(Romans) All the World Guilty Before God

A great, wonderful letter of Paul to the saints at Rome, and we're at the third chapter this evening. You remember that in the first chapter, when Paul had given the salutation and the introduction why he was writing this letter to the saints, that he said in verse 18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And then you remember how in the rest of that first chapter, he let us see the test pool of iniquity that the ungodly sons of Adam's race had really got into.

And I think that some of us were shocked with the dreadful things revealed at the end of the first chapter of that letter to the Romans. You see, Paul was showing the ungodliness that's in this world. And then he's proving that the wrath of God is already revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Then in the second chapter, he took up the self-righteousness of man. And when he had finished showing this self-righteousness, my, it was as corrupt in the eyes of God as the ungodliness in the first chapter. We found out that Paul, the Pharisee, who had said that concerning the righteousness which was demanded in the law, he was grim, this self-righteous Pharisee, when brought to his senses in a convicted state before the Lord, said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

And he added, of whom I am case, so that Paul levels out the unrighteousness and the self-righteousness and brings all in guilty before God. And then last week, at the end of the second chapter, he dealt with the professed religiousness of the Jew, and proved that empty, false, professed religiosity was getting nowhere with God, and it too was under the wrath of God. And now he's just going out one step more this evening.

He's not letting this subject go until he has the whole world guilty before God. And in these twenty verses, the first twenty verses of chapter three, Paul is working hard to bring the whole world in guilty before God, and he definitely succeeds. Now these twenty verses this evening, they divide very naturally into four different portions.

In the first eight verses of this chapter, we have some wonderful questions. And I've called this portion, The Interrogations Paul Faced. And you know, it's good to see some of these questions being honestly faced.

And so we shall look very carefully at them, The Interrogations Paul Faced. And then in the next four verses, 9, 10, 11, 12, we have the conclusions Paul reached. And for every worker, every Christian worker, we ought to have these conclusions a way deep down in our hearts, and held very tightly of divine convictions.

And we shall take our time with the conclusions Paul reached. And then in the next six verses, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, we have the corruptions Paul marked. And what a bit of painting this is with a pen.

This is pen painting the corruptions of man. And then in the last two verses tonight, 19 and 20, we have the convictions Paul penned. Now here are the four divisions, The Interrogations Paul Faced, The Conclusions Paul Reached, The Corruptions Paul Marked, The Convictions Paul Penned.

And we're all set for starting. We must remember that last week, when we began in verse 17, right down to verse 29 of the second chapter, that Paul was dealing exclusively with the religious Jew. Remember he dealt with the name that the Jew bore, verse 17, Behold thou art called a Jew.

Or as another translation put it, Behold thou art called to bear the name Jew. And so he dealt with the Jew exclusively. And then he came to these conclusions, verse 26 he said, Therefore if thee on circumcision keep the righteousness of the law, Shall not his on circumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not on circumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, Who by the letter on circumcision doth transgress the law? And then he said out loud, For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly.

You see, the name Jew means praise to God. And of course the Pharisee, who was only a whited sepulcher, Full of dead men's bones and rottenness, So the Lord Jesus said, Who was only a Jew outwardly, and he was no praise to God. And then Paul said this, For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, Neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh, If the right of circumcision didn't make him stand as separated soul for God, Then it didn't count for very much.

So when Paul got all that off his chest, He knew quite well that he was going to be asked some very pointed questions from the Jews. And so he anticipates them and he answers them very wonderfully. So we start the interrogations, Paul says.

You see, this is the first question that is bound to come. What advantage then hath a Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? You see, what's the use of being called a Jew? Or what profit is there in being circumcised? If you're only a Jew when you're one inwardly, And circumcision only counts when you're really separated to God. So he was anticipating these questions, And rightly so, because these questions are still asked.

You see, even in our day and generation, questions like these are asked. I remember going to the hospital to see a man some years ago in the Royal. As far as I remember, it was his brother who phoned me to ask me to go and see him.

And honestly, I didn't know his brother, nor did I know the man I was going to see. I suppose his brother was throwing off his own responsibility onto poor me. However, I took up the challenge and I went to see this man in hospital.

