Romans chapter 3, and I want
to begin reading in verse 9, and let's read the remainder
of that chapter. Romans chapter 3, and let's break
right here in the middle of the apostle's subject and see what
we can be taught from God's Word this morning. What then are we,
we Jews, better than they, the Gentiles, know and know wise? But we have before proved, both
Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin, under its
power, under its guilt, its dominion. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands. There is none that seeks after
God. They are all going out of the
way. They all together become unprofitable, vain, and empty,
useless. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of 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 have they not known. And 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 may become
guilty before God." Therefore by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has
set forth to be an atoning victim, a propitiation, a mercy seat,
through faith in His 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? Boasting is excluded. By what
law? Of works? No, but by the law
of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. See
it, it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith
and the uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the
law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. My subject this morning, what
I would have us to think about, is found here in verse 9, and
it's also found in verse 22. Verse 9 says, Are we better than
they? And verse 22 says, There is no difference. Are we
better than they? There is no difference. No better and no different. We're
no better, and since we're no better than someone else, there's
no difference in the way God saves us. If you were better
than somebody else, maybe there may be a different way God saves
you. But since we're all the same, He saves us the same. I remember after World War II,
they arrested some spies, Jewish spies, arrested Adolf Eichmann. He was Adolf Hitler's right-hand
man. He was the one that carried out
most of the terrible execution in the gas chambers and things.
And there was a young girl that saw him murder her family. And
she didn't see him for a number of years. And after they arrested
him, she was a woman at that time, and they invited her to
come into prison and speak with him. And she said when she sat
down and talked to this Adolf Eichmann that she was amazed. And she said, the thing that
concerned me more than anything, he was as normal as I was. He was as normal as I was. In other words, outwardly we
may appear to be different, but inwardly we were the same. We were the same. And the woman
realized that what he had done, she could do. And she said that's what gave
her more concern than anything else. There's no difference. And here's the point. In this
matter of being justified before God, of being accepted of Him
and counted righteous before Him, this woman who suffered
this great afflictions at the hand of this man was no better
than him who afflicted her. They were in the same boat, had
the same standing before God. And the intentions here of the
Holy Ghost is to teach us that one man is no better than another
man And therefore, there is only one way that God saves any man. I am no better than you are. You are no better than I am.
Therefore, there cannot be any difference in the way that God
saves sinners. He saves us, we are told here
in this passage, by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. by redemption of His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he says here in verse 9,
Are we Jews? Now look at this with me in verse
9. Are we Jews better than the Gentiles? No, in no wise, not in anything. Now, the Jews had the advantage
over the Gentiles. We're told that in verse 1 and
verse 2. What advantage, then, hath the
Jew? Well, he has a lot of advantages.
He has a lot of outward advantages. He had the law. He had those
ceremonies, the sacrifice. He had the priesthood. He had
the promise of the coming of the Messiah. But when you got
below the surface, when you got past His temporal advantages,
what was the difference? No difference. The Gentiles had
the light of nature. All they could do is look up
and realize that there was a God who had created the heavens and
the earth. They had not knew the advantage
that you had. But Paul said the Jews were just
as great as sinners as the Gentiles. There is no difference. The Jews
had the advantage. But now he says the Jew has to
be saved in the very same way that the Gentile is saved. I
want you to hold chapter 3 here of Romans, and I want you to
look with me in the book of Acts. I want you to look in chapter
15. This is the very thing the Apostle Peter was talking about
when they had this grace conference there at Jerusalem in Acts chapter
15. And he says here in verse 1, look at this. Acts chapter 15 and verse 1. Here was what was happening.
There were some of the Jews that were saying, we're different.
We're so much better than the Gentiles. They're dogs, but we're
God's children. They are not Abraham's seed.
They are led away to these dumb idols, but we can trace our lineage
back to Abraham. We are better than them. And
he says here in verse 1 of Acts 15, And certain men which came
down from Judea taught the brother, and said, Except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. In verse 5. But there rose up certain of
the set of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was
needful, necessary, to circumcise them and to command them to keep
the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came
together to consider of this matter. And when there had been
much arguing, disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men
and brethren, you know how that A good while ago, God made choice
among us that the Gentiles, by my voice, should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the heart,
bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did
unto us, and put no difference between them and us." See that?
