(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

No one to save you but Jesus, there's no other way but his way. Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Do you not feel, dear brother, his spirit now striving within? Oh, why not accept his salvation and throw off your burden of sin? Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Why do you wait, dear brother? The harvest is passing away. Your savior is longing to bless you. There are danger and death in delay. Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Amen. Why not? If you would, go ahead and grab your Bibles. Open up to Romans chapter number three. While the offering plate's being passed around, Romans chapter number three. We'll read that chapter as is our custom. Brother Brandon. All right, Romans chapter three and the Bible reads, What advantage then has to do? For what profit is there of circumcision? Much of every way chiefly because that unto them were committed to oracles of God. But what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make them faith of God without effect? God forbid, yea, let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written that though mightiest be justified in thy sayings and mightiest overcome when thou art judged. But if our righteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? I speak as a man. God forbid, for then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more bound through may lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather as we be slanderously reported, as the sum affirm the way we say, let us do evil that God may come. Whose damnation is just? What then? Are we better than they? No. Is no wise, for we have better proved both Jew and Gentiles that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of ass 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 way, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And we know that what things soever the law sayeth, sayeth unto 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 was manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophet. Even the righteous of the God which is by faith of Jesus Christ and all upon them that believe. There is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare I say that this time is righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law of work? Nay, 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 the Gentiles? Yes, the Gentiles also. Seeking it is one God which shall justify their circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law. We have a quick word of prayer. Amen. All right, thank you all for coming tonight and as always thank you Pastor Shelly for allowing me to fill the pulpit. It's always an honor and a privilege to be able to preach God's Word. And last time I was here we were in Romans chapter 2. We skipped Romans 1 just because I feel like we got a lot of that in June. I feel like this church has that chapter down pretty well. But if you remember just to give a quick recap, Romans chapter 1 he's talking about how he's commending the faith of the people in Rome. He talks about how he's ready to preach the gospel. He talks about the power of the gospel and then it ends with the condemnation of the reprobates. And then in Romans chapter 2 it kind of shifts gears to where it's more of a rebuke of the Jews. So in Romans 1 it's kind of like a rebuke of the Gentiles. In Romans 2 it's kind of a rebuke of the Jews. And in order to kind of get a context of where we're at in Romans chapter 3, let's go back to Romans 2 and let's read the last two verses. It says, So he kind of ends this roast of the Jews with just this really powerful set of verses explaining what a true Jew is. It's not just someone who has a certain bloodline or someone of necessarily a certain religion. It's someone who believes in Christ. It's someone whose circumcision is of the heart and of the spirit. And so this begs a question. Well, is there any advantage of being a physical Jew then? If you're really a Jew by your faith, is there any type of advantage that you would have by being a physical Jew? And that's what Romans 3 starts out by asking. Look at verse 1. It says what advantage then hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision? He's asking, is there any benefit then of being a physical Jew? Well, look what he says in verse 2. Much every way chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. So is there any benefit of being of the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, of Jacob, of being of that physical seed? Yes. Much every way there was an advantage. Now notice the Bible doesn't say, you know, how much more superior is the Jew? It doesn't say that they're superior. It says that they had an advantage. And what was the advantage that they had? That they had the Word of God. That they had the oracles of God given to them. That is the biggest advantage anyone can ever have in this life is having the oracles of God committed unto them. Now go ahead and go to John chapter number 1 and I'll read for you Acts 10 43. The Bible says in Acts 10 43, to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. You want to talk about an advantage that the Jews had of getting saved? Well in Acts the Bible says that to Jesus Christ gave all the prophets witness. So every single book in the Old Testament was giving witness to the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what was it giving witness to? That through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. Man you want to talk about an advantage of getting saved? Well they had the law. They had the books of Moses. They had the Old Testament. And the Bible says that every single prophet, every single book of the Old Testament was bearing witness of Jesus Christ. Sounds like they were the people who had the biggest advantage to get saved. What a huge advantage that they had. You're there in John chapter number 1. John chapter number 1. And go to verse number 40. John 1 40. You know since the Bible tells us that all the Old Testament prophets were bearing witness of Jesus Christ, shouldn't we see an example of people finding out about Jesus from the Old Testament then? Look at John chapter 1 verse 40. One of the two which heard John speak, talking about one of the two disciples, and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother and saith unto him, We have found the messiahs, which is being interpreted the Christ. Now here's my question. Do you find something that you're not looking for? No usually you find something it's like I've been looking for something and I found it. And here Peter and Andrew they're saying hey we found the messiah. Why? Because they were looking for the messiah. Well how were they looking for the messiah? Well to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. That's how they were looking for Christ is because the whole Old Testament is about Christ. And so when he came on the scene they're saying hey look we found him. Look at verse number 45. Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph. So these you know these disciples who most of them were physical Jews guess what they had a huge advantage. Why? Because they had the oracles of God and when Jesus Christ showed up on the scene they're saying wow this is the guy that Moses was writing about. This is the guy that all the prophets were writing about. Well we should expect to have seen that. That's what Acts told us all those prophets were doing. And so these disciples when when they saw Christ they recognized who he is. Why? Because of what the Old Testament had written of him. So the physical Jews that rejected Christ guess what they had that same advantage that the that the disciples here had. But they chose to reject Christ. Look at John 1 verse number 10 says he was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came unto his own and his own received him not. So even though they had this great advantage just because you have the advantage doesn't make that you're gonna doesn't mean that you're gonna make good use of that advantage. And so even though that they had the word of God showing the coming Messiah the Old Testament when he came they didn't receive him. He wasn't what they expected. He wasn't what they were hoping for and instead of being smart like the disciples and getting excited being like wow we found Christ. What did they do? They just rejected him. Now they're going to have a big punishment because of their rejection of Christ. Go to Matthew chapter number 21. Matthew chapter number 21. And throughout the whole book of Romans this subject of the Jews comes up over and over and over again. This is a big topic and the reason why is because Paul's very passionate about reaching this group of people as we talked about in Romans chapter number two. Matthew 21 Jesus is going to give a parable in verse 33 it says here another parable there was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a winepress in it and built a tower and let it out to husband men and went into a far country and when the time of the fruit drew near he sent his servants to the husband men that they might receive the fruits of it and the husband men took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another again he sent other servants more than the first and they did likewise so Jesus is giving this parable and he's explaining how there's this householder that's putting all this effort into his vineyard he's digging wine presses he's just putting all this effort and he's sending his servants to the husband and what this represents is all of the prophets that God sent to Old Testament Israel Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel he rose up early sending them God sent servant after servant after servant to Israel and what did they do look at verse number 35 it says and the husband took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another again he sent other servants more than the first and they did unto them likewise and that's what the Jews did throughout the whole Old Testament they were constantly rejecting man of God after man of God after man of God constantly rejecting the servants that God gave to them look at verse 37 but last of all he sent unto them his son obviously representing Jesus Christ saying they will reverence my son but when the husband men saw the son they said among themselves this is the heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance and they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him when the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh what will he do unto those husband men and now the Jews are going to just condemn themselves with their own words right here in verse 41 they say unto him he will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard unto other husband men which shall render him the fruits in their season so the Jews they're preaching replacement theology right here of this little parable of the vineyard but they're not realizing right away of what it's going to be applied to how it's actually going to be applied to them because way worse than some carnal vineyard is God actually sending his son for you to die on the cross for your sins and then you rejecting him that's a lot worse than just rejecting you know some master's servants look at verse number 42 jesus saith unto them so now he's going to apply it to them did you never read in the scriptures talking about the old testament the stone which the builders rejected the same is become the head of the corner this is the lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes and we of course we know that that stone that rock that sure foundation is who the lord jesus christ and so he's saying hey i'm talking about me now verse 43 therefore so because the jews rejected christ because the jews rejected god's son the savior of mankind therefore say i unto you the kingdom of god shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof see the jews did have a great advantage but just because they had that advantage does not exempt them from god's wrath in fact it actually makes god's wrath even more grievous upon them because they despised what god gave them god gave them such a huge advantage the word of god sending his servants rising up early and sending them and then sending his own son and guess what they rejected all of that they rejected all the advantages that god gave them and so what did they what happened well they paid a huge price the kingdom of god was taken from them and was given to a spiritual nation which we are that spiritual nation we are that spiritual priesthood now that spiritual nation that's made up of all believers in christ whether jew whether gentile male female red yellow black and white that nation has been taken from the jews and has been given to a spiritual nation that's not the only thing the jews have coming from them just taking their kingdom away they also have hell to look forward to if they reject christ for their whole life i'll read for you matthew 23 verse 31 he says wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them that which killed the prophets fill ye up then the measure of your fathers ye serpents ye generation of vipers how can you escape the damnation of hell and so yeah did the jews have a great huge advantage absolutely but guess what when you despise the advantages and the blessings that god gives you there's a price to pay for that you know of whom much is given to him shall much be required is what the bible says now how can we apply this to ourselves well you know we have a lot of advantages that god has given to us lots and lots of advantages and today in 2021 you know the culture right now is where everyone kind of wants to play the victim and people want to pay have restitution for slavery that happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago and people want to act like there's no advantages that we've been given in 2021 we're all just poor little victims but let me tell you right now we have been given great advantages as well and chiefly you know what the greatest advantage that we've been given is the same thing that the jews were given the oracles of god and actually even more so because we actually have the old testament and the new testament perfectly translated into god into english god's word is available all across our nation there's not a city in this country where you cannot go get a bible for a dollar at the dollar store the king james bible for a dollar at the dollar store man you want to talk about having an advantage how about the fact that god gave us a perfect word of god that's a huge advantage you know that's that's more of an advantage of even walking with christ on this earth because they didn't even have the whole word of god ready for them to read at their fingertips you know and when peter saw the transfigured lord jesus christ later on he wrote that we have a more sure word of prophecy than the things that he's even seen when he saw christ transfigured and yet how many christians today despise the advantage that god gave them of the king james bible by not even reading it or by reading some sort of cheap knock off like an niv or like the new king james you know just despising this great advantage that god has blessed our country with in our world with and people want to you know reject the great gift that god has given us or how about a