I’d like to read a few Scriptures to start off with in the book of Romans, chapter 1, verse 16.
One thing we want to notice while we’re reading these Scriptures this time is the phrase righteousness of God. So, as we read a few Scriptures, just look for that phrase as well.
This is Romans 1:16-18:
For I am not ashamed of the glad tidings: for it is God’s power unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is revealed righteousness of God by faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith.
For there is revealed wrath of God from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness.
I also want to read Romans 3:21 and part of verse 22. Again, the phrase, righteousness of God.
But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe.
Lord, we come all together this morning just to praise You together. We praise You. Your salvation is so marvelous—how You have worked in our lives, kept us, and brought us through so much.
We just come and thank You that Christ is the Victor, that You are on the throne, and that You have risen from the dead. You have ascended on high, and today You rule and reign. We just come as Your people and praise You.
We thank You that You have given us Your Word. We thank You that we can come and cast ourselves upon You. Lord, we come as Your humble servants, and we pray that You would speak to us, enlighten us, and meet us in this time. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, some weeks back, we started to look in Romans, in the first seventeen verses. I want to bring up a few things from that time to help us today. Then, we were looking at the preacher of the gospel. Now we want to go forward and look into what he is actually preaching.
One thing we noticed in the first four verses is that the gospel is a Person, and not merely a teaching, instruction, or information. The gospel is a Person. This is essential as we go through the rest of Romans: the gospel is our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you take out the parentheses in the beginning of Romans, it says God’s gospel is His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ—Jesus Christ our Lord. So, as we get into what Paul is preaching, remember that when this preacher of the gospel is preaching the gospel, he is preaching Christ.
He is not just giving informational good news, like something we might find in the newspaper. This good news is living good news. If you receive this good news, you receive Christ; you receive the Person. When he shares this good news, he shares Christ.
Another thing to remember is that the preacher of the gospel and the gospel he preaches are one. They go together. They are in union. The gospel must be inside the preacher, and the preacher must be inside the gospel.
What I mean is, the message is in him, but he is in the message too. He is living in it and abiding in it. He is walking in Christ; he is living in Christ. That way, as he shares, there is no hindrance.
When you see this preacher of the gospel, Paul, we want to notice how he is preaching the gospel. But one thing to remember is that his life is backing it up. His life is living the gospel. He is manifesting Christ as he preaches the gospel.
As we go through chapter 3, keep this in mind: as we follow Paul’s course in preaching, he is experiencing this gospel even as he preaches. It has worked in him, worked through him, and he is releasing the gospel.
It is not that you can memorize three steps and walk away saying, “Now I can preach the gospel.” Actually, if we are not experiencing the gospel, we cannot share the gospel. The preacher of the gospel is in union with his message. The message and the messenger always go together.
People will hear you say something, but they are also going to look and see what you say by your actions. This is essential to remember as we go through the rest of Romans.
A third thing is that the gospel—the good news—is a very big term in the Bible. As we are going to see in Romans, the gospel is preached to unbelievers and to believers.
The good news is for the sinner and for the saint. If you are not saved yet, and if you are already saved, there is good news for you. The good news is so big, and our experience of it is ever increasing.
In one sense, if you are saved, you can say, “I have experienced the gospel.” But in another sense, you can say, “There is much more of the gospel. I am experiencing the gospel, and I have not had it all.” There are the unsearchable riches of Christ. The glad tidings are very glad, very good, and they continue to expand.
This time, as we start in Romans 1:18, we are mainly focusing on the gospel preached to sinners, not the gospel preached to saints. It is one gospel, but I mean the aspect shared with unbelievers: the initial experience of the gospel.
The first seventeen verses of Romans are like an introduction. The approach we are taking is like sitting in the back seat and watching this preacher of the gospel preach his message. It is a different approach to Romans.
