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.
Verily I say unto you, it should be more tolerable for the land
of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that
city." Did that get your attention? You see what that's saying? Those who refuse to receive the
gospel Those who, when they hear Christ preaching, they refuse
to believe Him, they refuse to bow to them, they will be condemned
in judgment. And their condemnation, the wrath
they receive from God, will be a greater wrath, a greater condemnation
than those of Sodom and Gomorrah. We all think God's going to get
those Sodomites. I mean, they're so wicked. They're
so evil. God's going to get them. But
God says he will, his condemnation will come on them. But those
who refuse to bow, those who refuse to believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ will receive even greater punishment
because they sinned against greater life. You see, there's just one
way, only one way to avoid God's wrath against sin, and that's
to not have any. It's just to not sin, to be perfect. That's the only way to avoid
God's wrath. Look back in our text, Romans
2 verse 6. Who will render to every man
according to his deeds. Now God's just. He's gonna give
everyone exactly what they deserve in the day of judgment. Exactly.
No more, no less. Nobody will be able to say in
that day, when God sends them to hell, they'll not be able
to say, that's not fair. They'll have to admit God's giving
them exactly what they earned, what they deserved. And that's
what we see here beginning in verse seven. To them who by patient
continuance and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,
they'll receive eternal life. But unto them that are contentious
and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation,
and obey unrighteousness, they'll receive indignation and wrath.
Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth
evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile. But glory, honor,
and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also
to the Greek. Now I'll tell you what those
verses are saying. If you keep God's law perfectly, if you have
no sin, God will give you eternal life. He'll give you glory, honor,
and peace. But now listen. The best you
can do is not good enough. You've got to be perfect. Always
perfect. When Paul says here, by patient
continuance, that means by always continuing to keep the law perfectly. If you do that, God's just. He'll give you what you want.
He'll give you eternal life. He's just. You earn it. God will
give it to you. But if you disobey one time,
God says you're guilty of breaking the whole law. And he'll give
you exactly what you've earned. He'll give you eternal damnation,
tribulation, and anguish of soul. And there's no escape. Look here,
verse 11. For there's no respect of persons with God. You know
what that means? It means God to the Jews, this
is what that meant. God's not gonna give you a break.
He's not gonna give you a lower requirement because you're a
Jew. God's not gonna give you a break and give you a lighter
sentence because you're related to Abraham. I'll tell you how
that relates to you and me. God's not going to give you a
break. He's not going to give you a lighter sentence. He's
not going to give you a lower standard to live up to because
your parents are believers or because your friends and families
are believers. God's not going to give you a
break because you know the truth in your head. What that means
is God's not going to give you a break. If you think you did
better than somebody else, God doesn't grade on the curve. Now,
you know what grading on the curve is? It's like the teacher
looks at all the scores and then decides, OK, based on the average
of how everyone else did, this will be the grade. When I was
in college, I loved grading on the curve. I mean, I loved it.
And I was a senior, and I had a stats class to take. And I
was pretty good at math. I started doing pretty good in
college. I wasn't concerned about the
class at all. And I kid you not, I bet three times out of four,
three out of four lectures, the teacher would remind us, I do
not grade on the curve. That's all right. All I got to
do is just pass the class. I graduate. I'm out of here.
And I failed the first test. I failed the second. And on every
test, I either failed it or got a D. And I thought, oh, no. I'm
not going to graduate. I failed this class. He doesn't
grade on the curve. And I was like, oh, this is awful. Then I get the report card. I
didn't even bother looking at it. I failed. Open it up. I got an A. He graded on the
curve. God doesn't grade on the curve.
You're not going to be surprised in judgment to find out, oh,
God graded on the curve because he compared me, a maggot, with
how some other maggot did. God doesn't grade that way. God
judges in truth. And his requirement is absolute
perfection. It doesn't matter who we are,
God's not going to give us a break because of who we are, who we're
related to, or what we knew, or what we did, or what we didn't
do. And that applies to every person without exception, whether
you're religious or whether you're a heathen. It doesn't matter
what your religious background is. Look here at verse 12. Now
we'll skip verse 13 and come back to that in a minute. For
as many as have sinned without law shall perish without law.
And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the
law. Verse 14. For when the Gentiles which have
not the law do by nature the things contained in the law,
These having not the law are a law unto themselves, which
show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience
also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing
or else excusing one another. Now these verses are talking
about the heathen. They're talking about people who've never been
taught God's word. They've never been taught the
truth of the gospel. They don't know what God's word
says or what it means. God says he's still going to
send them to hell anyway. Not because God's mean, but because
they're guilty. They're guilty. And you might
think, well, that's not fair. I mean, you know, they never
had a chance. They never heard the gospel. That's not fair.
