I want to read here in Romans
1 beginning at verse 16. Paul having declared there in
verse 15 that he was ready to preach the gospel to those who
were there at Rome, the believers there, And he said in verse 16,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek, for therein, that is, in the gospel, is revealed
righteousness of God, from faith to faith, as it is written, that
just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them. For God 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 that are made. Even his eternal power and deity,
divinity, is Godhead, so that they are without excuse." Paul
makes this familiar statement here that you and I love in verse
16, the gospel. I am ready to preach the gospel,
for I am not ashamed, he says, of the gospel of Christ. You and I often refer to this
gospel as the gospel of the sovereign grace of God in Christ. What is this gospel? He tells
us there in the last part of verse 16, it is the power of
God. It's the force of God to salvation. The gospel is what saves an individual. When we think of that, when we
think of all that salvation entails, what can save an individual from
the wrath of God? What can save an individual from
his sin? What can save an individual from
the power of darkness? What can save an individual from
a guilty conscience? What is it that can save a son
of Adam? He tells us here, the gospel.
It's the force of God, the power of God unto salvation. And then he tells us there in
verse 17, for therein in the gospel, is the righteousness
of God revealed. Now, what does he mean by that?
In the gospel, the righteousness of God is manifested. It's made known. He doesn't mean
God's essential righteousness, God's holiness, or God's justice. You find that elsewhere. If that's
what the gospel revealed, that would scare us. It wouldn't save
us. But in the Gospel, the righteousness
of God is revealed. That is, the way He makes us
righteous is revealed. The righteousness which God has
provided us to save us. God has provided a righteousness
to save us with. This is the righteousness of
His Son. the person of his son, the work
of his son. This is the righteousness that
the gospel reveals to us. He saves us by the righteousness
of another. That's that righteousness that's
revealed in the gospel. You don't find that anyplace
else but in the gospel. Nature does not reveal that.
The philosophy of man does not reveal that. The law of God does
not reveal that. You only find this righteousness
by which God can save us revealed in the gospel, and it's the righteousness
of his Son. And how is this righteousness
obtained? How does it become ours? He tells
us there also in verse 17. The righteousness of God, this
imputed righteousness, is revealed from faith to faith. Now what
does he mean there? Now, when you begin this way,
when you begin the Christian way, there's but one way that
you can know the gospel, and that's by faith. There's aspects
of the gospel that you and I cannot possibly comprehend. We study
those from time to time. God being made flesh, who can
comprehend such things? Faith lays hold of that. The
work of another on our behalf is understood by faith. Jesus
Christ hanging on Calvary's tree, that's received by faith. We
believe that. And we not only believe that
and are justified by believing it, but we live by faith. We conduct faith in Christ and
we live by faith, from faith to faith. A faith that justifies
us to a faith we live by. The life I now live in this flesh,
I live by faith in the Son of God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of this gospel. I love this gospel. It's my hope,
it's my life, it's all my salvation. But now he comes here to verse
18, and he does something that he doesn't do in all of his other
epistles. This is amazing, and it's unusual
for the Apostle Paul to do that. You notice here, he suddenly
stops right in the midst of what he's saying about the gospel.
And he brings in this awful element, and he says this, For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. They suppress
the truth. And he begins here in this verse
and all the way through the second chapter, And up until the 20th
verse of the 3rd chapter, he completely leaves the gospel
of Christ. That's amazing that he does that.
Because every word you read of the Apostle Paul, his heart and
his pen is full of the gospel. That's all he talks about. But
here in verse 17, he leaves the Lord Jesus, he leaves the gospel
of grace and comfort And he begins to talk of the wrath of God,
the judgment of God, the anger of God, the vengeance of God. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. It's almost as if he comes here
to verse 18, and he checks himself, and he says, wait a minute. Wait
a minute. I know how I feel about the gospel.