church there's places all over this world that would love to have a church like this a group of believers to get together to preach sound doctrine to go out soul winning you know how about a pastor and not only just a pastor but a pastor that labors really hard in the word and preaches just needy sermons sermons full of good doctrine sermons that can help you change your life sermons that can stir your heart you know someone called steadfast a few weeks ago maybe it was a few months ago saying that their pastor is just gone and that they need a pastor and they're like can you just send us a pastor it's like man sorry we don't have that many to go around you know what i mean and it's like you know maybe some of you in this room could get disgruntled and be like well our pastor isn't here every single service yeah but you know what you still have a great advantage of getting to hear a man of god preach once a week and guess what we have youtube there's another great advantage where you can listen to as many sermons from as many men of god as you want but yet so many people would despise that advantage not take advantage of that blessing that god's given you and just not even come to church or just come to church whenever you feel like it or just you know go to a church for a while and then just quit for no good reason god's given you such a good advantage in your life and you know you just take your family out of church you got no backup plan whatsoever there's no backup plan for your family you're just going to get out of church you know what you're despising the advantage that god has given you and just like god judged the jews very harshly harshly they were advantaged they didn't you know appreciate that he'll do the same thing in our lives he will judge us more harshly the more advantages that he gives us in this life you know how about health or a good family or good friends these are a lot of advantages that not just every single person on this earth is guaranteed to have and we have such an entitled mentality a lot of times in america but you know what a lot of the things that we have are not just guaranteed to us and so we should look at our lives and realize wow we have a lot of advantage what advantage hath the jew well we have way more than even they had even when they had moses even when they had isaiah even when they had ezekiel we have way more advantage of that by having the whole word of god and just the tons of other blessings that god gives us in our life but what's the bottom line the more privileged you are the more god's going to expect from you and the more privileged you are when you despise that the more god's going to punish you for despising that let's go to romans chapter number three and let's look at verse number three it says for what if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of god without effect god forbid yea let god be true but every man a liar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged i love what the bible says here is that that every man is a liar let god be true but every man a liar and i wish more people would have the humble attitude today of realizing how how sinful all of us really are every single man is a liar brother dylan is a liar you say well why are we letting someone preach who's a liar well you're not going to let any man preach if you're looking for someone that's not a liar because every man is a liar but it's funny like that's like one of the most minor sins in our minds at least is lying when we go out soul winning we try to tell people you've at least told a lie before and i can't say how many times i tell i tell people that and i hear them say well you know i lied when i was a kid once or twice and they're like insinuating that they don't lie anymore and it's just a haughty ridiculous attitude but look god has to remind us here let god be true but every man a liar and when you acknowledge that you're a sinner you're actually justifying god let's keep reading in verse number five it says but if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of god what shall we say is god unrighteous who taketh vengeance i speak as a man 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 also judged as a sinner so the bible teaches that our unrighteousness actually establishes actually validates actually backs up how righteous god is when we try to act like we're really righteous when we're not we're kind of trying to like bring god down on our level but really we should just realize that we're completely unrighteous and god is completely righteous and look at what it says in in verse five again but if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of god what shall we say is god unrighteous who taketh vengeance i speak as a man so he's speaking kind of just foolishly here he's speaking kind of with man's wisdom here he's saying well is god unrighteous who taketh vengeance and you know a lot of people who are unsaved have this attitude where they kind of blame god for sending people to hell and they would say like well i don't think god would send a good person to hell i don't think god would just send you know sweet old grandma to hell i don't think god would you know take vengeance on someone that's good but when you realize that we're all liars you realize god doesn't send anyone good to hell god doesn't send sweet old grandma to hell he sends lying grandma to hell wicked lying grandma and you say well she's not wicked look in comparison of god we are all wicked we're all unrighteous the most sweet loving nice person you know is wicked in comparison to god and when you have that attitude of yourself when you have that attitude of mankind really it just justifies god and it exalts god on how holy he really is when you understand how unrighteous that we actually are let's go to uh proverbs yeah proverbs chapter number six because he brings up lying he says let god be true but every man a liar and like i said in our culture we kind of look at lying as not that bad of a sin and of course in comparison to some really other horrific sins maybe you can make that case but how does god feel about lying what is lying like in the eyes of god see man may not think that lying is that big of a deal but what does god think about lying proverbs chapter number six look at verse 16 it says these six things that the lord hate yea seven are an abomination unto him a proud look a lying tongue it's something god hates the lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations feet that be swift in running to mischief and then he repeats this one item again a false witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among brethren so it's like god's given us six things he hates no seven because i'm going to repeat one of them twice and it's lying it's something that he hates so much and yet sometimes we downplay sin and a lot of people who think that they're going to get to heaven because they live a pretty good life what are they doing they're downplaying sin we're like well i haven't murdered anyone i haven't committed adultery i haven't blasphemed the holy ghost yeah i've told a few white lies well god hates your white lies that's what the bible says and your little lie your little white lies is enough to send you to hell for all of eternity i'll read for you revelation 21 8 says but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters it's like i haven't done those i'm okay oh wait and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death see god doesn't see lying as just some little itty bitty thing like we do no it's something that people are going to be in the lake of fire for lying bible says that not no liar is going to enter into