Now chapter 1 of Romans, Paul
is writing to and speaking of the pagan Gentiles, no question
about that. He describes them here in Romans
1, verse 21, because that when they knew God, they glorified
him not as God. Neither were thankful that they
became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.
And professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And
they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image. They worshiped corruptible man
and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. And in the
next several verses, it says three or four times, God gave
them up. Look at verse 24. God gave them up to uncleanness.
Verse 26, for this cause God gave them up to vile affections.
Verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. That's the pagan world, Gentile
world, cannibals. of this world, who bite and devour
one another, destroy one another. In chapter 2, he writes to and
about the religious Jew, the religious man, who is busy keeping
his Sabbaths and holy days and diets and rituals and traditions
and baptisms and keeping the law and so forth, seeking to
find acceptance with God by what he does religiously. And he sums
that up in verse 17. Behold, you are called a Jew,
and you rest in the law. You rest in the ceremonial law,
and the Levitical law, and the law of circumcision, and the
Sabbath, and the tithe. And you make your boast of God
that you know his will. And you approve the things that
are more excellent. You're better than these pagans
and heathens and idol worshipers because you're instructed out
of the law. Verse 23, and you make your boast
of the law. Through breaking the law you
dishonor God. Thou that makest thy boast of
the law through breaking the law you dishonor God. For the
name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you." Is
that not true today? Religious people, where you work
and live and shop, they blaspheme the name of God in front of the
heathen. And down in verse 28, he says,
here's the problem. He's not a Jew, he's not a believer,
he's not a Christian, he's not a child of God who's one outwardly. in ceremony and ritualism. Circumcision is not outward in
the flesh. He's a Jew, he's a believer,
he's a child of God who's one inwardly. And true circumcision
is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise
is not of men but of God. So he condemns the religious
man. He condemns a pagan who does not know God. He condemns
a religious man who professes to know God, but in truth does
not know God. And they think they're better
than the pagans. So he asks this question in verse 9, and I wound
up with this last Wednesday night. We Jews, that's who he's writing
to now, back in verse 1 of chapter 3. What advantage does a Jew
have? What profit is there in being
a religious man? Well, there's much in every way. But verse 9, are we better than
they? Is the religious man who has
a profession but does not know God, is he better than the man
who does not believe God? The man who goes to church on
Sunday but does not know God, is he better than the man who
lies in the gutter and lives on the street? The man who has
been baptized and keeps the Sabbath day and pays his tithe and so
forth, who does not know Christ, who is not born again in the
Spirit of God, is he better than the man who has no interest in
religion at all? Is he better? He may be better
off. It's better off not to drink
than it is to drink. It's better off to work than
not to be idle. It's better off to raise your
children in honesty and truth than to raise them in dishonesty
and infidelity. Yeah, you're better off. But
are they better? Read. No and no-wise. They're not better. You understand
what he's saying? They're not better. There's an advantage. to the
person who's honest and may have integrity and clean living and
raises his children, his home in order and fidelity. He's better off and they're better
off. But only the Spirit of God can make a man better. Only the
Spirit of God can change the heart, make him a new creature
in Christ. The only person that's better
than a heathen is a man who's a new creature in Christ. Because
without Christ and without salvation, without a new heart and a new
nature, listen, in no wise, we've before proved both Jew and Gentile,
they're all under sin, under its curse, under its reign, under
its condemnation. They're all under sin. As it's
written, there's none righteous, not one. There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way. They've together become
unprofitable. There's none that do us good,
God good. No, not one. It's people who
do good works. You know, the scripture says,
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. And there
are works of kindness and works that are good. But to be considered
good in God's sight has to be perfect, sinless, without self in any way. So there's
none basically good but God. None righteous but God and those
who have his righteousness. And here's our problem. They've
all gone out of the way. They've together become unprofitable. is none that doeth God good,
spiritually good, perfectly good, no, not one. Because it describes
our words, our throat as an open sepulchre, with our tongues we
use deceit, the poison of the asp is under our lips, our mouths
are full of cursing and bitterness. And our deeds, our feet are swift
to shed blood, destruction, misery in their way. Our thoughts, the
way of peace, they have not known. No fear of God before their eyes.
