So to God be the glory. Amen. Take your Bible and go back to the book of Romans if you would. We've been reading in Romans and I want to look at chapter number 3 because we've talked about the first couple chapters already. We're just kind of doing somewhat of an overview but the more we read this the more it is going to be beneficial for us. Chapters 1 through 3 are very very similar in their point and their aim. The whole book of Romans is very methodical in what the aim that it's accomplishing and where it's going. It's very similar to, how many have ever been on an interstate before that had eight lanes on it? A big wide interstate that flowed good, running well. I mean, you had hardly no traffic. Four lanes on each side going east and west, north and south, whatever it may be, but then you come to a river. And it reduces down just to four lanes. Everything bottlenecks on the river. It's no longer eight lanes. So you got a ton of traffic coming and then it gets to that river. What normally happens? Everything starts what? Slowing down and depending on what time of the day you go through it or whatever exit you may be going through, like going through Atlanta. that has been to atlanta quite a bit uh... last month and a half i went to atlanta think six seven times in sometimes i went through it and it just flowed smooth because i hate it at the right time but then there's other times at the day when these exits start turning off and everything you got you got eight lanes in some places i believe that there's got ten lines of traffic going five on each side or more But when everything condenses down within that city or those exits or you come up to a river and they can't have that many lanes, you just got a whole lot of volume of traffic bottlenecking into one area and everything starts backing up, backing up, backing up, backing up. Well, Romans, the book of Romans is very similar in the sense that it has grouped the whole world on this journey and it's bottlenecking down to this one fact, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It doesn't matter if you were born in Africa or on the continent of North America. It doesn't matter if you're from China or Japan or if you're from the islands of Hawaii. It doesn't matter where you're from, whether you're in a primitive culture that has not seen the face of a person, has not seen a white man's face or vice versa, in a civilized culture, every single one of us were born into iniquity, sin. And what we find in chapter 3, for an example, look in verse number 9. The scripture says, because he's dealing with a particular set of Jews, believing Jews, who he acknowledges in the first part of the book and the later part of the book. He's helping them recognize some things and knowing that some of them are not following Christ and some of them do belong to him. So he's educating, he's instructing, he's guiding. He says, what then, are we better, that would be the Jew, than they? He says, not at all. for we have previously in this record that I've written charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin as it is written there is none righteous no not one there is none who understands there is none who seeks after God They all have turned aside, they have together become unprofitable and there is none who does good. No, not one. Their throat is an open tomb and their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asp is under their lips, and whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. This is the result of man's doing. This is what man has produced. This is what man can only produce. And we can go back and read these again and for an example look in verse number 10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one of himself. Righteousness doesn't come from men. It only comes from God. So there's none that is of himself righteous independently of the Lord. Now we can say in here today that have been washed in the blood been justified through the sacrifice of Calvary we can legitimately say that as the result of being born again being regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God being saved by the grace of God we can actually say we are righteous we are righteous if you've been because of not of you not of yourself but because of the work of God's grace in Christ But any of us apart from God cannot claim a righteousness of our own. That is virtually impossible because we are all under sin. There is none who understands by himself. There is none who seeks after God by himself. They have all turned aside through themselves. They have together become unprofitable by themselves. There is none who does good, no, not one of himself. Their throat is like an open tomb, and out of a dead heart, the idea here is where the tongue that have practiced deceit. You see, this is the result of what man can produce apart from the presence and the work of the grace of God. Man, apart from God, is hopeless. Cannot redeem himself. And the scriptures help us see that. So what do we see then that he is attempting to do? You see, the Jew believed that if you practiced the law, you could be righteous. You can work toward this end. And Paul is bringing every human being, whether you are a Jew or a Greek or a Gentile, however you want to claim it, it doesn't matter your culture, it doesn't matter your background. He is saying that, look, no one by the law in of itself has the power or the ability in himself to actually fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. It is impossible. Even though you are a Jew and you had these laws, you cannot keep the law. The law has made a promise. What is the promise of the law? Is that everyone under the law is a sinner. everyone under the law is a sinner. And the wages of sin by the law is what? So the laws make two promises one that everybody apart