We are not going through it primarily theologically, or mainly by background and so on. We will touch theology, but we are trying to step aside as a friend of Paul, the preacher of the gospel, and see: How does he preach the gospel? What is he doing when he shares?
This is Paul’s biggest recorded gospel message. In Acts, you can see a number of his gospel messages, but this is the longest one we have recorded. We want to learn from him.
We are like Timothy, standing to the side and watching this gospel preacher. He is dictating the letter of Romans, someone else is writing it down, and we are just in the room watching. Wow, it is marvelous to see this man preach the gospel.
He begins by preaching the gospel to sinners, and then he will preach the gospel to saints. The first eight chapters of Romans may be called Preaching the Gospel. First, we had the preacher of the gospel; now we have preaching the gospel, through Romans 8:39.
We are going to divide this into two parts. From Romans 1:18 through Romans 5:11, Paul is preaching the gospel to sinners. Then, from Romans 5:12 through the end of chapter 8, he is preaching the gospel to saints.
Keep that in mind. Even though today we are mainly talking about sharing with unbelievers, preaching the gospel is not only sharing with unbelievers; it is also sharing Christ with saints. But today we are focusing on preaching the gospel to sinners.
The first portion, through Romans 3:31, may be called “The Righteousness of God Revealed.” The next section, God willing, will be “The Righteousness of God Realized.”
First comes the revelation, and then the sinner believes. But then there is establishing. First, someone accepts and receives the gospel; then comes the real bringing of that person into solid assurance and establishment.
In Romans 1:17, Paul says that the righteousness of God is revealed. He says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is God’s power to salvation to everyone who believes.” Then he says that in this gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.
It is on the principle of faith, from faith to faith. The “from faith” is preaching the gospel to sinners; the “to faith” is preaching the gospel to saints. There is an initial faith, and then there is an ever-increasing faith.
If you are an unbeliever and have never experienced believing on the Lord Jesus, that is the beginning of your faith. But there is also a phrase in the Bible: “the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls,” in 1 Peter 1. That is from faith to faith. As believers, we continue in the gospel.
The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. This is our punchline. As Paul shares the gospel, at one point the righteousness of God is going to be revealed. In the gospel only is the righteousness of God revealed.
The righteousness of God does not merely mean that God is righteous—though God is righteous, and the Bible says so. The righteousness of God means that this righteous God has a righteous way of saving us, saving us to the uttermost.
The righteousness of God is the righteous way. How is God going to save you, who are a sinner? How is God going to save you to the uttermost, to sin no more? God has His righteousness. He has made a way for us to be saved, and it is a right way, a fair way, a just way.
Before the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, Romans 1:18 says that the wrath of God is already revealed. Without the gospel, without any help, without any preacher, the wrath of God is revealed.
Before we get to the good news, we need the bad news. I have bad news and good news today, but you must have the bad news first. Paul, as he shares the good news, has to prepare the way.
As he puts the seed of the gospel in the ground, he has to till the ground first. Otherwise, the seed will bounce out. So he starts with the bad news. The bad news is very bad news, but it is real news, and it is already manifested.
The wrath of God is revealed upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. They hold the truth, but they hold it in unrighteousness. What is the wrath of God? Basically, we stand in judgment. If we are not saved, we are already under judgment.
The wrath of God is wrath upon the sins of man. In Romans 1, Paul gives two reasons for the wrath of God. The first is in Romans 1:19, and the second is in verse 21.
The first reason is that men know God. What is known of God is manifested to them. God has already manifested Himself to them.
We are not talking only about Jews or those raised in Christian homes. Every single person in the world knows about God. God has manifested Himself to them through creation.
No one has an excuse. All the invisible things of God can be seen from creation. You can see His eternal power and His divinity. Every human being can see creation.
This is God’s witness. This is God’s first proclamation to man, and it leaves you without excuse. No one will stand at the great white throne judgment and say, “I did not know there was a God,” because He has shown it through creation.
