Third in a series of messages on our need for righteousness. A world in need for righteousness. A country in need for righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Romans chapter one, Paul introduces himself as a servant of Christ And an apostle of Christ. Chosen and sent for the purpose of proclaiming the what? The gospel of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ for the sins of mankind. His resurrection from the grave and his offer to forgive and save men and women from sins eternal curse through faith in Christ.

That is the gospel. The gospel for which he was not ashamed. Why? Because it is the power and only way of salvation to all who will believe in it and in him. That is why.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For as the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Let's pray again once more. Lord, thank you for your word. Forgive us of our failures.

Remind us of the wonder of your love. Lord, draw us closer to you today in remembrance of our need and what you did for us and if there be one here today that's never trusted Christ as savior, that's trusting in other things today. That you would reveal that to them. That they too would choose Christ. As their only remedy.

For sin and hell. In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen. Why is the gospel the only way of salvation? Well, because as we learn in Romans one beginning in verse 18, God is just in his anger.

His anger is merited toward humanity because humanity has turned from the true God revealed unto them in their hearts and in his creation and have chosen instead a path of willful rebellion. We call that sin. In the nature and in the example of not Christ but Adam. In Adam, all what? Die.

In Christ shall all be made alive. We must have Christ or in Adam and like unto Adam, we all will die in sin and be separated from God. All we like sheep have gone astray. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and God is justified in his wrath towards sinful men whom he created for his glory and fellowship. He gets a little more specific.

He gives indictments against the hidden. In chapter one, the idolater, the agnostic, the atheist, the humanist, the all moral person who has no interest in the true God anymore or his law. I'm afraid that much of our society belongs in this category today. They have no interest in God or in his word or in his law anymore. They have abandoned him altogether.

But there are two more categories of men. He deals with in chapter two. He gives indictments against the moralist. The moralist, the person who says in themselves that they must be okay because they're better than so and so. They're not a murderer.

They're not a thief. They're not an adulterer. So, yeah, they must be okay. Certainly, God wouldn't hold anything against them. Because they're better than others.

They're more moral, more religious. They believe in God. You know, they go to church from time to time. You know, Easter and Christmas. They don't they don't have anything to worry about.

Paul reminds us in second Corinthians 10, he says this, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. When you choose to justify yourself by comparing yourself to somebody who is worse than you, you reveal that you really don't want to know what who thinks. What God thinks. Because if you did, you would measure yourself by the perfect example of who? Jesus Christ.

There is none righteous, no, not one. Except for who? Except for Jesus Christ. For all have sinned and come short of the what? The glory of God.

Who is the glory of God? And we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the father, full of grace, and truth. The glory of God is in Jesus Christ, his son, revealed unto us. If you want to compare yourself to somebody, compare yourself to who? To Christ and then you'll get an accurate reading of where you are with God.

Not a false one. The moralist is in trouble because they're making the wrong comparison. They are comforting themselves and they're giving themselves false assurance. And then in chapter two beginning in verse 17, we have indictments against the Jew. The person who is fairly confident in themselves that they're going to be alright in the end with God because they know more than the rest.

They belong to the special, blessed group. They have the right heritage and that would be who? The Jew in particular but there's also application to today as well. Look, if you would, again, Romans two verse 17, behold, thou art called a Jew and restest in the law and make us thy boast of God and knowest his will and approves the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law, Our confident that thou thyself are to guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. So, we'll start there this morning.

What is the plea of the defense of the Jew? It is this, in response to God's condemnation of the idolater, the hidden, and God's condemnation of the moralist who fall short. The Jews says, but I'm a I'm a Jew. I am part of God's chosen people. I am special.

God has given me his law. And therefore, I'm okay with God. The case of the prosecution, here's the problem. Yes, you have the law. But you don't want.

You don't keep it. You say, I'm a keeper of the law but you don't obey it. And therefore, you are not alright in the eyes of who? In the eyes of God. You rest your case in the law, in your defense, in that you have it.

