Romans 3:19–20Scripture
Today I want to take a moment and really kind of, I mean, I encourage you to take some notes this morning. I don't know how you do that, maybe you do that on your phone. I'll try to walk you through this, because I believe that to be able to gain an understanding of what's going on here is not only important for us as we continue on in Romans, but it's also important for us as Paul begins to tie a bow into what he has communicated and taught us thus far. And so this portion that we're reading
Point 1Man's depravity is complete and total
Really speaks to two things, Romans 3:12 through 20. It really speaks to two things. One, it speaks to the depravity of man, and I'm not talking about partial depravity, I'm talking about complete and total and utter depravity of man and the hopeless state that man finds themselves in, and then also the response to that, the goodness of God. And really, quite honestly, when you get down to, I mean, we can kind of maybe gather Paul trying to talk more about the depraved condition of man in chapter 1 and 2, he really just goes to town on that. But in Romans chapter 3, verse 12 through 18, he begins to speak about man's speech, their heart, their eyes, every part of man, and how much sinfulness has really just taken over man's state. But then in verse 19 and 20, it can be, it can be difficult to walk away with understanding, quite honestly. It can be those two verses that, as you're reading through the Bible, you kind of read over and you know some words in there and you feel like it makes sense, but you just kind of read over it. It's kind of like, "I don't really know what that word is, but I don't want to spend time looking up in the dictionary," and so I really don't benefit from that section. And I believe that these two verses, 19 and 20, really help us get an understanding of everything else that happens in Romans. And so here's what I want to do today: I want to kind of maybe lay a little groundwork, and then I'm going to drill down in 19, verses 19 and 20, and I want to break down 19 and 20 in four sections, and I think that helps us really get an understanding of what the Apostle Paul is trying to say specifically, not only to the Gentiles but to the Jews and to the church in Rome, and it does apply to us today. And it helps us, and the more we have an understanding of this, the better we will understand things that are following in Romans. So I'm gonna try to break that down for us. I actually read this quote today, and I'll set this whole section up with this, thinking about the depravity of man, thinking about God's work in our life, thinking about the dead state of man and how God redeems dead things. I mean, one of the most beautiful pictures in the Bible is Jesus calling Lazarus out of the grave. It is that call that we respond to. When God calls, we come.
Dead things don't come unless God calls, right?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:16
And so this is a picture of the dead state we are in and just how good God is when he calls us. Right? And that call has life-giving power to it.
And so he's beginning to set all that up, and he's doing it by talking about the law and how the law doesn't call like Christ does, right?
And so this is very important. This is the quote that I'll set all this up with that I thought was interesting. I think it was by Paul Washer, I believe, I read so many quotes in a week, but he said,
"Submitting our lives to the Word of God is not radical Christianity, it's basic Christianity."
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:00
And I think that's important. You know, whenever we talk about the law of God, you know, we think of the Ten Commandments, we think, "Oh yeah, we should do that stuff." I mean, we shouldn't kill people, we shouldn't, you know, we shouldn't lie, we shouldn't steal, we shouldn't do that stuff, we shouldn't, you know, be adulterous, we shouldn't do any of that. All of us would agree with that. But many of us think, when we think of the Word and all of the commands that it has in there for believers, there is this idea today that to live godly lives is radical Christianity. Ladies and gentlemen, that's just fundamental reality for a true believer.
There is instilled in the heart of everyone who is a true believer a desire to want to obey God. That's not radical. And I'll say this too, and I think this is important, and this is what the Apostle Paul is talking about: it's only radical if our response to the gospel is only human will.
Then it's radical, because how can dead things do something like this? How can totally depraved people turn around overnight? That would be radical.
That the dead raised himself, listen, the only dead person that raised himself was Christ. And that voice calling us, that is radical. What he does, what the Holy Spirit does through us by empowering us to live this kind of life, by changing our desires and our heart, that is radical, right? Our will is not radical. And so I think that it's really important when we look at the law, we can look at the law one or two ways. We can look at the law and what we do in our own strength, our response to law, or we can look at the law of what the Spirit empowers us to do, right? And so that's really what he's talking about, because right here he is speaking to the Jews who were in their own strength trying to abide by the law, in their own will, and Paul is speaking to them and saying that doesn't save. The only thing that saves is when we obey the law according to the Spirit and by the Spirit. So he gives this kind of parallel between the two. So let's look at the depravity of man first, and let's talk about that, and then I want to break down 19 and 20. So here it goes, Romans 3:12–18 says this: "All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." Now, before you get all depressed on this New Year's service, there is hope coming.