If you step outside, this is creation to the naked eye. You do not have to be a scientist to see the glory of God from creation. It has to be without the telescope and without the microscope, because there is no excuse for anybody.
Not everybody has a microscope. Not everybody has a telescope. Not everybody can get online and look at the Hubble telescope. Even though the further you go, the more you see, the basic witness of creation is available to everybody.
When you step outside and look around, what is your impression? There is a Creator. It is built into the human way; it is built into you. If you start to think about it, you see there is a Creator.
Even if you had been trapped your whole life and had never seen a tree, you are a created being too. You can look at your hands. There is no excuse.
Romans 1:20 says that this renders men inexcusable. They know God. Everybody knows about God.
The second reason is found in Romans 1:21: knowing God, they glorified Him not as God. Neither were they thankful, but they fell into foolishness in their thoughts, and their hearts were darkened without understanding.
Basically, man, knowing about God, has rebelled against God. Man has sinned. Man, the created being, rejected the Creator.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. They changed the glory of the incorruptible Creator into the likeness of an image of corruptible things—humans, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
Man began creating all these gods. Man thought, “This is something smart I can do. I can make up my own gods.” Humankind, in rejecting the Creator, began to make up material gods from gold and wood—things made by human hands.
How can the Creator be like that? The Creator, God, is invisible. He is Spirit. Hebrews 11 says that the things which are seen came from the unseen. What is more real is the unseen.
If you see the physical, you want to trace it back and ask, “Who made this?” But if God were a physical God, you would have to ask, “Who made Him?” Knowing that God is Spirit, and beyond time, you can see that He is the Creator of the whole universe.
But man, in his foolishness, reasoned things out. He wanted to sin and go his own way, so man rebelled against God.
Through the end of Romans 1, Paul is speaking to every unbeliever, whether they have heard a Bible verse or not. Sometimes people have heard much less Scripture than we assume.
I remember at a breaking-of-bread time, a young man of fourteen wanted to break bread. I took him to another room and asked, “Are you saved?” He said, “I want to be saved.”
I started talking with him, but he did not know any stories. I said, “You remember Abraham? You know Abraham?” He said, “No, who is Abraham?”
I said, “What about Noah? You know, the big boat, the flood, and all the animals?” He said, “No, I have never heard that.” I said, “Okay, let’s go back to Adam and Eve. You know, the fruit?” He said, “No. I know a friend named Adam.”
I mean, this was in Kentucky. So what do I do? What do I do? I was thinking, “Oh my. Maybe I have three methods memorized. I am going to share this way, this way—okay, I will go this way.”
So I said, “Let’s start with God, right? God created everything.” He said, “Yeah, God.” So then we started in, and he got saved that day. Thank God.
But he did not know anything. Especially in other countries, people may know less than you think. Even if they know about Noah’s ark, they may only have seen a picture of a boat and animals. They may know about the cross only because they have seen a picture of one.
One time in Israel, I spoke with an Arab man and was trying to share the gospel with him. I had no place to start. I asked, “Do you know that Jesus rose from the dead?” He said, “He rose from the dead?”
He had seen crosses in Jerusalem with Christ on the cross, but he did not know any of the story. So do not take it for granted. When we share the gospel, be prepared even if somebody does not know anything. You can always go back to this: God is the Creator; man has rebelled against God and sinned.
This is where Paul starts. His starting point is every soul of man. He can start with everybody: everyone has sinned. But he wants to show thoroughly that men have sinned.
The description becomes deeper and deeper, and a phrase appears three times: “God gave them up.” God gave them up to the lusts of their hearts, to vile lusts, and to practice wicked things.
That does not mean God gave up on everybody. What it means is that man is wanting to sin, desiring these other things, and rebelling against God. What is the loving God, who loves His creatures, going to do? He cannot trap them. He gives them free will and allows them to go their course.
So the sins of man became deeper and worse. Man not only worshiped creatures instead of the Creator, but the more the mind becomes darkened, the more the conscience becomes darkened.