He saves in one way. There is no difference in the
way God saves. He put no difference between
them and us. purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt you,
God, to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear?" Now look at this, but
we believe, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved even as they are. He didn't say that we believe
they have to be saved just as we are. But he said we have to
be saved just like God saves the Gentiles. Why is that? Because we're no better than
they are. We've had these outward advantages, God-given advantages. But we're no better than they
are. We're no better than they are. And here in our text, this
holy apostle was saying, Are we better than they? He included
himself. Am I any better than the open
and profane Gentiles? Well, he used to think he was.
He thought he was better than just about anybody. He was like
that Pharisee that stood up in the temple and said, God, I thank
you that I'm not like other men are. I'm a better person. I'm
better. I'm different. You're going to
have to deal with me differently because I'm not like other people.
I'm better than other people. And Paul said, I am not any better
than a Gentile. Taken as individuals or collectively,
the Jew is no better than the Gentile. And that's what he was
proving here. Boy, he didn't always know that,
did he? But God taught him that. God taught him that. And listen
to this and see if this ain't so. By nature, one man thinks
he's better than someone else. And let me prove that to you
so simply. Have you ever heard anybody say, or have you ever
said yourself, I would never do what that man did? Have you ever said, boy, I'd
never think the way he thinks? You ever said that? Why would you say that? Why would
you think that? Because you think you're better
than he is? Is that not the root cause of
such an attitude as that? I would never do that awful dastardly
deed that he did. Why? Because I'm better than
he is. What made that woman so afraid
when she talked to Mr. Eichmann was she realized that
there was no difference between her and him and what he had done
she could very well do. There is no difference. We are
no better than anyone else. Everybody believes they are better
than someone else until God teaches them the truth. You cannot have
it. We don't excuse it, but you can't
have it. It's natural to think that way. Every God-taught man knows the
plague of his own heart. Now, he does. God teaches him
that. When he hears that someone has
committed an awful murder against his fellow man, or some other
crime, you know what he thinks. There I go, apart from the grace
of God. I am no better than that man
apart from the grace of God. He knows he is no better in and
of himself than a Hitler or a Stalin or a rapist or a murderer. Well,
I am not that bad. Are you better? That's what the
Holy Spirit is bringing us to this conclusion. Are we better
than they? And look at the contrast between
these two nations. The nation of the world and the
Jews. There's never been any culture
or any nationality that's so contrasted. And here this apostle
is saying, we're no better. We're no better. In no wise are
we any better. If you propose this to Nicodemus,
that he in all his prayers and all his fastings and all his
observance of the religious ceremonies, that he was no better. than that
Samaritan woman who had five husbands and was living in adultery
then. He would have been horrified. He would have been offended.
He would have said, You are an ignorant person. Can't you see
the difference between me and that woman? I have often wondered
why the Holy Spirit was pleased to put John chapter 3 and John
chapter 4 in there together as he did. If it was not to show
us, here you had a master of Israel, a teacher, a theologian,
and here you had a woman living in adultery that had had five
husbands, and here the Lord Jesus Christ says there is no difference
in either one of them. He is no better than she is,
and she is no better than he is. They both must be born again. They both must be saved by the
grace of God. They both must be justified by
the blood of Christ. No, that can't be so. Look at
me. It would be ignorant to think
that I was no better than she was. Look at the families that
she's broken up. Look at the good things that
I've done. Have you ever heard me pray? Do you have any idea how much
I give? Do you have any idea how often
I fast? And you're telling me I'm no
better than her. Before God, you are no better. In regards
to your acceptance with God and being justified before God, you
are no better, Nicodemus. And that's what Paul's facing
us with here. But you know we can go farther
than that, can't we? You find a good, moral Samaritan
woman. And I'm sure there were some.
I'm sure there were some there in that town of Sychar. And you ask her, that woman that
has lived with her husband and raised her children and attended
the home, and you ask her, Are you any better than that Samaritan
woman down there, your neighbor that has had five husbands? Why,
you better bet I'm better than she is. Wouldn't you have said
that? I know I ain't perfect, but I'll
tell you one thing. I ain't as bad as she is. But
you know, let's go one step further. Let's go one step further. And we've all seen this. This
is natural. You talk to that Samaritan woman
before the Lord taught her, and you ask her about some of her
neighbors, some of her friends. Are you any better than that
friend of yours that lives down there by you? Oh, yes, I'm much
better than she is. She's got six husbands. And besides,
I don't lie like she does, and I've never been drunk, and she
gets drunk all the time. Don't tell me that I'm not better
than she is. See how this goes? So Paul takes this contrast,
these Jews that are holier than thou, that are clean, godly-looking
people that observe the law, and he takes these dead dogs,
open and profane Gentiles, and he brings them and he sets them
down together, and he looks at them and says, there's none of
you that's any better than the other. Why do people think that way
then? It's natural. It's natural as it can be to
think that way. The Bible has a name for it.