heaven i'll read for you revelation 22 15 for without talking about without of the holy city are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie one lie is all it takes to send you to hell but man in his pride loves to just take god's commandments down to his level and think that he's not so bad when god hates even something like lying god hates most of the words that come out of the u.s government's mouth because he just hates lying so much and really probably all governments at that let's go to number verse 8 romans chapter 3 verse 8 it says and not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just so paul he's saying that he's being slanderously reported there's people that are lying about him they're bringing a false accusation they're saying he is saying something and what are they accusing paul of teaching they're accusing paul of teaching let's just do evil so that good may come and here's the thing people that don't believe the right gospel people that fight us about how we teach salvation by faith alone in christ not of works they will make a lot of railing accusations about what we believe they'll they'll say things will just be like oh well you just don't believe in godly living or they'll say oh you just don't believe in repentance they'll just lie about what we believe because they don't understand the gospel and this is nothing new this is something paul was facing people was criticizing his ministry and the things that he was teaching and by the way paul was such a savage because i love how he responded to this false accusation look what he says whose damnation is just he's like these people that are lying about what i'm teaching he's like they're damned and it's good i'm glad that they're damned because they're teaching a false gospel and look how i feel about every pastor or preacher that is teaching a false gospel is that their damnation is just like galatians one says hey their damnation is just that's attitude the apostle paul had towards those people that would lie about the doctrine of salvation look at verse number nine it says what then are we better than they talking about the jews no in no wise for we have before proved both jews and gentiles that they are all under sin and so like i said romans chapter 1 he was kind of focusing on the gentiles romans 2 he's kind of focusing on the jews and he's like look i've already proved to you guys jews and gentiles we're all sinners it's not like we're better than them no we're actually just all bad when it really comes down to it now look at verse number 10 it says as it is written there is none righteous no not one there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after god they are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one and this is the state of the world at whole today there is no person that does good there is no person that understands there is no person that's seeking after god now the calvinists kind of love to take verse number let's see they like to take verse number 11 where it says there's none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after god and they like to try to teach total depravity where they say see no one can even come to the knowledge of salvation because you can't understand anything and there's none good and here's the thing there is none that understand it there is none that seeketh after god but there is a way in which you can get understanding now go to acts chapter number eight the calvinists will have you believe that everybody is just totally depraved there's no hope god just has to choose you and hopefully god will just choose you to have the faith and you have no effect on salvation god just pre-determines who goes to hell and who goes to heaven just by the luck of the draw but here's how someone gets understanding okay we're in acts chapter number eight and let's look at verse number 30 so philip he comes up to the ethiopian eunuch and the ethiopian eunuch is reading the bible look at verse 30 and philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet isaias and said understandest thou what thou readest now here's here's the answer there's none that understand it because this guy is a has a carnal mind he's not saved he does not have a regenerated mind he does not have a regenerated spirit so this unsaved man he could sit there and read the bible all day long and he's not going to understand it spiritually yeah there's some carnal truths that the unsaved can understand from the bible okay noah built an ark you know he put the animals in the ark it's not like the unsaved can't understand that but when it comes to things that are spiritually discerned only the saved can understand that which is why the bible said in romans chapter one that the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith when we preach someone the gospel look at verse number 31 he answers him now and he said how can i so he's saying how can i understand this except some man should guide me and he desired philip that he would come up and sit with him so the truth is there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after god there's no one that's just going to pick up the bible someday being an unregenerated unsaved man and just decide i'm just going to pick up the bible today and get saved it does not happen why because there's none that understand it you have to have that revealed from faith to faith the gospel of jesus christ goes to one person whose spirit is regenerated who who can spiritually discern the word of god and that faith is passed on to another person that's what the bible teaches in romans chapter 10 and other places but look don't let the calvinists just take this one verse out of context and just tell you that oh we're just so depraved and no one can ever come to the knowledge of salvation it's all just predetermined by god no it's actually determined by whether or not you get up and preach the gospel to someone because if you don't preach the gospel of someone then they never will understand and they never will seek after god the only way that they're ever going to get that understanding is if you seek them that's why jesus came to seek and to save them that are lost they didn't come running to him obviously he did have people come to him but that's not how the gospel primarily gets across this world and so a lot of people wonder you know can someone just get saved on their own by reading the bible or just by reading a tract without anyone being able to explain to them and the answer is absolutely not you cannot get saved just by reading the bible yourself because it has to be spiritually discerned if you have any questions about that i can show you lots of other verses about that after the sermon but let's keep going with romans chapter number three let's go to verse number 13 verse number 13 it says their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they have used deceit the poison of asps is under their lips so again he's continuing to describe what the world is like as a whole and he says their throat is like an open sepulcher what's a sepulcher it's a place where dead bodies are so god he looks at the throat of man and to him it's this most disgusting stinking smell it's like a dead body coming out of someone's throat is how wicked mankind is to god and it's you know us as mankind we may you know people may laugh at a dirty joke or people may think that blasphemy isn't that big of a deal people may have grown up in a home where their parents are constantly saying omg and it doesn't even phase them or people may think that just telling little white lies aren't that big of a deal but in god's perspective when he sees the throat of man as whole it's like a