All right, look at verse 19. Now we know. Now we know. We know that what the law, what
things soever the law saith. What does the law say? Do we
know what the law say? What does the law say? Well,
the law summed up in two, Christ said, I shall love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength, and thy neighbors
thyself. That's what the law says. The
whole law is fulfilled in two words. He said, I shall love
God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, as Christ
loved him, and love your neighbors yourself, as Christ did. In other words, be ye holy, for
I am holy, saith your God. That's what the law says. And
our Lord summed it up in Matthew 5. Turn with me to Matthew 5. The law, you see, and this is
the old Jew and Paul the Apostle, of which he was one. The old
Jew considered if you kept the law outwardly, you kept the law.
And Christ was speaking to them here in Matthew 5, verse 20. Now listen to it. You read it
with me. Matthew 5, 20. I say unto you
that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees. That's those fellows that said
the law, obeying the law, consistent in outward performance only. If your righteousness does not
exceed theirs, you shall in no case, no way, enter the kingdom
of heaven. You have heard it said by them
of old times, this is what your teachers, this is what they taught
you. Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever
shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But now I say
unto you, here is the correct application of that law. It's
not just to prevent you from killing someone in the flesh,
actually. But whosoever is angry with his
brother, without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment.
Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raker, vain fellow, shall be
in danger of the counsel. And whosoever shall say, thou
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Murder, thou shalt not
kill, is forbidden, but it's also forbidden in heart. And
Christ said, when you hate someone and you wish them ill, you murdered
them. So murder is not just an act,
it's an impression, it's a thought, it's a desire of the heart. Let's
read on, verse 27. You've heard it said by them
of old times, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto
you, here's the true application. Whosoever looks on a woman to
lust, after her had committed adultery already, with her already
in his heart. The act is always a result of
the thought. So if the thought is there, God
looks on the heart, and he sees that that's what you'd do if
circumstances permitted it, or if the occasion presented it. That's what you'd do. So you're
already guilty, already guilty. All right, look, if you will,
at verse And again, you've heard it said by them of old time,
Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but perform unto the Lord thy
oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all. Neither by heaven
is God's throne, nor by earth is God's footstool, neither by
Jerusalem, for it is God's city, the great king. Neither shalt
thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair
whiter than the other." So let your communication be yes, yes,
no, no, anything more than that. Well, I swear to God this is
true. No, anything more than that's
sin. Then verse 38, you've heard it
said by them of old time, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth, but I say to you, resist evil. Whosoever shall smite thee on
one cheek, turn the other. A man sue you at the law, and
take away your coat, and let him have your cloak. Verse 43,
You have heard it said by them of old times, Thou shalt love
thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. I say unto you, love your
enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good. So we know what
the law says. Be ye holy, for I am holy. And we haven't done it. We don't
do it. And you know, we can claim exemption
from work because we're disabled. We can claim exemption, somebody
said, from war because we're too old. We can claim exemption
from giving because we're broke. But we can't claim one exemption
for breaking the law of God. We have no alibi and no excuse. Guilty. We know what the law
says. Yes, we do. We know what the
law says. My sister-in-law's little boy,
he's a brilliant little fellow. He's about ten now, but when
he was about seven, six or seven, he came in one day from play
and he was upset. He said to his mother, he said,
I wish there was no God. And I wish there's no policeman,
and then I could be bad as I wanted to be. How would you handle that, Mom?
She handled it brilliantly. God gave her a word. She said,
Jeffrey, if there was no God and no policeman, and you're as bad as you want
to be, That'd be true of everybody else too. They'd be bad as they
wanted to be. And you couldn't go out that
door. Because your life would be constantly in danger. Just
going out that door. So you better give thanks that
there's a God and a policeman out there. Because nobody's as
bad as he can be. That's brilliant. But we would
be without his restraining grace. That's what he's saying. That's
what he's saying. We would be without his restraining
grace. Yeah, that's true. Psalm 76,
this is one I quoted the other night, Psalm 76. You know, you know, you know God restrains
you and me, restraining grace. I preach pervenient grace, I
preach sovereign grace, electing grace, but I preach restraining
grace. It says here in Psalm 76 verse
10, Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. God will work all
these things out for his glory, even the wrath of man, even Pharaoh's obstinate ways. God says, I'll
get glory out of that. Even those who crucified the
Lord, they hated him. Wicked hands crucified the Lord.