Stranger, of course. And I found a very nice, well-spoken, well-learned gentleman, well-educated, I'm perfectly sure. And after speaking to him for a few moments at the bedside, I said, Are you a Christian? He said, What? He said, Wasn't I born in a Christian country? Don't I have a Christian name? Don't I belong to a Christian family? Wasn't I baptized with Christian baptism? Well, he really went for me, you see.

I said, I'm perfectly sure that a gentleman of your intelligence knows quite well that Christianity has some connections with Christ. That you cannot have Christianity without having Christ. And it's the personal acceptance of Christ that brings Christianity to you.

Let me inform you, you have nothing to do with being born in a Christian country. And you have nothing to do with being born in a Christian family. And you have nothing whatever to do with getting your Christian name.

And for the race that you call Christian baptism, you and I would need to have a long talk about it. To me it's totally sprinkling, but that's another subject. He was a wee bit taken back at this, you see.

I said, What I meant was this. Have you personally ever accepted Christ? Then he came back with this question. What's the advantage of being born in a Christian country? What's the advantage of my Christian name? What's the advantage of my Christian home? What's the advantage of my so-called Christian baptism? I said, it just tells you what the law told the Jews.

You see, the law brought to the Jews a real conviction that condemned them. And when you talk about being in a Christian home, and having a Christian name, and being in a Christian land, and you have never yet accepted Christ. Your own language is found condemned already.

Don't dare to talk about Christianity when you are rejecting Christ. Don't dare. How can you link yourself up when you have no time for Christ? Who alone can bring Christianity to your life? Remember me telling you the story about walking into the paper shop up here one morning? Walked into the paper shop and it was full, you see, full of people.

Well, at the far end, he was a communist. I know him very well, lived in the town here. He thought he would rattle me.

And he held a big picture of Stalin up. Beautiful picture it was, full page. Looked up the shop and said, Mr. Mullen, there's the man that brought Christianity to this world.

Because I just walked slowly on up the shop and I said, man, you must be a great guy. I said, you know, I'm looking in between. How could you need Christ for Christianity? And if you're going to profess to be a Christian, you'll need to personally, your own self, accept Christ.

Who of many have received him? And all that you have heard of the advantage of being in the Christian land and in the so-called Christian homes ought to have instructed you that you personally need to accept Christ to enjoy Christianity. So that's what Paul was actually getting at here. But Paul did something else.

Did it like this. He faced the question, what advantage then have the Jews? Or what profit is there of circumcision? He said this, much every way. And I think with many other scholars that he was about to outline many of the things that were advantageous to the Jews.

He just took the first one and said, chiefly, because not unto them, the Jews, were committed the articles of God. You know, that's a very wonderful Greek word that's translated, articles. Actually, it could be better translated, the utterances of God.

You know, the Jew had the direct, infallible, unchangeable, impregnable utterances of the living God. And in those utterances, there were many promises to the Jew. And don't you get it to the church.

We happen to be dealing with a Jew. And I'm not letting you change it. Not on your life, I'm not.

We'll just hold it where it is. My, they had, who had? One or the other. They had.

The Jew had. They had the utterances of God. And in those utterances, there were many promises made to the Jew.

And God will keep them. My, he'll not shuffle the deck of cards of the promises to get away from keeping his promises that he made to the Jews. Not on your life, I'm not.

He'll keep them. But you know, not only were the utterances compiled of promises to the Jewish nation, powerful promises, but there were witty warnings given to them too. And God meant to keep the warnings just as much as the promises.

You see, if they were not going to obey, if they were going to go their own way, then God would come across them. So would the judge. And so in these articles, or in these utterances, there were powerful promises, and there were witty warnings.

But you know, some of the Jews didn't believe. That's what they did. They made God a liar.

Because you do know when you don't believe God, you make Him a liar, don't you? You know that. You see, we've always got to take the time in these messages to come from the old economy to the new. You see, in the gospel of God, my, there are mighty utterances and powerful promises to him that will believe.

And there are witty warnings for them that will die in unbelief. And some of you sitting here, you neither take in the promises, nor are you moved by the warnings. No, no.

You just make God a liar. You couldn't believe tonight that God would keep His promise to you. You couldn't believe that the work's done, and the price is paid, and the blood shed, and the battles fought, and the sacrifice made, and the Saviour alive, and whosoever shall call upon His name shall be saved.