stinking sepulcher to him the the filthiness on the tv and in the hollywood movies that everyone loves to laugh and giggle at to god it's like a stinking sepulcher and we need to have the right mentality of sin that sin isn't just the way that we necessarily perceive it the way that we grew up in in our culture we have to look at it the way that god looks at it that's why when people say yeah i'm going to heaven because i'm a pretty good person it's like no you're not because god looks at you and your throat is like a disgusting sepulcher to him and so is mine too and so is every single person in this room why because there's none righteous no not one and this is something that i wish that we could get the world to understand that they're not good enough to make it on their own to heaven people think well i'm just going to keep doing the best i can i can i'm just going to try to live a good life and that's going to get me to heaven it's like your good life is a sepulcher your good life is like the poison of asps it's not good there's none that do with good no not one let's keep reading and let's look at verse number 14 says whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood he says the world is whole as a whole their feet are just swift to shed blood there's a lot of bloodshed on this earth today you know we're blessed we live in a very relatively safe part of the world compared to the rest of this world you know today in kabul afghanistan there was an attack and like 40 plus people died and there was just you know i saw a video of it it's just disgusting a bunch of u.s soldiers died a bunch of family women kids were just blown up to shreds why because man's feet are swift to shed blood because we live in a bloody world and we are kind of detached to it from the united states we live in a safe place but you know what not all of the world is like that our world is a very violent world it's a very bloody world and you know it's just a joke that mankind thinks that they're good enough to make it to heaven when really mankind is bloody look at verse number 16 destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of god before their eyes so in conclusion it's not very good it's not a very good picture that the apostle paul's painting of mankind as a whole but he's doing this he's being very extreme because he has to get these jews to understand that even though they think they're so spiritual remember in romans chapter 2 they thought that they were teachers of babes instructors of the foolish he's like let me tell you what you and i and all this world is really like it's it's a bad picture is it not but what does this understanding what should this understanding lead us to do look at verse 19 now we know that what thing so ever the law sayeth it's saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before god see the whole point of the law is not for you to be so naive and stupid to think well i'll just have to keep the law then to be safe no it's for you to realize like wow i'm not even close to being righteous i'm not even close to being able to follow all of god's commandments perfectly and to be as holy as he is and oh man my mouth is shut that's what the bible says that the law is there that every mouth may be stopped and all the world would become guilty before god what did god that this world would humble themselves and instead of being so proud as to think that they could just follow the ten commandments to get to heaven you know that's almost every catholics answer what do you think you have to do to get to heaven follow the ten commandments no the ten commandments were there to stop your mouth and to make you stand in guilt before god that's what the ten commandments are for and anyone that thinks that they're righteous enough to keep the law is an absolute fool they need to read romans chapter 3 to explain to them what they are really like look at verse number 21 actually before we move on let's go to matthew chapter 19 and let's read a story about a person who thought that salvation could be by the law matthew chapter 19 matthew 19 verse 16 it says and behold one came and said unto him good master what good thing shall i do that i may have eternal life and he said unto him why callest thou me good there is none good but one that is god but if thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments now he so this man he calls jesus good now jesus is good because he is god but romans chapter 3 teaches us that there is none good no not one and so this is kind of like a roundabout way of jesus telling this man that he's not good he's telling him right off the bat you're not good because there's none good but one that's god because this man's saying hey what good thing can i do to have eternal life and the answer is nothing there is no good thing you can do because you're not good good would be completely perfect like god now look at how jesus answers him here it says in verse number 17 there's none good but one that is god but if thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments now at this point you should just be like okay wow i'm not even close i'm not gonna be able to do that i'm standing in guilt before god i'm not gonna be able to keep all the commandments verse 18 he saved unto him which now you shouldn't even really have to ask ask that question if you think that salvation was by works you wouldn't have to say well which works it's just all of them just all of the law all of the commandments do it all perfectly good luck you don't need to really ask which but jesus gives him an answer jesus said thou shalt do no murder thou shall not commit adultery thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness honor thy father and thy mother and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself and loving your neighbor as yourself just compasses the whole law everything young man say unto him all these things have i kept from my youth up what lack i yes this guy is just super prideful he has zero self-awareness whatsoever because i guarantee you he has not kept all these things from his youth up but maybe in his foolish mind he actually believed that he did but look what jesus says jesus said unto him if thou will be perfect go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me but when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions so even though this guy thought that he was living a really clean life he thought that he was keeping all the commandments perfectly eventually there came to a point where he realized okay i can't do that though and here's the thing every single person unless you are a complete idiot unless you are a complete moron will come to a point where they realize okay well i can't do that though i haven't done that though i've messed up here and people just need to get their perception of sin according to god's word and not according to themselves the bible says that the thought of foolishness is sin it's like oh no i don't murder i don't steal i don't commit adultery i don't do any of that stuff you know i'm good i've all these things have i kept for my youth up okay what about the thought of foolishness is sin what about to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin have you ever stopped yourself from doing something good that you know you should have done like that one time you skipped church like that one time you skipped soul winning like that time you know you didn't pray through the prayer request that week i mean everyone's done stuff like that before in their life but it just goes to show that god's standard is so high that even if you think you're doing a really good job eventually there's something that you're