But they did what God determined before to be done. So the wrath
of man, I praise the Lord, it'll accomplish his purpose. And the
rest of it, wrath, got to restrain. Got to restrain. Aren't you glad? Is a religious man better than
the pagan? No. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Thank God we know what the law
saith, and let's look at verse 19 again. To whom does it say
this? To whom does it say this? To all that are under God's law.
That's to every son of Adam. It saith to them who are under
the law of God. And what are the results of hearing
the law of God? Of coming to understand what
our Lord taught us in Matthew 5? What's the result of coming
to understand? who He is, His holiness, His
perfection, His righteousness, and by birth and by nature, our
unrighteousness. Well, what's the result of coming
to see that? Well, it's twofold. Number one,
that every mouth may be stopped. Every mouth stopped. You know,
when God opens a sinner's eyes to behold His glory, His holiness,
And that sinner sees his own wickedness and sin. He just shuts his mouth. Really just shuts his mouth.
And when God opens a man's ears to hear the Word, to hear it
really, hear God speak through His Word, by His Spirit, and
reveal His greatness, majesty, beauty, and holiness, and our own sinfulness. What effect does it have? It
shuts his mouth. Let every mouth be stopped. Turn to Ezekiel. I found this over in Ezekiel
chapter 16. The Lord so clearly illustrates
what I'm trying to say. Ezekiel 16. When God, by his
covenant mercies, by his sovereign grace, comes to you and His elect,
His sheep, His people. And opens our eyes to see the
glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And opens our ears to
hear Him speak through His word, glad tidings, good news. And
opens our hearts to understand the sovereign grace of God. Shuts
our mouth. No more boasting, no more bragging,
no more arguing, no more complaining, no more alibis. Just shuts it
out. Look at Ezekiel 16 verse 60. You have it, this is just great.
Nevertheless, I remember my covenant with you in the days of your
youth, and I'll establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
That's what we believe in, covenant. Then thou shalt remember thy
ways, and be ashamed. Boy, that's the first impact.
All the world shuts them out and they become guilty. And when
thou shalt receive thy sisters, and thine elder, and thy younger,
and I give them unto thee for daughters, and not by your covenant,
but by mine, and I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou
shalt know that I am the Lord, that thou mayest remember and
be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of
thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee, For all that thou
hast done, saith the Lord. That's what the good news does,
of his holiness, and our sinfulness shuts them out. One more scripture,
Job 40. This was Job's experience. Job 40, turn to Job 40, verse
1 through 5. Moreover, the Lord answered Job.
and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?
Job's a child of God, he's a servant of the Lord, but he had to learn
some things. He had to be taught. You're going
to instruct me? He that reproveth God, let him
answer. Then Job answered the Lord and
said, Behold, I am thou. What shall I answer thee? I lay
my hand upon my mouth. Once ever spoken, but I'll not
answer. Twice, I'm not going to say anything else. A revelation
of His holiness and a revelation of our sinfulness shuts them
out. Just shuts them out. Opens the
ear. Opens the heart. We become learners. taught of God, listen to the
Word, pliable like soft clay being
molded in the hands of the potter. Just be quiet. Be still and know
that I'm God. Be still, my soul, and know that
I'm God. And then it says they become
guilty before God. Their mouths stop and they become
guilty before God. Now this means more than just
admitting we're sinners. This means more than just admitting
we failed. Being guilty before God, being
guilty of violating the law of God, we're therefore subject
to the justice of God. Being guilty, we're subject to
the vengeance of God. Being guilty, we're subject to
the holy wrath of God. If the law finds me guilty, now
listen, the law finds me guilty, my mouth is stopped, I've got
no defense, I've got no defense, I've got no excuse, I'm guilty.