Well, you can take that up with God if you want to. I don't think
I'd be very wise, but you can take it up with God if you want
to. But God says he judges them in truth, and nobody can say
that's not fair. And he shows us here, the heathen
show that they know they're guilty. They know right from wrong. They've
never seen a Bible, but they know it's wrong to take what
don't belong to you. They know it's wrong to go take something
that belongs to your neighbor. They know not to steal. They
know they ought not lie. They've never seen the Ten Commandments,
but they know they ought to tell the truth. They know they ought
not kill one another. They know they ought not commit
adultery. They know they should be faithful to their spouse.
How do they know that? the law of nature. God wrote
it on their conscience. They didn't have to see the Ten
Commandments to know you should do those things. God wrote the
law on their heart. Their conscience tells them right
from wrong. Yet they still do wrong. And
their conscience tells them they're guilty. They've sinned against
the law of nature. They're guilty. And God will
damn them for it. Worse than that, their conscience
tells them God exists. The conscience tells him that.
Everybody comes into this world knowing, I've got to answer to
whoever it is that created all this. Whoever it is that's ruling
this thing and holding all this creation together, I've got to
answer to him someday. You can try to deny it all you
want. You could try to say you're an
atheist all you want. You can try to say you don't
believe that God is all you want, and all you're doing is lying
to yourself. Maybe if you lie to yourself long enough, you're
really thinking, I don't know. But in truth, you know better.
God wrote it on your heart. Every time you see the sunrise,
you know God is, and you know that you've got to answer to
him someday. And you know you ought to seek
him. and you don't. That's sinning against the law,
the light of nature. This is true of everyone. It's
not just true of us, it's true of the heathen. You seek God. You walk in whatever light God's
given you, and God said he'll give you more. You just walk
in the light God's given you. The light of nature tells them
God is, but they don't seek him. So God's just to send him to
hell then, for not seeking him, for not believing him. And this
applies to us who've heard the truth too. Now let's go back
to verse 13. For not the hearers of the law
are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. Now speaking to the Jews, Paul
knew what he was talking about. Those Jews, and Paul was one
of them, they prided themselves in having the law and the Gentiles
didn't. Did they pride themselves in
that? They found such pride in being related to Abraham. They
said, Abraham's our father. He's not the father of these
Gentiles. But Paul says it's not good enough just to have
the law. It's not good enough. They read the law every Sabbath. Paul said not good enough to
have the law read to you. The only way the law will do you
any good is if you keep it perfectly always. That's the only way the
law is gonna do you any good. The only way we can be justified
by the law is to keep it. Our problem is we can't keep
the law. Now remember, we'll use the Jews as a picture of
you and me, those people who've heard the truth. It's not good enough just to
hear the gospel. It's not good enough just to
be physically exposed to the gospel. It's not good enough
to know all the right facts about the gospel. It's not good enough
to know How God saves sinners. It's not good enough to know
that Christ is the savior of sinners. It's not good enough
to know the five points of Calvinism. I hope you know those things.
Hope you believe those things are so. But it's not good enough
to know those things. The only way we can be justified
is by believing the gospel. Hearing is not good enough. Knowing
it's true up here is not good enough. We've got to believe
Christ. Paul here gives us three laws.
we can sin against and be damned. Number one's the law of nature. Creation tells us God is. Creation
tells us we ought to bow to God, we ought to seek God. And when
we don't, we've sinned against the light of nature and God's
right to damn us. Our conscience tells us right
from wrong. And when we still do wrong, our conscience is a
law unto itself that we've broken God's law and God's right to
damn us for breaking the law of nature. The second law is
the law of Moses. Now you can go and you can read
the law. The law is not complicated. It's not hard to understand.
Our difficulty with the law is we can't keep it. You read the
law and you see the utter impossibility of keeping it. Not only is it
impossible to keep, when we read the law, we think, I don't want
to do that. I don't want to keep that law. We don't even have
any desire to keep God's law. Then God's right to damn us for
it. for breaking his law. It doesn't matter whether we
can keep it or whether we want to. All that God requires is
you keep it. We can. God's right in damning
us. And sinning against the law of
Moses is a greater sin than sinning against the light of nature,
isn't it? Because it's sinning against greater light. The law
tells us a whole lot more about who God is than creation does,
doesn't it? So sinning against a greater
light brings greater condemnation. But there's a third law, the
law of the gospel. The gospel tells us there is
a way sinners can be saved. There is a way sinners can be
justified. There is a way that a sinner
can be absolutely innocent before the bar of God's justice. And
that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we sin against that law,
the law of the gospel, every time we refuse to believe it.
