If you will turn back in your
Bibles to Romans chapter 3 and you can follow me in your outline
that's in your bulletin. Romans chapter 3. I hope that
you had a restful and pleasant and joyful Christmas. Trust everyone
was able to have a time of respite and fellowship with family and
friends and or at least just Take a break from the drudgery
of life and reflect upon the goodness of Jesus Christ. I hope
you did. I trust you did. I trust you are ready for the
new year that's about to come upon us. The Lord willing, if
he says the same, all of us in this room will see the year 2015.
And every year I give a theme for us And I'm working on one now. I'll
share it with you when we get into 2015, just in case somebody
here don't make it. But I do it because the Church
of the Living God and every member in it should be living a forward-oriented
life. You should be moving forward.
You should not be passive. You should not be in suspended
animation. You shouldn't look at every year
as a hamster wheel where the same thing that went on last
year will go on the year subsequent to that or following. You shouldn't think like that.
You should think that every new year that God gives us is a gift. And that's an opportunity for
us to glorify and honor God in different areas of our lives
in which we didn't do the year before. I will press that home
next week, the Lord willing. But it's so critical for you
to know every day is a gift from God. Every year is certainly
a gift from God. And he is calling us to himself. And as he calls us to himself,
you and I are to be occupied with the glory of God, overwhelmed
by the reality that he has called us out of darkness into his marvelous
light. And as a consequent, give ourselves over to the redemption
of Christ in terms of our own salvation in the salvation of
others So I'll press home next week what I believe will be a
good theme for us the Lord willing Even as the Apostle is doing
here in the book of Romans, you know, he's headed somewhere He
whenever he writes under inspiration of the Spirit of God. He has
a goal in view He has an objective and here in Romans chapters 1
and 2 2 and now we are moving into chapter 3 the Apostle has
an objective and I want to remind you what his ultimate objective
is as he begins to turn the corner and we'll see that next week
and that is to convince his auditors to convince his auditors that
their only hope for salvation is in the merits of blood of
Jesus Christ who is about to be more fully developed by the
Apostle in Romans chapter 3 verses 21 and following he's following
a whole group of people into one position into if you will
one stable one one place. He's drawing the attention of
both Jews and Gentiles or I should rather say Gentiles and Jews
to one critical conclusion of which apart from this conclusion
you and I will fail to understand the preciousness of the revelation
of God in Jesus Christ. And our text works through that
labor. In chapter 1, Paul, under inspiration
of the Spirit, laid out for us those glorious themes of God's
revelatory work, the revelation of God in creation, the revelation
of God in conscience, the revelation of God in covenant, as chapters
1 and 2, creation, conscience, and covenant. And that's where
we are in chapter 2, as he is pressing home and pushing hard
up against a group of people who thought that they intrinsically
had a greater worth than the people to whom he was speaking
to prior. They thought that because they
were the Jews, because they were the people of God, because they
were Abraham's seed, that they had some greater advantage over
the common pagan Gentile who did not know God. So Paul is
very clear on his auditors. His auditors circumscribed you
and I. We are a combination of Pagan
Gentiles who grew up under no biblical truth whatsoever and
lived like hell free from righteousness Given over to the passions of
our own lust and heart but some of us also were people who grew
up in the church had a basic inheritance of the gospel and
the Word of God and mom and dad who with the church maybe even
some of your fathers were pastors and elders and things of that
nature so Romans 1 and 2 really encompass our life as well and
One group of us did not know the Word of God. The other group
did. What Paul said is neither one of you are saved until you understand that the
goodness of God is designed to lead you to what? Repentance. Repentance. Leads you to repentance. Remember, I told you last week,
his whole objective is to get us to ask the question, have
we experienced repentance? and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's his objective. He has thoroughly dismantled
the ludicrous and absurd reaction of the Gentiles who traded in
the glory of God in Adam and in their own life for an idol
made like unto a four-footed beast and creeping things and
birds of the air and ultimately mankind. Mankind is the greatest
idol in the world. You and I struggle with the narcissistic
bent and drive of our own nature. You and I struggle with bowing
down to the passions of our own heart and worshiping ourselves.
Is that not true? Humanism, mankind is at the center
of worship today. This is why virtually in all
your churches, you can hear the God in me doctrine, the God in
me theology, the God in me. And in some of them, they're
boastful enough to say, we are gods. Have you not heard that
before? We are gods and the notion that you and I encompass the
superlative attributes and characteristics of the infinite, invisible, omnipresent,
omniscient, omnipotent God is absolutely laughable. That within
ourselves we capacitate what is necessary for eternality and
we don't. The apostle therefore has sought
to help us understand the danger of rejecting the revelation of
God as pagans, how that he gives us over to the lust of our flesh.
We saw that in Romans 1, he gave us over. And in Romans 2, he
says, now to those of you who know the word, you're no better
than them because while yet you know what the scriptures say,
you do the same thing. So what he's doing is apprehending
his audience with a standard of truth that rises above, hey,
let's deny God. If we deny him, we're cool. Like
a lot of people do. Just say he doesn't exist and
go on about our business. Or say, hey, let's agree with
God. So long as we agree with God, we're cool. What the apostle
says is whether you deny him or agree with him, neither one
of those will actually accomplish the job. Until the revelation
of God's glory has brought you and I to repentance, we're still
under the wrath of God. Right now he's pressing home
upon the religious folk. And these religious folk he knows
very well because he was one of them. He was a Jew. He was
a Benjamite. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisee.
He was born of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day, and
he was one of the upper echelon of the rulers in the church.
So he knows the way the Jews think. And right now I'm about
to carry you into his argument with his brethren. Because it's
important for you to see how the apostle argues with his brothers,
of whom he said in Romans chapter 9, he could wish himself a curse
for them. So he cares about them. By the
way, when somebody cares about you, it doesn't mean that they
won't tell you when you're wrong. When someone cares about you,
it doesn't mean that they won't pierce your heart deeply and
break your flesh sorely in order that you might turn from your
evil ways. And so the apostle Paul is letting them know here
in our context that that's the case. So where is the apostle
in Romans chapter 3 as hopefully the Lord will allow us to enter
in? Mentally, he's in the Jewish synagogue right now. He's in
the Jewish synagogue. You remember his ministry in
the book of Acts? We are there in our Friday study
from Acts 9 through 28. What is Paul's motto? To the Jew first and then the
Gentile. What did he do? He took up the
gospel straightway and went into every synagogue he possibly could
and began to reason with them out of the scriptures, convincing
them by the Word of God that this is the very Christ. Why? Because he loved them enough
to let them know that just because you have the Word of God does
not make you saved. So as he is reflecting upon the
blessed privilege of writing to the church at Rome, of which
he had not to this point gone to Rome, he's writing to the
biggest church, the most potentially successful church there is, the
Roman Empire, the church in Rome. He's writing to them knowing
that he's had a stint with the Gentiles, he's called to be the
minister to the Gentiles, but he also knows the Jews very well.
And so he's getting inside the head of his Jewish brethren.
By the time he gets to chapter 3, he's going to now answer their
questions even though he's not talking to them directly. Why?
