I want you to think with me this
morning on this subject. Ruin and redemption. Keep that on your mind. Ruin
and redemption. Ruined by sin and redeemed by
blood. Ruined by ourselves. The Lord
told Israel. You have ruined yourself, and you shall be redeemed without
money. Ruin and redemption. I want us
to begin reading in chapter 3 of Romans and verse 9. Paul had been speaking of the
Jews and the Gentiles, and then he said, Are we Jews? Paul was a Jew. Are we Jews better
than they Gentiles? No, in no wise, for we have proved
before, both the Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.
As it is written, there is none righteous, 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 grave,
sepulchre. With their tongues they have
used deceit, the poison of asp 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 they have
not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Now we know that whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. For by the law
is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, it's revealed, it's made known,
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 All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness. that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law
of faith. Verse 9, Are we better than they? This was a debate that had been
going on between the Jews and the Gentiles for centuries. Are the Jews better than the
Gentiles? Well, they had the advantage.
The Jews definitely had the advantage. We're told there in verse 2,
when he said in verse 1, what profit is there then of being
a Jew? Verse 2, much every way. Because unto them were committed
the words of God, the oracles of God. God gave them prophets
and gave the Jews His Word. They had the history. They had
the recorded history of how the world was made. God revealed
to Moses, and Moses wrote it down, in the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And He gave that to the Jewish
nation. They had the promises and they
had the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. the way of redemption. They had the Word that revealed
to them the nature of God, the character of God, the Trinity
of His person. They had the Word that told them
of the new birth, what God was going to do for sinners. I will
give you a new heart and a new spirit. They had great advantages
All through the Old Testament that the Gentiles didn't have.
But Paul said, did that make them any different? Did that
make them any better than the Gentiles? No, he said. No. Look what he says in verse
9 again. Are we better than they? No,
in no wise. They had the advantage, but their
advantage didn't make them any better. I tell you, if you've
got a Bible to read this morning in your house, you've got the
advantage over a lot of people. You can come here and hear the
gospel preached Sunday after Sunday. You've got the advantage
over a lot of people. There's a lot of places to go
here in Newcastle and in this world that you can't hear the
gospel. And those are blessed advantages. But does that make
you any better than anybody else? Receiving these advantages, and
by grace, these advantages can greatly profit us, but they don't
make us any better, do they? The Jews' advantages made them
no better than the Gentiles. That's what Paul said. And he
goes ahead to say we have before proved in chapters 1 and chapters
2, he said we've proved, both Jew and Gentile, that we are
all under sin. Jews are under sin, and the Gentiles
are under sin. Under sin is dominion, and under
sin is guilt. Look here what he says in chapter
2, and look in verse 17. Here's what he says about the
Jews. The Jews are under the dominion
of sin. They had the law, God gave them
the Ten Commandment Law by Moses, but they didn't keep it. It was
enough for them to have it, but none of them kept it. They bragged
about having it, but none of them kept it. And all it did
was just condemn them. Just condemn them. It made them
worse off in a sense than they were before they got it. Look
here at what Paul says to them in verse 17 of chapter 2. Behold,
you are called a Jew. I'm writing to you, you Jews.
And you rest in the law. That's where your confidence
is. And you make your boast of God, and you say, we know His
will. And you approve the things that
are more excellent being instructed out of the law. And thou art
confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind. a light
to them which set in darkness, and an instructor of the foolish,
a teacher of babes, you have the knowledge of the truth of
the law." Boy, they were teachers weren't they? And Christ said Himself, said,
whatever they tell you to do, you do it, but don't you do like
they do, because they say and do not. They're teachers, but
they don't teach themselves. Look what he says in verse 21.
Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest, the man
should not steal. Yet do you steal? Yes, they stole. They stole from widows their
money. They stole from Christ His honor
and His rightful place as the Messiah and the head of the nation,
the King of the country. They stole glory from God. They
were thieves. They were thieves. Verse 22,
Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou
commit adultery? Sure they did. They sat on the
street corners in their big robes, and people went by to see them
pray. And all the time in their hearts
they were lusting. Lusting. Committing adultery
in their hearts. Breaking the law. Do you teach
that men should abhor idols, and all the time you yourself
are committing sacrilege? Do you worship in yourself your
covetousness? Thou that makest thy boast of
the law, through breaking the law dishonest thou God. For the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. He proved to
them, you Jews have got great advantage, but you're so sinful. You've got the law, but you break
it. You don't honor it. And look what he says about the
Gentiles. Look in chapter 2 and look in
verse 14. Here's what he says about the
Gentiles. Look in verse 14. For when the
Gentiles, which have not the law, they don't have the written
law. You and I have got the Ten Commandments,
haven't we? Sometimes putting the little
plaque on our wall. You know that never was given
to the Gentile. The Gentile people never had
the law of God written out that they could read it. But you know
something? It was in you. It was in you. The conscience. That's what he's
going to say. When the Gentiles which have
not the law do by nature the things contained in the law,
these having not the written law are law unto themselves,
which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile
accusing or else excusing. God has left men a conscience. They may never read the Ten Commandments
law, but you know what they know? You know what man knows? He should
honor God. He should worship God and God
only. He should never sin and do harm
to his fellow man. He should never steal. He should
never lie. He should never bear false witness.
Man knows that. You say, Bruce, are you sure
about that? Well, look over in chapter 1. Look in chapter 1. Look in verse 18. 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 revealed in them, it's manifested in them, for God hath
showed it unto them. For the invisible things of God
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things which are made, even His eternal power and divinity,
so that they are without excuse. Men may not have the law written
down, but He's got it in you. And God works through a man's
conscience, and reproves him, and judges
him, and condemns him because of sin. Now how does that work? I don't know. I have no idea. It takes place down in the secret
places of a man's soul. You may never see it, but a man
knows. A man knows he's done wrong. A man knows that he's not morally
right. He may hide it, he may make excuses,
but God has made him know it. And I'll tell you when it will
come out. I'll tell you when it will be
made plain at the judgment. Man uses excuses here. He goes
on in his sins and makes excuses for it. But down inside his heart,
down in the recesses of his soul, he knows he is without excuse.
Look back over here in chapter 2. One more place. Look in verse 12. As many as have sinned without
this written law, like the Jews have. They have no written law,
but they have it in their conscience. As many as have sinned without
law shall also perish without law. As many as have sinned in the
law, they read it and they know they've sinned. They shall be
judged by the law. When will all this take place?
Look in verse 16. In the day when God shall judge
the secrets of them. by Jesus Christ. That's what
we're talking about, isn't it? Men are under sin. Men are under
the guilt and the dominion of sin. Jews and Gentiles, everybody
is without excuse. When you and I are born into
this world and we live into this world, I don't care who we are,
I don't care what we are, it's evident No matter what advantages
we have or do not have, it's evident that we are under the
dominion and guilt of sin. Nobody's innocent. Nobody's innocent. Everybody is without excuse. Now, Paul isn't content here.
with giving us this general statement that Jews and Gentiles are under
the dominion and guilt of sin. But here through verses 10 through
verse 18, he quotes from the Word of God. And he does that
now to prove Not only in a general sense is everybody under sin,
but he comes here now and he takes the Word of God and he
proves that each and every individual is under the dominion of sin.
He doesn't want to make a general statement. He wants to bring
it home to each of our hearts. What is my condition? As I'm
born into this world and live, I'm under sin's dominion. I'm
under its guilt. I've often wondered why the Apostle
Paul took all of this time. He basically, in the 17th verse
of the first chapter, all the way through half of this third
chapter, and all he deals with is sin. All he deals with is
the wrath of God and the judgment of God upon man because of sin. And I've often wondered, why
does he take all of this time? Because it's essential for us
to know that we are ruined. And one of the most difficult things,
the impossible thing, to bring men to the knowledge of is that
we are ruined by sin. I say impossible because I can't
do it. It takes the Holy Ghost to do
it. And Paul spends all of his time, and I think that's an indication
for us, that boy, sometimes we need to get into it. As dark
as it is, as black as it is, are ruined by sin. So he goes
on here and he begins in verse 10. And notice how he begins
with each individual. He begins with this negative.
In verse 10, as it is written in God's Word in the Psalms and
in the Prophets, there is none righteous, no, not one. Isn't it very interesting and
telling that when the Lord begins to describe us, it's in a negative
way. He's not telling us so much what
we've done. He's not telling us what we're
doing that's so wrong or what we are. But He's telling us what
we are not. He begins by saying, I'm not
going to tell you how bad you are, but I'm going to start by
telling you how sorry that you are. Not what you are or what
you've done, but what you've lost. God made us upright. He made us good back there in
the garden. And He looked at us. He looked
at us and He said, very good. But sin entered. And it spread
throughout every individual in this world. And we lost everything. And I tell you the main thing
that we lost was our righteousness. Our justice. Our holiness. Our goodness. That's what we
lost. Verse 10, if there's ever a verse
that teaches us that there's no inherent goodness in us, this
verse teaches that. By nature, we do not have any
inherent righteousness. We've lost it. We're without
it. Now in verse 11 through verse
18, what he's going to do is basically give us the effects
of a lost righteousness. There is none righteous. What's
the effects of that? Does it have any consequences?