Oh no, you'll have to trouble a bit with it. But it never gives me any bother believing God. Never gives me any bother at all.

I can believe God. When we get into the next chapter, you'll see that Abraham believed God just like that. Just like that.

But you know, Paul's very wonderful teacher, he's just pointing out that the very first privilege or advantage that the Jew had was that these articles that contained the powerful promises and the witty warnings were made to the Jewish nation. And now he comes with the second question. For what if some did not believe? Now, watch this.

Shall their unbelief make the faithfulness of God, that word should be, make the faithfulness of God without effect? Shall it? Not on your life, it'll not. This is a wonderful thing. That God will be quite capable of working out all that He said under witty warnings, and yet at the same time fulfilling the powerful promises.

And their own belief, their own unbelief, won't make the faithfulness of God without effect. Not at all. You know, God will work it all out, won't He? He'll do the wonderful things for the Jewish nation that He said He would do.

And the judgments that were given in warning will fall upon their heads. So Paul's really getting down to things. Now, watch.

He's saying this in verse 3. For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Shall their lies towards God? Or shall their making out God a liar? It says, God forbid. Let God be true and every man a liar. Because he's balancing the word liar with unbelief here, you know.

Because if you're an unbeliever tonight, you just make God out a liar. And don't you forget that as you sit on the seat. Because you just can't believe God's saying the truth, that's all.

That's why you are where you are. You're just calling God a liar. You can't believe that what God's saying is true.

Paul just turns it around. He says, let God be true. And every man a liar, as it is written.

That thou mightest be justified in thy pains. And mightest overcome when thou have judged. You see, whether God works out the faithfulness or brings down the judgment.

My, he'll be right all the time. Let God be true. Now he comes to one of the most serious questions that he's ever going to face.

He anticipates somebody saying something like this. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes a vengeance? I speak as a man. God forbid, he says, for then how shall God judge the world? Here's the great question.

For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? You know, some people are so wopped that they talk like that. You know, I gave Bible readings in the great convention in Switzerland some years ago. And Bible readings were always given in the morning, eleven o'clock in the morning.

And I expounded some portion from eleven to twelve. Then you stopped from twelve to twenty past twelve and had coffee. And you sat round little round tables and you all made your mind up about what the picture said.

And then you had from then to one o'clock to tackle them on the questions. And while we had some real showdowns in those wonderful moments after the coffee. I can remember an agnostic being here one morning.

And we were going through Romans. And just as soon as the session started again he got to his feet and said, I'm an unbeliever, can I ask a question? I said, certainly you can. He said, if God uses sin to bring glory to his own name, how can he righteously judge the sinner? I said, that's just as wopped and as crooked and diabolical question as I've ever heard in my life.

He said, you're not to make remarks on what I'm saying, you're to answer the question. Which was quite correct. I said, I'm only making the remarks before I answer the question, that's all.

And I said to him, supposing you owe me ten thousand pounds. And then just to be sarcastic about it I said, I wouldn't like a character like you to owe me very much. Just to rub it in.

I said, supposing you owe me ten thousand pounds and I was pressing you for the money. And in those days of pressure you went all around the country and you slandered my name in every quarter that you could. And did everything against me that you could.

And then at last, just out of pure mercy and graciousness and love, I came round and I forgave you everything. I said, look, it's all over. I'm just forgiving you, that's all.

And of course people might hear of the wonderful acts of graciousness and mercy that I have done towards you. Would you say that it would be more right to praise your sin than my grace? I said, I would judge that you're a character who would believe there are certain things that need to be punished. Supposing you saw a man beating a baby in a cot with a stick.

And remember it has happened in this old world of ours. There are men taken up for cruelty to children and the acts are diabolical. I said, can I ask you, would you think that he shouldn't be judged? He said, I know he should be judged.

I said, then if you can make one sin something that cannot be judged, just because God's got glory in the forgiveness, then you'll have to make all sins that they can't be judged. I said, you know, Paul said, how can God judge the world if you talk like that? But then I said, remember God just didn't come round and say, you're forgiven, son. I said, you know, the acts that we've committed and the sins in thought and word and deed, God had to see them dealt with in the totality for eternity.

And he had to see them dealt with in the passion of his son. You know, God had to give his son as a sacrifice. And his son had to go to Calvary.