You know what the Bible calls it? Self-flattery. Self-flattery. Listen to Psalms
36.1. The transgression of the wicked
saith within my heart, There is no fear of God before his
eyes, for he flattereth himself in his own eyes." How does he
flatter himself? By telling himself, I'm better. I'm better. Listen to Proverbs
chapter 12 and verse 15. The way of a fool is right in
his own eyes. The way of a fool? The fool said,
in his heart there is no God, and yet his ways are right. Who
told him that? He did. He did. But he that hearkeneth unto counsel
is wise. He that listens to his own heart,
when his own heart says, you're a good man, I saw that watching Private Ryan. I think I never did see that,
and I was flipping through the channels the other night, and
I was watching some of that. And the last scene, if you ever
watched that show, the last scene on that show had this man standing
at the tomb of his friend, and he turned around and said to
his wife, Am I a good person? Tell me I'm a good person. Tell me I'm a good person. Why
do we want to hear that? It's just the way we are. It's
our nature. We can't come and sit down with
the rapists and the murderers because it strips us. We think
God's got to save us a different way than He would a murderer,
than He would a homosexual. Because we're not as bad as other
people. Listen to Proverbs 21, 2. Every way of a man is right
in his own eyes. Now, there it is. Every way of
a man is right in his own eyes. He's more right than somebody
else. Oh, he's not saying maybe that my way is perfect, but it's
more right than that fellow's is. And listen to this. Listen to
the rest of that. But the Lord ponders the heart. The Lord sees
beyond the outward. He sees beyond the actions. And He looks at the heart. He
ponders the heart. He weighs the motive. Have you
ever seen somebody and they were so pleasant? And to be around
them, you just love to be around them. They were so kind and patient. And boy, you couldn't help but
just admire them. You enjoyed them so much. There are people
that way. But you know, when God looks
upon them, He looks beyond what you and I see outwardly. And
He sees the heart. And when He sees the heart, what
does He see? He sees something we can't see. He sees the heart. And what kind
of a heart does a man have? Listen to Jeremiah 17 and 9.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And you know, here is the dreadful
thing about this. It deceives us in the very point
that is so critical. We must be sinners to be saved. And that's the very place it
deceives us. By making us think we're better
than anybody else. And that becomes our hope. At
least I'm not as bad as that person. And our heart tells us
that. If a man thinks himself to be
something when he's nothing, a man rises any higher than nothing. He's too high. If he thinks any
higher than nothing of himself, then he's thinking wrongly about
himself. Why would he do that? His heart. His heart. Mr. Egner told Hopeful and Christian,
they said, my heart's not that bad. My heart's not that bad. They said, how do you know? He
said, my heart tells me so. My heart says, ask me, am I a
good husband? Am I a good husband? Of course
I am. Don't ask my wife. But ask me. Am I better than Larry Baker?
You better bet I am. You just ask me. You just ask
me. That's by nature, ain't it? So
what does the Apostle Paul do? He comes right here and he makes
this point. He makes this point, ìYou are
no better than me, and I am no better than you, and we are no
better than the woman that had five husbands. We are no better
than King Herod that the Lord called a fox. Weíre no better
than Pharaoh who tried to slaughter the little babies of Israel.
Weíre no better than Saddam Hussein or Charles Manson. or Adolf Eichmann,
we're no better. We're no better. Is your heart deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked? Do you know anybody? Have you
seen anybody on the news? Have you read in the paper anybody
that would fit in that category? You say, yeah, that guy up in
Cleveland that dealt those women hostages and raped them then
beat them until they lost their babies, I think he'd fit in that
category. I think his heart's desperately
with him. Are you any better than he is? That's the point, ain't it? That's
the point. In no wise, the very foundation
of Arminian and free will teaching is this whole attitude that God
saves them because they're better. Now listen to me. That's the
very foundation of freewillism. The very foundation of Arminianism
is this. God saved me because I made a
better choice than somebody else. I had the same opportunity as
others did, but I improved my opportunity, and they didn't. God gives everybody free will,
and He leads it up to us, and I decided, and by my will, by
my will, by the power of my will, by me exercising my will, God
saw there was a difference. Then I wouldn't like other people.