from God under the law is a sinner and the consequences of that sin and being a sinner is death. That's what the law promises a man. is death. But the law is more than just that. Look what he says that the purpose of the law is in verse number 19. Now we know that whatever the law says it says to those who are under the law who are still connected in the sense that operate based on the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. all the world. See the purpose of the law is to bring condemnation and guilt in the heart of man. It is to promise them that you are a sinner whether you want to acknowledge it or not. The law says I promise you, you are a sinner. and you stand in need because the wages of sin is death and that is a binding issue that if you die in your sins it doesn't matter who you are if you die in your sins you will pay the consequences of death you will have to pay that wage and there is no hope for you If you die in that condition under the law, the law promises you not only are you a sinner, but you will die and have to pay the wages of death separated from the Lord. But the purpose of the law is to reveal that, yes, you are a sinner, but it's to condemn you, to make you guilty so that you close the mouth before God and not argue with God. You acknowledge His promise, yes, I am a sinner. The law has made that known to me. It has clarified that to me. The law said do not steal. And I've stolen things from the Lord and from other people and other things and that makes me a thief. And if I've stolen, I've also lied. How many of you ever told a lie before? You say, Preacher, I've never legitimately lied to anybody. Knowing that I lied Well, I guarantee you if you haven't lied to anybody you lie to yourself Now some of us are better liars than others Some people have the gift of lying. You know what I mean? I don't know if it's a gift or not, but they can Lie, and some people are so good at lying they convince themselves of the lie that they don't even realize they're lying anymore You know somebody don't you? We see what the law does and it's promised that you are a sinner. You want to, I want to, we all want to, in our carnal flesh, in our spirit of rebellion, we want to accuse the law of lying. We won't accuse God of lying, but the intent or the purpose of the law is so that every mouth will be stopped. Literally, it means to put the hand over the mouth, to close the mouth, that there's something in me that wants to say something, but my mind overrules that and says, don't say it. Keep your mouth shut because you're guilty. Have you ever been guilty before and you wanted to try to lie your way out of something and act like you wasn't guilty and something in you just told you, you better keep your mouth shut because it's just going to take you further than what you are. You might as well just admit that, that you are aware yet. You ever been in that position? Don't lie to me, I know you've been there. See there, you're trying to do it right now. It's just part of our nature. Scripture says we come out of the womb speaking lies. just the way we were born as a fallen creature and the purpose of the law is to bring us to a place where we recognize yes I have stolen I have committed adultery I have lied I have done these things and I am guilty and I close I put my hand over the mouth and admit it I don't have any argument to that I am what the law said I am. I deserve what the law said I deserve. It's not something that I want. It's not something that I desire to happen. But I've been found guilty. And yes, I am exactly what the law says I am. And I understand what the law promises. It promises I will die as a result of my sin. It promises me that. I cannot lie. The law is good. The law is pure. The law, the Bible says, is perfect. It has a purpose. And we want to look at that for a moment. You see, he also says in verse 20, As a result, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. What does he mean there? He said it has never been the intent of the law that a man could be justified by the law. That's not the law's purpose. The law's purpose is to bring guilt and shame and condemnation in you, not to produce in you something that is praiseworthy. It's to condemn you. That's the purpose of it. And that's why the law is pure in what it does. For an example, look over in Psalm 19. Go to Psalm 19. See, no man can be a saved apart from the law. You understand that? The law has a distinct role in salvation. Brother Shannon, the law can't save you but it has a part in it because it puts you in a position where you realize I'm under sin it promises me death I deserve death as a result thereof but God I'm asking for your mercy will you be merciful to me and then the grace of God manifests that Jesus is the only one that's able to redeem you from that sin you can't redeem yourself but you gotta realize you're a sinner And the only way to realize you're a sinner is by the law. If you follow with me, it's so fundamental to the work of God's grace that we cannot neglect it nor avoid it. Look in verse number seven of Psalm 19. The Bible says the law of the Lord is what? Perfect. Converting the soul. Now you have to ask the question based on that there. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. Well one, we would want to know what does he mean when he refers to converting the soul? Because when I think of converting the soul I think of what the New Testament would teach me of converting the soul. That means to change the heart of a man, a conversion experience is when somebody's been radically transformed and converted to going from living a self-centered life that is indulging in sin and self-centeredness to a submission unto the Lord because of the grace of God you've submitted unto the Lord and surrendered your life to Him. He saved you. He's converted you. You've gone from going your own way to following after Him. That's the picture of conversion. It's that new creature has been made in a life. But the idea that we find in this passage is not speaking of necessarily a conversion of the heart. It is speaking of the fact that the law is perfect in doing what it does. What does the law of the Lord do? The law of the Lord is perfect in unveiling the need for a converted heart. It is perfect in revealing the dirt and the shame and the guilt and the fact that a man needs to turn from going his own way to turn to the Lord. Because the law can't convert you. It's only a sign that says danger is ahead. By the grace of God we turn, but it has a part in it. For an example, I brought this mirror in here today. If I was to use this mirror or if you was to use this mirror, y'all take a good look at yourself. Look at that. Come on. We're going to bring it on down, all the way down. Take a good look at yourself. Some of you have a hard time looking at yourself in the mirror, huh? Look at that. Some people don't have no trouble looking at themselves in the mirror. They like looking at themselves in the mirror. You see, what is the functions of a mirror? What does it do? you can you can view yourself or anything like that amira is perfect in revealing flaws revealing dirt let's just say that if you've been outside working or you've been burning the fire or anything like that you've been fooling with a fire before outside burning leaves and you come inside and you didn't really you couldn't see yourself just how uh... much soot you had on your face. Or you picked up an old piece of wood or something that had, it's not hot anymore, but had soot all over it and you didn't realize it. You touch your face and you get in and you got stuff all over. You've been out plowing. And you know how on old Mississippi hot, dusty days or pushing dirt, you ever come in and you're just covered with red dirt? Tommy, it's in your hair, you blow your nose and it looks like you You moved a pile of dirt all day long. Because it gets in your mustache, it gets in your ears and everywhere else. When you get before a mirror and you look in that mirror and you see and you can see all the dirt, but can this mirror clean you? It doesn't have the power to. Its purpose is just to reveal things, to make known things. It has no power whatsoever to cleanse you. You've got to get in a shower, you've got to get in water, you've got to use something that has a purpose in cleansing you. And this mirror doesn't have that purpose. But what it does do, it does it perfectly. It can reveal things. It's a revealer. It's to unveil. It's to show what is there before. That's what the law does. The law is like a mirror. It is God's mirror to reveal to us the flaw the error that it will be sin will be made known as sin I may not realize what I was doing was sin before God but his law like a mirror reveals that I've missed that mark I'm dirty I've transgressed against him and that's the purpose of the law but when I look in the mirror of the law it shuts my mouth I realize like oh lord how dirty am I how bad off am I I need to be cleansed. And when I understand that the law promises me as a result of my dirt and my shame and my guilt that the only promise it has for me is death, I can't help but cry out and ask for God's mercy. God, I can't do this on my own. I have no power to cleanse myself. I can't get out of this crap. I'm in bondage and your law has made that known to me. I need your mercy. I need your grace. I need you. And that's where the wonderful grace of the Lord Jesus comes in and God reveals to us that Jesus paid the ransom for our sins. And it's not in me doing something for the Lord that the Lord would owe me something in return. No, God has done something for me in Christ and I owe Him my life as a result of what He's done. And you see what he's doing in the book of Romans is he's manifesting these things to the church there. It's not in the keeping or the doing or the working as if you do this, God owes you favor. God owes you a reward. He says no. Matter of fact, that has nothing to do with it. A man has never been justified before God by doing something. It's been an issue of the heart from the very beginning of how he trusts the Lord, how he believes in the Lord. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter number 6. Deuteronomy chapter number 6. This is a great discourse in chapter 6 teaching them to hear the law, the purpose of the law. honoring and heeding to love the Lord and how to deal with your children. Now watch what he says. I'm not going to read this all because we just read it in the last couple of weeks when we did our baby dedication and family dedication. We looked at these passages, but I want you to pick up on something that he says in verse number 20. Verse 20 says, When your sons ask you in times to come, saying, What is the meaning of these testimonies, these statutes, and these judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you? Verse 21, Then you shall say to your sons, we were in bondage we were slaves of pharaoh in egypt and the lord brought us up out of egypt by his mighty hand we didn't deserve it but this was the purpose of the lord he graciously done this for us and the lord showed signs and wonders before our before the eyes and great and severe against egypt and pharaoh and all his household verse twenty three then he brought us out of egypt that he might bring us in to give us a land of which he swore to our fathers I like that he brought us his purpose was to bring us out to bring us in but we we acted foolishly and we had to spend 40 years in a wilderness but his intent was from the beginning was to bring us out to bring us in but we rebelled against him verse number 24 and the Lord