It is the bad news that sets up the good news,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 6:59
all right? In a world where we are trying to tell you how awesome you are, the Bible tells you the truth about you, and the truth is we're worthless, we're not good, and we need help. Verse 13: "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." If you've been on social media any amount of time, you know that to be true. "The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery." This is talking about you and me. "And the way of peace they have not known." I would say to you, they cannot know it unless God calls.
"There is no fear of God before their eyes." Listen to the completeness and to the entirety of this. It is complete and it is utter depravity. We are depraved. We only want more of bad. That's who we are, and the whole world is accountable to God because of it. It says in the Bible, and Romans has said it clearly, that all of us will stand before Christ and we will be judged by Christ. Everyone will be accountable, and everyone is guilty of Romans 3:12–18. We're all guilty.
So he's talking about sin and the guilt and holding every human being in the world responsible before God as being guilty. We're guilty. Just by the way of introduction, and I read this week and I thought it was really interesting. I really don't know the name of this or how to pronounce it, but we'll give it a go, right? But there was this king, in Greek mythology there was this king of the Etruscans by the name of Mezentius, right? That was his name. You can look him up. Mezentius was known by his contemporaries as a detestable, cruel, fearful man, hateful, and one of the most violent kings ever to live. It is said by the ancients that no torture which entered his cruel mind, or the mind of the people nearest to him, would be too horrible for him to try out.
He would do anything just to give it a go. One of his methods of punishment, which became most famous according to this mythological story in Greek mythology, was that he would punish people by tying a living person to a dead person, hand in hand, face to face, lip to lip, and leave the person alive in that wretched condition until finally he died in that terrible embrace as that body of death decomposed with that person strapped to him there. There's a person who gives us an interesting account of this practice in the Aeneid, so we can somewhat substantiate it as a historical event. So it moved from mythological to this actually happening. And there are some who actually believe that Paul might have been influenced by this thought when he wrote this in Romans 7: "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
Seeing himself tied to something, as a new living creature in Christ and yet face to face with that old sinful part of him wasting away.
And so he draws for us in Romans a picture, as most writers do. Sin is such a fearful and horrifying thing to the Apostle Paul specifically. Just imagine what sin is to God himself. If Paul can draw a picture of being strapped to a dead, rotting corpse, desiring to be separated from that dead thing, how much more horrible is it to God that sin is in our lives? If you'd like to know how God feels about sin and how he reacts to it and how he describes it, all you need to do is read Romans chapter 3. And specifically this section here, he gives a picture, in verses 12–18 Paul does, of what God feels about us and the sin in our lives. In this passage, more than any other single passage in the Scripture, we have the bringing together of the statements of God regarding the sin of men. It is a composite divine definition and description of the sinfulness of man and his utter inability to do anything about it. It just gets worse and worse. There is no hope in mankind. There is no motivational speaker that can talk you out of the downward spiral.
Our only hope comes from Christ.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:31
That is it. I know this world wants to pave multiple ways to find your peace, to be better. Listen, specifically in the new year we make resolutions, we listen to better things, we try to apply better habits, but none of that will save you, and none of that will make you better.
Only Christ makes you better, only his call.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:56
Now some of you are like, "Shawn, why are you demotivating people from trying to be a better them?" Listen, a better you than what is listed in 12 through 18 is still a bad version.
You need a whole new you, and nothing you do, no habit you make, will make you that.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:25
Only Christ will make you that. That's the gospel. It is amazing, because we were sitting here and say, "Oh, I don't believe, Shawn, that there are multiple ways to heaven, it's Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven," but then we live our life Monday through Friday, and the start of each new year, putting our hopes in things that are not Christ.
And if ever there was a time to sit and reflect about who we hope in, it is today. It really is today. And I have been thinking quite extensively about it. You remember when we arrived at Romans 3:9, there was this great summary statement, and I'll just remind you, and it says this: "Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks," listen to this, "are all under sin." They're all guilty of sin. Everyone is guilty of sin. Everyone in the world is under sin. I read this article, you'll think this is interesting, if you're a scientist today, if you like science, you really might like this, but rats can really reproduce pretty quick, kind of like rabbits. But I didn't realize how fast rats can reproduce, it was crazy. So here's the numbers: you take a male rat and a female rat and they begin to reproduce, you give them unrestricted connection to each other, and if none of the rats that are born die in the process, 359 million rats will be produced in three years.