Because he's been there. He's engaged them. So mentally
he's in the Jewish synagogue reasoning with his brethren,
arguing for the crown rights of Jesus Christ as the totality
of the revelation of God redemptively for them. and having pierced
through their hypocrisy. Remember that two weeks ago?
He pierced through their hypocrisy in chapters 2, verses 17 through
29, exposing their form of suppression of the truth. Remember what he
said? He said, you who say you are
keepers of the law and you rest in the will of God and you're
a guide to the blind, you who say do not steal, do you steal
yourself? You who say do not commit adultery,
do you not also commit adultery? So he's pressing home a very
important point. He plainly warns the Jewish people
that having the law does not save you. I told you this two
weeks ago. that in John's Gospel chapter
7, where Nicodemus finally rises up in justification of Jesus
Christ, of whom he had been begotten earlier by following Christ.
Remember, he met him in John chapter 3, and Christ broke him
down, completely demolished all of his assumptions about what
it means to be in the kingdom of God, and told him, except
you be born of water and of the Spirit, you will not enter. And
Nicodemus was completely baffled And in all humility, he came
to saving faith and started following Jesus. And in John's gospel,
chapter seven, when the Pharisees said, listen, this man is an
imposter, we ought to kill him. Nicodemus stood up and said,
does our law judge a man before it hears him out? See, when you're
really born of God, what people say about Christ matters to you.
And then he said, then they said to him, what are you a Galilean
also? And then they said, search the
scriptures, you'll see no prophet comes out of Galilee. And they
were wrong there too. Their false assumption that because
they had degrees, PhDs, masters of divinity, and all of this
intellectual knowledge, and affirmed among themselves that they were
handlers of the Word of God, they were still deceived in terms
of the ultimate revelation of God, which is in Christ, of which
Nicodemus was defending him. What they said was, these people,
being the Gentiles, not having the law, are accursed. Here's
the assumption, and I built this argument two weeks ago, that
if you have the law of God, then you're blessed. Well, that's
not true. If you have the law of God, you're
more accountable to whom much is given, much is required. That'll
be one of our points. What the apostle was laying down
to the church here in Rome as he deals with the Jewish people
is a very, very legitimate argument. Just because you have the law
doesn't save you. Knowing the law doesn't save
you. Even teaching the law does not save you. That's chapter
2, verse 23. Thou that makest thy boast of
the law through breaking the law, you dishonor God, calling
yourself a teacher. Having the law, knowing the law,
teaching the law does not save you. Saints, do you understand
that? And by application, we would say the same thing of the
gospel. For those who would boast, I have, I know, and I teach the
gospel. If that's what you're wrapping
your hope around, you're deceived once again. For the gospel is
not designed for you to terminate on it in terms of having it,
or knowing it, or teaching it. The question is, does the gospel
have you? Have you been begotten of the
gospel? Has the gospel apprehended you in such a way that it has
driven you to want Christ with everything that's in you? That's
the real question. Not whether or not you have it, know it,
or even teach it. You can still go to hell teaching
the gospel And so it's very important that we understand the aim of
revelation the aim of all revelation when it comes to the nature and
character of god is to cause all humanity to hit the dust
and confess that we are guilty hell-bound sinners And without
the mercy of god, we're going to perish I'm going to press
that point home today Press that point home point number one therefore
in our outline as we work our way through This is a very unusual
point that I'm carrying over from last week. Because as Paul
presses the argument in Romans chapter 3, verse 9 and 10, here's
what he says. What then are we better than
they? I'll talk about that in a moment. Knowing no wise, says
the Apostle Paul, including himself with the Jews. Knowing no wise. Why? Because we have before proved
both Jews and Gentiles that they are what? All under sin. Whether you're a Jew or a Gentile.
We've proven that you understand. What's the point? There's only
one true Jew in the universe to whom I would call your attention
to. As Zechariah chapter 8 verse
23, pull it up. Let's go to work a little bit.
One Jew in the whole universe to whom I will call your attention
to. There's only one Jew who has come and gone in this world
and that one true Jew and teacher is Jesus Christ. He's the only
Jew that is worthy of our attention in a saving way. He's the only
Jew who not only had God's law, who not only taught God's law,
but he kept God's law. He's the only Jew that knew God
in the truth and obeyed God in the truth. And it's this Jew
of which the prophet Zachariah is calling our attention to.
Listen to what he says in verse 23. Thus said the Lord of hosts,
those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold
out of all the languages of the nations even take hold of the
skirt of him that is a what keep it right there ten men now notice
what he says ten men out of all the nations of the world that's
a lot of people Do you understand when we talk about language groups
and dialects? We're talking a lot of people.
The number 10 is always in the Hebraic sort of formula, a number
for completion. And what he's saying is from
every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, there will be a people
group who will recognize this one Jew for who he truly is.
and they will rise up out of the matrix and bondage of their
own former identity as that people group to whom they were born
and lived, and they will latch hold to this one Jew. They'll
get a hold of his skirt. Can you see the picture? Every
nation, every kindred, every tribe, a host of men getting
a hold to the skirt of this one Jew. If you were to see that
physically in your mind, it would look like a bunch of desperate
men Seeking to identify with this one person and if you came
to that conclusion, you would be right Out of all the nations
of the world there will rise up men who are desperate to get
a hold of a Jew Who would lead them to the truth the text says
they would take hold of his skirt. I And in our outline, points
number 1A through C, under only one true Jew and teacher, who
is Christ, the skirt here represents the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is the robe of righteousness
of which Isaiah chapter 61, 10 speaks about. You don't have
to go there. The skirt in the Scriptures or the robe in the
Scriptures represents a covering. And the covering that Christ
wears is the covering of His own intrinsic nature, plus the
perfections of his obedience of which when those who see their
own personal bankruptcy recognize that this is the only righteousness
by which I can merit favor with God, they rush to get a hold
of the hem of his garment. Remember that woman with the
issue of blood, how she pressed through the crowd just to touch
the hem of his garment because by faith she believed that the
virtue that he possessed by virtue of his fame would also be transferred
to her and heal her? That's all pictorial or representative
of sinners who see that their only hope for salvation is in
Jesus. I want you to stay, however,
with this text because it teaches us a glorious truth. His righteousness
is ours. And when we hold on to the skirt
of Jesus Christ or His person and His work of which Isaiah
61 10 teaches, we are doing what? We are trusting Him. We are trusting
Him. And it's a radical trust. Let
me see if I can help you. You get a hold of a skirt, and
wherever that man goes, you follow. You hold it, and in fact, literally,
it's the hem of his skirt, the edge of his skirt, the wing of
his skirt in the Hebrew. That means you barely getting
it, but you got it, and you're holding on for dear life. and
it indicates the focus of your faith, the confidence of your
hope in the merits of that man that you're holding on to. Now
watch this, it also demonstrates the humility that's required
when it comes to you and you're not understanding that without
Christ I'm going to perish. If he passes by in the preaching
of the gospel, and the soul doesn't run him down and get a hold to
the hem of his garment. It means you have not seen his
glory. Or you have failed to understand your desperate need
of a Savior. Why would you let him pass you
by? Ten men out of all the languages of the world will get a hold
of his skirt. Watch this now. And trust in him. And holding
on to his skirt, we follow him. Point B. So that his course of
life is what? Our course of life. Isn't that
the claim that Jesus propositioned everyone when he went through
his ministry? Follow me. and I will make you
fishers of men. Follow me and I will lead you
to eternal life. Follow me and you will never
walk in darkness. See, faith follows Christ. Am
I making some sense? So not only do we lay hold of
eternal life by grabbing the hem and the skirt and the edge
of his righteousness revealed to us in the gospel, but we follow
him because wherever he goes, we go. That's true John chapter
6 verse 67 don't go there jesus had demolished 10 000 people
who came to church on the faulty assumption that they come in
order to for god to give them something and he said i'm the
bread of life and they rejected his claims as the bread of life
and many of them departed when he made this proposition no one
can come unto me except the father which sent me draw him He made
that proposition, destroying and demolishing man's free will,
man's assumption that he has the capacity and right to come
to God, his intrinsic virtue to be able to lay hold of God.