failing in why because there's none that do with good no not one there's none righteous nobody is perfect and you think about even jobe jobe what the bible says was the most righteous man alive at that time and when he was in the presence of god when god came in the whirlwind and started speaking for those few chapters at the end of jobe what did he say he's like i abhor myself he's like he's in the presence of god he's like i hate myself i'm horrible i'm trash and really jobe was the most righteous man alive so even if you sitting here think i'm the most righteous man alive on this earth today well guess what if you're in the presence of god you would hate yourself because of how sinful you actually are and so don't you know don't get this ridiculous idea that sin is just based on how you think it is no it's on how god thinks it is and his standard is much much higher than ours i'll read for you at the end of what we're reading here in matthew 19 verse 23 then said jesus unto his disciples verily i say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven and again i say unto you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of god why is it so rare that rich people get saved because rich people generally get rich because through a lot of hard work through a lot of you know relying on their own bootstraps pulling up their bootstraps and getting to work and relying on their own grit to get things done but guess what that's not salvation that's not how you get to heaven it's not by relying on yourself it's actually humbling yourself and trusting on jesus christ verse 25 when his disciples heard it they were exceedingly amazed saying who then can be saved but jesus beheld them and said unto them with men this is impossible but with god all things are possible and with men salvation is impossible salvation is not of man if salvation were of man you'd have to keep the commandments perfectly keep the law perfectly and guess what it's not possible hey but with god it's possible when when you can trust on jesus christ and take his righteousness when he lived the perfect life that you and i couldn't live when he paid for all of our sins on the cross when he died and was buried and resurrected again and said that salvation is a free gift all you have to do is believe on him hey with god it's possible now but not not by man salvation is not possible with man romans chapter 3 romans chapter 3 let's look at verse 20 therefore because of all these things by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin so all the law does is it should make you shut your mouth and humble yourself before god it gives you the knowledge of sin but by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified let's go to galatians chapter number two and we'll see another place in the new testament where the bible says this galatians chapter two should be familiar verse verse 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of jesus christ even we have believed in jesus christ that we might be justified by the faith of christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified the bible could not get any clearer the bible cannot spell this out any more simply for us that we are not saved by the works of the law and here's what a lot of false prophets will do what a lot of people who teach a false gospel will do will say you know oh yeah yeah salvation is by grace it's through faith but you know if you believe you'll have the works so it's like oh no it's not by the law but if you have believed in jesus christ you'll just do all the works of the law it's like no that word game doesn't work sorry you're not justified by the works of law however you want to spin that it has nothing to do with works whatsoever i'll read for you romans 11 6 it says and if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work you cannot mix these two things you can't say oh it's by grace you just have to work for it or oh you have to work for it but it's somehow grace it's like no that doesn't work a funny answer a lot of times what russians will say when you talk to them they'll say oh yeah salvation's by faith alone it's but god just gives you the grace to do the work it's like that's that's not grace if it's grace it's not works and if it's works it's not grace you cannot mix these two things it's one or the other and obviously it is grace it's faith alone verse 17 but if while we seek to be justified by christ we ourselves also are found sinners is therefore christ the minister of sin god forbid for if i build again the things which i destroyed i make myself a transgressor for i through the law am dead to the law that i might live unto god i am crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but christ live within me in the life which i now live in the flesh i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me verse 21 i do not frustrate the grace of god for if righteousness come by the law then christ is dead in vain and a lot of times i like to ask people out someone that are just really hung up on works is if salvation could be accomplished by works then why did christ have to die and the thing is you cannot answer that question if you believe a works-based salvation because paul said if righteousness come by the law then christ is dead in vain god didn't have to give up his precious only begotten son so that you can follow all the commandments and make it to heaven no he had to sacrifice his son because you can't get there by works you can't get there by following the law it's only by grace through faith and if you try to get there on your own you're basically saying christ died for no reason like oh i could get there by myself jesus i don't need the death of jesus christ to save me because i can get there on my own righteousness that's what people are saying when they believe in a workspace salvation now why is this go to romans chapter 3 again and let's look at verse 21 why did christ have to die if salvation could be obtained by works then why did christ have to die verse 21 but now the righteousness of god without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets so what did the law witness and the prophets what did it witness well we already saw in acts 10 that it witnessed jesus christ so the righteousness of god without the law was witnessed by the law and the prophets now what is it witnessing verse 22 even the righteousness of god which is by faith of who jesus christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference so just a side note but these two verses right here are great verses to show people that the old testament pointed salvation being of jesus christ of faith in jesus christ because look the righteousness of god without the law was manifest by what the law and the prophets what was it manifesting salvation by faith of jesus christ upon all and unto all that call upon him that's what the old testament was witnessing but hey if we're not going to get the righteousness by the law it says that that the the righteousness of god this is but now the righteousness of god without the law is manifested if we're going to get the righteousness of god that we need to get to heaven and it's not by the law well where are we going to get it by believing on jesus christ those are your only two options and you cannot mix those two things bible says in galatians 5 4 go ahead and turn there real quick galatians chapter 5 4 this is a super super important verse that i would recommend memorizing and using out soul winning galatians 5 4 it says christ has become of no effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the law you're fallen from grace so if you trust in 99 jesus christ and one percent in your good