And therefore He saved me. Am I misrepresenting anybody?
I've heard it with my own ears. The difference is me. And I'm better than others. It wasn't God who made the difference.
It wasn't His grace that made the difference. But it was me
that made the difference. The Bible calls that man a fool.
It ain't me, but the Bible calls him a fool. It calls him a fool. It always says here in verse
9, What then? Are we better than they? No,
in no wise. But we have proved before, both
Jews and Gentiles, they're all under the power of sin. They're
all under the dominion of Satan. They are all under the guilt
of sin. And then he goes on in verse 10 to prove it. Look at
this. There is none that understands. There is none that understands.
There is none that is righteous, he says in verse 10. There is
none righteous. Not a one? There is not a man in all this
world that is possessed of this righteousness that God requires
of him to have? You can't find a one of them
among the Jews or among the Gentiles. Not a one. God looked down from
heaven to Psalmister to see if there was any. And I'm sure,
brother, if there had been any, he'd have found them. He'd have
saw them. But he said there was no man that had that righteousness
that I require him to have that I could accept him in. Not a
one of them. And then he went on to verse
11 and said, There's none that understands. What don't he understand? He don't understand who God is.
He don't understand that God is holy. He don't understand that God
requires more of him than what he's able to produce. He don't
understand that. They don't understand grace and
how free it is in the heart of God. They don't understand that
God owes them nothing but judgment, that they send away any claims
on God. They don't understand that they
must be redeemed by another man's obedience. They must be clothed
with a righteousness that they did not work out. There's none
that understands. And what's the consequences of
that dark understanding? There's none that seeketh after
God. Boy, I tell you, that's gloomy
ass. But you know you don't mind hearing this because God's taught
you this. He's taught you this. And you know that if you've come
to the Lord and if you've sought Him and you understand now, it's
because He's done something for you. Oh, this is the difference between
me and somebody else. I sought the Lord and they didn't. But the Bible says there's none
that seeketh Him. How come you sought Him and somebody else
didn't? That's a good question to ask
yourself, eh? Was it something in you? Or was it Him dragging you and
drawing you and teaching you? What was it? And if He did it, If he did it,
I tell you this much, you're not going to attribute it to
your free will. You're not going to attribute
it to your nature or that you were better than somebody else. There's two things a fallen sinner
needs to be saved. There's two things he needs to
be justified and accepted in the sight of God. And this chapter
tells us of those two things. First of all, he needs God to
give him a perfect righteousness. He needs God to give him a perfect
righteousness. He has one. God has one. It has been worked out. It's another's perfect obedience
unto God and the will of God and the Word of God. Through
the obedience of one man shall many be made righteous. Jesus
Christ has come into this world. And from His appearing in the
womb of that virgin until He said it's finished up on Calvary's
tree, He worked out a perfect righteousness. And that is the
only thing that can save a sinner. But it must be given to you. You can't earn it. You don't deserve it. God must freely give it. And as you look through the Old
Testament, every word You see him talking about this righteousness.
Paul said it's manifested. Where is it manifested? In the
gospel. Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. The way that God makes a sinner
righteous is revealed in the gospel. But it's also throughout
the Old Testament, in the law of Moses and in the prophets.
Well, Abraham knew it. Did he not? Abraham was a righteous man.
God accepted Abraham. How did He accept Abraham? He gave Abraham a righteousness.
Look over in chapter 4 with me. Look in verse 1. What shall we
say that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has
found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath world to glory. Oh yes, he could glory before
me and you, but look at this, not even Abraham could glory
before God. For what saith the Scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted, it was imputed,
it was given him for righteousness. Righteousness was given this
man. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
works not. but believes on him that justifieth
the ungodly. His faith, his faith in Christ
is counted for righteousness. And look in verse 6. Even as
David described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works. If a man is going to be justified
before God and accepted, God has to give him the righteousness
of this man, Jesus Christ. A righteousness that has already
been worked out. It is secure because it is in
heaven. It will never be overthrown.
It will never be made void like the righteousness of the angels
that fell, like Adam who fell. This is an everlasting righteousness. It is a perfect righteousness.