How does that affect an individual who has no righteousness? Well, notice this. First of all,
in verse 11, Notice how this affects his intellect. There
is none that understandeth. What's happened to our intellect?
We don't understand God. We know nothing of His true character. We know nothing of true worship. I gave a man a track. I have
a track. And it's the most simple tract
that I think anybody has ever written. And I gave it to a man
and asked him to read it. And I saw him a couple of days
later. And he said, I read that tract. More than once I read
it. But he said, I don't understand it. I just can't understand it. And I told him, I said, neither
could I. Here is our problem. The natural
man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They're
foolishness to him. He cannot know them because they
are spiritually discerned. Why is the world so confused
today? Look at the world, brothers and
sisters. It's confused. It's going in every direction.
Wanting peace. Seeking every avenue to be satisfied. And I tell you, the world is
deceived. It's deceived itself. The devil is deceived and the
world is willing to have it so. Why do we have so many denominations
today that are opposed one to another? Look at the religions
that we have. What is our problem today? Paul
tells us here. This is our problem. We lost
our righteousness. And the consequences of that
is this. The understanding of God and
truth is gone. We've lost it. We have lost it. I have tried to learn as a pastor,
as a preacher, to make truth as simple as I can. I've tried
not to draw attention to myself as I preach. I've tried to make
things as clear as I can. But as clear as I can make it,
I know here this morning, if the Lord does not open your heart,
you're not going to understand a thing about what I'm saying. I know that because I've been
right where you are. I've been right where you are. And notice this in the second
portion of verse 11. Not only is there none that understandeth,
look at this, there is none that seeketh, after God. Here's the consequences of us
not being good, us not having righteousness, us lost our righteousness. There is none that seeketh after
God. What does this deal with? Well,
it deals with our will and our affection. Paul deals with three
crucial problems that we face by nature. Here's the crucial
problem. There's three of them. One is
our intellect. We don't understand God. We don't
know how to come to God. We don't know what God requires.
We don't know the way of peace and redemption. We don't understand.
And number two, it's a matter of our will. There is none that seeketh after
God. Why not? We hear free will cried
up all around us, don't we? The power of it. The freedom
of it. Just exercise your will. That's
all you've got to do. Well, why won't men come to God?
Why won't men seek God? You know, we're told to. We're
commanded to seek Him. We have the promise when we seek
Him with all of our hearts, we'll find Him. We're told how to seek
Him through Christ. Then why won't men seek God?
It's a matter of the will. The Lord Jesus said, you will
not come to Me that you might have life. Whatever man's will
is, brothers and sisters, it's not good. He's in bondage to
it. It's sinful. But then there's this matter,
these three things, the understanding and the will and the affection. Why won't a man seek God? He's
our Creator. Seek your Creator in the days
of your youth. He's our sustainer. He's provided
for everything we have. He's good to us. He's gracious
to us. Why won't we seek Him? You know
why a man won't seek God. He has no affection for Him.
He has no love for Him. That's why. The Lord Jesus, in
the very same breath that He says, you will not come to Me,
that you might have life, He says, I know you, that you don't
have the love of God in you. If a man had any affections in
his heart for God, he would run to it. He would seek it. Why
wouldn't he? He has none. He has not. What must take place? The understanding
must be opened. The will must be broken and converted. And the heart must be given love
for God in Christ. David said, I love the Lord,
and I'm going to seek after Him as long as I live. Why, David?
Because He's changed me. He's converted me. He's given
me a new heart. It wasn't a matter of one you
had, David. It wasn't righteous. I couldn't understand the things
of God with it. I had no will to come to Him.
I didn't love Him. But now He's changed me. He's
given me a new heart. Now I know Him, and I will to
follow Him, and I will love Him, and I'm going to seek Him all
the days of my life. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
we've got absolute need of a new birth. I'm going to tell you
the ruin of man requires a new birth. Just trying to do better
ain't going to do it. Turning over a new leaf ain't
going to do it. We've got to be born again. We need a new
heart. We must have a new heart. Ruin. Ruin. Look what he says in verse
12. All we like sheep have gone astray. That's what he said. They're
all gone out of the way. out of the way of truth, out
of God's way, the way of life. And they all together, look at
this, become useless. That's what that word means.