Then the law must deliver me into the hands of justice to
be destroyed. That's just the way it is. If I've been found guilty, my
mouth stopped, Then it says here, the world becomes, look in the
margin, subject to the judgment of God. It is appointed unto me and wants
to die after that, the judgment of God. That's automatic. So look at verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight. The law can't arrest me and then
release me. God's perfect, immaculate law
cannot arrest me, find me guilty, shut my mouth and then release
me. These preachers preach every
Sunday, you do this and you do that and you keep the law, God
will save you. The law can't arrest me and release me. The law cannot pronounce me guilty
and then turn around and say he's not guilty. The law cannot sentence me to
death and then revoke the sentence. When the law arrests me and finds
me guilty and shuts my mouth with no defense and turns me
over to the justice of God, that's all the law can do. You preach
it all you want to. You can't help that man. There's
not one thing you can do, not one thing you can give. Not one
act of kindness you can perform to change that sentence. The
soul that's sentenced shall surely die. That's it. And then he says this, by the
law is the knowledge of sin. Well, is there something the
law can do for me? It can't release me. It can't
pronounce me not guilty. It cannot revoke the sentence.
But I tell you what the law can do. By the law is the knowledge
of sin. The law can show me what I am. The law can show me what I am.
I can take a good look at that law and find out what I am. Paul did. Turn to Romans 7. He says this so clearly. Can the law do something good
for me? Yes, it can. It can't erase my guilt, it can't
forgive me, it can't revoke the sentence, but it can show me
what I am. Listen to Romans 7, verse 7. This is so powerful. Paul is
giving his testimony. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. I had not known sin,
but by the law. I had not known lust, except
the law said, You shall not covet. He said, I didn't know that was
sin. I thought if I didn't steal,
I didn't sin, but if you want to steal, it's sin. The law said,
I shall not covet. I shall not think sin. Now sin,
taken occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence
when I didn't know the law, when I didn't understand the law.
The sin in me lay dormant. It was dead. It wasn't roused. For I was alive without the law
one time. I didn't understand the law.
I didn't see how the law reached the heart and the spirit and
the mind and the imagination. And so I was alive, blameless. But when it came in the hands
of the Holy Spirit, when the law came in its revelation of
what Christ said over there in Matthew 5, The thought of foolishness
is sin. To know to do good and do it
not is sin. Sin is a transgression of God's
law in heart, mind, or spirit. He said, I died. Wiped out. The law killed me. So the law can do that for us.
It can shut our mouths and pronounce us guilty. Reveal our sin. The more you look at the law,
you're not going to be made righteous. The more you look at the law,
you'll be conscious of sin. Now, what's the second thing
the law can do? Turn to Galatians 3, and this is so beautiful here,
Galatians 3. What the law can do for me is
reveal sin to me, my guilt, and the fact I deserve it. You know
that thief on the cross said this, he said to the other thief,
he said, don't you fear God, seeing in the same condemnation,
and we indeed justly, we're getting what we deserve. That's what
the law does, he realized that, getting what I deserve. Lord,
remember me when you come into your kingdom. And then secondly, Galatians
chapter 3, listen to this. Is the law against the promises
of God? You got it there, Galatians 3,
verse 21. Is the law against the promises of God? Is the law
an enemy of the promise of God? God forbid. If there had been
a law given which could have given life, very righteousness
should have been with the law. But the scripture has concluded
all under sin. that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. And before
faith came, faith in Christ, before we saw him as our Redeemer,
Christ, Advocate, we were kept under the law. Shut up! Shut up unto the faith which
should be after we are revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. What does the law do? By the
law is the knowledge of sin, the knowledge of our guilt, the
knowledge of our inability, the knowledge of our need, and it
shuts us up to one person, to Christ, to one hope, grace, to
one hope, the blood. That's right. That's what the
law does. And if you'd be patient with me, let me read Job 33.