And what Christ says, unless my father draws you, you will
never come to me. And they all began to abandon
him. He turned to his disciples and he said to his disciples,
will you go also? And you know what Peter stood
up and said? I got you. I got to him in your skirt, brother.
I got the hem of your skirt. See, that's the way faith talks.
I got the hem of your skirt. Brother, I've been with you for
two and a half, almost three years. Where shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. Now that's the radical and exclusive
nature of biblical and saving faith. Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? And so saving faith doesn't get a hold of the promises
of God and then lives willy nilly like it wants to. Saving faith
gets a hold of the promises of God and follows the person of
Christ wherever he goes. So Revelation chapter 14 verse
four speaks to, and these be they who were redeemed from among
men and they follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They follow the Lamb wherever
He goes. This is the truth of the Word
of God. In 1 John 2, verse 6, if we say we know Him and walk
in darkness, we do not the truth, we're telling lies. So the nature
of faith is that we get a hold of Christ's righteousness. The
nature of faith is that we follow Him in the obedience of faith.
And the nature of faith is that we are finally looking for our
point, last point, Destiny with Christ. His destiny is our destiny. You guys believe that? Christ's
destiny is our destiny. In other words, the glory of
Christ is what faith is ultimately looking to experience. The glory
of Christ. This is why we talk about those
of us who are committed to the gospel. We tell you the promise
to you is not a better life now. It's glory. And unless you understand
glory as your ultimate objective, somewhere along your excursion,
something greater is going to come along and steal your attention
and you're going to lose your way. The gospel calls you to
set your eyes on glory, your affection on things above. That's
what it does. And in the process, The process
of getting there. There are a lot of things you
and I can learn about God and God takes care of us Does he
not take care of us? But listen to me child of god
your aim if god has called you by his grace his glory It is
glory. And this is why jesus said in
john chapter 17 24 father I will that all those that you have
given me Be with me where I am His aim is for us to be with
him in glory that they might behold my glory, that they might
know the love wherewith you love me and I love you, and that that
same love might be in them. What? The love of God, the glory
of God, beholding Christ, beholding God, in the presence of God,
enveloped by that very glory of which Christ won for us by
his death on Calvary's tree. This is the true Jew and teacher
that we follow. You guys follow that? This is
a true Jew. So what Paul is saying, going
back to our text now, as we now begin to unpack the first 20
verses here, what Paul is saying to the Jewish brethren is, listen,
fellas, you are not the object of revelation. Christ is the
object of revelation. And whether you're a Jew or a
Gentile, as a Gentile, there's enough of God's law written on
your conscience to either condemn you or run you to Christ. And
for those of you who are Jews, the Word of God was really designed
for that one thing. to run you to Christ. Now, here's
something very peculiar as we open up the text. Paul anticipates
their retort. He anticipates their argument.
He's going to hear them raise the question. Well then, if Jews
and Gentiles are saved the same way, through the same means,
and the Gentiles didn't have to do anything for it, what's
the benefit? What's the benefit of us growing
up being circumcised, learning Torah, the Tanah, being fastidiously
given over to the religion of the Jews? What's the benefit?
What's the advantage? That's verse 1, right? Chapter
3, verse 1. Follow me now. I want you guys
to get this. We're going into the text now. See, they would
say to Paul, Paul, you're telling me that us as Jews who have 2,000
years of history from Abraham to the present, are people who,
for the most part, have not obtained righteousness out of all that
we did, but the Gentiles do. What then is the benefit of divine
revelation? Now this question is very insightful,
and it will have a number of points of application. But their
argument is an argument that you can find running all through
the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Zechariah. If
you go into the book of Zechariah, where we are about 400 years
before we get to Jesus, at the tail end of Israel's existence. They are under Persian rule now. Here's the question that they
raise, and you will raise this question sometime too. Here's
what you will say. Why go to church every Sunday? Why read your Bible every day? Why commit your life to prayer? Why study the Word of God? Why
be committed to the moral and ethical axioms of Scripture?
I mean, if people can be saved like the thief on the cross at
the last second, why don't I just live like hell and at the last
second just accept Jesus into my life? A lot of people think
like that. A lot of people think like that. Are you guys hearing
me? And a lot of them are Christians. Now watch this. A lot of you
act like that. You may not say it, but you act
like it. That's why this statement is so insightful. He's raising
the question, or they're raising the question, is there an advantage
then to people who have the benefits of divine revelation over people
who don't? And the answer is what? Yes.
Yes. And I'm going to give you three
basic sort of observations about that answer here to help us go
in the direction of the apostle. Here's the warning. Don't ever
think that your Bible reading at any time is futile. so long
as you don't make your Bible reading the meritorious basis
by which you are accepted before God. Don't ever think that you're
coming to church Sunday in and Sunday out is futile. so long
as your coming Sunday in and Sunday out is not the weaving
of your own righteousness so that you can commend yourself
before God on the last day. Don't ever think that your prayers
are futile, that your fellowship with the saints is futile, that
your obedience to God is futile, that you're not doing the wrong
thing and you're doing the right thing is futile. It is not futile. It is never futile to obey God. It is never futile to obey God. There's always an advantage to
obeying God. Sometimes we're too stupid to
even see the benefits, but they are. Can I extrapolate on that
a little bit? You know, I think about my own
family and you guys know my family. Many of you have been with me
from the birth of our children on up. And I think about the
life my kids have lived under the gospel compared to the life
I lived not under the gospel. My kids have been tremendously
advantaged by coming to church every Sunday, coming to Bible
study when the doors open, being committed to the praises of God,
the Word of God, the Gospel of God, and the ministry of God.
They have been tremendously blessed, and they can still go to hell.
But they have been tremendously blessed. You know what they have
avoided? All sorts of gins and traps and snares and sins and
pains and sorrows and aches and struggles that come with living
outside of the boundaries and framework of a gospel home. Am
I making some sense? Point number one, therefore,
then, what is the blessing or benefits of divine revelation?