I know how you at Rome feel about the gospel. But how does humanity
feel about the gospel? And the Apostle Paul knows how
humanity feels about the Gospel. He knows how the unregenerate
man feels about the Gospel. He tells us in the third chapter,
there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after
God. And he says this about them,
there is no fear of God before their eyes. In other words, they
don't feel their need in this Gospel. They don't think highly
of this gospel at all. So it's if he says this, why
should I go on telling you about this glorious gospel when humanity
does not feel its need of the gospel? They have no interest
in Jesus Christ and salvation by Him. So he begins here at
verse 18, and he exposes the sin of man and the wrath of God
against it. Paul talked in this epistle about
the love of God. The love of God is shed abroad
in our heart. He talked about the grace of
God. He talked in this epistle about the riches of His goodness,
and the riches of God's mercy, and the riches of His long-suffering. But what is the attitude of the
carnal mind towards these things? Does this world appreciate? Do
they understand? Do they crave to know more of
the riches of God's goodness and His long-suffering? Why,
no! This epistle tells us itself
that the carnal mind is enmity against the law of God. They despise the riches of His
goodness and forbearance. He tells us in chapter 2 verse
4. So we come here to verse 18, and he makes this statement.
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven. The anger of God,
the indignation of God, the vengeance of God is revealed from heaven
against every unrighteous thought, every ungodly word and deed spoken
by any man in this human race. So what am I saying this morning?
Those who feel no need of the gospel of Christ, those who neglect
the gospel of Christ, those who will not hear the gospel of Christ,
they must be confronted with this verse. The wrath of God
is revealed from heaven. I want to say this, brothers
and sisters, this morning, and I do say it at the risk of being
misunderstood. I know some will misunderstand
when I say this, but sometimes in our haste to give good news
to people we love, we rush too quickly to the gospel. And we preach the gospel and
we present the gospel to men who have no need of the gospel.
Who do not understand their need of the gospel. We're living in
a day of what we call sound bites. You see it on the media all the
time. Politicians. They complain that all the media
gives them time to do is just give a sound bite. They don't
have time to get the whole message out. So they're just reused to
these little sound bites. That's almost where we're at
today. In the matter of the gospel,
other things have entered in in the churches. And the gospel
has basically been reused to a sidebar or a footnote. I was talking with my neighbor
just the other day, and he was telling me that he was going
to New Orleans. The church was sending a group
of men there, I think the 34th time since they had the flood
in there. And they're involved in that.
And another one of my neighbors, I was talking to her, and her
church has a program and they're sending people to Honduras on
the medical, some medical relief. And we've got another church
that we were at just recently that have this program where
they have the food pantry. And they have one room where
they store clothing to help the poor. Now, what am I saying? Am I saying
there's something wrong in these things? Why, absolutely not.
It's commendable. These things are very, very commendable. But what you and I have seen
today, and we've seen happening in our day, we've seen these
programs, these social programs, that are good in and of themselves. Absolutely good. I will commend
those people for those programs. But we have seen these programs
so emphasized that they're taking place of the gospel. They're
being emphasized at the expense of the gospel, and the gospel
and the need of the gospel has been almost reduced to a footnote
or a simple sidebar. They just have time, basically,
to insert something about the gospel, or the love of God, or
the death of Christ. But it's just almost an insert
into their social program. Is that not right? Well, the Apostle Paul comes
here now, and he stops, and he intends to show
us not only the gospel and the glory of it, but he's going to
show us the need of the gospel. He's not going to reduce the
gospel to a simple side note. He's going to take his time and
spend almost two chapters and teach us our need of the gospel
of Christ. And that's what this world today,
that's what the congregations that we preach to must be confronted
with. There's a time in every generation
when we must go back and establish the need of the gospel. We're
offering Christ to people who do not want Christ. And as Brother
Barnard used to say, if you want to have him for a dollar, will
you take him for a quarter? We reduce the Lord Jesus and
his gospel to that, a simple sidebar. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven. Can you think of a more solemn
subject than the wrath of God? Can you have a more fearful thought
than to think what it would be like for the wrath of God to
be revealed against your sin? That's the most horrible thing
my mind can begin to imagine. And he says here the wrath of
God is revealed. Sometimes the wrath of God is
revealed openly. It's manifested against men's
ungodliness. When the angels had sinned, one
sin, the wrath of God was stirred up and He cast them out of hell
and reserved them in chains of God. When Adam had sinned in
the beginning, only one sin, he disobeyed God in aid of that
fruit. God ran him and our first mother
outside that garden and cursed the ground because of that sin. When a world of ungodly sinners
had come to fill up their sins, God destroyed that whole world
because of wrath against them. He reigned far and brimstone
out of heaven upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. That's
the wrath of God openly revealed against him. And the scripture
teaches us here in chapter 2, look at this in verse 4, that
there's coming a day also in which this wrath of God will
be exposed. He'll be revealed openly. Look
what he says in verse 4. Despises thou the riches of God's
goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy
hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up unto yourself
wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God." That's the day that God has set in which
He'll judge this world. And it says wrath will be exposed. The wrath of God will be exposed.