And if we die in that unbelief, God's just, and He's right to
damage it. He's right. It's not God's fault,
it's our fault. We're the ones that refuse to
believe. And sinning against the law of the gospel is the
greatest rebellion of all. Because that's sinning against
the greater light. The law just reveals what God
requires. It reveals God's holiness and
His justice, doesn't it? The law of the gospel reveals
how God makes a sinner righteous. how God justifies sinners. The
law of the gospel reveals who the Savior is. And when we sin
against that gospel, we sin against that law. We've sinned against
the greatest light of all. Every one of us here this morning
by nature have sinned against not one, not two, but all three
of those laws. Now, if we're honest with ourselves,
we're guilty of all three, are we not? Well, this sounds like a hopeless
situation. It's impossible for us to obey any of those laws. So not only are you and I, not
only have we been, who have been taught the gospel are not better
off than the Gentiles and the heathen who've never heard of
God's word. Really, we're greater sinners. We deserve a greater
condemnation for sinning against greater life. Now that puts us
in our place, doesn't it? If God will show us that, that'll
get rid of a lot of this self-righteousness, knowing we can't look down our
nose at anybody. Now, you might be wondering,
right? Do we start out the new year
gathered here together just so you can make us all depressed
and go home miserable? Well, I hope not. Here's the
good news. And you can't appreciate the
good news until we see we're guilty. There's hope of salvation. There's hope of being made innocent
and just. That hope for sinners is revealed
in the gospel. Verse 16, in the day when God
shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to
my gospel. Paul says there's hope for sinners
in the gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he
says here in Romans chapter one, he called it the gospel of God.
He called it the gospel of Christ. Now he says it's my gospel. How
can the gospel of God be my gospel? Well, the gospel of God is my
gospel. Because this gospel, God used
it to save a sinner like me. It's my gospel. It's a gospel
that suits my need. The gospel of God is my gospel. Because it's the power of God
unto salvation. This is the gospel, the powerful
gospel that saved even a sinner like me. It's powerful enough
to save a sinner like you too. The gospel of God is my gospel.
God gave me faith to believe it. The just shall live by faith. This gospel is my gospel. It's
our gospel because God has given this gospel to us to preach.
He gave it to Paul in his day and he's given it to us in our
day to preach this gospel. It's my gospel. And this gospel
reveals that all men will be judged by Jesus Christ. In that day of judgment, Christ
is going to be the judge. The Father judges no man, but
hath committed all judgment unto the Son. Christ will be the judge,
and he will also be the standard by which we're judged. Are we
as perfect as Christ? We've got to be as perfect as
the Son of God himself to enter into heaven. Everyone must be
as perfect as Christ. And the real question and judgment,
none of us, we haven't come close to being as perfect as Christ. We haven't even come close to
that. So the real question and judgment will be this, and this
is what the gospel declares. There's salvation in Christ.
There's justification made without sin by faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The question is this, do we believe
Christ? That's the question in judgment.
Do we believe the Christ declared in this gospel, my gospel? The
gospel of God, Paul says, is all concerning God's son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. You want to know who he is, you
want to believe him, hear this gospel. This gospel is the only
gospel that reveals who Christ is. If you want to believe him,
Find out who He is by listening to the gospel. This gospel, the
gospel of God declares that Christ is the Savior of sinners. If
you're a sinner, Christ will suit your need. This gospel will
suit your need if you're a sinner. This gospel declares there's
justification in Christ. We can't keep the law, but Christ
kept it for us. And He justifies His people,
makes us without sin by giving us His obedience. If you believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. You shall be perfect. And God
will welcome you into glory. And He'll do it in justice. In absolute justice. He's not
going to do it because He's overlooking your sin. He'll bring you into
glory in absolute justice. and truth. If God gives anyone
eternal life, it is because they're perfect. Not like they're perfect. Not like they've never sinned.
If God gives anyone eternal life, it's because they are perfect. Well, how can that be? How is
it that I, someone like me, can be made perfect? I've never done
anything right. It's through faith in Christ.
