Paul writes these words in the
opening chapter of his epistle to the Romans from verse 14. I am debtor both to the Greeks
and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation, to every
one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God have showed it unto them. 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. 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. Paul here, in opening up the
gospel, declares plainly his confidence in it. I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Paul was not ashamed of this
gospel, he rejoiced in it. Because it is this gospel, it
is Christ himself and the news of his salvation that delivered
Paul from all that enslaved him. Though Paul was brought up in
the Jews' religion, though Paul had a knowledge of the Scriptures,
though Paul in an outward sense should have known God and should
have known the Gospel, he was utterly in darkness. He was blind
to who God really is. He was blind to salvation. He lived by his own strength,
by his own wisdom, by his own works. He knew not God, though he thought
he did. He knew not himself, for he thought
there was good within, with which he would gain merit with God.
For all his religion, he was in darkness, he was blind. And
when he came to know the gospel that delivered him from it and
brought him to life in Jesus Christ, when he came to know
the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ by faith, when God taught
him what he was, that in himself he had no righteousness, that
he was a dead, lost sinner in need of salvation, When God showed
him the Gospel, when God revealed under him Christ, Paul came to
that point where he loved the Gospel. He was not ashamed of
the Gospel, he proclaimed the Gospel, he rejoiced in Christ
his Saviour. But he was ashamed of all that
he was in himself. When he looked to Paul, when
he looked to Saul, his old man, when he looked within at himself,
when he considered all that he was, all that he did, all that
he knew, he was utterly ashamed of himself. He could declare
plainly and truly that he was without excuse. God had made
known the truth to him. in every way, and yet he never
knew God. All that he was in religion was
a rejection of the truth, was a rejection of Christ. All that
he did, all that he strived in was abhorrent to God. He was
living in unbelief, though he thought he knew God. He was seeking
his own glory and his own honor in the pretense that he was following
God. And he came to see this. God
showed him this. God revealed this under him.
That's all. In man there is no good thing. In the flesh there dwelleth no
good thing. You are sin from head to toe. Even your righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. Even your law keeping, even your
zeal in your religion, it's as dung, it will not satisfy. It condemns you, it leaves you
short of God's glory. It takes you away from God, it
boosts your own glory, it brings honor and glory unto you, Saul. And he was ashamed of it. Utterly
ashamed of it. And owned that he was without
excuse. God had given him the Scriptures, which pointed unto
Christ and he never saw Christ in them. God had given him the
law that pointed him unto God and his righteousness. And all
Saul did with that law was seek to boost his own righteousness. God had shown him his existence
in creation. God had given him a conscience
to know. And yet he never knew. He was without excuse. All that he was, all that he
did, all that he thought amounted to an absolute denial of God
in who God is. Even though it was done in the
name of religion. because Paul had no faith and
Paul could not see that which is hid from the natural man. For this gospel of which Paul
was not ashamed is a gospel wrought by faith and revealed under faith. Christ came into this world as
the Son of God He came into the darkness. He came to where sinners
like Saul, like you, like I dwell. He came in the midst of sinners,
in the midst of the darkness, in the hell of this earth. He
came to the people that rejected Him, despised Him, and ultimately
put Him to death. And He came to die in the place
of sinners. in the place of Saul, that he
might take away their sin and make them to be in him the righteousness
of God. He came to take the dead and
make them to live. He came to take the vile and
the filthy and washed them clean in his blood. He came to save
those who could not save themselves. And as He walked through this
world, this valley of tears, this world that despised and
rejected Him, this world that took the Son of God and slew
Him, as He walked amongst us, Christ walked by faith, looking
under His Father, trusting Him, seeing the end from the beginning,
seeing beyond all that was around Him, seeing beyond what could
be seen by the natural eye. All he saw were raging wolves,
dogs, bulls, putting him to death, despising him, rejecting him. All he saw was unbelief and self-righteousness. All he saw was hatred. Yet by
faith he looked up to his God and trusted and rested. and knew
that by offering his life in the place of sinners, he would
deliver his people from their sins. He would gather in everyone. Everyone for whom he died would
be saved. They would be righteous. They
would be washed clean. They would, in the end, dwell
with him forevermore. This joy that was set before
him was that which he looked upon in faith and trusted. And what he did, that message
of salvation is revealed to his people by the Spirit of God when
the Spirit comes unto them in this Gospel and opens their eyes
to see and opens their ears to hear and gives them that same
faith by which Christ lived and walked, gives them that faith
to rest in Him and to look to Him who is their righteousness,
their salvation, their all. This is the faith that Paul came
to receive, came to know, of which he was not ashamed. This
is the gospel he believed by faith. This is the Savior Jesus
Christ he knew by faith alone. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation. But he was ashamed of all that