Depart from me ye cursed in the everlasting fire. That's the
vengeance of God. But here in verse 18 of chapter
1, it's not speaking of God's wrath openly manifesting, but
His wrath is revealed in the conscience of an individual.
Not openly upon their bodies, Not to punish their souls, but
the wrath of God is revealed to the conscience of an individual. And look what he says here in
the last part of verse 18. Who hold the truth. They suppress
the truth. God's wrath is revealed to the
conscience, and they suppress the truth. They know it in a
moral sense, And they suppress it. And in verse 19 he says this,
Because that which may be known of God, what can be known of
God? Every lost man knows this to
some degree. That God is the moral judge of
this universe. We're all responsible to Him. To love Him, to obey Him, to
enjoy Him forever. That which may be known of God,
that He's the moral judge, is manifested were in them. For God hath showed it to them. Now, it's not my responsibility
this morning to explain to us how this could be. But it's my
responsibility simply to proclaim it, and if every lost man will
be honest, his conscience will bear witness to the truth of
it. That he knows the truth morally. He knows that God is the moral
judge of this universe. And what does that do? What does
that do? Look in verse 20. For the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power and divinity, so that they are without excuse." See that? Men are without excuse. Now,
look over in chapter 2 with me for just a minute. Look over
here in chapter 2. Where is the wrath of God manifested? How does God show it? He doesn't
show it openly. He very, very seldom does that.
But where does He show it? Well, look here in verse 13 of
chapter 2 and verse 14 and verse 15. Look at this. Not the hearers
of the law are just before God. But the doers of the law shall
be justified. For when the Gentiles," the non-Jew,
that's us, which have not the written law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these having not the law are
a law unto themselves. which show the work of the law
written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness,
and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one
another." What is the work of the law? What is the work of the law?
He says here, they show the work of the law written in their hearts. What is the work of the law?
Let me show you one verse. Look in chapter 4. I'm sorry,
look in chapter 3 and verse 20. Look in chapter 3 and verse 20.
Look at this. 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. The work of the law is to
produce sin upon the cross. It's to accuse a man. It's to
judge a man. To prove his guilt. Look at one
other place. Look at chapter 4, verse 15.
Look at this simple little phrase. It's your phrase in verse 15,
chapter 4. Because the law lurketh. What? Wrath. Wrath. And where's this taking place?
In the conscience of an individual. You know what the conscience
is. You know what the conscience of a man is. And though we're
fallen creatures, God's left us a conscience. And the conscience
is the light of our souls. And when God lights our conscience,
when He gives light to our conscience, it shines in our hearts. And
what do we see when that happens? We see our sin, and we see the
wrath of God against that sin. All of us here this morning,
in some sense or another, we've experienced this happen. We can't
claim ignorance about this. We've experienced it. You know
what the conscience is? It's the trumpet of the Lord. And God blows that trumpet of
warning. And when that happens to a conscience,
it can shake a man's soul all the way down to its foundation.
There have been men who killed themselves because they could
not endear a guilty conscience. David said, Lord, don't rebuke
me in your anger. Don't chasten me in your hot
displeasure. He likened the guilty conscience.