Turn over there a minute. Job 33. This young man Elihu
rebuked Job for his self-righteousness. And he says in Job 33, he talks
about old Job here in the mess he's in. In verse 19 he says,
Job 33, verse 19, he's chastened also with pain upon his bed,
the multitude of his bones with strong pain. His life abhorreth
bread, he said that, he didn't want anything to eat. His soul
abhorreth dainty meat, his flesh is consumed away, it cannot be
seen. His bones that were not seen
now stick out. His soul draweth near the grave,
his life to the destroyers. That's the message here. And
that's what the law shows us we are, spiritually. But, verse
23, Elihu says, if there be a messenger with him, to come to him, an
interpreter. Now, who's this messenger? Well,
Malachi called John the Baptist, the preacher, a messenger from
God. And in the same verse, he calls
Christ the messenger of the covenant. And that preacher comes preaching
Christ, and Christ comes with the good news. So if a messenger
can be found for this impossible situation, this man that's at
the very gate of hell, one among a thousand, to show man what? His uprightness. Whose? Not the man's. He hasn't got
any. He's in a mess. Whose uprightness? God's righteousness. If there comes a messenger, a
bearer of good news, of God's tidings, a man from a far country,
a man called Jesus, one among a thousand, first of ten thousand,
to show to man God's righteousness, then God is gracious to him.
And God says, deliver him from going down to the pit. I found
a ransom. He doesn't have to die. He doesn't
have to perish. I found a ransom. And then this
man whose flesh was so corrupt, is fresher than a baby's. And
he returns to the days of his youth. He shall pray unto God,
and God be favorable to him. And he'll look at God's face
with joy, and he'll render unto that man his righteousness. Ah, he looketh upon men, and
if any say, I've sinned. That's what the laws taught us.
I've sinned. I perverted. That which was right. That's a hard word to take to
ourselves, isn't it? I've sinned and perverted that
which is right. Hadn't profited me at all. That
man will deliver his soul from going down to the pit. And his
soul shall see the light. That's got to happen. Got to
happen. Romans 3 again. Let's look at
this one more time. Verse 20, by the deeds of the
law, no flesh can be justified in God's sight. By the law is
the knowledge of sin. It reveals sin to us. It destroys
every false way of salvation. It shuts us up to Christ, to
the messenger of the covenant, shuts us up to mercy. And if any man will say, Lord,
that's me, I've sinned. Not a good thing about me, not
a righteous thing about me, not a profitable thing in me, I've
sinned. I'm getting what I deserve. That man will deliver his soul
from death. That's right. Because verse 21,
now, right now, the righteousness of God without the law, that
is without our obedience, which we don't have, is manifested. And it's witnessed all the way
through the Old Testament and the New by the law and the prophets.
It's the righteousness of God. which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ. I come that they might have life
and have it more abundantly. Call his name Jesus, he'll save
his people from their sins. Christ Jesus is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The righteousness
of God which is by faith, by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ,
is unto all and upon all them that believe. There is no difference. Are we better than they? No,
there is no difference. All its sin comes short of the
glory of God. So being justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus our Lord,
we are accepted of God. I knew a missionary to Sudan
interior, Africa. I knew him way back in 1947. We helped support him a little
bit as pastor at Pollard until he quit the ministry. But he
told about encountering leprosy in the Sudan, in Africa. Back
then, 1930s and 40s, he was in Africa. He told about encountering
a horrible disease called leprosy. One Sunday afternoon, he was
out on a missionary journey with some natives to to preach and
they heard a voice up ahead of them crying for help and he said
we picked up our pace and hastened and rounded a bend in the jungle
growth and he said there on the ground in the very last stages
of decay sat a leper He said, I just can't describe it to you. His hands and fingers were just
almost eaten away, just nubs. And you could see every rear
of his body was so emaciated, corrupted. His face was just
one big ulcer. You could see the slits of the
eyes and the mouth, flies all over his face. He's holding up
those old stubby arms. and asking somebody to help him,
sitting there on the ground. And he said, I just stood there,
and I thought, now that's me, spiritually. That's what God
sees. Leprosy all the way through the Old Testament is a type of
sin. That's what God sees. And you know, he said, I thought
if I could If I could reach out and take his hand in mine and
this nub and pick him up and then put my arm around him
and bring him against me and his face against mine and let
his wretched sickness flow into me and my health into him, And
me get down on that ground and him go on his way healthy. He
said I would do for him what Christ did for me. Christ came
down here and took my sin, sicknesses and diseases in his body on the
tree. Bore my transgressions and my
iniquities. That's what I am. And he made me whole. And today,
by God's grace, I'm accepted. Righteous, holy, perfect in Christ. Because he became what I am,
that I might become by his grace what he is. Substitution. That's what we've been talking
about. And that's good news. That's the only good news for
sinners.