works to get you to heaven the bible says christ is made of none effect his death is vain for you because you do not put a hundred percent of your faith in christ it's on a hundred percent belief in christ or nothing and it really breaks my heart that people believe this false gospel the other day i was working at a coffee shop and this guy came up to me and he was this church of christ guy and he was like trying to evangelize me like he had a zeal of god but not according to knowledge i talked to them for a long time and he's like oh yeah yeah it's salvation it's just 100 by faith alone you just have to get baptized and you have to live a good life and it's just like you're not getting it you're going to go to hell if you die and you believe that it's a sad thing to think you know romans chapter 3 hammers salvation by faith more than any other chapter in the bible in my opinion it just hammers it about how messed up we are how messed up how we really need a savior really really bad and how it's only by believing in him that you obtain that righteousness romans 3 could not be any clearer now go back to romans 3 and let's we're almost done here let's go to verse number 23 very famous verse number 23 says 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 see we needed the justification of jesus christ in order to be saved we needed christ righteousness imputed unto us and i'll read for you 5 21 the bible says for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him jesus christ is the one who was completely perfect and had to become sin for us why so that we can be justified because he is just and the justifier of them which believe in jesus christ we are justified by the substitutionary atonement death of jesus christ now i'll read for you go to let's say in romans chapter number three let's look at verse number 25 it says whom god have set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of god so that word propitiation is not a word we really use in our common vernacular whatsoever but the definition of propitiate to propitiate something is to make favorably inclined appease or conciliate so the bible saying here that jesus that god set him to be a appeasement for us when it's when he's talking about how he's a propitiation it's saying that he appeased god for us he was able to to quell the wrath of god that was on us jesus took it upon himself and he had that propitiation that appeasement now go to isaiah 53 isaiah 53 in verse 10 of isaiah 53 it says yet it pleased the lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the lord shall prosper in his hand the bible says that it literally pleased the father to bruise the lord jesus christ and you think well that's kind of weird but really it's not because he was appeasing god's wrath he was the propitiation for god's wrath he pleased him by appeasing the wrath that he had on the whole world and he put it on jesus christ and now that wrath is taken away from us once we believe in jesus christ god does not have the wrath of god abiding on us like the unsaved do today romans chapter number six and also what i love about this verse where it says whom god set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood the bible says that the appeasement is through faith in jesus christ's blood now there's a lot of people today like john macarthur that want to attack the blood of christ and say that the blood of christ isn't important it's not something special he says it's not magic which is kind of weird that he would use that term but my bible says that believing having faith in his blood is what appeases god and so if i want to have my sins forgiven if i want to have the wrath of god appease from off of me well i need to put my faith in jesus christ's blood and it's not just his blood it's the whole package his shedding of blood saved us his dying on the cross saved us him going to hell saved us his resurrection saved us his ascension saved us his perfect life saved us everything that christ did it's important to believe all that christ did because all of it is important verse number 26 it says to declare i say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in jesus and really when it comes to salvation it's either faith alone which justifies god doesn't justify yourself it says i'm not righteous but god is and i'm justifying him by believing in him or it's justifying yourself who are you going to try to justify before god well if you put all your faith in jesus christ the bible says that it's justifying him but people want to try to justify themselves before god today and guess what it's not going to work where is boasting then it is excluded by what law of works nay but by the law of faith see because if you were able to justify yourself if you did not need jesus christ to justify you for you then you would be able to boast you actually would be able to say oh of course i'm justified because i did this this and that and this is a great way to find out if someone's saved too go to ephesians chapter number two ephesians chapter number two or to explain salvation rather look at ephesians 2 verse 8 it says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast and pastor shelley has the soul winning tip where he basically will read that verse someone and he'll ask him he'll say if i were to tell you hey i'm going to heaven because i live a really great life i read my bible every day i pray every day i help old ladies cross the street i give tithes of all that i possess does it sound like i'm trusting in myself or in jesus and most people when you frame it that way they're like oh yeah you're trusting in yourself not knowing that that's actually what they believe when when you knock on the door and ask them what it takes to get to heaven they just told you all those things and then when you frame it back to them they're realizing okay you're actually justifying yourself okay but if i were to tell you hey i'm not that great of a person i'm a sinner i mess up all the time i come way short of the glory of god but i believe in jesus of jesus christ and i'm only trusting in what he did for me to save me now who am i trusting in and then they realize oh now you're trusting in christ and see that's why in romans 3 it says to declare i say at this time his righteousness because we're justifying christ by believing in him not by believing in ourselves that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in jesus so we're almost done here look at verse 28 it says therefore so here's the conclusion of the whole matter this case that he's been laying out he's been laying out and making this case for salvation by faith alone therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law and there's no way any work salvationists can squirm out of this verse right here because guess what it's concluded the end of the matter is this that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law not that by faith will give you who works no you're sat you're saved by faith without the deeds of the law verse 29 is he the god of the jews only is he not also of the gentiles yes of the gentiles also seeing it as one god which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith so you say you know is this special plan of salvation just for the jews is this special plan of salvation just for the gentiles no it's for the whole world whosoever believeth he's going to be saved if you believe whether you're jew or gentile last verse verse 31 it says do we then make void the law through faith are we saying that the law is in effect that we don't care about it god forbid yea we establish the law and see people that teach a hardcore work salvation that's a lot of times what they