He likened the law pressing upon his conscience to arrows being
shot into his body. How would you feel this morning
if somebody came up with a boring arrow and shot an arrow right
in your shoulder? Wouldn't that hurt? David said,
that's the way my conscience feels. Thine arrows stick fast
in me, your hand, it presses me sore." He says it's like a
broken bone. "'Cause the bone which thou hast
broken." Where does God reveal His wrath against our sin? It's
not always that He lays us up on the hospital bed. It's not
always that He takes some member of our family from us. Most of
the time, it's lighting our conscience. It's revealing His anger against
our sin to our conscience. There's what the law does. There's
the work of the law upon us. There's where the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven to our conscience. That's what we find here in verses
13 and verse 50. The law, as you and I read the
book of Romans, This law is mentioned several times, and sometimes
we can't get a hold of what it means. The law, which shows the
work of the law. Not the hearers of the law are
just before God, but the doers of the law. What is this law?
It's a moral law of God. We all know about the Ten Commandments,
don't we? That's the moral law of God.
And it has two different times the Lord gave this law. One time
He gave it on Mount Sinai. We all remember that. Back there,
the Jewish nation, they all were around Mount Sinai, and God came
down upon that mountain, and He wrote with His own family
the Ten Commandments. And He gave that law to Moses,
and Moses went down and read it to the children of Israel.
And boy, as he read that law to them, there were angels up
on the mountain speaking one to another, and there was smoke
and fire and a trumpet. And as the children of Israel
heard that law, love the Lord your God with all your heart.
Love Him with all your mind, your soul and strength. Don't
make any grieving images to anything. Don't steal. Don't kill. Don't bear false witness. Don't
commit adultery. Thou shalt not covet. They heard
these things, and they saw the glory of God upon that mountain,
and they were afraid. They said, don't let God speak
with us anymore, lest we die. What was taking place there that
day? Oh, they saw the strictness of this law. But they saw more
than that about it. They saw more than that about
it. They saw they couldn't keep it. This law is too holy. This law is too holy. That's
one of the times God gave the law. But He gave it long before
that. He just didn't give it to the
Jewish nation on tables of stones that we can read plainly. But
He gave it long before that. He gave it to our first parents,
Adam and Eve. And here's what we have to remember
about this law, brothers and sisters. Remember this, it'll
help us. When we talk about the law, we're talking about a covenant
of works. When God made our first parents
and put them in that garden, He put them under a covenant
of works. They were to live and have communion
with the Lord as long as they obeyed Him and did what this
covenant told them to do. The covenant was simple. You
eat every plant in the garden. You eat all the fruit of the
tree. But there's this one tree. Do not eat of it. If you do,
the day that you eat of it, you'll die. Now that's works. That's
the covenant of works. And it was simple and plain.
But what happened? What happened? Our first mother
took that fruit that God forbid them to eat of, she ate of it
herself, she gave to her husband, he ate of it, and what happened?
What happened? Fear entered their conscience
immediately. They saw they were naked. They
sewed fig leaves together. They ran and tried to hide themselves
from the Lord. What was taking place? The wrath
of God was revealed from heaven against their ungodliness. They
have broken this covenant of works. That's the very law that
you and I read about this morning. Humanity was put under this covenant
of works back there, and they still live under it. You remember when Cain had killed
Abel? The very first brothers in this
world. Cain slew his brother Abel. And God asked him, what
have you done? What have you done? Your brother's blood cries unto
me from the ground. Was it a crime? Was it a sin
to kill a man? They didn't have this law that
says, Thou shalt not kill. Yes, they had it. They just couldn't
read it on tables of stone. But they read it in their conscience.
And God opened the conscience of Cain and said, You have broken
the law. You've committed murder. You've
killed. And you know what King said? I can't buy this. I can't
buy this. Let me give you another example.
You remember Abimelech? Abraham went down to Gera, Abimelech. He took Abraham's wife and was
going to lay with her. And God appeared to him in a
dream and said, Abimelech, you're a dead man. You're a dead man. You're ready to commit adultery.
You're a dead man. Is adultery a sin? There's no
written law, but it was in the conscience, you see. It's in
the conscience. And when the Lord told Moses
that he was going to destroy Pharaoh and Egypt, do you remember
why he said, I'm going to destroy them? They're idolaters. Against
all the gods of Egypt will I execute judgment. I am the Lord. There
was a law that said thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image. They broke that law, and their
guilt was proved. And what I'm saying, brothers
and sisters, this morning, the same covenant of words that our
first mother and father was under, they broke that covenant, and
everybody since then has been under that covenant, and a lost
humanity is under that covenant of works today. And being under
that covenant, they are condemned and they're guilty before God.