You make your boast in it. I have the law. I am a keeper of the law and indeed, the Jews were entrusted with the law of Moses. That was a very special what? Privilege afforded to the nation of Israel but it did not assure them of redemption or justification in the eyes of who?

In the eyes of God. Because for the law to do you any good, you must what? You must obey it. How much of it? All of it.

James told us, if you offend in one point, then you are guilty of what? You're guilty of all. You can't say I keep the law if you just break one of the 10. You know, I keep the law. I'm a keeper.

I only break one of the 10 or two of the 10 or three of the 10. You know, I keep six of the 10. I'm I'm okay. I don't think God looks at it that way, does he? You trust in your training, he says in the law.

To help you discern from right and wrong and that's great and as Christians, if you're a child of God redeemed through grave, through grace in Christ, you should have discernment between right and wrong. But discernment apart from Christ is not salvation because it's one thing to discern right from wrong. It's another thing to do right and not wrong. It's not the same thing. How many times have you known right from wrong and still did wrong?

Probably yesterday Yeah, this morning. Yeah. This morning. An hour ago. You see, there in lies the problem.

It's not enough to know right from wrong. If you want to impress God, you always have to do right and not wrong. And none of us impress God in that matter. Because we all fail. He says to the Jew, you are confident in it so as to exalt yourself as teachers of the ignorant and foolish.

A guide to the blind. That's how they saw Gentiles. They were spiritually blind and they didn't have the law. Therefore, they couldn't see right from wrong. They were saw themselves as light in the darkness.

Indeed, the Bible does say, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a what? A light unto my path. And people who do not have the word are more in darkness in a way than others who have it but again, if you ignore it, how better off are you? They saw themselves as instructors of the foolish, the foolish Gentiles and the the down and outers, the sinners they called them, the harlots, and the tax collectors, and those people. They saw themselves as teachers of babes which again is how they saw the Gentiles and even Gentile proselytes to Judaism.

They were babes. They had to be taught. They were they were had to be coddled because they couldn't grasp everything. They needed to be taught and they were the what? They were the teachers.

They were the intellectuals. They were the academics. They were the elite. How be it? Having the law, discerning right from wrong and not doing it, being the elite religious crowd is not what?

It's not enough. It's not enough. A matter of fact, it only further what? It only further condemned them in the eyes of who? In the eyes of God.

The light that they had that in essence, really they ignored only judge them further. There are many religious intellectuals today in pulpits, universities, and pews who rest their boast in their intellect, the knowledge of the scriptures. While in fact, they do not know the God of the scriptures. Mentioned that in Sunday school. It is one thing to know facts taken from his word.

It's another thing yet to embrace the God of the word by faith. Entrusting your soul and surrendering your heart to him. You can know a lot of facts about the word of God and be lost as a goose. Because if it's not here, then it doesn't count. The Bible says in James, the demons believe and tremble before God.

They know he exist. They believe in his existence. They believe in his power. They tremble at his power. But that's not enough because they do not repent You see facts without repentance and trust and love are powerless and meaningless.

Salvation is a relationship entered into by faith in Christ and love for God that results in works befitting repentance or salvation. It is one thing to say you believe his word. It's another thing to follow its instructions and what is its first instruction? His first instruction is this, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Can't do that if you don't believe in him. You can't do that if you haven't entrusted your soul in eternity to him. All these other things, these dos and do nots in scripture cannot do anything for you apart from who? Jesus Christ and the grace of God.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. It's not enough to have the law because the fact is, none of us, none of us obey it all the time. Romans two twenty one through 24, thou therefore which teachest another, teachest not thyself. Thou that preachest the man should not steal, do you steal? Thou that sayest the man should not adultery.

Do you commit adultery? Thou that abhors to idols, does thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast the law through breaking the law, dishonor us thou God, for the name of God is what? Blasphemed among the Gentiles. Paul says, you know it, you teach it, and yet you don't what?