And betrothed between the upper and the lower moon stones of God's wrath. That sin might be dealt with. I said, do you think you have anything to glory in? And I can remember this big man.

He stood with his head down. He said, I'm ashamed of what I said. I said, and you have every right to be.

You know, there are some people so warped in their minds that they would even ask questions that are so diabolically crooked as this one. Oh no, you can't get off of that sort of thing. What would Paul say to that sort of thing? I will read it over again so that you will get the full content of it.

Verse 5. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? God forbid. For then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I ought to judge to the sinner? And not rather, as we slanderously reported in the summer fun that we say, let us do evil that good may come. That's that sort of teaching.

Here's what Paul says about it. Whose damnation is dust? You see, people would try this crooked what business, just because they want to sin. Just because they want to go on sinning.

Just because they would try to make out that my sin will bring glory to God. Oh, what a what business. Just because they want to escape the judgment hour, I'll say this with Paul to them.

Your damnation is dust. You'll be justly damned. And damned in the pit of hell.

Damned. You know, the Lord shackled the Pharisees like this. He was rowing up them and he said, why is that chapel a curse? Full of dead men's bones and rottenness.

How can ye escape the damnation of hell? It was Jesus Christ that said that. He was no saviour, you know. People seem to think he was, but he wasn't.

To come on to say that to the Pharisees. And that's the sort of preaching that these old Pharisees need yet. And there might be one or two in this meeting.

And if you're a whited sepulcher rolled up in dead empty formal religion, and you think you're going to escape the judgment, I can tell you this. Your damnation is dust. Be damned for rejecting Christ.

And it'll be justly. Now, having faced the questions, here's another one. And then we start, we're starting into the conclusions Paul reached.

Verse 9, it says, what then? Are we better than they? And there's been a lot of talk about who the we is under they. I think I can see Paul, the writer in the we, and the believers at Rome in the we. Surely he's embracing the saints and themselves when he says we.

And I think in the way that he's going right back to the unrighteous in the first chapter, and the self-righteous in the second chapter, and the dead empty religionist in the third chapter, right at the very spot where we are now. And he's bringing them all in. He says, are we any better? That's what he's doing.

Not setting himself up on the pinnacle, you know. Now he's determined in this chapter to bring the whole world in guilty before God, and you just watch him doing it. And when he does, you're there.

And you'll go home tonight knowing that you're a guilty sinner on your way to hell, or else you're a guilty sinner saved through the sacrifice of God. Either one or the other. It's just as cotton-dried as that, isn't it? Now watch him doing it, because he's really a wonderful preacher.

The man who goes through Romans carefully will always be afraid to preach, because Paul was a great preacher. Verse 9, what then? Are we better than they? No. In no wise.

For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. When he comes to these conclusions, as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one.

My, that should level down all the religious folk in this meeting who are depending on the church going, and on their confirmation, and on their infant sprinkling, and on their attending the Lord's table, and everything else, my dear friends. I want you to get this. Outside of Christ, there is none righteous.

No, not one. No, not one. Not a one in the faith of the earth.

You know, when we get down to the end of the chapter next week, we'll find this verse. Verse 23. For all have sinned, and some short of the glory of God.

You see, in the first part, he has all the unrighteous people. All have sinned. In the second part, he's all the self-righteous people.

Not one of them has come up to the glory of God. They're all short of it. So that in the real sense, there's not one righteous.

No, not one. Then he comes to this word in verse 11. There is none that understandeth.

Isn't that a tremendous statement? An unqualified word, isn't it? I think that the whole idea is that there is none that truly understand of God. You know, sometimes we talk about hell and damnation and eternal torment and God dealing with souls like this for all eternity. And you know, the great theologian, who of course was, and it seems to be forever will be in this world, the Prince of Preachers, he said, in my early days, I could almost have taken my stand on the side of men who didn't like the judgment of God until, until I began to realize something of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man.

You know what's wrong with us? We don't understand properly the holiness of God. And you know what's wrong with us on the second leg? We don't understand properly the sinfulness of man. You see, I'm just a character who's been through a tremendous part of this world.

Unfortunately, I have been in damns where some of you have never been and you may praise the Lord for your ignorance. And you know, I've seen things and I know things that if they were revealed to some of you who were brought up in Christian homes and under the shadow of Christianity, you wouldn't believe. You wouldn't believe.