The light of the gospel. The light of the gospel. It's
much better to live in this world with the lights on than the lights
off. Proverbs 6 23 the commandment is a lamp. The law is a light
and reproof of instructions are the way of life It's much better
living in this world with the lights on than with the lights
off It's much better walking knowing where I'm going than
stumbling and bumping my hard head against stuff every day
Because I'm walking in darkness. Am I making some sense? I'd much
rather struggle with God's law than the struggle with not knowing
which demon is about to wrap me up Hold time me and throw
me in the pit today Because I can't see him I'd much rather know
that what I'm about to do is wrong because my mama has taught
me, my daddy has taught me, the Word of God has taught me, and
I gotta struggle with obedience than to actually fall into sin
and not know it. That's what Romans 3 is saying,
the way of peace they do not know. Walking in darkness is
a horrible life. The ways of a transgressor are
hard. Hard. I tell my children all
the time, though frequently they do not acknowledge it, you are
highly favored and blessed. You better just make your calling
and election sure, because you've lived good from the time that
you were the twinkle in my eye to this moment. if I would say
so myself compared to what I went through growing up. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? And so there is a benefit of
divine revelation. Whenever God's revealed to us
in his word, in the gospel, in the truth of scripture, there
is a benefit, there's a blessing. Jesus said in Matthew 16, or
13 rather, verse 16 and 17, blessed are your eyes because they see.
And blessed are your ears because they hear. There are many prophets
in the days of old who do not see or hear what they heard.
And this is the apostle. So there's an advantage for us
who know the word of God. An advantage. Secondly, it's
an opportunity to draw near to God. Listen, the pagan, while
in their lost estate, are inexorably bound in a miserable condition
until God, by His grace, begins to draw you. When our kids are
brought up under the Word of God, they have an opportunity
through the preaching of the gospel, if it's evangelical,
to come to God. And I mean come to God not by
coming out of your chair up to the front of the altar, but come
to God in your heart. the secret chambers of your own
conscious and mind, because He created you in His image. And
you can do that in school, you can do that at work, you can
do that anywhere. You don't have to do it publicly.
But as you hear the Word of God, and if the Spirit of God is working
in it, it will appeal to your soul as a young man or a young
woman. Come to God! Come to God! And you will begin
to wrestle with that proposition. That's better than not hearing
God at all. By the way Acts chapter 17 verse 26 and 27 says this
of one blood hath God made all nations of men and he has Divided
their lines. He has appointed their their
regions of the world by which they would live and right where
they are God has said to seek him if happily they might feel
after God right where they are. Well, how's that gonna be done?
When the Word of God is preached Blessed are the feet of those
that what preach good tidings right where people are whenever
the Gospels preach any day The Word of God is preached a soul
is blessed with the possibility of drawing not a God Remember
what God says draw not a God and I will what draw not a you
That proposition unless it's heard won't be acted upon So
a man or a woman is blessed the people of God are blessed Church
folk are blessed in this sense every time we come together under
the word You have an opportunity to draw near to God Can we make
a confession before I move to my last point? The moment we
go out these church doors, we're starting to apostatize. Last
point. The means of conversion for the
elect. What is the benefit of divine
revelation? In the Old Testament, we call it the Tanakh. The Torah,
the writings, the prophets, the old of the Old Testament from
Genesis to Malachi. What was the benefit of divine
revelation? It was the means by which God's people are converted. You are not converted apart from
the preaching of the word. Listen to Psalm 19, pull up Psalm
19 verses 7 through 10. Listen to the way David speaks
of it. The law of the Lord is what?
Converting the soul. Do you see that? Converting the
soul. That's the tool that the Holy Ghost uses in the hand of
the preacher to actually plow through the hard soil of your
heart and get you to realize you need to turn. That's what
the Holy Ghost uses. He uses the Word of God. to turn
you. The law of the Lord is perfect
converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
what? Sure, doing what? Making wise the simple. Watch
this now. Watch this now. Some of our kids
have grown up under the Word of God and as raggedy as their
life has been, there has been a smidgen of the fear of God
in their soul to keep them from falling through and going to
hell. You need to be clapping on that one right there. Some
of our children Growing up under the word of God, having the law
of God proclaimed to them, have a smidgen of the fear of God.
That's what I mean by making wise the simple. Because the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? That's what I'm talking
about. I'm not talking intellectual wisdom. I'm not talking carnal
wisdom. I'm not talking human wisdom.
I'm talking the fear of the Lord. That when you get right up to
that line where you're about to sin against God, you say no. want to but no I gotta face my
daddy I gotta face my mama no and God keeps you child and you
think that came from yourself it came from the Word of God
being faithfully proclaimed and faithfully taught inculcating
deep down into the soul and being there to cuddle you and hold
you back when you would do otherwise making wise and the simple. What a beautiful privilege that
we get out of that. That's the benefit of the Word
of God. The means of conversion. Look
at verse 8. Look at verse 8. Look at this. The statutes of
the Lord are what? They're right. People can argue
all they want to. The Word is right. And what it
does for those who understand right things is it rejoices the
heart. Ladies and gentlemen, let me
ask you the question. Does the Word of God rejoice your heart?
Does the fact that God speaks loud and clear rejoice your heart? Does the fact that God speaks
plain and explicit about right and wrong and He doesn't care
who disagrees with Him, does that rejoice your heart? It rejoices
mine. And I'll tell you why it rejoices
our heart. Because the love of God shed abroad in our hearts
causes us to rejoice in the truth. This is how you know you're born
again. You're not born again if you don't rejoice in the truth.
Even when that truth condemns you and me, I still rejoice in
it. Because there's only one voice
in this world that's telling the truth, and that's God. All
the other voices are liars. They are the spirit of error.
They're all building councils and arguments against God in
order to lead the whole world away from God. God's still telling
the truth. After all these thousands of years, God's still telling
the truth. That Bible with black letters on white print says the
same thing now that it did hundreds and thousands of years ago. God's
telling the truth. And because his commandments
are such, it says, and the commandment of the Lord is pure, doing what?
Enlightening the eyes. Isn't that what the word of God
does for us? Sometimes you come into church and you have to admit
you're dim-witted. No, it's true. You're dim-witted.
It's all colloquialism. And it basically means that you
have tunnel vision. Your periphery is not broad.