he was. For that gospel, when God made
it known unto him, exposed his unbelief, exposed his darkness,
his blindness, exposed his self-righteousness. And not only did Paul know this
as a fact, he knew this in his heart. He looked at himself and
confessed, I'm unclean. and I need a savior. I need to
be washed clean. And that's why he rejoiced in
the gospel, for in Christ he saw his savior, who took all
his unrighteousness, all his sin, all his uncleanness, and
took it away, and made Paul to be the righteousness of God in
Jesus Christ. What Paul knew It's what he preaches
here that sinners like you and I might hear and know. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written the just shall live by faith. Oh how we need to be given faith
to hear this message to see the Son of God, to believe
unto salvation. For without such faith we remain,
as Paul was, in darkness, in unbelief, living in our own self-righteousness. and the wrath of God burns from
heaven above upon us. As Paul goes on to declare, for
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold or resist, hold back the
truth in unrighteousness. We will not believe. We will
not hear. We have no time for God. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God have shown it unto them.
We will not hear, but in our hearts we know. We will not believe
even though God has made himself known unto us. 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. Without excuse. You and I, every
one of us, in our unbelief, our natural unbelief and rejection
of the gospel, We are without excuse. It's inexcusable not
to believe the truth that God declares unto us. It's inexcusable. He has made His eternal power
and Godhead known unto us. He has declared the truth unto
us in creation. in the world around us, in all
created things, in the life and being which is in our bodies. He keeps us, He created us, He
sustains us, He causes us to live and to breathe and to move.
It's all by His power, His Godhead, His eternal power that we are
here, that we live. And yet with the life that He's
given us, we say in effect in our hearts there is no God. He's given us a conscience within
our hearts that knows he's there, that knows this is the truth. And yet we suppress it. We deny
it. We live as though he does not
exist. And he has sent his word in the scriptures and through
the preaching of the gospel. And we turn our backs. We would
rather read anything but the Bible. We would rather hear anything
but the gospel. We will go out of our way to
avoid it. We are so intoxicated and taken
up with the vanity of this world, with everything that can take
up our time, our amusement, our energy, our pleasures. We will
go everywhere and do everything and say everything and think
everything to avoid the gospel and to avoid the reality of God's
existence. But in so doing, we have no excuse. We may make excuses for our unbelief,
as man does, but there's no ground for them. They don't stack up. There's no justification. Though
we may talk about rational thinking, though we may talk about science
falsely so called, though we may talk about proof, none of
the objections that man brings against the gospel stack up. They're a lie. For God is. And this world is his creation.
And this world exists and moves and the earth spins on its axis,
the sun rises every day, the light shines, the heat is there,
the grass grows, animals live, humans live by the power of God. And yet we deny it. We have no
excuse. Everything around us, everything
in the scriptures, everything in our conscience testifies to
the truth of God. and yet we ignore it, resist
it, reject it. Our excuses are groundless and
worthless in the face of such testimony. In chapters one of Romans and
then chapter two leading into chapter three, Paul deals with
the universality of sin in mankind and our need of righteousness
But in so doing, he talks fundamentally about two beliefs that we're
taken up with. We believe or we live as though
there is no God. Though we may say there's a God,
though many may be religious in many ways and proclaim to
serve a God, in reality, their God is nothing. They serve themselves. We live as though God himself,
the one true and living God, simply isn't there. We live as
though what we do, what we think, what we say, doesn't matter because
there's no one to whom we must give an account. We live as though
he isn't there. We don't seek his counsel. We
don't truly seek him. We don't know him. The great
message of our age that the media broadcasts, that the world around
us broadcasts, that the governments, that the peoples of our age,
that education teaches, is essentially to deny the very existence of
God. Or they may accept that there
are religions. and they may accept that you
as an individual may choose to follow this particular religion
or that religion and that's okay if that's something useful to
you if you find some strength in that or if that gives you
some ability to cope with the troubles of life but fundamentally
the world around us denies the one true and living God It does not recognise it. And
we live our lives in our hearts as though there is no God. The
fool have said in his heart there is no God. We're fools, we live
like he isn't there. And so Paul says that they are
without excuse because the eternal power and Godhead of God are
known. The invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made. We know he's there and yet we
live like he isn't there. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like the
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping
things. Wherefore God also gave them
up unto uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves. who changed the truth
of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more
than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Oh, how true this
is. We'd rather bow down to an idol,
whatever shape or form that takes, than bow down to the Creator.