You don't practice it. You dishonor God by claiming his laws and not keeping them. You say, I know the law, I know the law but you don't keep the law. You think God's impressed? Oh, I know I'm not supposed to steal and then you go steal.

Think God's impressed. Oh yeah, you're justified because you know it's wrong. Doesn't matter if you do it anyway. You cause God to be blasphemed by the generals by your hypocrisy. How many people have you talked to about the Lord or about going to church and the first thing they said is, well, it's just a bunch of what?

Hypocrites. Hypocrites. They're just a bunch of hypocrites. And you say in your mind, that's just an excuse that's been handed you by the devil. So, that you will not come to Christ.

And that maybe true but it many cases, it wasn't just handed to them by the devil. It was handed to them by people who claim to know Christ. Who did not. And they go to church and they see them sitting there all prim and proper and listening and I'm a good person and yes, I have the law and I I have the right baptism and I have the right membership and I sing the right songs and then they leave church and they go out into work and they go in their neighborhood and their community and they do all the wrong things. Doesn't impress God Doesn't even impress others Sometimes, even true born again believers can struggle with a little bit of hypocrisy here and there, can't we?

Jesus says, Paul says to the Jews, you say you have the law and you're special and you're God's chosen people and yet you don't follow it. The Gentiles are not impressed. They're not impressed. They see your hypocrisy and it pushes them what? It pushes them further away from God instead of to him.

You expect God to accept your knowledge as justification? I don't think so. James says, be you doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving who? Deceiving your own selves. Deceiving your own selves.

So, again, what does this have to do with those who are not Jews? God does not care if you know the law, if you don't obey it. It'd be like saying to policeman who pulls you over. Yes, policeman, I know that it is against the law to go through a red light. I know that.

Yay. And I don't go through them very often. I don't make a habit of going through red light and and you know, I don't go through them when they've been red for a long time. You know, just just a second or two after they turn red. And oh, I always let others know that they're wrong when they go through red lights.

So, the police officer looks at you and says, oh, I understand. I won't give you a ticket because you know. Right? Wrong. Wrong.

Did you just impress the policeman? Or do you just impress upon him that you are a hypocrite? And a fool. The latter, I do believe. And the same thing is true when people make their boast in the law and they say, I know right from wrong.

I go to church. I do this. I I know and I tell other people they're wrong and and but you don't obey it yourself. Not impressing to God. And I'm afraid there may be more of that in Christiandom today.

Than there are of those who have realized that they're not impressing God by their sin and confessed it and trusted in Christ. God does not care if you know about the law if you have not been made wise by it to the opening of your eyes to the need for righteousness and the righteous sacrifice of one to die in your behalf because you often fail. Think I have that up here. Let's see. Romans three nineteen and twenty.

Now, we know that what things serve the law say that say it to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and that all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by these of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of what? Sin. Why did God give the law? Because he thought that the Jews would be able to keep it entirely and therefore earn their spot in heaven?

Is that why he gave them the law? No. He gave them the law to reveal to them that they fell what? That they fell short. And that's why they had to bring sacrifices, innocent sacrifices to cover their sinful condition and that is why Jesus had to come and die on the cross.

For God hath made him, Jesus, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. All we like sheep have gone astray and the Lord hath laid on him that is Jesus, the iniquity of us all. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace, for our peace was upon him and by his stripes, we are healed.

Why did I give the law to the Jews? He privileged them with it. Not so they would prove their diversion, devotion, and loyalty but so that they would see that they need a Messiah and a savior and they would trust in him to do for them what they could not do for themselves and if you're trusting in your good works, if you're trusting in your upbringing, you're trusting in the wrong thing. What good does it do if you do not keep not only the law in your mind but also in your heart. Let's Jesus pointed out in Matthew fifteen eighteen, these people draweth nigh to me with their, they draw near to me with their mouth, honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is wide.