You've been shrouded by the cares of this life. You've been burdened
down with just material things and just fleshly things. And
you don't see like you ought to see. Coming to the house of
God and the Word being preached gives you a larger periphery
and it opens your mind once again to the purity and clarity of
the way God sees it. You are far more enlightened
when you leave than when you came. That's why you gotta come
week in and week out to get charged up. So you can see it the way
God sees it. Verse 9. The fear of the Lord
is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
what? We'll be going back there in
a moment. And righteous altogether. Watch this now. His judgments
are true and they are righteous. This is see this is where Paul
is going in a moment. I'm gonna help you He's gonna show us that
God has a right to judge and his judgments are right Look
at verse 10. Here it is More to be desired
than they then go yay much fine gold sweeter also than the honeycomb
verse 11 See now, this is the believers description of the
Word of God. Isn't it like honey to us? Moreover
by them is your servant what? and in keeping them there is
great reward. The Word of God blesses us in
that regard. That's the advantage. Let's go
back to our text here. It's the means of conversion
for God to elect. Because the objective, remember,
the aim of the Apostle's efforts, the Spirit's efforts in Scripture
and His exhortation is to assure that the revelation of God is
designed to bring men and women not to acts of rebellion or acts
of religion, but to repentance. Whenever God reveals himself
to us is designed to bring us to repentance. Not acts of rebellion,
not acts of religion. Repentance. Think about this
for a moment. Saved men and women Repent every
time the gospel is preached in power. When God shows up in his
revelatory glory, we repent. Remember Moses? When he saw God's
glory, what did he do? He fell on his face. Joshua,
when he saw the Lord's glory in the land of Canaan, in the
person of Christ, what did he do? He fell on his face. Daniel,
when he saw the glory of God, what did he do? He fell on his
face. What did Isaiah do in Isaiah chapter 6? He fell on his face.
He said, I'm undone. What did John do in the book
of Revelation? The one whom Jesus loved, he fell down as a dead
man. What am I talking about? I'm
talking about whenever the Word of God is preached and it's taught
accurately and our hearts are submitting to that revelation,
we come to a place of recognizing what we are by nature over against
what God is by nature. God's holy and we are sinful. And any other conclusion means
we have missed the message. God is holy and we are sinful. Any other conclusion means we
have missed the message. If you conclude that God's holy
and I'm going to deny him and live my life like I want to or
as if God doesn't exist, you missed the message. If you say
God's holy and therefore I'm going to perform works of righteousness
by which I can merit his favor, you missed the message. The message
is God's holy. And we are sinful. And see, this
message that Paul is bringing, bring me to our third point,
is what's causing these Jewish brothers to struggle. Now Paul
goes into an argument that's very relevant and we need to
hear it too because it's contemporary to our day. When he opens up
in verses 1, 2, and 3 with his argument, what advantage then
has the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision? He says,
much in every way because that unto them were committed the
what? The Word of God. For what if
some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? Paul now is taking up a historic
consideration based upon what the Old Testament teaches is
that many people heard the word of God and some follow, but others
disobey, even among the covenant people, right? And what Paul
is saying is their disobedience doesn't stop the faithfulness
of God. Although it can challenge you
and me stay with me for a moment This is very important for you
to get the suppressors of the Word of God This is verses 3
through 5. This really attaches to chapters 1 & 2, but listen
to 3 through 5 What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief
make the faith of God without effect? What would be the answer?
No God forbid here it is. Let God be what but every man
a liar as it is written that you might be justified, that
you might be justified in your sayings and might overcome when
you're a judge. I'm going to actually develop
that a bit in our last point, verse five. But if our unrighteousness
commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God
unrighteous who takes vengeance? Is God unrighteous when he punishes
sin? Watch this now. Is God unrighteous
when he punishes sin? If by virtue of our unrighteous
deeds, it actually advances the glory of God. See, what Paul
is now actually going to demonstrate is the faulty conclusion on the
Jews part is that how did the Gentiles actually get in by not
obeying when we didn't get in by our ostensive obeying? Paul
is saying don't draw the conclusion that they got in by disobedience. No one gets in by disobedience.
No one is saved by disobedience. Watch this. And God is not honored
by your disobedience. No one's saved by your disobedience,
and God is not honored by your disobedience. See, he's actually
going to get behind a fallacious argument of a sort of twisted
grace doctrine. And that is, let us sin that
grace may abound. Oh, here we are, Jewish people,
religious folk, living this austere life of restraining from all
sorts of deeds. The Gentiles live like hell,
they get in. What Paul says is, if that were true, then God would
be unrighteous whenever he judges sin. Are you guys hearing me? If it were true that disobedience
advances the glory of God, Advances the gospel of grace then every
time God smashes a sinner as he did in the days of Noah as
he did as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah as he did with the
children of Israel as he did with Korah Dathom and Abiram
and I can give you a whole litany of people whom God destroyed
because of sin right follow the logic if sin Advances the glory
of God then God has no right to punish sin but because God
has right to punish sin. And every time God punishes sin,
He is just. Isn't that what we learned a
little earlier? Follow this now. Anytime you and I sin, God is
just to send us to hell or punish us for our sin. See, this is
to get your thinking right. is to get you to not presume
upon the grace of God that you can live like you want to and
God still has to save you because after all your sin is only advancing
the gospel. Now this particular topic of
which we are at now Paul will have to address in virtually
every epistle that he writes the notion that let us sin that
grace may abound. Paul will have to deal with because
he what the Jewish guys are saying. Well, if we're not saved by words,
then we must be saved by sin. That's a fallacious argument.
We're saved neither by words, human words, nor by our sin.
If that was the case, the fact that there is a judgment day
coming, we'd be absolutely ludicrous. But there is a judgment day coming.
Paul sounds just like your pastor. There's a day appointed wherein
God will judge this world and he will judge this world in righteousness. Every judgment of God against
sin is a judgment of God in what? Righteousness. Sin is abhorrent
to God. Sin is obnoxious to God. It's
an evil thing. So the assumption that if our
unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, that's a flawed assumption.
It never does. You guys got the logic now? Because
Paul is dealing with the intellectualism of his religious brethren who
want to argue, then we're free to do whatever we want to if
the Gentiles get in as easy as we do. Here's what he says in
verse 5. Verse 6, God forbid, for then how shall God what?
This is where Paul is taking us all. Whether you understand
what I'm saying or not, since the beginning of my preaching
in Romans chapter 1 is this. We are all headed to the judgment. That's the stream of his thought.
That's his rationale. That's the basis of his argument.
The revelation of God's glory condemns us all, religious or
not, and we're headed to the judgment. And when we get to
the judgment, God will convince us all, no matter how we argue,
that we're guilty. And so if that's true, there
is no sinful deed that you and I can do on this side of the
judgment wherein we can say it advances God's glory. It's all
sin. Are you guys following that?
It's all sin. It's all wrong. And it's designed to shape your
response to God's revelation. Your response in mind to God's
revelation should always be repentance. It should always be confession.
Stay with me. I'm going to prove that when
I close out on my last point. So the apostle is trying to get
the Jewish people to understand that which brings us to our first
point under the suppressors of the Word of God. Verses 3 through
5 describe the suppressors of the Word of God. I have outlined
them in chapters 1 and 2. People who live like hell and
deny God's glory, they are suppressors of the truth, right? Verse 18,
they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. That's a life of unrighteousness.