Basically, if you reason things out, your convictions will die down more and more. The mind and conscience are closely connected.
Romans 14 gives an example among Christians. Some thought they could not eat meat, and because they thought they could not eat meat, if they ate it their conscience convicted them that it was sin.
Do you see how the mind affected the conscience? The mind can affect the conscience very strongly. If you think something is a sin, and you are really convinced of it, your conscience responds that way. If you think something is not sin, you can reason it out again and again until your conscience becomes dark.
The only way through is to step into the light of God, and He will show you again. He will expose your conscience.
With unbelievers, this has happened in an overall, universal way. The more man turns away from God—even from the concept of God—the easier sin and lawlessness become, until no one thinks there is anything wrong with them.
That is why it goes lower and lower. First they reject Him as the Creator. Then they fall into sexual sins, including what Romans 1 describes as males with males and females with females, working shame.
The Bible states this plainly as sin before God. But you can see how a darkened mind confuses the conscience. Someone may want to be moral and refuse to steal, but still sin in this way because that person has confused himself.
Then man gets even darker, and eventually God gives them up to a reprobate mind, a wicked mind, to practice all the unseemly things they want to do.
When you get to Romans 1:29, Paul brings it home. He calls everybody out:
Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful.
Now we have everybody. “Disobedient to parents”—now we got you. Basically, everyone is called out.
At the end of the chapter, in Romans 1:32, Paul says that they know the ordinance of God: that those who practice such things are worthy of death. Deep down, even though the mind and conscience have been darkened, there remains the reality of conscience. You know that you are sinning. You know these things are wrong.
Yet they not only do them, but delight in others who do them. When you get into these sins, you become darker and darker. You live in darkness and hate the light. You live under the wrath of God.
When you are in that condition, you love to see someone else join you, because then you feel better and less condemned. A sinner always wants another sinner. You want to bring other people in. That is why men invent ways of evil.
In this list—whisperers, backbiters, pride, and everything else—I do not think anyone in this room can say, “I am not on this list.”
In preaching the gospel, step back and look at what Paul is doing. He is bringing out these sins to enlighten the conscience.
When you meet an unbeliever who is obviously living in sin, one major problem may be a darkened conscience and darkened thoughts. Why does Paul not simply say, “Everybody has sinned”? He could say that, and we would all get it.
Instead, he goes through details. He brings out specifics. An unbeliever may say, “Yeah, we are all human, and we have all sinned.” But when you mention five things they did last week, they begin to feel convicted. Do you see the difference?
The conscience then has an opportunity to wake up a little bit. A darkened conscience is one problem in the unbeliever that will not allow that person to readily receive the gospel.
The conscience is part of the heart. Remember, the heart is the ground into which you are sowing the seed. If the heart is prepared, the seed takes root, receives the gospel, and bears fruit.
But if the heart is darkened, then there needs to be some sharing of the bad news—the wrath of God. In John 3:17, He says that the one who believes on Jesus does not come into judgment, but the one who does not believe is already under judgment.
It is not that someday we will see whether your good outweighs your bad. If you have not believed on the Lord Jesus, you are already under the wrath of God. That is important for unbelievers to know.
The major sin is rejecting God’s Son. God loved the world and sent His only Son. He loved Him so much, and His Son died on the cross. To reject that gift—to reject believing on His Son—is a great sin.
That alone places a person under the judgment of God, let alone all the other sins.
So far, Paul has used creation and is now working on the conscience. There is a spiritual battle going on. We do not fight someone physically and wrestle them down, saying, “Believe in Jesus.” Do not do that. But we are fighting a spiritual fight.
In a sense, this is the right punch—right in the face. But then comes the left punch in Romans 2.
Romans 2 begins: “Therefore thou art without excuse, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest.” Suddenly, you fall back in your seat.