And good for nothing. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. If we're not good, we can't do
good, can we? The Lord said, make the tree good, and therefore
the fruit shall be good. Because you can't bring good
fruit off of a bad tree. A man who has lost his righteousness,
who don't seek God, don't know Him, don't believe Him, don't
love Him, can't do any good thing. It's impossible. Now in verses
13, look what it does. This is just our ruin. You see
what I'm saying? It's our ruin. And it begins
with what we've lost. And here's the consequences of
it. He likens our hearts here to an open grave. Their throat
is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they have used deceit,
and the poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness. My, what an awful condition we're
in. He likens the mouth here to the face of an open grave.
When you look down in a grave, what do you see there? Just imagine it. There's death
there, isn't there? There's ruin. There's decay. There's stench. What do we see when we look beyond
our throats? into that reservoir where words
come from through the throat into the lips. What do we see
when we look down in that? Death, bitterness, enmity. You just let somebody cross us. And if God don't give us grace,
you let something really bad that we perceive bad happens
to us. And if God don't give us grace,
I tell you what you'll feel. You'll feel this enmity bubbling
up in your soul. And if you don't choke it down,
if you can't keep it back, and if you can't hide it, and if
you can't hold it in, I'm telling you, He'll not only be filling
the mouth, but He'll be coming out. Bitterness. Cursing. You sorry, oh, we can't kill
people. That's unlawful. But we can hate
them, can't we? We can hate them. And just let that go unchecked. And what does it lead to? Destruction
and misery. Why do we have killings? In our
own family, why do we have one nation warring with another nation?
It's because of what we've lost. Righteousness. It's because of
what we are. We're poor sinners. Miserable sinners. Verse 17. The way of peace. God's way of peace. They have
not known. Oh, they want peace. The world
is seeking peace, aren't they? Anybody that's got any sense
wants some peace and quietness in his life. But they don't know
how to obtain true peace. God's the author of it. Jesus
Christ procured it on the cross by His blood. The Holy Spirit
brings it and gives a measure of it to believers. But the lost
don't know that. They don't understand that. And look at this, what a way
in verse 18 to sum up the ruin of man. What a fitting way to
sum it up. When we go to someone and we
confront them with these truths, here's what God says about you.
Here's God's testimony and God's estimation of you. He says you're
under the dominion of sin and that He's angry with you every
day. And you're going to face Him
in judgment and give account of the secret things in your
heart. And what's their reaction? I ain't too worried about that. I've got more pressing issues.
Indifference or even sometimes rebellion. And what's the problem? No fear of God. No reverence
for God. I'm telling you what, when the
conscious becomes awakened, Men don't sleep in their sins. You
may go to bed, but you'll toss and turn. And you may be praying,
God, don't let me die before in the morning. You may go to
work and say, oh God, don't let this beam fall on me. Because
I ain't right. I'm ruined. I'm lost. Paul goes here now in verse 19
and verse 20. And he basically tells us there's
no use for us going to the Ten Commandments. And there's no use for us consulting
our conscience and trying to convince ourselves that there's
something we can do about our dilemma. That's what he tells
us in these two verses. Our ruin by sin is so feral,
it's so complete, and our hearts are so corrupted and weakened
that our only hope is obtaining a righteousness that is found
outside of ourselves and apart from us. No sense running to
the commandments. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in His sight." No sense going to the
conscience and saying, well, I've been bad, but I'm going
to mend my ways. I'm going to get my act together.
I'm going to be a better person. Brothers and sisters, it's not
there. You're just going to go deeper and deeper and deeper
in that dark hole. You and I, by nature, are in
a terrible dilemma. We are ruined by sin. The judgment
of God is upon us and there is not one single thing that we
can do about it. What a dilemma that we are in.
What an awful dilemma that we are in. Look in verse 21. But now, but
now, O God be thanked, God be thanked. for these two little
words. Tremendous little words. 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 the faith
of Jesus Christ, it's unto all, and it's upon all them that believe. There is a righteousness. And
it comes out of heaven to me. And it becomes personally mine. And not only is it mine, but
it clothes me. It covers my shame and my nakedness. But now... Oh, what a precious
word this little but is. You and I have been talking about
the ruin of man. How ruined we are. And it just
saddens you. Don't it sadden you? If I'd have
gone on for ten more minutes, you had about all you could take.