commanded us to do what? to do all these statutes the translation I'm using says to observe because we're going to find out what the word do or the word observe means all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always that He might preserve us alive as it is this day Mark verse 25 then it will be what? our righteousness, 22nd verse. Righteousness for us if we are careful to do what? Observe all these commandments before the Lord our God as He has commanded us. Now notice, He tells us in this passage that if we observe to do something, if we are careful to observe these statutes, these testimonies, these ways, it will be our righteousness. It will be righteousness to us. But the New Testament teaches us that you can't be righteous in doing the law. So what is he saying? He's saying this, the word careful to observe, to observe the law, it means to guard, to protect. It doesn't mean that you're actually doing. It's meaning that you put such a value on something, such a priority on something that you will set a watch over it to guard it and protect it. It will be something that you treasure enough that you lock away and you hide it so that that it can't be stolen or taken away by someone else. You put a guard over it to watch it because you make it of great value. So it's an issue of the heart. He's saying that when you make these laws in God's ways of such value to your life that you set your eye on it to protect it and preserve it and to walk in it, it will be righteousness unto you. It's a matter of believing. it's always been a believing issue with the Lord it's never been a doing but when you believe the things of God you will do the things of God but it always starts with an issue or an attitude of the heart it is placing such great value upon the ways of God that you will do all that you can to protect it to keep that as a priority and a focus of your life And he said, my sons, you tell your sons that when you value my ways more than any other thing, that that's what you protect in life, that will be your righteousness for you in the days to come. Same thing that the scriptures teach us in the book of Romans. That the law has a purpose of revealing to us like a mirror our sinfulness. And therefore, we need the mercy of God. and we trust God enough that His mercy is sufficient enough for us and that we will do all that we can to preserve and protect what God gives us because we believe Him. We trust Him. We've entrusted our lives to Him. And we believe He knows what's best. And we believe that He knows the best way for us. So therefore, my eye is set upon Him to protect what He's given me on how to live life. And I don't do it so that I can... He will owe me anything. I do it because I owe Him my life. And He has the answer for me. I trust Him. Amen? And that's what he's reassuring this church at Rome is that God has never changed in what he's done and how he works. That's why he said before we go, I know what time it is and we're going to be heading out here. Look at Romans 3 again. Watch what he says here. Verse 29. Verse 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified, declared innocent and not guilty before God by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since there is one God who will justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcised through faith, do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law. We see that it has a purpose. You see, the circumcised was justified by faith. That means they trusted God enough in what they were doing. It wasn't the act of circumcision that did anything for them. It was the fact that they took God at His Word. They trusted Him. It was by faith, by the Word of God. But the uncircumcised, like he's referring to these Gentile believers, as they look him back, to award the cross we're trusting the fact that it was the sufficient grace of God that is our redemption and what we're trusting in not in what we can produce for him but simply by faith trusting him and that's where he goes in the chapter 4 and he says let me illustrate it with Abraham was Abraham a justified man before his circumcision or after his circumcision? scripture says Abraham was justified when he believed God And it was accounted to him as righteousness before he was ever circumcised. So he's just teaching the church, he's teaching us that we too are only justified when we trust the Lord. Amen? And when we trust him, remember faith without works is always dead but faith always produces a genuine faith a biblical faith a redeeming faith always produces an action of work before the Lord God doesn't owe me a thing but oh what he gave me in Christ amen and I want to tell you in here today you cannot be saved by being good doing good keeping the law because it's impossible never was the intent of the law it's so that you can be guilty before god and recognize your sinner in need of his mercy we need to be preaching that today amen you need to be preaching that today in the highways and the byways because there's a lot of people out there that believe they their good is going to outweigh their bad and you know in some cases a lot of them are a lot better than me and you in what they do but i want to tell you that doesn't save what saves is the blood of jesus And when Jesus does save, He transforms and changes their life so that they follow after Him and they give Him glory and praise. Amen? Let Him work in your life today. Let Him use you. Father, we bless you and thank you. Give you praise. We ask you right now as we come before you in this time of reflection and inviting you to have your way in our life, we ask that you would speak to each one that is here, that you'll reveal your spirit, that you'll draw unto yourself, and that you will set people apart in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.