Now let me show you that here in chapter 3. Look at this. Some
people say, well, when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He completely
did away, he abolished the law, only for believers. Only for
believers. Look here what he says in Romans
chapter 3, and look in verse 19. Now we know that whatsoever
things, let me read it like this, the covenant of works says, It
saith to them who are under that covenant, that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." All
the world? Is the world guilty before God? Why is that? Because this world,
brothers and sisters, is under a broken covenant. They live
there. Why does men's conscience afflict
them so? Why are they afraid when they
think about the judgment to come and death in eternity? I'll tell
you why. Because we live under this broken
covenant. We live under this broken covenant.
And this covenant being broken, It cannot save us. It cannot save us. It can only judge us and further
condemn us and curse us. Ain't that what he tells us here
in this epistle I read it to you? By the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified. By this covenant of works shall
no flesh be justified. For by this covenant is the knowledge
of sin. You remember that man our Lord
Jesus told about that went up to the temple to pray to the
Pharisee? And he said, Lord, I fast twice a week and I pay
tithes of everything that I possess. I don't commit extortion. I've
never committed extortion. I do this good thing. And you
remember what the Lord said about that man? He went down to his
house condemned. Why? In spite of all the things
that he was bragging about, he was still under this broken covenant. And Paul said, I may give my
body to be burned. I may give all my goods to feed
the poor, but it cannot deliver me from this broken covenant. That's the whole problem of humanity. This is what humanity is faced
with. Why should we go around emphasizing
our programs, no matter how good they are? when all along humanity
lives and is cursed the cause of this broken covenant. Unless a man is delivered, unless
a man is saved from this broken covenant, He will be cursed now
and at the judgment. I don't care what else takes
place in that man's life. I don't care what he does in
a moral way. I don't care what he abstains
from doing in that immoral way. It doesn't matter. If a man is
not delivered from this covenant of works, he'll be cursed here
and he'll be cursed at the judgment. Nothing else matters. Nothing
else matters. Be as good morally as you can
be. God bless you for that. Our society
exists by laws. If we all begin to disobey the
law, our society as we know it will cease to be. God be thanked
for morals. But if a man is not delivered,
In spite of his moral, if he's not delivered from this covenant
of works, he'll be cursed. Now that's where we stand at.
You see why the Apostle Paul stops here? Why he stops here
in his second chapter and third chapter, he goes into detail
about this. He loves the gospel. He believes
the gospel. But he says, what I see in humanity
is this, they do not see a need of the gospel. They don't feel
a need. They don't know where they're
at. They don't know the condemnation that they're under. They think
a few good deeds will impress God and deliver them, but he
says it will not. The wrath of God is revealed
against every evil deed they do, and it's because of this
covenant that they're under. I would to God when I was lost
that I could live according to my own criteria. I wish that things that I was
pleased to do would have been right like I thought they were.
I set up my criteria for what I thought was right or wrong,
and that's what I followed, until I found out that God had a criteria,
and that was this law. And it judged my motives, it
judged my thoughts, it judged my words and my deeds, and it
condemned me. That's why my conscience had
no rest. And everything I tried to do to remedy the situation,
my conscience described that much more. I was under a broken
wall. And brothers and sisters, when
we live under that wall, the wrath of God is upon us. And
it's against us. We can know nothing but sin,
and the judgment, and fear, and dread. Now, let's talk about the gospel.
Now let's talk about the gospel. Now let's talk about the power
of God to save us. After we shut up. After our guilt
is proven. When our conscience is screaming
at us. And we dread death and the hereafter. Now we fear God. Now we dread
to face Him. Now let's talk about the gospel
being the power of God to salvage. I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation from what? Salvation from what? Salvation from physical sufferings? Some of the best saints in this
world have suffered. Brother Larry told us about one
this morning. Salvation from financial difficulties? Some
of the dearest saints have been some of the poorest saints. Salvation
from what? Salvation from this awful wrath
of God. Salvation from this broken commandment
that curses us. Salvation from our sins and the
power of it. Salvation from Satan and darkness. Salvation from a guilty conscience. This gospel proclaims salvation
from this thing. That's why it's good news. And here's a word of encouragement
for you that are lost this morning. Here's a word of encouragement.