There were sins practiced in Austria in a certain spot and when men confessed them and put them on papal, the GI in that district, and I'm telling you, it would shock you, dear. Shock the leaf out of you. You wouldn't believe it.

Supposing, supposing a moral, upright, honest, pure, untamed I'm talking about was by some means taken into one of these dens and in a flash she saw what was being Supposing she got head and supposing she became a holy woman and thank God there are holy women. Thank God there are. And supposing as a holy woman who had walked in purity with the Lord she was taken suddenly to one of these dens and this thing was revealed.

I believe she had gone for sex. But you know, not one of us is coming near the holiness of God, are we? What? To our holy gods? You don't know. That's what's your trouble.

There's none that understand us. That's our trouble. We don't know.

You just can't compare it. You can't preach it. You can't expound it because you don't know it.

You can stand a thousand miles away and imagine and in my vivid imagination I can see that this holy God can do nothing else with this polluted sinful creature who dies in his sins than put them out of his sight for all eternity into the damnation of hell. And you know I'm going to shock you when I say this. That probably the most exceeding sinful part of sin is when you bluntly reject God's Son.

Now there's something you think that there's some some meritorious almost. You can listen to preaching and you can be convicted and you can be moved yet you can stand still and you can back away and you can turn your back and you can walk out like Judas and you can openly, blatantly reject God's Son. Come on, you're going to the deepest hell earth.

And I'll say this, you deserve it. Think that God's Son left heaven and in love for you came down and went to Calvary and went through that awful time of suffering and shame and ignominy and pain and agony from the cursed tree and died that atoning death and defeated hell and the devil and how often came and pleaded with a character like you and you can still certainly say man, you deserve to go to hell. You see, we don't understand.

We don't understand that sort of thing. We don't understand the exceeding sinfulness of sin and we don't understand the inflexible. There's none.

Apparently there's none. Well, you can fiddle about it for the rest of your days but you don't commit it. That's the world we live in.

There's none righteous. We live in. There's none righteous.

None that understand us. Watch this one, verse 11. There is none that searches after God.

I tell you that's a great revelation, that verse. If I can tell you this, it means that God's standing out in the open somewhere and He could be sought. But man is really lost and never bothers seeking.

And I can always say this to you, son. If there comes into your mind or your heart the tiniest little thought of getting right with God it wasn't you that thought it. It's the Holy Ghost coming and dealing with you.

And I'll tell you this, if God was drawn to His presence and cries no more and knocks no more and preaches no more and talks no more and calls no more you'll go to hell as sure as you're on the seat. You'll never seek God on your own, you know. Let us fall in this building by chance.

God brought us together, you know. I'm never hoodwinked, you know. I never think that it's my preaching draws us out.

I'm just not as soft as all that. I just know that this is God bringing people to hear His words. Never mind about the 5-8 on the platform.

This is God doing. Why we never seek God on our own, you know. There's none that seeketh God.

You remember the lost sheep, my friend, thrown up and thrown up and thrown up and thrown away. Ah, the shepherd had to leave the ninety and nine and up the hill he had to go every day. That which was lost.

People's conclusions. But this one says, verse 12, they are all gone out of the way. They are altogether become unprofitable.

See the word unprofitable. Well that's a word that's used in the Greek for fruit. It's actually what we would say every apple in the bar is rotten.

They are altogether become unprofitable. There's not an apple in the bar of humanity that wasn't tainted and no use for anything. They're altogether become unprofitable.

Watch this one. It supports it, of course. There is none that doeth good.

No, not one. You know, some people have a great idea of goodness. Can't have a better illustration than use the one I've used too often.

The young fellow's back there, but you'll bear with me. Some fellow just down the side there brought his mother in to see me one evening. And he was so glad she was coming to the end of the way she'd been treading.

He said, Mr. Moore, you'll change it with my mother. Lead her to the cage. His mother went to the mall and talked to him.

And he backed out and then as he was going out of the door he said, My dear Mr. Moore, my mother's a good woman. I know what he meant, of course. Of course I know what he meant.