Far from me. Maybe you're here today and maybe you sang the songs and maybe you have given testimonies and and maybe you have been in church for a long time and you have a membership and you think, hey, I'm okay because well, you know, I got wet in a baptismal and and I joined the church and I was born a Christian home and the preacher asked, when did you trust Christ? You say, oh, I've always been a Christian. Now, that is a big red flag flying in front of a pastor when you say, oh, I've always been a Christian because if you've always been a Christian, then you've never been a Christian. Because none of us starts out a Christian.

We start out a sinner who is in need of a savior. It's only when we come to the point of confessing and repenting of our sins and trusting Christ that we can be saved and sorry to say these kind of people that Paul is talking about here, they're not saved because they don't have a savior. They have a law. A law that doesn't save them but a law that what? Condemns them.

How many will stand before God someday and respond like the servant who hid his talent in the sand? That they knew God, that they knew he was a holy God, who expected much of his servants but then, they did nothing with the like they were given. They ignored God and they hid their talent in the sand. The fact that the Jews who rejected their Messiah boasted in the law, only further condemned them. Because they had been privileged.

They had been given light. And when the savior came, they turned away. Look, if you read in Romans two twenty five, he goes on to say, for circumcision verily profiteth. In other words, circumcision profiteth a little. If thou keep the law.

But if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Doesn't mean anything at all. Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, the the Gentile, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision just transgress the law? Does not the one uncircumcised Gentile who keeps the law, if he were to keep the law, he would be your judge.

If you break it, Your circumcision doesn't profit you at all. If you don't keep your end of the deal, circumcision Was part of representation of their relationship with God and Abraham and Moses. End of the covenant of which of Moses that they did not keep He says in verse 28, for he's not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one what? Inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart.

In the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of man, but of who? But of God. Third, final passage this morning. The plea of the defense once again but we are circumcised Jews, not Gentiles. The prosecution, the heart, the spirit matters to God.

Not the flesh. The flesh profits you nothing. If God does not have your what? Heart. You rest in your circumcision and heritage as a Jew for justification.

John the Baptist said, I can, God can make Jews out of these stones over here. To the Pharisees when they came to him in their pride and in their arrogance. Your circumcision is unprofitable if you don't keep the law. It becomes uncircumcision. Your circumcision is undone in God's eyes by your transgression.

Your heart and not the outside is what God cares about most. Little background, Abraham was given circumcision as a meaningful and memorable symbol to the Jews of their covenant relationship with God. We say that again. Abraham was given circumcision as a meaningful and memorable symbol to the Jews of their covenant relationship with God. His promises to Abraham and their inclusion in them.

It was a reminder and matter of obedience on the part of parents. It was a reminder to the man of their separation from the rest of the world unto who? Unto God as a Jew. However, it was never meant as a means to what? Salvation.

They weren't saved by being circumcised. You're also not saved by wean what? Baptized. It is a symbol of the covenant that you've entered into. You're not saved by taking of the what?

The Lord's supper. It is a what? A symbol of the covenant that you have entered into by grace through faith in who? In Jesus Christ, your Lord. Again, it was never meant as a means to salvation.

What was the means to Abraham's salvation? Circumcision? No. Faith. Genesis fifteen sixteen, and he that is Abraham believed in the Lord and he that is God counted it to him for what?

Righteousness. That is what? United Abraham and reconciled Abraham with who? With God. Was his faith in the promises of God.

And that is what saves the soul today. This passage is repeated three times in the New Testament. To drive home the point. Abraham wasn't saved by circumcision. The people in Moses's day weren't saved by the law.

They're all saved by God's grace through faith. In him. The same as we are today. When they broke the law, when they ignored the Lord, boasted in themselves, their circumcision became uncircumcision in the eyes of God and meant nothing. If you've never from your heart called on the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you may have been baptized but it meant what?

It meant absolutely nothing. Why? It is a matter of the heart, a matter of faith, a matter of the spirit, and not of the flesh. Jesus pointed out in John six sixty three, it is the spirit that quickeneth, that makes alive. The flesh profiteth what?

Nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. I went to a funeral a few weeks ago at the funeral was at a Episcopal Church and this particular Episcopal Church, I haven't been to many Episcopal Churches in my lifetime. So, I can only speak to this one but in this particular Episcopal Church, it very much followed the same pattern as Catholic masses that I have seen and they did all these incantations over the bread and then they had them file up and he handed the bread to them and spread this thing that said, basically, you know, by taking this bread, you're taking the body of Christ and you redeem through it. I'm sorry but that sad bunch of people that that line got up in a line and went through that line, that did absolutely nothing for them.

And indeed, it was entirely meaningless if they did not know Christ as the Lord and savior of their life and it's sad how many people think they're getting to heaven because they let a priest or a pastor put a cracker on their tongue. They are missing the boat. And it is sad and some of them are your neighbors and your friends. Don't assume they know Christ. Assume they do not.

It may be that some do But don't assume they do. Share with them Jesus. Share with them the truth. Because they may not know it and if you don't tell them, they may not hear it in their church. There are so many people in church who are born in Christian homes, who think they're going to be okay with God because of their knowledge and their heritage.

There's so many who think they're bound for heaven because of their baptism or church membership or affiliation or attendance or weekly offering. God does not care if you were born a Jew if you do not trust in the Messiah of the Jews. And have come to him for redemption from sin. Symbolized by those blood sacrifices under the law. They were needed because people fail.

Praise God. We don't have to keep doing those day after day because Christ died what? Once for the sins of mankind. And through faith in him, all of our sins can be forgiven what? In light of eternity once.

And taken off the books. Only the sacrifice of Christ can save. The same is true of the Catholic, the Protestant, the Baptist, the Pentecostal, or. Dot, you name the denomination. You are not accepted by God based on heritage.

It matters not. If your parents were Christians, or if they went to a baptist church. All that matters is what you personally choose to do with Jesus Christ. How be it being born into a Christian home or in a in a land where we have religious freedom. Does give you an advantage.

An advantage which if you ignore will only condemn you further. Sadly, the Jews squandered the advantage given them. As so many born today to Christian homes and in The United States do as well. They mistake the teacher, the law, for the savior, the son of God. The law is not the means to salvation.

It is like a teacher or a doctor that directs you to the cure. In this case, the cure is who? Jesus Christ. Sadly, so many missed it just as so many do today. Don't let that be you.

This pastor cannot save you. I have no such power. I am only the messenger who delivers the cure but you must take it. You must choose it. In order for it to save your soul.

Galatians two sixteen and we'll close. Knowing this 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.

Paul says, even we, even we have believed in Jesus. Who's he talking about? He's talking about the Jews. The Jews who put their faith in Christ. He said, even we who have the law are saved the same way as the rest of you.

Through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Have you made that decision? Have you humbled yourself before God? Because of your sin and trusted in Christ alone as your savior. Have you called on him sincerely from your heart to save you from sin and hell?

If you haven't, I'm I'm afraid you're lost. But today, you can be found. Today, you can be saved. Jesus loves you. He died for you.

He'll save you. Will you come? We'll sing a hymn of invitation here in just a second. Two and forty three in your hymn book. If you've never trusted Christ, we beg of you today to come.

We'll show you from God's word how to be safe today and know it. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you Lord. For your love for us and what you did for us. Lord, pray if there's one here today or two or three that are unsure of their salvation.

That they would not pass by this day of grace that's been given to them. That they would not turn away from the light that has been shown to them. That they recognize that sinners need a savior and they're a sinner just like the rest of us. The only way they can be saved is by coming to you and I pray Lord as we've have the hymn of invitation I plead with them and I ask you Lord today to work in their heart, to bring them out into the aisle, to bring them up here that we can show them, that I can show them from God's word how they can be safe today and know it. In Jesus Christ name, we do pray.

Amen.