And the religious folks suppress the truth by what? Saying it's
right, but still doing the wrong thing. They all suppress the
truth in unrighteousness. But Pastor, that sounds like
you're describing the whole of us. Absolutely. Suppressors of
unrighteousness. And the only thing we can expect,
because we are suppressors of unrighteousness, is for God to
find us guilty and throw us in hell. Do you understand where
we're going? Paul is setting us up so that
we do not somehow think we can get by with any other response
but repentance. That's what he's doing. He's
setting us up. If you're Jewish, God's still going to get you
because you haven't kept the law. If you're a Gentile, you're
double doomed because the revelation is still sufficient to condemn
you because of your conscience. And so under the suppressors
of the Word of God, two points. The apostates trouble, but they
do not triumph. Do you see that? The apostates
trouble, but they do not triumph. I'm going to run through this
quickly, because the way the Apostle Paul teaches, he'll lay
down radically important theological truths, build them in part, and
then later on down the line, readdress them. So as we continue
going through the book of Romans, we will have to readdress these
points that we're making. When I say the apostates trouble,
but do not triumph. You know what I'm saying? I'm
saying for those of us who are believers in Christ and we're
actually born again, apostates tempt us to want to live like
them. Take prosperity preachers who live large in the name of
Jesus. They tempt believers who are
just getting by every day with paying their bills. Jazz getting
by with living life in the presence of God Coramdale jazz getting
by with being able to make it with the husband or they Those
who pretend that the grace of God amounts to them Prospering
as Paul said in first Timothy chapter 6. They think they gain
his godliness. They really test some of us They
test us they try us but they never triumph because God's elect
will never fall prey to that kind of teaching nor lifestyle. It may tempt you, but ultimately
God's sheep will not be swallowed up by it. Can I get a witness?
See, so you've been tempted, haven't you? But it hasn't drawn
you in completely because Christ had a hook in you and he drew
you back from that delusion. He drew you back from it. Besides
there's a promise in the Word of God Numbers 23 19 says this
God is not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he
should repent hath He said it will he not make it good hath
he declared it? Will he not bring it to pass but just shall live
by what that's exactly right The just shall live by faith
secondly the elect are tried by defection but kept by grace
So I'm going to meditate with you on this one because David,
my brother, King David, will help us understand this particular
nuance that's critical to you. Psalm 73 verses 1 through 3. Remember what David said in Psalm
73. We're going to read these few verses to affirm this proposition. We're tried by the apostasy of
the church, the apostasy of men. People will come in, hear the
gospel, and then they will leave falling prey to heretical systems,
and they'll turn around and come back and tell you, girl, you're
missing out on something. And what you will say to them,
I'm not missing out on anything, you're the one missing out. When
you came, you missed what you came for. They don't realize
that what they should have come for was Christ. not wealth, not
prosperity, not a word from the Lord, not a blessing, Jesus. And they came and went, not having
Christ, who is the sufficiency of all grace, the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge, and everything to us that believe. But David
says, we could try. Truly God is good to Israel,
even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, David said,
oh, bless your heart. You know what David is doing?
He's confessing before he gets to the judgment. Bless his holy
name. He's talking about the upright
in Israel. Truly God is good to Israel,
even to such as are upright, are clean in heart. Now this
is true for every believer in their position. But here's what
David says, as for me, my feet were almost gone. Anybody been
there? My steps have well not slipped. Anybody been there?
And here's the reason why. I was envious at the foolish
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. That's my point.
That's my argument. See, the wicked will cause you
to envy them. Their prosperity will cause you
to want to emulate them. It'll cause you to question the
grace of God in your own life. That's what they're there to
do, to test you. This is how the elect are discerned
from the non-elect. Those who are not elect will
fall prey to that system. Only the elect will overcome
it. But it's going to be hard. David
said, I almost slipped. I was leaning over into the pit.
I almost slipped. Only God kept me. That's just
really true. Look at verse 5 and 6. Look at
5 and 6. They are not troubled as other
men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore, pride
encompasses them as a chain. Violence covers them as a garment.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is true. The one thing I am sure
of the character and nature of apostate religion is the pompous
pride that manifests itself in their words and their doctrine.
Their great swelling words of which they presume God will endorse
and God will affirm because they have multiple peoples following
them. Their teachings are arrogant
in the sight of God. Their words are so pompous, they
are blasphemous in the sight of God. And for people whose
hearts have been renewed by grace, we fear when we hear them talk
almost as if they are God. Their arrogance! It's just pervasive
in the way they confidently and boldly talk about what God is
doing in their life. David is plainly saying, therefore
pride encompasses them as a chain. And then he gives a litany of
other descripts. I would advise that you read
it in your own time. Verse 12. Behold, what are they? These are the what? Ungodly.
Here it is. Who prospered where? In this
world. You got it? You get it here.
but not in the world to come. You get it here, but not in the
world to come. In the world to come, people
like Lazarus and other brothers get it. You understand that?
You get it here. See, so some of our Christian
brothers and sisters are tempted because life is so difficult.
Paying the bills is so hard. We are tried on so many levels.
Plus, our sin keeps us laying down. What we really need to
do is actually categorize the problem. The first problem is
your sin. Get your priorities right, because
your sin is getting you. In the year 2015, straighten
out your life. I'll talk about that next week.
One of the things that bothers me about the people of God is
we will justify our sin. And then we'll call it the providence
of God. No, it's not the providence of God. It's God chastening you
because your house is not in order. That's right. God, listen,
God will not bless where he knows that your character is flawed
in the area of priorities with which he has called you to do.
If you're faithful in little, then he'll make you faithful
in much. Is that a promise of God? So sometimes what God does
is restrains us from blessings until we get it right. I wonder
why God's not opening this door and that door and the other.
Clean up all of the other bad doors, then he'll open up the
door. I'm telling the truth. And then sometimes there's the
mystery of God's providence where things are happening that are
inexplicable that we cannot fully develop. But most of the time
it's our own devices and our own schemes and our own compromises
that are keeping us from the blessings of God. I hope you
can do better in the year 2015 because I have determined to
do so myself. I have determined to target areas of my life and
ask God to help me to do better in the year 2015. Because it
makes no sense not to be able to enjoy God to the fullest in
every area of my life when all I have to do is ask him and be
ready for the process to work. But what I'm not going to do
is what the Jews did. The Jews sought to deceive God. The unregenerate sought to deny
God. The Jews sought to deceive God.
And when God acted like God in covenant discipline, they would
turn around and say, God, why are you doing this to us? You
know what God would say? Go back and read the covenant.
That's why I'm doing this to you. I have not violated my word. My promises are still true. You
do your part. I'll do my part since you're
under covenant. Am I making some sense? This is so important. You will never be able to blame
God for your raggedy life. You won't be able to blame him
for it. You won't. See, you and I got to line up.
It's his good pleasure to give us the kingdom. But we fail to
comport with the will of God, and then all we experience is
the poverty of our disobedience. But see, now David tells us here
that they prosper in the world. They increase in riches, don't
they? And sometimes that just drives us poor, broke folks crazy,
doesn't it? Lord! Wild up the wicked prosper
and spread their wings like every time I turn around their own
billboards and smiling happy He seemed to have a great wife.
She seemed to have a great husband great kids. It's all a facade
I'm gonna help you right there The operative word is seem to
be Okay, don't be deceived Verses 21 through 24 closes out David's
affirmation of our fundamental point that the elect are tried
by defection but kept by grace. Isn't that a good statement?
The elect are tried by apostasy and defection but kept by grace.
Watch David in verse 21 through 24 and rejoice with me. Thus,
my heart was grieved when I thought about how foolish I behaved.