That's it. That's, wow. Let me, I mean, two rats will produce 359 million rats in three years.
I mean, just write that down and do the math. Just do the math. Yikes. Now think of that in consideration with the fact that rats are the number one carriers of disease. Now notice, this is how sin works. This is how sin works. And if you look at the gospel story, and we see all the way back to Adam and Eve, started with two, and now it's as countless as the stars, and sin has gone everywhere.
It only takes one rat to have a disease to pass it to all the other rats. You're a filthy rat.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:56
That's basically what Paul is saying. That's basically it. It's terrible, it's terrible. It's like, "Oh wow, thanks, Shawn, happy New Year." You know, it's like, but that's what we are, and we have to see just how diseased the world is, because God saves us from that. That's the gospel. The problem is today we want to think so good of ourselves. "We don't want to, don't call me a rat. Hey, don't do that. It makes me feel bad." Yeah, but
God moves you from an unglorious estate to a glorious estate.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:43
That's the gospel. Everyone, Paul is saying, is under this way of sin, and it comes to verse 10 and through 18, come six Old Testament quotations to support this, that there is none righteous, not even one. Now come the final statements in verses 19 to 20, and they're filled with important implications for our lives and for the whole world. So let's read them and let's break this down really quickly, and you're going to need to take notes, please take notes on this, because you're going to have to go back, it's going to be hard to catch this. I mean, maybe you're smarter than me, but I've had to spend a lot of time on this, right? And maybe you can just catch it real quick, but I want to make sure these two verses you don't just skim over, like I do text messages from my son and my wife, and that gets me in trouble a lot. Like, for instance, last night when Brook says, "The pizza is here in 15 minutes," well, I read "the pizza's here," so I began to send out messages, and it's like, why can't you walk to people's room? Because that takes energy. So I just sent out messages to people, "Hey," from the bathtub, "hey, you, the pizza is here, the pizza is here." So the kids bust out of their room, they're running downstairs, and they're like, "The pizza's not here, dad. You said the pizza was here." And I said, "Mom said the pizza was here." And then Mom says, Brook says, "I did say the pizza is here, but I said it was here in 15 minutes." And then Ashton said, "You and your skim reading." That's not what we want to do with this section, because you missed the whole point, and you can lead people astray, and your life can be led astray, and we don't need to just look over stuff and skim it when you have an understanding. So let's try to do that. Verse 19 says this, and 20: "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks," we know the law speaks, it's saying something we should probably listen to, "to those who are under the law. Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of
Point 2Five implications of God's coming judgment
Sin." Paul here is talking about sin and guilt and holding every human being in the world responsible before God as guilty. Here are five implications here, why here's why this matters. You need to write these down. We're going to go through them quickly and I'm going to move on. Here's why I believe these matter and here's what I believe we should gain from these two verses. Number one, everybody in the whole world is guilty before God. Number two, no mouth anywhere in the world, from the primitive tribe to the university lecture hall, will be able to raise a legitimate objection against God's judgment.
And let me tell you, we live in a no-judge zone in the current place, current generation, current day, a no-judge zone, and honestly we're trying to take that right away from God, who is holy and who is the judge. And this is a promise in this section here, that God will judge who he pleases and he will shut every mouth who comes against his judgment. That's a pretty big deal. Number three, the mouths that do raise objection against God now will one day be silenced. Every mouth will be shut. I love this, because when we allow the law to speak, it shuts mouths, and those mouths that it does not shut now, it will one day shut forever. How many of you would like some people's mouths to be shut? I would too. One person would. Other people are more contrite in spirit and more holy than me, but I will say there are some people's mouths, including mine at times, that I wish would be shut. And God promises, "I'm gonna help you with that, Shawn. I'm gonna help you with that. I'm going to do it through my judgment."
Number four, listen, just stop for a second. There, have you ever had days where you think you're just all that in a bag of chips?
That's what we should say back in the day. I'm sorry, a whole loaf of bread, or I don't even know what, there's just a bunch of different things, like, what is this, a slice of bread or slice and dice, anyway, I don't know. But you're just really awesome.
God's judgment will reveal that you're not so awesome, that only he is good, only he is good.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:58
Think about that for a second, because I have many days in my weeks where I think I'm pretty awesome, like, and then I read this and I'm like, "Oh, okay, he'll shut my mouth on that," and i'll realize I'm not so awesome, because
In the presence of God you realize how just good you're not.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:18
I like this, number four. Number four, here's an implication that I think will encourage you, and there are five words in the middle of this implication I think, it's just been really going through my head a lot today, because a lot of people are saying a lot of things about the God that I love and serve. But I like this implication: therefore, do not fear the voice of men.