accuse us of oh you're just saying that you can have faith and that you shouldn't even care about righteous living or you don't even care what the law of god says you're just completely making void the law through faith but you know what it is actually the exact opposite it is actually the exact opposite by us teaching salvation is 100 of faith and not of the law of god we are actually establishing the law now here's why people that teach a work salvation they actually make void the law of god because they actually bring the laws of god down to a level that they think that they can attain so we say here's god's standard it's way up here and you're never going to get it you're never going to reach it and that's why you don't have to keep the laws of god to be saved it's only by by faith alone well what they do is they take the law of god and they bring it down to whatever their sin level is and say yeah i believe you have to keep the law to be saved and that's what i'm doing when we already read do we need to go back and talk about your throat how it's an open sepulcher do we need to go back and talk about how your feet are swift to shed blood do we need to talk about how you're not good do we need to talk about again how god really feels about lying you see people that teach a work salvation they've actually made void the law because they bring the law down to such a small level that they think that they can attain to and you know what what the thing is that's why when you come to a church like this that has the freest message of salvation that is why we preach the hardest against sin and that's why when you go to these you know really really liberal churches they'll tell you oh yeah salvation's by repenting of all your sins salvation's by changing your life by turning over a new leaf by completely uh making jesus the lord of every action of your life they preach this really restrictive salvation but they never preach on sin they won't they won't preach against the sodomites they won't preach against adultery they won't preach against divorce because half the time these pastors are guilty of that themselves what what have they done they've made void the law they've brought it down to their level they're saying oh you know jesus is lord of my life we're not realizing what a wicked sinner they actually are let's just use that example of divorce because that is something that most christian churches have completely apostatized from most churches do not teach that divorce is wrong anymore a lot of churches will just straight up counsel people and tell them to have a divorce sometimes so what does the bible say on this i'll read for you malachi you go to matthew malachi 2 15 the bible says and did he not make one and did not he make one yet had he the residue of the spirit and wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth so this is the context of marriage verse 16 says for the lord the god of israel saith that he hateth putting away so the bible says that god actually hates divorce divorce is not something that's Permittable in the bible look at matthew chapter 19 verse 9 and i say unto you whosoever shall put away his wife except it be for fornication and shall marry another committeth adultery and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery so the bible says that if you divorce your wife and you marry someone else that's a sin and you've just committed adultery or if you marry a woman that's been divorced or if a woman marries a man that's been divorced you're committing adultery it's a wicked sin in the eyes of god and so that's what the bible says and that's what we preach but you know what we also preach hey you can get divorced and still be saved you can be an adulterer and still be saved you can be a murderer and still be saved you could be a liar and still be saved you could be a thief and still be saved hey you could be a blasphemer and still be saved but yet they'll tell you no you have to repent of all your sins or you can't be saved yet the pastor himself is divorced what have they done they've made void the law of god the exact thing that they accuse us of doing is actually what they have done themselves so we need to make sure to hold fast the doctrine of salvation by faith alone never let that landmark move never let someone come in here and teach the salvations by repenting of your sins changing your life making jesus the lord of your life you just need to open up romans chapter 3 and just pick any verse and just start reading and it's going to hammer salvation by faith alone and not only that we need to continue to be a church that establishes the law of god hey just because we're sinners doesn't mean we shouldn't preach high standards just because we're sinners doesn't mean we shouldn't preach what god feels about sin even though we ourselves fall short and no that doesn't make us a hypocrite because guess what every single person is a sinner we're just honest about where we stand before god unlike these work salvationists that want to lie to themselves and lie to their congregation and tell them that they're living a good enough life to get to heaven when they're not if they think that they have to repent of their sins to be saved they're going to die and split hell wide open that's why we got to go out into the community and teach everyone what the bible says about salvation just like paul laid out his case for salvation by faith alone let's have a word of prayer lord thank you so much for this day and thank you for the book of romans thank you for the apostle paul just making such a strong stand on this doctrine i pray that no one in here would ever be tossed to and fro with a different gospel pray we would all steward the gospel well and teach it to everyone that we possibly can in jesus name we pray amen all right if you will grab your white hand out and we'll sing our last hymn for the evening and before i forget i knew there was something i was forgetting in announcements we have fully stocked a lot of the reign of larry gomez 2010 new testaments with the correct gospel um in them in the they have like a plan of salvation and i believe i'm not sure which page it's on but there's actually a qr code as well so it's right here in the very back that they can scan and it'll take you right to the gospel presentation i know we've really been why say we i don't speak spanish but i know everyone that does has really been waiting for these and brother dylan brought them down so we stocked up the full left side the bottom left side of the cabinet back there and underneath we have hundreds of them now so grab them take them with you when you go out it'll be a a good resource i just wanted to let you guys know that because sometimes it's easy to walk by and not really notice there's a new item in there and with that let's go ahead and grab your white handouts turn to psalm 126 psalm 126 let's sing when the lord turned again the captivity of zion we were like them that dream then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing then said they among the heathen the lord have done great things for them the lord have done great things for us whereof we are glad turn again our captivity oh lord as the streams in the south they that so in tears shall reap in joy they that so in tears shall reap in joy then said they among the heathen the lord has done great things for them the lord has done great things for us where of we are glad he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his chiefs with him then said they among the heathen the lord has done great things for them the lord has done great things for us where of we are glad amen and with that you are dismissed have a good night