But I'm an old-fashioned gospel teacher and I meant to rub it into her. And I said, Son, if your mother has rejected Jesus Christ openly for the last sixty years, she's not a good woman, she's a blitzen sinner on her way to hell. Who are you to have you requested that? Don't you think that God looks down sideways on you? If you're openly every day in the Lord, in the business, in the family, in the world, rejecting his son, there's nothing good about you.

You're a blitzen sinner, I tell you. There's none good. There's not an apple in the bowl good.

None good. Then the rich young ruler came and fell at Jesus' feet and he said, Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus took him up and he said, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but God. Do you know what Jesus was saying? He was saying, I'm God.

Now take any look where I open the gate on the subject. And if Jesus Christ wasn't good, you come and tell me where any wasn't good. I'm challenging you.

I'd love to know where you will find the new good in him. You know? There's none good but one God. Jesus was God.

You can't find where any wasn't good, can you? Our friends, these are conclusions that Paul reached. You young preachers and going out into the world, get them in your hearts. The folk you meet in the meeting, the folk you see in the street, the folk in the work, all around us.

There's none righteous. There's none that understand us. There's none that seek us after God.

There's none that do us good. And then get it in your heart. No, not one.

My, the congregation's a big one, isn't it? It's the world that we both have reached. A perishing, totally decayed world. There's not a good apple in the barn, I tell you.

My dear friend, you need the savior. And the only way you'll ever get in through the pearl-hung gates of heaven is being accepted in the beloved. It's only in him we have redemption.

It's only in him that we have life. It's only in him that we find righteousness. It's only in him that we get justification.

Oh, we're getting down with that. The poor can really do it, can't they? Nobody's any bother preaching when they can follow Paul easily. Well, let's get these corruptions that poor Marks will not deal too long with them.

We're at verse 13. He says, Their throat is an open sepulchre. You know, there's something distasteful, there's something desolate, something dark about an open sepulchre.

If you knew Paul had watched men in this world, and my out of their mouths had come things that were distasteful, things that were the very essence of darkness. Their throat, he says, is an open sepulchre. Watch this.

Their tongues, with their tongues they have used deceit. You don't need to go along that one too far. You've seen it yourself.

Yes, there's darkness and deceit. And then the poison of arse is under their lips. My, there's not only something dark and deceitful, but deadly here.

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, my this tongue of ours, and what destruction can't it? You see, what he's proving here is that men, everywhere, across the world, sin and word. Sin and word, you know. Man, we do.

Nobody going to argue with me about this, you know. Man, we sin and word. Sin and word.

Now watch this. He says they sin indeed now. He says, verse 17, verse 15, Their feet are swift to shed blood.

Destruction and misery are in their ways. You know, they not only sin and word, but they sin indeed. And you know, I don't need to take you through the Sunday papers, or even the daily papers, to let you see that feet are swift to shed blood.

And I don't need to take you into all the details that goes on in the world to show you that destruction and misery are in their ways. And then they don't only sin and word indeed, but watch. And the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. You see, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And you know, there's been no thought there on their own.

They sin and word indeed and thought continually. My, what we call an observant character. Money can just scribble it out as quick as all that.

Just one or two marks with a brush, and they've got man tainted in all this sinfulness. And it's a true picture. It's a true picture.

Watch the convictions that Paul penned at the end of this passage. There's verse 19 now, and this is very important. Now we know, we believers know, that what sins whoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world might become filthy before God.

You know, this is what Paul wants to do before he really starts into the glories of this wonderful book. One subject from this text, and at the end of the text, a young fellow came up to me and he said, he said, whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law. I said, that's right.

He said, of course you know that the Jew was only under the law. I said, that's right again. He said, what law is mentioned here? I said, well now that's just a debatable point.

I said, there's one thing that's absolutely sure, the moral law is here. He said, yes I agree with you there, that the Jew was under the Ten Commandments, that's the moral law by the way. He said, if God put the Jew under the Ten Commandments, how can he bring the whole world into sin? I said, well you know, me fellow, couldn't pass the 11 plus, I'm perfectly sure.

Because anybody with intelligence doesn't tackle anybody that's preaching for years. I know that, you see. I said, son, let me tell you this.

If a farmer bought a field, and there were 12 acres in it, and the 12 acres had soil, all of the one country, just to know what sort of crop, and whatever the one would produce, he could do perfectly. And if you would meet a Dutchman, I said, just like you and me, with whatsoever the law says, of that every, you wouldn't have done any better, you know. You'd be under the same substance, you would produce the same thing.