You have been listening to the terrible sins of others and saying, “Yeah, they are sinners. They deserve hell.” But maybe you are a moral person. Outwardly, your sins may not seem nearly as great as those of the other person.
Inwardly, they are huge, but outwardly they may not seem like much. So in Romans 2 Paul is working on another kind of person—a person with some morality, even enough morality to judge others.
You have no excuse, you who judge others. In judging them, you condemn yourself. This may seem strange at first. Paul says, “You who judge doest the same things.”
Suppose there is a person next to you—do not look at them—who has done five sins. They are sins you feel you have never committed. You may say, “I have never murdered. I have never been disobedient to my parents. I have never lied, stolen, or committed adultery.”
You look at that person, and they have done all five. You think, “If we stand before God, I will make it to heaven and they will make it to hell.” This is your feeling because you are a moral person.
Remember, perhaps you do not know the Bible or anything else, but you are very moral. There are many moral unbelievers who do not know the Scriptures. They have never heard the law, the Ten Commandments, or Jesus’ teachings, but they are moral because mankind knows right and wrong.
Man has a conscience. All over the world, even in jungles and tribes, people have some knowledge of right and wrong, though they may be darkened in certain areas. Somewhere or another, there is some morality.
Now comes your turn. You have seen this person with five sins, but you have judged them five times. How many sins do you have?
They have stolen, but you judged them for stealing. They have murdered, but you judged them for murder. Do you see what I am saying? On all five of these matters, you have set yourself up as judge.
When you stand before God, the righteous Judge of the whole universe, He will say, “I am the Judge, and you stole My place.” He is God; we are not God. It is wicked to put yourself in the place of God, even though you may think you are very moral.
This is the problem with moral people. Their hearts can become stubborn and hard. They judge other people in order to feel better about themselves.
If you can point out the sins of another person, you feel better about yourself. This is why people want to gossip: when you gossip about someone else, you feel better about yourself. That is why it feels so good to gossip.
Paul is working on the stubborn heart. The issue becomes: Are you going to be saved? It comes down to whether you will have a soft heart.
When your conscience is darkened, it needs enlightenment so that you can see your sins. But when your heart is stubborn, it needs softening.
In Romans 1, the problem with the conscience is that it is dark. In Romans 2, the problem is that it is hard. It is like a callus on your hands.
People who work with their hands get calluses. I type on a computer, so I do not have any. But if you work for about a week, you get them. The skin becomes so hard that if somebody pokes it, it does not hurt.
But if that happens to your conscience, when the gospel comes to you, you will not feel it. When the righteousness of God is revealed, you will say, “Oh, that is okay,” and you will not receive it.
If your heart is softer, when you are poked, it hurts. When you are touched by the gospel, you see it and receive it.
Paul says that the judgment of God is according to truth upon those who practice such things. He says to those who judge others, “Do you not remember that the goodness and kindness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
Soften your heart. Be merciful. But then he convicts them further:
But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
who will render to every man according to his works.
There is a day of wrath and revelation. You are treasuring up wrath and judgment for yourself. God is going to render to each one according to his works.
There will be a day of judgment. This is what Paul shares with unbelievers who may not even know the Scriptures: there is a day when the Creator God will judge you, and you are storing up wrath for that day.
Those who by patience in well-doing seek glory, honor, and incorruption will receive eternal life. But for those who are factious, disobedient to the truth, and workers of evil, there will be wrath, indignation, tribulation, and distress upon every soul of man.
This may sound confusing in Romans 2. We may ask why Paul says eternal life is given to those seeking glory, honor, and incorruptibility, because eternal life comes only through believing in the Lord Jesus.
But this is a question of the heart. Is the heart soft? If the heart is soft, that person will come to Christ.
Cornelius is a good example. The same kinds of phrases used in Romans 2 are used in Acts in the story of Cornelius. Cornelius was not a Jew. His household was among the first Gentiles saved—straight-out Gentiles, straight-out pagans.