There have been many who lived under this covenant, including
yours truly, who once felt his guilt before God. whose conscience screamed at
him and had no peace with God, who dreaded the day of death,
knowing what it would bring me. There have been many who have
lived under this broken covenant and yet was delivered from it."
Now that's encouragement there. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you are not under the law. That's what he said in chapter
6, verse 14. They were under it, but now you've
got this glorious news. You're not under it anymore.
Ain't that encouraging? When you were in the flesh, the
motions of sin, which were by the law, Grow forth through them to death.
But now you are delivered from this law. That's encouraging. That's encouraging. How are we delivered from this
covenant of works? God has provided a righteousness
for us. Ain't that wonderful? Here we
go about trying to provide a righteousness for ourselves, but our conscience
just will not be satisfied. Wanda just sang about it. Going
about to do all these works, but it will not satisfy the conscience. Why? Because it does not satisfy
God. You and I are looking for something
that satisfies God. Well, we're told here in this
epistle that God has provided a righteousness, and this righteousness
is in His Son. And it fulfills, it satisfies
this covenant of works. Because this righteousness that
the gospel reveals, provides for us perfect obedience to this
law. See, you and I, brothers and
sisters, we're wanting to be saved. We're wanting to be saved. I want to be saved from this
law. I want to be saved from this broken covenant. But one
of the things we realize, we've got to be saved in a just manner. God can't save us at the expense
of justice. So what does He do? He provides
a righteousness for us, and it's based upon perfect obedience. Listen to this statement. Jesus
Christ, by virtue of His holy nature, rendered perfect obedience
to this covenant of words, which He was born to do. There's one thing, there's one
scripture that I love, and I just love to think about it. It's
in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4. When the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, and listen,
made under the law. And you know why that means so
much. Jesus Christ is a man, the holy man. He was made like
unto us. And he lived under this broken
covenant, but he never broke it himself. Every aspect of that
covenant, he fulfilled it, he satisfied it in the days of his
love, in the days of his flesh. Ain't that wonderful? I look
at you and you look at me, and we have to be patient with one
another. We have to forgive one another. Why? Because we're weak. We sin, don't we? But you look
at Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He went about doing good. And
God was with Him. And God upheld Him. And He said
to His Heavenly Father, He said, Father, Your law is in my heart. I love it. And He kept it and
He obeyed it in every jot and every tilt. You say, Bruce, why
is that so important? That's what the law requires.
Nobody had honored the law since Adam until Jesus Christ came. He was born under this broken
covenant, and He fulfilled all its demands. Because He was holy,
He could not sin. And secondly, think of this,
Christ by His death, and you talk about a death, because of
who He was, His divine nature, rendered an infinite value to
His death. You die and I die, that means
nothing. But for the Son of God, the Divine
One, the Holy One, and the Just One, His death rendered infinite
value. When He voluntarily gave His
life on Calvary Street, He satisfied the penalty that the law had
imposed upon lawbreakers. What was it? Death. Death. That's what he did. He died.
He died. And now this penalty is more
magnified and satisfied in the death of Jesus Christ than it
would be if the whole human race were plunged under the wrath
of God forever. This is the righteousness by
which God atones for our sins. He justifies us and delivers
us from the curse of this broken commandment. This righteousness
of one man. Ain't that amazing? Ain't that marvelous? Is your
conscience screaming at you this morning? I'll tell you why it's
screaming at you. Because you've seen me come short of God's glory.
And the wrath of God is exposed to your conscience. I'll tell
you where you need to look. You need to look away from yourself.