And here's this section I love this: all men's railing will cease, the railing against God, the pushback against God, the insults against the God we serve will cease. Their mouths will be shut. Number five, remember that your own heart is sinful and your own mouth will be stopped, and so while there is still time, turn to Christ. And as verse 22 says, which we did not read but I'll just read it for you, "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." Then you see this great turning point in verse 21, verse 22: "But now, apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction." So there are four steps. Write these steps down, and then you'll
Point 3Four steps through verses 19 and 20
Be able to go back and you'll be able to make heads or tails of these two verses. And I'm going to try to, like, I'm gonna list the steps. I'm gonna break each verse down into two steps, right? Sometimes they'll say A and B, or step one and two, verse 19, to step three and four, verse 20. And then we're going to go backwards and we're going to try to get an understanding of what in the world Paul is saying to us in our context, when he's really speaking into a jewish context where they have hoped in the law, right? Step one is verse 19, the first part of 19, and here it is: "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law." So the first and primary hearers of the law of God, you need to understand today, are first the Jews.
They're the ones who heard the law. That is who he is speaking about here. So let's read it again, with the understanding he's speaking about the Jews: "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those," the Jews, "who are under the law." All right, the Jews first, who've been called out to, in verse 3:1 we read just at the beginning of this chapter, to receive the oracles of God. The Jews were called out to receive the oracles of God. That's who Paul's talking about. So step one: "We know that whatever the law says it speaks to the Jews who were under the law," who were called out to receive the oracles of God. That's important, you need to know that's who it's speaking about. That's step one. I know this is really scholastic, but I think it'll help us have an understanding. Number two, step two, the second part of verse 19: "so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God."
So the first part is the cause, and then this is what happens because of it, the goal and effect of speaking to one chosen and privileged people, to the Jews.
The cause and effect of speaking to them, the law, the Jews, is to stop the mouths of everyone, not just the Jews. Now this is important, and it won't make, maybe not make sense now, but it will make sense in a minute. So he gives the oracles, the law, to the Jews, and he does this so that he can shut the mouth of not just the Jews but of everyone. That's important. That's important. Step three, verse 20, at the very beginning, the first part of 20 says this: "Because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight." "Because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight." This is why every mouth is stopped.
We'll come back to this and try to explain this a little bit better, but you need to know that the Jews were trying to be justified by the works of the law. All right? "Because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified." In other words, the Jews were trying to be justified by doing the law and following the letter of the law, and Paul's saying no man will be justified by that kind of living. It is not that the law doesn't matter, so be careful here. Be careful. We're gonna talk about that, because you can do some terrible exegesis here and you can believe some grace messages here that are dangerous and unhealthy. Step number four, verse 20, second part of it says this: "no flesh will be justified by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin." Let's talk about that. Through the law comes the knowledge of sin. That is, it seems like a weird phrase, and I feel like we can get that wrong, so let's work our way backwards. Let's start at step four, right at step four: "through the law comes the knowledge of sin." What does this mean? You might think, well, that's easy: do not sin, do not lie, do not cheat, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not kill, and so on. But I don't think that's what it means, because that meaning won't let the argument work. If you work your way backwards, step two is the reason given for step one. Now let me explain that. So let's try this out. If it really was there, right, if it really was this whole idea that through the law comes the knowledge of sin, well, "Oh, so I do not steal and I do not lie and I do not cheat, that's the knowledge of sin, that's what it is." Let's put that into what Paul says here in context and let's see if that works. All right, so this is how we do this.