But he was moral, not with a hard heart. He was seeking, praying, fasting, and after God. God worked in a miraculous way in his case.
It was not that gospel preachers were ready to enter his town. God sent an angel to speak to him about Peter, gave Peter a vision, prepared Peter, and Peter came to share with him.
When Peter shared with him, he said, “I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” There is no partiality with God. Romans 2:11 says the same thing: “For there is no respect of persons with God.”
God will make a way for seeking souls to be saved through Jesus—through the Lord Jesus. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”
Let us keep that straight. No one can be saved except through the Lord Jesus. There are not five paths to heaven. There is only one way, which is Christ.
But people often ask about someone deep in the jungle who has never had a gospel preacher come. What about Cornelius, far away before any Christians had reached him with the gospel?
Those who are seeking, God is going to save. There have been many stories, even recent ones, of people being saved in miraculous ways when the church failed to preach the gospel.
It is the church’s responsibility to go to the ends of the earth and proclaim the good news. But when man fails, God is faithful.
When I was in Israel, I heard stories from people I actually met who were saved through visions or dreams—some Jews and some Arabs. Basically, Christians had not shared the gospel with them, but God saved them.
There are people in other countries right now whom God is saving. I have read stories of missionaries arriving somewhere and finding that God had already saved somebody. When they heard the good news, they said, “That is Who I met. That is the Jesus I met. I did not know His name or His story, but I met Him and believed on Him.”
God is able. He will save only through Jesus, through the Lord Jesus, but God is sovereign. If a person has a soft heart, God will make a way for that person to hear the good news.
Romans 2:1 says, “Thou art without excuse.” This has now come up twice. Romans 1:20 says that man has no excuse, and Romans 2:1 says that man has no excuse.
You have no excuse because you know there is a Creator. You have no excuse before God to say, “I did not know.” And you have no excuse to say that you did not know right from wrong, because you have a conscience.
Creation and conscience give you no excuse. No one will stand before God at the great white throne judgment and say, “It is unfair. Your wrath is unfair. Your judgment is unfair.”
The wrath of God is fair. It is a shame that it is fair, but it is fair because man has rebelled against God.
Paul then transitions toward the concept of the law. He wants to bring home this point: even if you do not know the law, even if you do not know the Scriptures or the Word of God, it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
When Gentiles, who do not have the law, practice naturally the things of the law, they show that they have a law written in their hearts. Their conscience bears witness, either accusing them or excusing them.
This goes through Romans 2:16. Everything will be manifested in the day when the secrets of men are exposed before God. According to the gospel, there is going to be a day of judgment, and the secrets of men will be judged.
Even if you are moral, have you had sins on the inside? People may not know what you thought, but God knows. We may fear the government finding out more and more about our private lives, but on judgment day God will expose everything.
Every embarrassing thing and every shameful thing will be judged—the secrets of men. Hopefully, our hearts are soft. Hopefully, we realize, “I am not so good.” All humanity has sinned.
I want to say something as a side note. We are taking the approach of asking how Paul shares the gospel, but if you have never received the glad tidings, this is a good day for salvation.
Now is the day of salvation. You can be saved while learning how to be saved. You can be saved while learning how to preach the gospel. You are not in the wrong place.
I was saved while learning how to preach the gospel. I was in an evangelism training program, and I was not saved. I was doing my homework, and thank God, He saved me.
I was reading a gospel tract that I was supposed to hand out to people, and the gospel tract led me to the Lord. What a fool—but what a wonderful God.
Another time, I was at a camp in an evangelism training class. The teacher had gone online and found a bunch of methods of evangelism. He had a Romans Road, ABCs, and all these things. He was handing them out and saying, “This is the way you preach the gospel.”
Then a girl burst into tears. She said, “I am in the wrong place. I am in the wrong place. I should not be here. I am a sinner, and I have not been saved.”