The whole world stands guilty. Because I've often done this, I've taken the Ten Commandments, Thou shalt not covet, and put it to the whole living. Would anybody make this kind of mistake, if Nicholson coveted anything? Why, no exception.

You know what Nicholson said, good old WP's in heaven tonight. Is there anybody here that never had a row with a wife? Three months stood up, said, yes sir. I said, sit down you wee hypocrite.

And that wasn't Helena that came, it was the fellow in front of her. Oh yes. I want you to get this.

When the Ten Commandments are put against any of us, our life is stopped. The whole world becomes guilty, guilty before God. Not guilty before the neighbour, you know.

Not guilty before the boss. No, no, no, no. Guilty before God.

Let me say it, every one of us. Guilty. GUILTY ON THEM ON CLEAN SET UP BEFORE GOD Only the man who solves the problem.

Only. You see, when he brings the whole world in guilty before God, he does this. Now we'll read 19 again.

Now we know that whatsoever 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. Mind you.

You know, you can't work your way to heaven BY DEEDS YOU DEPART IN HIM. Oh no. Penance won't do.

And all the gymnastics of pagan potpourri won't do. No. My, I heard a young fellow say the other night, you can work yourself into a position in the church and you can work yourself to death and you can work yourself to hell.

But you can't work yourself to heaven. Oh you can't. But you can't.

You can't get in by works. It's not of works. Lest any man should boast of yonder.

You'll have to confess, confess, I'm not righteous, I don't understand it, I'm no good, I'm untrained, I'm a guilty sinner on my way to hell. And only the blessed spectre of Christ of Christ can save me. You can't get justified by deeds.

You see, here's what he's trying to get over to them. Watch this. He says, Therefore by the deeds of the law shall there no flesh be justified in God's sight for by the law is the knowledge attained.

Somebody might have come in and said, well, why did they give the law? Man, he just gave the law to let us know we were sinners. Actually, it's our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. That's what it is.

Now, when he has worked with the unrighteous Gentiles, and the self-righteous men of Adam's race, and the empty false religionists, and all those critics who would bring up questions, and bring the whole world in guilty before God, and says by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified, now he's just about to start the wonderful book, and he's going to expound for us justification. Oh, we're really starting. It took us a few nights to get here.

Don't shut your Bible and look at next week's chapter just for a moment. Do you see? You see, in verse 23 he judges over the ground again for all of sin and comes short of the glory of God. And then in verse 24 he begins, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Verse 28, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Say hallelujah. Hallelujah.

My, I'm telling you, you're a fool. And then when we come to chapter 4, he takes Abraham, verse 2, For if Abraham were justified by what? He hath whereof the glory, but not before God. But what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was conquered unto him for righteousness.

Look at verse 10. How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. What's how it happened? Verse 20.

He staggered not of the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, given glory to God. What's the basis of justification? He's talking about our Lord Jesus Christ in verse 24, who was raised from the dead. And in verse 25 he says, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.

And verse 1 of chapter 5 is, Therefore being justified by faith. And that's just where Luther got to and found out that the whole Roman structure was crumbling around him. And this is the fundamental cake of the Protestant faith.

Justification by faith alone. Get it? Justification by faith alone. It's obvious that Jesus died, but he died for me.

Is there a self-righteous, hypocritical Pharisee in the meeting depending on his words? Can I take their dead fig leaves off you tonight? Lead you to the cross? Do you see the sacrifice that was made for you? And the moment you put the arms of your faith around the Christ who died and rose again and make him your own and personal savior. Justified by faith. And you can never become unjustified either.

Never. Never. For it is God that justifies.

We'll learn in another chapter. Oh, I tell you, the book only begins to open now. We're only raising the curtain.

We've had the overture for these last two or three nights. Oh, but we're entering into the depths of the wonders of God's salvation in the nights to come. Read the chapters.

We'll be finishing chapter 3 for next Tuesday, God willing. And I know there are great things there for you. Let us bow together.

Now, I see a friend from Dublin here this evening. Chris Robinson. Nice to see him.

I'm asking you, my dear friend from the dark house, to ask the Lord's blessing on this meeting. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.