And I was pricked in my reins when I thought about how carnal
I was thinking. So foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before you,
Lord. David's talking to God. Lord, I was acting just like
a lost man, like I didn't know you, like you hadn't blessed
me with all sorts of blessings already. Nevertheless, nevertheless, I am continually
in your presence. Shouting words right there. Nevertheless,
the Lord has not forsaken me. He hasn't let me go. I'm still
Coram Deo. I cut the lights off. He cut
them back on. I hide behind the couch. He moved
the couch. That's his faithfulness to me.
Nevertheless, I'm continuing and you have holding me by my
right hand. God doesn't let go of his elect,
though he will let the storms tear their butt out, he doesn't
let them go. You see my point? Very important
for us to get this. Point number four, I need to
move on. Point number four in our outline. This is a long proposition,
but you need to get it because Paul is driving home a critical
point. The non-repentant religionists do misrepresent the righteous
judgment of God. The non-repented religionists
do misrepresent the righteousness of God. If you guys are understanding
the trend of our thinking, you understand that Paul is arguing
for God's right to punish every single human being because of
their sin. and that God has a right to punish those who are in covenant
with Him because of their sin too. And that every time you
and I practice sin and then justify it by some doctrine or some set
of assumptions on God's part, that you and I are misrepresenting
the righteous judgment of God. You guys hear me right? We're
misrepresenting. See, watch this. Every time I
sin and I tell somebody, God's not gonna punish me, I'm lying
on God. I'm lying on God! I'm not glorifying
him in this area of his nature and character, which must be
glorified. See, we have a present church
age that's teaching this, that God loves everybody and God never
punishes sins. God is no longer angry with us.
Have you heard it? They constantly teach that. As
if somehow God didn't close the courtroom down, the judgment
throne has been put in the back warehouse somewhere way in eternity.
And God's not going to bring the whole human race to stand
before him on the last day. This is a horrible, horrible,
horrible atrocity committed against the nature of God. Not only is
it an atrocity committed against the nature of God, it's an actual
travesty committed against humanity. Because I don't care how much
we try to frame and shape a loving God who would not send us to
hell, God's going to send a whole bunch of people to hell. That's
Paul's trend. A couple more basic points I
want to develop. The non-repentant religionists misrepresent the
righteous judgment of God. Why? Their rebellion is declared
sin also. Look at verse 7 and 8. For if
the truth of God hath more bounded through my lie unto his glory,
why yet am I also judged as a what? Saints, stay right there. I hear
it too frequently. by pastors who do not understand
comprehensively the nature of God's revelation. So some of
you have come from churches where you are told, don't say that
you're a sinner anymore now that you're saved. Every time you
make that statement, you deny God's glory in the area of his
judgment against sin. Do you hear me? When you say,
no, I'm not a sinner anymore, I'm the righteousness of God.
Yeah, you might be that, but you're still a sinner. So let's tell the whole truth,
not half the truth, because if you say half the truth, hiding
the other truth, you're a liar. And religious folk love to lie.
Furthermore, most of what you do is sin anyway. If you do a
smidgen of righteousness, a smidgen of it, it's so shrouded over
by your lies and your laziness and your carnality and your fleshliness
that nobody can see that little sliver of righteousness you're
doing. And certainly it's not going to merit favor with God.
So what are we who are saved people? We are sinners saved
by the grace of God, covered in Christ's righteousness, imputed
with his spirit, imparted with his spirit, ready for glory,
but we still struggle with a sinful nature. And wherever we recognize
sin, we agree with God that it must be punished. It must be
punished. And whether you believe this
doctrine or not, follow this, God punishes his own people. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of a living God. As the scripture says, God will
judge his what? People. Hebrews chapter 12. Read
it for yourself. God judges his own people. And
if you're a true believer, isn't that true? Doesn't God discipline
you? Doesn't he chastise you? David knew it imminently. I'm
almost there. Stay with me. I'm so glad I got
your attention. Notice what the apostle says
in his argument. For if the truth of God more abounds through my
life unto his glory, why am I yet judged as a sinner? Because we
are. And not rather, as we slanderously
are reported of, as some affirm that we say, watch this, let
us do what? That good may come of it. Stop right there. Some
affirm that what we're going around saying is, we can live
like hell because the grace of God's going to abound over our
hell anyway. Because Christ died. He's put away our sins. And the
judgment now is going away. So we can live like we want to
because God's going to justify us. Now, Paul said that was a
slanderous charge laid against grace people. by those who are
legalist. And that's true that it's a slanderous
charge laid against grace people by those who are legalist. Are
you following me? We do not say, let us sin that grace may abound.
Watch this, but some do. Let me, let me, can I build this
point for, I read an article on our website a couple of months
ago, it's on the Facebook, where Brother had written talking about
what Christians do. And he made mention of how all
believers do this. All believers do that. All believers
do that. Sounds so good. All believers always come to
church on time. No, they don't. All believers are eager to study
the word of God. No, they don't. All believers
always obey God. No, they don't. That's an absurd
statement to take an absolute and apply it to all saints. We
don't always do anything right. It's true in a tenor of our life,
but it's not true across the board. See, and so we can't make
those statements, saints, to a real world of human beings
who's trying to actually find the truth and make out as if
we don't fail to keep God's word. We do fail to keep it. And many
of us are true believers. It's just true. Just true. We need help. Every time we do
it, God deserves to punish us. Because we are distorting the
truth, suppressing the truth. And every time you do something
that's defective in the sight of God and someone looks at you
turn to, hey, don't do what I'm doing, because this will send
you to hell. Tell him that. Well, I thought you're a Christian.
Yeah, I'm supposed to be, but I'm not acting like one now. So I
might end up in hell. And if I do, here's the reason
why. You know what you'll be doing? You'll be glorifying God. You'll be glorifying God. You'll be glorifying God. Don't
bring God down to your raggedy life and say God has to justify
it. This is what Paul is saying. This is what he's saying. He's
saying simply tell the truth. The lights are cut on so everybody
can know we're all headed to the judgment. And when you get
there, what will be your argument? Are you hearing me? That's where
he's going. And in the process of getting
there, we're supposed to tell the truth. Now listen to the
last part. He says, And not rather as we
be slanderously ported of, as some affirm that we say, Let
us do evil that good may come of it. Watch this. Whose damnation
is what? Well, whose damnation? The people
who make the false accusation that we're going around saying,
Let us do evil that good may come of it? Or the people who
are actually doing evil thinking that good may come of it? Both. Both. Did you guys get that? Vote. The damnation is just on
people who slander people who believe in justification by faith
alone, in grace alone, by Christ alone, apart from works, and
suggest that we are simply establishing an opportunity to live like hell,
hoping that we get to glory. Their damnation is just. The
damnation of people who embrace or adopt the gospel propositionally,
but still live like hell, assuming that they're going to get the
glory just because they have the gospel, their damnation is
just as well. You guys got that? All right,
let's move on to our last two points. Our next point then in
our outline. Under the non-repentant religionists
misrepresent the righteous judgment of God, Their rebellion is declared
sin, Paul says, because of that we have no justifiable or at
least no logical syllogistic response to the idea that our
sin somehow merits the favor of God. Secondly, God's judgments
are first on the what? Yes, indeed. First Peter chapter
4 verse 17. Judgment begins first in the
household of God. That's why when you enter into
the covenant fellowship of the church, you find the severity
of God's judgments working far more severely than you do when
you're in the outside of the world. You remember how you used
to live outside of the kingdom of God, outside of the church,
and you could just live like hell? Didn't seem like nothing
was happening. Just going, because God didn't have his hand on you.