I'm that way too. It just almost brings you to
the brink of despair and darkness. And then suddenly, This little word, it stops their
downward spiral. We've been going down, down in
this black hole of our hearts, and suddenly here comes this
little word. But, wait a minute, Paul says, wait a minute, God
knows your dilemma. He's well acquainted with your
ruin, but He's done something about it. He's provided a righteousness. And upon believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ, it reaches all the way from Him to you. And
it becomes yours. And it saves you. And it clothes
your shame. And gives you a perfect standing
before God. But God. Ain't that a wonderful
but? Have you ever been sitting by
your big picture window? And it's so cloudy outside. The
sun is hid behind the dark clouds. And because it is, you're so
melancholy. You're just sitting there, and
you're so down. And suddenly, here comes the
sun, and it bursts out behind that cloud, and it changes everything,
doesn't it? It changes your whole outlook
and your emotions. Everything's fine. Why? Because
the dark cloud is gone, and the sun is shining. That's the way
this little but is. This gloom of what we are. Discouragement
that we face with looking at ourselves. But now, but God. But God. Ain't that a wonderful
thing? Redemption. Ruin, but redemption. Light in our darkness. Hope in
our despair. But now. And not only but now,
not only but, but now. This word means immediately. It means just now. Right now. We get ourselves in financial
trouble. We're ready to declare bankruptcy. What do we do? We
go to some financial advisor. And what does he tell us? He
said, well, you've not got in this mess overnight, and you're
not going to get out of it overnight. Or sometimes we're slothful,
and we don't eat right or exercise, and we go to our doctor, and
he said, boy, you really went downhill this last year. It's
going to take you a year or so of eating better and exercising
to get out of the mess you've got yourself in. But God looks
upon our dilemma, and as awful as it is, He says, just now,
I've got the remedy for you. I'm not asking you to labor.
I'm not asking you to get in some program and better yourself. I'm telling you, I've got the
remedy, and it's an immediate remedy. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and just now, you that had no righteousness will have
a perfect righteousness. How many times somebody came
to the Lord Jesus, and it was said immediately, He made them
whole. Immediately, the lepers were
cleansed. Immediately, the blind was made
to see. That's how He saves. And why
wouldn't it be immediately? What could we add to it? This
righteousness is a perfect righteousness. You don't need and you cannot
add anything to it. It's a ready righteousness. It's
one that's already been worked out. It's perfect. If you had
to add anything to it, okay, it would take a while. But he
says just now, upon believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, this
righteousness becomes yours. And it justifies you, it saves
you, it clothes you. This righteousness doesn't come
to us and save us by some process or some religious activities
and deeds that we do. It comes to us immediately. immediately. And this righteousness is the
person, and it's the redeeming work of the Son of God. And it's
a perfect righteousness. We do not amend it or add it
to it. We simply receive it by an empty
hand of faith. That's the way it's received. Paul is so anxious for us to
see this. He goes on and on and on about
it here in these chapters. Look in chapter 4. He goes on
and on and on. Paul, how can we have this righteousness
of God? Look in chapter 4. Look in verse
4. Look in verse 3. Chapter 4 and
verse 3. What saith the Scripture? Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
debt. The more you try to do to be
righteous, the more debt you're going to incur. Verse 5, but
to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Look over
in verse 20. Abraham, verse 19, he was not
weak in faith. He considered not his own body
now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but Abraham was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what God had promised
he was able to perform, and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Now, it wasn't written for his sake alone that it was imputed
to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. And you
just read on through these chapters, and he continually, with a heart,
men believe unto righteousness. or to be found in Christ, not
having my own righteousness. How do I get in Christ? Believe
on Him. Believe on Him. Trust Him. You say, Bruce, you're talking
about that all the time. You know why I talk about that? That's
the only remedy for our condition. That's the only cure for our
ills. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you've got Him and you've
got His righteousness. Here in chapter 3 and verse 21,
Paul calls this the righteousness of God. And I'll hurry and I'll
close. He calls this the righteousness of God because God's the author
of it. God's the planner of it. And
the Son of God is the very one who brought it into this world
and worked it out. And the Spirit of God is the
one that gives us grace to believe it. Let me ask you a question. I wish somebody asked me this
when I was lost. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever heard
of this before? I preached this to my dad for probably 20 years. And one day he asked me, what
are you talking about? Have you ever heard that you
must be saved by the righteousness of somebody else? Have you ever
heard that before? You know, that's the gospel.