So let's do that: "by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, because the law teaches what sin is, because the law teaches us not to steal, lie, and kill." I don't think that works. The fact that the law teaches us what sin is doesn't show why we can't be justified by the works of the law. There has to be more that Paul means in the second part of 20, or step four, than mere information about the law, or in other words, what sin is, simply just what it is. Sin is this: don't lie. I think he means more than that. He explains a little bit better, and this is unfair, but this is where parallel study comes in. Romans 7:7–8, and it says this: "What shall we say then? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have come to know sin except
Point 4The law awakens sin in an unspiritual heart
Through the law." Note here is what 3:20 means: the law brings about the knowledge of sin. It doesn't teach you what sin is, it brings about the knowledge of sin in your personal life. "For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law," continues on, Romans 7, "if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead," that is, it lies to a large degree dormant and unrecognized. So there it is. I'm gonna explain this: through the law comes the knowledge of sin. You might be asking yourself, how is that? How so? Well, when the law meets an unregenerate heart, in other words, when a non-believer, a depraved person, meets the law and the law speaks to that person, that is a person without the Holy Spirit and without faith, the effect is that it reveals the rebellion in the heart of that person. It makes our rebellion against God and his law known. It brings it out into the light. Sin rises up in the presence of the law and shows itself with vivid colors. It is not camouflaged any longer. We can see the sin in our life. Let me give an example. It's like a teenager who goes through the mailbox to get the mail. He brings, I read this, he brings it in and puts it on the table, he flips through it and he sees nothing for him, and so he starts to walk away. No bad desires at all there, right? But then he notices at the top of one of the postcards the words stamped, "For parents' eyes only." And suddenly there is a desire to read the card. Matter of fact, there's a compelling feeling to read the card. I must read the card. Are those words on the card sin? No, but through those words come the knowledge that I'm a sinner who wants to do wrong. Before I knew those words I didn't even care about the postcard, but the words themselves made me see that I just want to be wrong in every way.
That's what the law does. So it is with the law, it stirs up resistance wherever the Holy Spirit is not ruling in the heart. So in chapter 1 of Romans, when it says that the law will only drive the depraved to more depravity for those who don't have the Spirit, where, what hope is there in humanity for that? There is none. The only hope is that God would call, because the law makes you go deeper into sin. The word makes you want to do it more. Are you with me today?
You may not be, but you can go back in and study this some more and try to get there. So it is with the law, it stirs up resistance wherever the Holy Spirit is not ruling in the heart. Yet wherever the Holy Spirit is ruling in the heart, the law sets us free.
This is why Paul says law minus Spirit equals the letter, and the letter kills. Let's look that up, Romans 7, look with me real quick, Romans 7, verse 6.
It says this: "But now we are released from the law." This has been used out of context entirely because we didn't have an understanding of chapter 3, verse 20, in 19:20. "But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive," good news, right? "So that we serve in the new way of the Spirit." The law doesn't go away. The law no longer has the effect that drives us deeper into sin, because we have the Spirit and he releases us. Law doesn't go away, the law is repurposed.
Instead of driving us deeper into sin, it sets us free from it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:39
So where the Spirit is not, we go deeper into a depraved state. Where the Spirit comes, it releases us from that thing which bound us. That is the difference between the letter of the law without the Spirit, that's the letter of the law, it is the law like the words on the postcard, "Don't touch this," it makes you want to touch it more. That's why we need God to miraculously grant us his Spirit, that we might be set free from sin instead of driven deeper into it. Second Corinthians even speaks about the letter of the law. Let's turn there. I should have typed this down. Second Corinthians 3:6.
Give me a second, some of you already there. It's not fair, how did you get there so quick? By the way, our heater is not working, so just snuggling with somebody. We're getting close to being done here. Second Corinthians 3:6 says this, I love this, let's look at 5 and 6, now that we are "not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." So here's the thing, you can have the law, but if you don't have the Spirit, it brings death, but if you hear the law and you have the Spirit, it brings life and sets you free from sin. So it is the same law. The law hasn't changed, the Spirit of man has. And let me tell you who does that work: God calls.
God calls. Now he's setting all this up and this is very pertinent for us. We need to understand this, that we need to stop giving credit for salvation to ourselves. We've got to give glory to the Lord. It is amazing that even in the gospel message we can rob God of glory and we can make it about us.
It is amazing to me. I think Paul would be offended, because he takes painstaking steps to try to prevent us from getting there.
There was no justification by works of the law. Let me just say, he's speaking to the Jews and he's saying you will never be justified by doing works of the law alone. Now we can see the connection with step three in Paul's argument, in verse 20, the first part of verse 20. It says this: "by works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight." Why? Because everywhere the law meets an unregenerate heart without the Spirit, it awakens resistance to God, not faith in God. It brings out sin, it doesn't overcome sin, it reveals sin, it makes it known, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. So the law does not bring about justification, it brings about condemnation. It doesn't set anyone right with God, because it doesn't have the power to do that. Why does the law only bring out our sinfulness and make it more obvious? Why does it have no power to bring out or give righteousness? We find this answer in Romans 8:3. So let's look at that. It says this: "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son," God did, not man's will, God did, "sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh." Notice the law is not defective in itself, but Romans 8:3 says it is weak because of the flesh. The flesh of men is the problem, not law. That is because of our unregenerate condition. That's why by works of the law nobody is going to get right with God. The law without the Spirit is called the letter, and it kills, and it takes you further into death. By itself the law just brings out sin, not faith, and when it does, it is death-giving, not life-giving. So it can't justify us, it can only condemn us. Now this is important as he speaks to a Jewish audience, or speaks about Jews who hope to be justified by just doing what the law says.