We'd rather worship our own self than God himself. We worship
the creature. We exalt man. We indulge in our
earthly lusts. We're blind to the very existence
of God. The other belief that Paul describes
as inexcusable is the belief essentially that there is some
good in man. There is some good in man by
which we may glory, that should we recognise the existence of
God, we would come before him on the grounds of our own goodness,
our own worth, our own works. Paul says at the beginning of
chapter 2, Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that
judgest, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest, doest
the same things. But we are sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth against them which commit such
things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which
do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape
the judgment of God? See here. Paul addresses the
fact that by nature we think there's some good in us. Some
good in us by which we can then compare ourselves with others
and find fault in others who aren't as good as we are. Who
don't live as well as we think we do. How ready we are to wag
a finger at someone else when we're as guilty as they are.
We think there's good in man. And really, the truth is that
we are sinful from head to toe. All that we think, all that we
do, all that we say is utterly sinful in God's eyes. However
it's dressed up, especially if it's dressed up by religion,
Paul can write this because this is what he was. He was a Jew,
a Pharisee of the Pharisees, of the tribe of Benjamin. He
lived his entire life from a youth brought up in the Jewish religion,
doing that which was instructed in the word of God. Outwardly,
he was blameless. You'd have seen Paul, you'd have
seen Saul in those days and thought, this is a godly man. And yet
he came to know that he was utterly sinful. There was no good in
him. Nothing that he did was good.
It was all sinful. It was all to boost his own pride. If he came before God, he would
come before him saying, Lord, Lord, I've done this in thy name
and that in thy name. It would be his own works. He
comes with his own righteousness. All of which was sinful. all
of which was utter rebellion against God, utter unbelief that
he was actually a sinner, the sinner, wretched from head to
toe, in need of salvation, in need of the righteousness of
God. That was where Saul was. At heart he didn't believe in
the true existence of God, he denied God. He lived by his own
strength and his own wisdom. And at heart he lived as though
there was some good, some righteousness in him. Well he came to discover
there wasn't. And when he knew this, he took
up his pen and wrote this epistle to the Romans to demonstrate
to one and all that there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips. whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty. before God. In writing this,
an unequivocal, absolute declaration of the sinfulness of all men,
Paul quotes from the very scriptures that he had spent years reading
and never understood. He'd read these words before. He's quoting the Old Testament
here. He read these words, he knew them, but he never knew
them. He never knew them. And yet now
as he writes this letter, he writes from an inward knowledge. There's none that understandeth. There's none righteous, no not
one. The way of peace we've not known. There's no fear of God in our
eyes. We're all guilty. Utterly guilty. We're inexcusable if we judge
one another as though there's some goodness in us. We're without
excuse. Guilty. Paul knew this. He was taught it inwardly. This was no theory to him. This
was not something he would just trot off. Oh yes, I'm a sinner. There's no good in me. He knew
it. It broke him. It brought him
to tears. He knew outside of Christ he
was a lost man. Destruction and misery was in
his way. How do you know it? Has God shown us that our excuses
are groundless? Has he shown us the depravity
of our ways, the hopelessness of our objections, in the face
of the goodness that he's shown unto us? Paul writes in chapter
2 verse 4, Do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance? Here you are living your life,
the days go by, the months go by, the years go by and God is
giving you life. He's keeping you, He's watching
over you, He's given you all that you have. And with all that
He's given you, you're rebelling against Him. With all that you
have, you deny His existence and you live for your own glory.
Don't you see his long-suffering mercy? Don't you see his forbearance
of your opposition? And don't you know that this
long-suffering, this goodness of God should lead you to repentance?