You need to look to Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, who bore
your sins. and satisfy the punishment, the
penalty for your sins upon that cross. That's where you need
to look. You look there, and I'll tell
you what you don't see. You don't see any more sin. You
don't see any more wrath. He took our sin in His own body,
did He not? And when He took our sins in
His own body and made them His own, that exposed Him to what
you and I were exposed to, the wrath of God. And our sins and
the wrath of God met in Him and put Him to death. But in His
dying, He delivered us from this covenant of works, this curse. Now that's the gospel, brothers
and sisters. Do you feel your need of it? Do you feel your
need of it? Here's a warning. Take heed, take heed, that you
don't try to mix Christ's righteousness with a covenant of works. Don't
mix these two things now. These are two different things
altogether. There's a covenant of works which you and I were
under, and we lived under it, And then there is the gospel,
where Christ fulfilled that covenant. He satisfied His demands. He
did it in the days of His flesh. The covenant of works is what
we do. The gospel is what He did. Don't mix those two. There have
been people now, listen to me, let me give you this warning,
please listen to me. There have been people who tried to mix
these two things together and they lived and died cursed. Because
these two things won't mix. There's the covenant of works
that condemns us. And then there's the gospel that
tells us everything that's been done in Jesus Christ. And all we do is come and humbly
receive it at His hands. Now that seems simple. But you'll
find out it's not as simple as you think. Because when you put
yourself down and confess your utter guilt and unworthiness
before God, And just look and believe in Jesus Christ alone,
you'll find that's the most difficult thing you ever did in your life.
Because there will always be something, I've got to do this,
I've got to do that. God won't accept me if I don't
do this. God won't accept me if I don't do that. Listen, dear
soul, the gospel is this. Jesus Christ has already done
everything needful and required for your deliverance from this
covenant of words. What's left to be done? Nothing
but this. Nothing but this. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. What does that
word believe mean? It means to rely upon. It means
to depend upon. It means to cleave to. You cleave
to another to save you. You do not trust in yourself
to commend yourself to God. You cleave in Him who already
has done the work for you. Can you do that? Can you do that? Somewhere between here and your
death, you're going to have to do that. Or you're going to die
a person. Somewhere between here and death,
you're going to have to find out how God saves a man from
his wrath, or you're going to die under his wrath. The gospel,
the gospel, you must hear and understand and believe. God helped
you to do it. God helped you to do it. What's
the result of all this? The first thing we're told, the
result of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have peace
with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I never will forget the time.
I don't know if it's the first time I believed or not, but it's
the first time I realized I did. I'd been trying to save myself.
Boy, I did enough to get me put in jail, to be honest with you. Can you imagine living a life,
ignorance, childhood and youth, all the things you can get involved
in, and then going back and trying to straighten all that out? Can
you imagine trying to do that? I tried to do that. They could
have put me in jail for things like that. And here I was down
there confessing it. I did this and I did that. And
then when I tried to make restitution and straighten everything out,
I got back home thinking I was a pretty good fellow and here
all this guilt come pouring right back into my conscience. The
wrath of God was still in me. Till one night, till one night
by the side of my bed, I'd prayed out, I'd cried out, didn't have
nothing else to pray. Lord, I'll do better. That didn't
work. Lord, I promise you that didn't work. Until finally, I
saw it was God's will to save me by Jesus Christ the Lord. And I'm telling you what, I suddenly
had peace with God. I had peace with God. If you
can bring your heart right where you are condemned by this law,
Fill with the awful wrath and guilt in your conscience. Bring
yourself to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in Him
or you'll find peace with God. You'll enter a war. You'll enter
a war. But you'll have peace with God. I don't care to fight the battle
if I've got peace with God. I don't want to be fighting the
battle and God being mad at me. But I'll fight the battle if
I've got peace with God. And I'll help you to believe.
Lord, we do thank you. Oh, Father in Heaven, thank you
for sending your Son to save us from the wrath to come, present
wrath revealed against our conscience and wrath to be revealed on the
day of judgment. Oh, we thank you, our Father
in Heaven. Words cannot express it. Our
hearts cannot grasp enough But we do thank You, our Father,
for sending us a great one, Savior. And we look back upon the times
that You exposed Your wrath to our conscience, and now we live
to bless You for it. Because it was this very thing
that drove us to the side of the Lord Jesus, to lay hold upon
Him and be saved. We bless You for conviction of
sin. We pray for your people here today that we'll all give
ourselves to you and rejoice in you and serve you with a willing
heart out of gratitude. We pray for the poor lost that
you'll show them where they are, their need of a Savior. They
may come and give themselves up to Him. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen. We'll make it now.