He's saying you're placing your hope in the wrong thing. It is amazing that the law given by God becomes another way, other than Christ, for people. That's crazy, but it sounds familiar today, because we place our hope in a lot of things in the church that's not Christ, and we think it's going to get us there. And Paul is vehemently disagreeing with this in his statement here. So there you have it, you have steps four and three. The law awakens sin, not faith, when it meets mere flesh, the unregenerate heart, and therefore by works of law nobody will be justified. The law can't do it's weak through the flesh. Through the law came the knowledge of sin. Now, still moving backwards in Paul's argument, how do these two steps, three and four, help us understand verse 19? The first two steps in Paul's argument, in verse 19, he said that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. Why does what the law says to the Jews show the whole world guilty before God? Now here it is, this is really important. Why is it important that we put Jews in there, that they received it first, and how does that make the whole world guilty? The Jews had such a privilege and advantage of having the oracles of God first over everyone in the entire world that if anyone possibly could benefit from the law of God, if anyone could possibly be justified through the law alone, then surely the Jews could.
But they were not justified by the works of the law, and there are generations upon generations recorded in history to validate that. Why? Because through the law comes the knowledge of sin, and the law was weak through the flesh, and those who don't have the Spirit only become more lawless. This is why Jesus called them a brood of vipers.
It only awakens sin and rebellion, and not faith. I'm going to close with this. If this is what happened among the people who had the greatest advantage, if the Jewish people are so sinful that the holy, just, good, and spiritual law of God can by itself only awaken sin and rebellion to the Jews, how much more to us Gentiles?
There is no hope in you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:20
That's the point.
There is no hope in you doing works of the law without the Spirit. That does not justify. It's simply a good person doing good things, but really we learn they're a bad person, that we've given the title of good when they've really been given the title of bad by God.
So some of you are like, "Man, Shawn, that seems hopeless." Yes.
Point 5Only God's call raises the dead
And here's the happy New Year statement: God said, Christ said, "Go into all the world," Paul said at the very beginning, preaching the gospel to all men that men might be saved. Paul said, "I believe that the gospel has the power to save,"
Not seven steps to have a better you.
I would say seven steps to realize that you're a rat. That's the gospel.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:34
And God sent his Son to die for rats, and not just save two rats, 300-something million rats.
He longs to call the dead to life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 44:01
That's the good news this year. So the lesson of Israel's response to the law of God is that every mouth is stopped, because if the Jews can't be justified by doing good stuff, then we can't be justified by doing good stuff either. There is only one who is good, and it's God. If Israel can't be justified by the works of the law, no one can. This is what Paul's doing, he's trying to get people to understand they got a problem, and the only solution to their problem is not a YouTube video, it is Christ.
It is Christ. You know, it's interesting, because I've struggled over, and I'm closing with this, I've struggled over these last five years, because we have done some pretty radical things in altar calls, and I'm not sure what God is pleased with and not pleased with, and I'm not sure how we present a call, because there is an earthly call for us to make, for people, to present the gospel and to call people to repent. But no matter how much I call people to repent, dead people don't come out of the grave from that call unless God calls in the midst of it. Are you with me today? Because I can call all day, and there will be some people who respond to the call and there will be some people who reject the call. It is not my call that saves, but his call, within the call and the proclamation of the gospel, that saves. That's it. And today, if you're somebody who's a real doer, a real doer, like to do stuff, "Just tell me something to do, I just like to do stuff," I want to do stuff, that's fine, but that doesn't justify you.
Only God justifies, and he justifies those who he calls, and Jesus only saves those who God calls.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:01
That's the Bible. All the glory is his, even in salvation.
Who can make sense of that? Not me. It's just what it says. So don't find your hope in a list of laws and rules and those things. Find your hope in Christ, and he will help you through the Spirit to live set free from sin and obedient to the law.
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