Do you take all his long-suffering, all his goodness, and just use
it consistently? to resist and deny. Oh how we are without excuse. All that we have, life itself
is from God and yet how we blame him for all that is wrong. Man charges God with the consequence
of his own sin. All the troubles that come upon
us, oh how this is, oh how could God do this to me? All the troubles
in the world. Oh what an excuse man uses to
deny God. He says well if there's a God
why does he allow famine? Why does he allow disease? Why
does he allow war? Why does he allow all the troubles
in the world? When all these things are the
consequences of man's rebellion and sin, there was no famine,
there was no sickness, there was no disease when God made
this world. Adam and Eve lived in a paradise,
walking with God, yet they sinned. And within one generation, their
son slew up against his brother and murdered him. And so it's
gone on. year after year, generation after
generation. Oh, how sin multiplies. Oh, the
consequences of it. Oh, the judgments against it.
And yet man, without excuse, shakes his fist and blames God
and says, I cannot believe in a God that would allow these
things to happen, when He is the cause. Of course, we won't
accept that. We don't accept that. Our heart
just rages against God and says, no, I'm not the cause. God should
deliver me. And yet we won't turn to the
means of deliverance that God has sent. We say that God should
make things right. And yet we don't believe in his
salvation. We say that God should deliver
us from these troubles and God has delivered his people from
every trouble, from every woe, from every sin, from every disease,
from every trial, from death itself and yet we will not turn
unto Christ and believe on him unto life eternal. We continue
to cling on to the darkness and the evil and the destruction,
and resist and reject God's salvation, God's love and God's mercy, and
we blame God for it. Despite the long-suffering and
forbearance of God, we resist, we hate, we continue in our unbelief. Surely man is without excuse.
Do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance,
His long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance? Well, it's one thing to know
as a statement of fact that we are without excuse. It's another
thing entirely to know it in our heart. It's one thing to
be told this, for you to hear this message this day, to read
this passage of scripture. It's another thing to confess
it. This is a fact that is true of each and every one of us.
And yet it's quite another thing to know it, to own it, to feel
it, to believe it. Oh, how we need to know that
we have no goodness, no righteousness, and no excuses for our unbelief. Oh, how we need God to come by
His Spirit with this gospel this power of God unto salvation. We need Him to come unto us and
preach unto us and open our ears to hear and open our eyes to
behold the Saviour and open our hearts and for Him to show us
what we are. To teach us that we have no excuse
for our unbelief. No excuse for our rejection of
Christ. No excuse for clinging on to
the futile idea that at heart we are good. That there is good
in man. That inherently man is good but
he just doesn't quite get there. Oh how we need to be taught that
there's no good. There's no good in us. There
is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. We've all gone out of the
way. Destruction and misery are in
our ways. The way of peace we have not
known. There is no fear of God in our
eyes. Oh how God needs to show us this. We've no excuse. No excuse for
our sin. No excuse for our rebellion.
No excuse for our unbelief. No excuse for our apathy. No
excuse for our disinterest. No excuse for our boredom. No
excuse for all the excuses we make. No excuse. With the whole world. By nature
we stand guilty before a holy God who has spoken, spoken in
his Son, spoken in his scriptures, spoken in his creation, spoken
in our conscience, and we've closed our ears. We've refused
to listen. Every day, We wake up, he speaks
and says, look unto me. And we turn aside. Every day
he comes in the gospel, he declares his son and says, look unto my
son. Hear ye him in whom I am well
pleased. And we turn aside and hammer
another nail into his hands. to fix him to a cross from which
we can depart. Every day when God speaks unto
us and we turn aside to our own ways, our own thoughts, our own
righteousness, we are without excuse. Do we know it? Do we feel it? Has God taught
you something of what you are and what you're doing? Has He
sounded an alarm at the shortness of time that you can't keep going
on like this? Has He shown you a need? A need
of righteousness? Has He given you a hunger and
a thirst after righteousness for His Son? Oh Lord deliver
me! Deliver me from my uncleanness. Deliver me from my rebellion. Deliver me from my unbelief. Deliver me from my apathy. O Lord, help me. Help thou mine
unbelief. Show me what I am. Lead me to
thy Son. Lead me to that fountain of blood
that cleanses. O Lord, pass me not by. Do we feel our inexcusability
in the face of God's goodness toward us? Does it not melt us? When we hear the Gospel and we
hear of how Christ suffered, of how He was rejected, of how
He was despised by all men, of how man crucified Him and He
was nailed upon a tree and hung up in the darkness. When we hear
him crying out unto his God, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Does it not move us? Does God's
goodness in sending his son to take the sins of a multitude
to be judged for them, to be crucified for them, to be slain,
to shed his own blood, that he might deliver his people from
their sins. Does that not move us? Does it not melt us? That when
we hated him, God loved his own. that Christ died for those who
nailed him to the tree, that when we were in opposition, that
when Saul was persecuting the church, that when Saul hated
Christ, Christ loved him. Oh, how long-suffering God was
towards Saul. He allowed him to go on all these
years in this rage and resistance against the truth. Until that day when God met him
and called out to him on the Damascus road, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? Oh, how that broke him. How that
melted him. How long suffering God had been
towards him. He'd hated God's son. He'd hated the gospel. He'd hated the preaching of the
gospel. He'd hated God's people. And
yet God loved him. How much God had given him. Life,
strength, all that he had in this world, and ultimately salvation
in Jesus Christ. How much he gave him, and how
Paul saw hated him, until that day when God opened his eyes
and Christ met him. What of you? Do you know how
much God has given you? Do you know how much he's given
you in every realm? Your life, your strength, all
that you have in this world. How gracious he's been unto you,
even though you turn aside, even though you shut your ears. Oh,
that God would melt us. How unbelieving we are by nature,
and how self-righteous How inexcusable it is for us to look at our own
goodness, our own righteousness and judge another. Therefore
thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges.