It's called the righteousness of God because it's the righteousness
that meets God's demand, and it's the righteousness of His
Son. And this is the righteousness
that God must give us, or we cannot be saved. All the righteousness we have
is this filthy rag. Is that not so? I have to have the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. God hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. That's the first thing. Mr. Wessler called this imputed
nonsense. If you don't have it, you'll
perish. And if he died without it, he perished. The second thing that a sinner
has to have is this, grace to believe. Grace to believe. I never will forget when the
Lord was filled in my heart and began to show me my utter inability
to do anything to save myself. I was reading this very book
of Romans, and a thought came to me. I can't anymore believe
the gospel than I could keep the law. A man can't anymore believe the
gospel than he can keep the law. Leave him to himself and tell
him that this righteousness that he must have and tell him it
comes to him. by the grace of God through believing
in Christ for it, and he still can't lay hold on it because
he can't believe. Why can't he believe? Because
believing is not natural. It's not natural. Believing is
supernatural. Believing is a gift of God. He
has to give you faith to believe, to lay hold upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. I love that passage in Acts 18
where Apollos had came down to Corinth. And the Scripture says,
He helped them much who had believed through grace. You can't work to get this righteousness. It don't come by your obedience.
It don't come by any faithfulness. It comes one way. A heart faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. With a heart, man believeth unto
righteousness. With a heart, man believeth. He don't work to get it. He believes
to get it. It's there. It's available. It's
in a person. But the only channel by which
it comes and becomes mine and justifies me before God is through
the channel of faith. And I tell you what, you can't
believe apart from grace. I tell you to believe. I even
say God commands you to believe. But what God commands, He has
to give grace for you to obey. And I'll tell you what happens.
I'll tell you what happens. When the Lord makes us see our
need of this righteousness, and He gives us grace to believe, all this saying, I'm better than
somebody else, that's gone. That's gone. All the boasting
that I'm saved because I did something, That's gone. That's gone. God saves us in
such a way that we sit down with the ungodly world and say, in
and of myself, I'm just like them. I'm just like them. And then we say we have hope.
We're saved by the grace of God through the redemption that's
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not of ourselves. Not of ourselves. I love what he says here in our
text in chapter 3 and verse 27. Where is boasting then? Where
is boasting? I tell you, God saves us in such
a way, it's amazing, that He strips us of any and all boasting. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. Excluded? Tell that to the Armenian. Tell that to the free-will Baptist.
Listen to them boast and brag about how they came, how they
made the decision, how they accepted, how different they are. They
did something nobody else could do or would do. It's excluded. By what law? By faith? By works? No. Not of works. Because works, it boasts. But
by the law of Faith in Christ. No better? No better? No better. No better. Therefore, no difference. No difference. That's why we
can preach the gospel to anybody. Anybody. Because we're no better
than they are. And God's going to save them
just like He saved us if He saves them. by His grace, through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. O gracious Father, our Father
in Heaven, what a gospel! What a gospel is this, that You
bring us all to set at Your feet, and point Your finger as it was
at us, and tell us that we are all guilty. The world is guilty. We are guilty. Everybody is guilty
before you, men and women, old and young, little babies. We are all guilty before you.
We have no plea. We come with chains about our
hands and feet and a rope about our neck because we are worthy
of death. We have sinned. Our hearts are
sinful. Our hearts are boastful and proud,
and you hate it. But Lord, You've taught us. You've
made us to know it. You've humbled us. You've put
our mouths in the dust. You know You have. You know what
You've done in our hearts. You've brought us low. You've
made us own. That we send away all claims,
any claims that we ever profess to have on You. You're a sovereign
God. We can't bring anything in our
hands to be accepted. We're just like everybody else.
the vilest, the most open and profane person in this world
today, we're absolutely no better. Oh, we come today, we humbly
seek you. We do crime to you to give unto
us what you demand us to have. Give it freely. Give it graciously. Give us Jesus. Give us His righteousness. Clothe our shame. Receive us
in His garments. Put upon us that robe, that beautiful
robe, and receive us in it. And give us grace to believe
it. Oh, for these dear people gathered
here this morning, Spirit of God, their Teacher be, don't let us go through this
world with our hearts deceiving us. Oh, Lord, teach each one. our
dear children, our poor children. Teach them. Break in upon their
understanding. Lord Jesus, be their light. Shine
into their hearts. We ask these things for your
glory and your praise. Amen.