It was a downhill slide into the pit. Felt good. It was fun. God saved you, now you're going
uphill. And every time you hit a snag or something, God's on
you. Well, that's because he's sanctifying you. And that's because
a holy God will dwell with the holy people. And that's because
he's shaking kingdoms and folks who are not his are going to
fall off. That's the nature of the gospel.
This is why Jesus, when he started his ministry, said, keep up.
Because by the time I'm done with my three and a half years,
only a handful of people will be with me. And that's the nature
of the life of the child of God. For those of you who've been
around for a while, you know that, right? People come and go. Because their goal
is not eternity. Their goal is a temporary blessing
of which either when God gives it, they take off, or when God
doesn't give it, they take off. For the time has come that judgment
must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us,
what shall the end of them that obey not the gospel be? That's
where Paul is taking us. Quickly now, let me go. Finally,
the last sub point under Category 4, perversion of grace is evident
in some. Is that true? A perversion of
grace is evident in some. And if you and I were starkly
honest, a perversion of grace isn't evident in all. Is that
true? A perversion of grace is evident
in all, even though we may not want it to be. Sometimes we pervert
the grace of God, justifying our own claims, our own goals,
our own plans. Sometimes our hearts are so hardened towards
what we want, we just disregard what God has called us to do.
At that point, we're just like the person who has adopted a
wholesale system of rebellion against God. It's true. I just
say that because I know where I'm going. You may not know where
you're going, but I know where we're all going. We're getting
ready to go to the judgment. And by the time we get there,
in five more minutes, I want everyone in the room to agree
with me that apart from the grace of God in Christ, going to hell. The rebellion is declared sin
also, so we can't say let us sin that grace may abound. God's
judgments are first on the church and and if that be the case where
will the ungodly be? Hebrews 10 30 12 28 29. Thirdly,
a perversion of grace is evident in some. Romans 6 1, what shall
we sin that grace may abound? Galatians 5 13, let us not use our grace or our liberty as an
occasion for the lust of the flesh. Jude chapter 1, 3, there
are some who have crept in unawares, who have turned the grace of
God into lasciviousness, perverting the grace of God. And then finally,
1 John chapter 3, 7 through 10, read it in your own time. For
this cause was the Son of God manifested, that He might take
away our sins. Beloved, be not deceived. He
that doeth righteousness is of God. He that does not do righteousness
is not of God, but of the devil. It's very clear. Very clear. Next point. Next point. Here
we go. All are guilty by decree, nature,
and deeds. Is that true? We're guilty by
decree. The wages of sin is death. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The soul that
sinneth, it shall die. God looked among the humanity
and he didn't find one righteous. Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20, our
elders quoted it earlier. There's not a just man upon the
earth that doeth good and sinneth not. We're all guilty by decree,
but we're also guilty by what? Born and conceived in sin. We come out of our mother's womb
speaking lies. We're like little vipers spitting
at mama and daddy. If we had poison under our tongues,
when we bite our parents, they would die. Born sinners through
and through. Now, verses 9 through 22, I'm
not going to do today, but I should because it's the text that most
solid theologians use to argue absolute, total, and comprehensive
human depravity. What Paul is about to do as he
winds his argument up is to demonstrate that all of us collectively,
every one of us, are so vile in our natures, so sinful and
corrupt in our natures, that not one of us or all of us together
could muster up one righteous deed before God. From the beginning
of time to the present hour, we are all so thoroughly corrupt
in our nature that if God was to take the whole human race
and put us in a vat and squeezed us to squeeze out the juice to
see if he could find one ounce of righteousness, he would look
and go, not a drop. I'm talking about from the beginning
of time to the end of time, take us all and just put us in the
vat and squeeze. with omnipotence to squeeze to
see if he can get one drop of righteousness, not a drop. That's how depraved we are. And
from this reflection, we begin to actually, as it were, now
mount up several critical doctrines to glorify God and show you your
desperate state. Let me just run through these
briefly. He says in verse 9 and 10, we have proved, that is,
we have charged or accused that all are guilty. Chapters 1 and
2, you guys believe that? We're guilty. Condemned. Point
B, the absolute depravity of all humanity is wrapped up in
our verses. Look at chapter 9, verse 11.
Verse 10 through 14. Mark what he says. As it is written,
there is what? None righteous, no, not one. Do you see that? Call it double
negative in the Greek. And literally it can be translated
this way. No, not even one righteous man in all of humanity, not even
one. And then he begins to describe.
Our depravity. There's none that understand.
There's none that seek after God. There's none that are profitable. There's none that what do with
good? No, not. One, the human race
is in trouble, isn't it? Now watch this. Watch this, Saint.
Their throat is an open sepulcher. Do you know what that means?
When we open our mouths and talk, we stink like hell because out
of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speak. And the
corruption is of such a nature to a holy God that you and I
are living dead people whose rotting corpses emanate with
the stench of sin and vileness at such an abhorrent level that
we should never even remotely once contemplate that God somehow
likes what we're saying. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
They have used deceit. Not me. Yeah, you. The poison
of asp is under their lips. whose mouth is full of cursing,
not me, yeah, you, and bitterness. Their feet are swift to what?
Share blood, not me, yeah, you. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes, not me, yes, you. You see how Paul describes the
anatomy and the social pathology of the whole human race. Every
one of us fit this description individually and collectively.
This makes our case absolutely lock sure that if we face the
judgment of God, we're going to hell. Listen to it. Now we know that whatsoever things
the law said is said to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may be what? Before God. Do you see what he
does? He brings the whole human race
in his argument to this one place where we're standing before God.
And here's what God will say, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty,
guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty to every one of us who are willing
to stand there and plead our own case. So stay with me now
because I'm done here. The only persons that are going
to stand before God on that day like that are the people who
are willing to plead their own case. These are the people who
on that day will actually confess Jesus as Lord. The people who
are not there are the people who are willing today to confess
Jesus as Lord. To confess that they are sinners.
To confess that they are bankrupt. To confess that the only way
to glory is through the person and work of Jesus Christ. That
God might be justified in His sayings and overcome when He
judges. As Psalm 51 puts it, of which
David said in that Psalm, I confess my sins Against you and you only
have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. I am so guilty
Oh God a rebellion and sin against you God you're right. Your judgments
are right I deserve to go to hell and I say it openly in order
that you might be justified in your saints That you might be
righteous in your judgment. Are you ready? But Lord have
mercy on me wash me cleanse me purge me And God did it. God did it. What's the point? Confess now
or confess later. Amen.