For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the
same things. We're as guilty as everyone in
how we set ourselves up over others, how we think there's
some good in us. When we are vile, the most religious
of us, we're vile. How self-righteous we are, how
ready to condemn others whilst exalting ourselves over them.
How vile we are. Oh, we need the Lord to teach
us this and lead us under his sun. But how thankful Saul was
that there was a but now in his pathway. He lived in rebellion. He lived seeking his own glory
and his own righteousness. He went about thinking he did
God's service when he knew not God and he hated the gospel and
he hated his son and yet there was a day on the Damascus road
when God said no. But now, Saul, you will be turned to see my
Son. But now, Saul, I will show you
mercy in spite of all that you are and all that you have done.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe. For there is no difference. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But now,
is there a but now for you? The law and the prophets all
point to this righteousness, all point unto Christ. And yet
Saul never saw him until God spake. The scriptures all point
unto Christ. But we will never see Him until
God speaks. Here's the answer to our unbelief. Here's the answer to our self-righteousness. But now, but God. Oh that God would come in this
gospel and show us, show us Christ. Only He can. Only He can change
us. Only He can make us see. Only
He can deliver us. Only He can save. And He does. When He comes in this Gospel
of which Paul was not ashamed, He speaks. And He opens the blind
eyes and makes them see. And He opens the deaf ears and
makes them hear. And He touches the hard, unbelieving
heart. and put faith within to believe. Oh, what he does for sinful wretches
like you and me, inexcusable wretches, those who have no excuse
for their unbelief, no excuse for their self-righteousness,
no excuse for their blindness, and yet how gracious he is to
them. how utterly merciful and loving
he is. Oh Paul, Saul deserved God's
wrath. He went about persecuting the
church, he put people to death and yet God loved him and God
saved him. Oh what of you? What of me? What have we done? What have
we done? We are without excuse. Has God
made his love and mercy known unto us? Has he given us faith
to look unto Christ? Paul says, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. What made the difference with
Paul? He was given faith. He came to
know Christ. He clung on to Christ by faith
alone. and he lived by faith. God revealed the righteousness
of God in Christ unto him. From the faith of Christ unto
the faith of Saul, unto the faith of Paul, he lived by faith. Has God given you in mercy and
love the faith to see his Son? crucified for you, slain for
you, taken all your unbelief, all your excuses, all your inexcusable
wretchedness and self-righteousness, has he taken it all away in his
blood and washed you clean? Has he given you faith to rest
in Christ alone? and to say in your experience,
I'm guilty, I'm vile, I'm unclean, I'm the sinner. And yet my Lord
and my Saviour stood in my place and took all that I am away and
washed me clean and made me the righteousness of God in Him.
He's my salvation, He's my all. He's my Saviour. He's my hope. And I am not ashamed in Him,
for He is all my glory. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel
of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation. It delivered
me. It took me from the dung heap. It took me out of darkness. It
took me, who was the chief of sinners, and made me to sit. with the saints, with Jesus Christ
on high, in light, inaccessible. It took a vile wretch like me,
full of unbelief, without excuse, and made me blameless, righteous
in Christ. It brought me under Him, who
is my all in all. O God, give us the faith to know
Christ. O God, have mercy upon us who
have no excuse. May he lead us unto this Saviour
in whom Paul rejoiced. Amen.