That's the gospel. This world is trying to save
itself. But God never intended to save anybody that way. He
saves us through the righteousness of somebody else. And it consists
of these two things. It consists of perfect obedience
and redemption. Let me show you those two things.
Look here in chapter 5. Perfect obedience. But you say,
Bruce, I've tried it. I've tried it. I can't perform
it. No, you can't. And I'm glad you
finally found that out. You can't perform it. But there's
One who did. There's One who came into this
world down from heaven, and He lived a perfect life. He said to the Father, Lo, I
come to do Thy will. Your law is within my heart.
I delight to do Your will. And from the cradle to the cross,
I'm telling you what, He rendered perfect obedience to everything
God required. Glenn read it to us this morning.
He being found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself and became
obedient unto death. You and I, our whole problem
as brothers and sisters is disobedience. When we're born into this world,
we're disobedient to our parents, we're disobedient to the civil
government, we hide things, we're disobedient to God. That's our
whole problem. And God has judged us for it.
But here comes one, a representative, who came and stood in our place
and said, My Father, I'll obey. I'll obey perfectly. And the
father looked upon him and he said, My son, I've delighted
in you something awful. You displeased me to death. Never,
he said, never in the history of humanity have I seen anybody
please me like you please me. And the Lord Jesus said, My father,
I'm not doing this for myself. I'm doing it for those who will
believe on me. Look what he says now in chapter 5. As by one man's
disobedience, Adam disobeyed. Many were made sinners. So, in
the very same way, by the obedience of one, Jesus Christ, shall many
be made righteous. You're made righteous by somebody
else's obedience. You can't ask for anything better
than that, can you? That's why it comes suddenly. That's why
it can come right now. Because his obedience has been
rendered. He's finished it and he's in
heaven. Back over in chapter 3. Redemption. Redemption. See what he says
in verse 24? Being justified freely by His
grace. That's why God did it. You don't
marry it. We can't earn it. It's freely
by His grace. Through the redemption. that
is in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus rendered perfect
obedience, but you know something? That wasn't enough. That wasn't
enough. And here's the problem. All the disobedience against
God's law are debts. All the times that we had sinned
against this law of our conscience, those were debts against God.
And the law says, You can't save those people. You can't bless
those people. Not at my expense. I have to
be satisfied. I've got this whole drawer full
of debts, and somebody is going to have to pay it for Glenn Whitehead,
or I'm going to punish him. That's the just thing to do. What did the Lord Jesus do? He
said, I'll pay his debts. I've done lived his life. Now
I'll pay his debt." Do you know what his debts require? Jesus
of Nazareth, do you know what you've obligated yourself to
do? The wages of sin is death. That's what Glenn Whitehead owed.
Are you willing to go there, Jesus? Well, he lifted up his voice
on the cross, and he says, it's finished. It's finished. I've lived, and I've finished
it. And now I die, and I've redeemed him. We've been redeemed. We've ruined ourselves, brothers
and sisters, lot, stock and barrel. We are thoroughly and totally
ruined in ourselves. But we've been redeemed. How
I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite
mercy and the cause of His mercy, His child and forever I am. Redemption. Oh, if you've never
experienced it before, in your heart of hearts, may the Holy
Spirit this day open your understanding and give you faith to simply
lay hold of Christ. And say, Lord, I believe You.
You did it all a long, long time ago. And now I look to You. I look to You. Oh, Father, gracious
and wise Father, our redeeming God, the Father of our Savior
and our Lord, Oh, thank You for this precious Word. Thank You
for making us to realize that we are so ruined. We abhor it. We deplore it. It breaks our
heart. It saddens us. It brings us into
this awful darkness. But oh, thank You for sending
Your dear Son, Your holy Child who has redeemed us, at a great
cost to Himself. Oh, Lord, we believe You. We
cast our souls upon You. We trust You. We face death. We face hell. We face all our
enemies with confidence that You've redeemed us. That You've
provided all that we need for time and eternity in Your own
glorious Person. We bless Your holy name. We pray
today, our Father, that You would be gracious to those who are
sick. Those who are suffering in their bodies. And we pray
for those who are suffering in their souls. May the Lord comfort
them. May the Lord encourage them and
lift them up. Thank you for our health. Thank
you for this day your dear children and our dear friends are gathered
together to hear your word. Thank you for the food that you've
given us. Please bless it and give us a time of Friendship
and fellowship together, for Christ's sake we ask. Amen. I think Clarence suggested