Remember, we looked at this last week in chapter one, verse 16,
the gospel reveals the righteousness of God. Paul says in verse 16,
for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of God. It's the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believe in to the Jew first and
also to the Greek for therein. And this gospel of Christ is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. And it's
written, the just shall live by faith. This righteousness
of God is the only righteousness that God will accept. And the
only place that righteousness is revealed is in the gospel
of Christ. It's the righteousness that the
Lord Jesus Christ produced as a man by obeying God's law perfectly. And as a free gift to his people,
he gives them his righteousness. He gives them his obedience.
You don't have to do a thing to earn it. Just believe. Just believe. You don't have
to do anything to earn it. You don't have to do anything
to make yourself just before God. Christ already did that
for his people. And we receive that righteousness
by believing Christ. By faith. That's all it takes
to save a sinner. Faith. The just should live by
faith. And this is what saving faith
says. Faith says, I'm guilty. Faith says, I don't have any
excuse. I'm guilty before God in every way. I can't do one
thing to please God. I can't do anything to get God
to save me. He's not a respecter of persons.
But that's all right. I'm without excuse, but not without
hope. Because I'm not trusting anything I've done. I'm trusting
in Christ. I'm trusting in Christ to be
all of my salvation. I'm trusting him to make me righteous. I'm trusting him to make me holy
by giving me his obedience and shedding his blood to pay for
my sin. That's my hope. That's being without excuse.
Saving faith never makes any excuse for sin. I'm without excuse,
but not without hope. Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm without excuse. I can't keep the law and I'm
without any excuse for not being able to keep the law. But my
hope is Christ kept it for me. I can't pay for any of my sin.
I'm without excuse for my sin and I can't pay for any of it.
But I'm not without hope because Christ paid for my sin with his
precious blood. I can't give myself faith to
believe Christ. I cannot make myself believe
Christ. I can tell you that from years
of experience. I can't make myself believe Christ. But I'm not without hope. The
Holy Spirit gives faith in Christ to sinners who need Him. He reveals
Christ to His people and in them. I can't give myself eternal life.
I can't earn it. And I'm without excuse for not
being able to please God. But I'm not without hope because
the Holy Spirit gives me life in the new birth. Perfect, holy,
sinless life before God. That's purely an act of God's
grace. I'm not without hope in Christ.
So in Christ, God saves me in justice. He makes me righteous
by giving me His obedience to the law. And then He paid for
my sin with the blood of His sacrifice. That's what 2 Corinthians
5.21 is all about. That verse is not something to
be debated and argued and kicked around like a football. That
verse is the gospel. For He hath made him sin, who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. That's being saved in just because
Christ is my substitute, because Christ is my sacrifice, God has
no reason to condemn me. Christ was already condemned
as my substitute. God has no reason to condemn
me because Christ had justified me, made me without sin. So in
that day of judgment, God will deal with me. He'll deal with
everyone. He'll deal with every believer
in absolute, strict justice. and give to them eternal glory,
honor, and peace. Remember, He's gonna give everyone
exactly what they've earned. You're in Christ. You believe
Him, God's gonna give you exactly what Christ earned. He's gonna
give you what you deserve in the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory,
honor, and peace. That's a good hope. Don't make
any excuses. Do not make any excuses for your
sinful nature. Don't blame Adam. Don't blame
your parents. Don't blame your circumstances.
Don't make excuses. There's no excuse for sin. Just
look to the Lord Jesus Christ. In conclusion, let's apply this
to every heart here. Now that's so. I'm without excuse,
but not without hope. Then what should I do? What should
you do? Again, you already know the answer
to that question. Run to Christ. Look and live. Run to Him in faith. He's our
only hope. He's our only hope. You know
what that law did? The law of nature. The law of
Moses. And the law of the gospel. You
know what that's done to you and me? It shut us up to Christ. All three, we're hemmed in on
all three sides, aren't we? There's no hope of Christ. I
look to it. Oh, I pray God will give us the
faith. Let's bow in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
this, your word. How we thank you for the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is great news for sinners.
It's not something we could figure out. It's not something man could
made up. This is the gospel of God. Father, we bow before you. freely confessing who and what
we are by nature. We're nothing but sin and rebellion
and corruption. But how we beg of thee that you
would reveal to us the Lord Jesus Christ. You sent him into the
world to be the savior of sinners. Father, we beg mercy. How we
beg your mercy that you'd save sinners like us here this morning. Father, apply your word to our
hearts. Give us faith to believe it. Cause us, each and every
one, to look to Christ for everything we need and to rest in Him for
everything you require. It is in His precious name we
pray and give thanks. Amen.