Everybody looked around, wondering what to do. The teenagers were thinking, “We have not finished the class yet. We do not know what to do.” The teacher was dumbfounded too, because he had just looked all this up online.
Thankfully, I shared my story with her. She lit up with tears in her eyes and said, “I can be saved too. You can be saved. I can be saved too.” And she was saved. The Lord led her to Himself.
If you are hearing all this and you are not saved yet—if you have never met the Lord—meet the Lord today. Today is a good day. Today is the day. You may not have tomorrow.
Now, Romans 2:17 says, “But if thou bearest the name of a Jew.” We have had the right punch for the person with a darkened conscience, who is obviously living in sin. Then the left hook comes from nowhere: “Therefore thou art without excuse, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest.”
But here comes the uppercut. If you are called a Jew, rest in the law, make your boast in God, know His will, approve the things that are excellent, and have been instructed out of the law, you think you have something.
You think you are an instructor of babes and a light to the world—whatever you think. But this is nothing if it is only a form. You have the form of knowledge, the form of godliness, and the form of truth in the law, but you do not really have Him.
You may say, “Well, I am not Jewish. I do not need to think about this.” Perhaps in this country you will only witness to one Jew out of a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand. But I want to broaden this.
The Jews had the Scriptures. Up until this point, creation and conscience did not require the Scriptures. But now Paul brings in the law.
Many people in this country are not Jews, but they have heard the Scriptures. They may have been raised in Christian homes, attended Christian classes, received Christian teaching, or had some Scriptural background.
If you have that background and are resting in it—“I know the gospel. I know the good news. I have known it since childhood. I know the whole story”—then you need to hear this.
That is what I was doing when I read that tract. I was just going along because it was the whole story, and I knew it. I had it memorized. I knew that God is God, man is a sinner, God is righteous, man has fallen, and there is no way to get to God except through the Lord Jesus.
But it was all in my head; it was not in my heart. Then it hit me in a sinner’s prayer: “Lord, I am the sinner. Save me.”
Paul is calling you out. Even though you have the Scriptures and such a good background, you who teach others, do you not teach yourself?
I was teaching a Bible study for teenagers when I was not saved. What a shame. You who teach others not to steal, do you steal? You abhor the things wicked people do, but you do the same things.
You can use this with people who have New Testament Scriptures. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lifted the Ten Commandments to an inward degree.
“You shall not kill. You shall not murder.” But Jesus says not even to hate with murderous hate. Even though you may have good teachings, you have sinned.
Those good instructions, morals, and rules give you a better opportunity than someone who has never received them. If you have the law or the Scriptures, you know more than unbelievers in places where they do not have the Scriptures.
But it is not the hearers; it is the doers. Just because you know it does not mean you are walking in it.
At the end of Romans 2, Paul says:
For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh:
but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
God is not a respecter of persons. You may have been raised in a good environment, not in paganism and obvious wickedness, but God is not a respecter of persons.
You are under the wrath of God. Soften your heart. You are under the judgment of God until you have believed on the Lord Jesus.
In Romans 3, Paul gives a balanced view. Is there no advantage in being a Jew? That is not true. It is not a bad thing to have been raised in a Christian home. It is a very good thing.
You have a privilege. Yours are the Scriptures. The Jews had the Scriptures, and people raised in Christian homes have the Scriptures. Even in this country, we have much more influence from the Scriptures. This is a privilege. The Scriptures are good.
But you are still a sinner. Having the Scriptures, once you are saved, is a benefit in going on quickly with the Lord.
Paul is amazing. When he was saved, he immediately went to preach. But not only did he preach the gospel: he already knew the Scriptures well. The Lord was showing him how they spoke of Christ as the Messiah, and he reasoned in the synagogues, proving that Jesus is the Son of God.
Paul had such a good background. Timothy was raised in the Scriptures and became usable by the Lord at a very early age. This is a great benefit.
When you are saved after growing up in wickedness, there is much renewing of the mind and language to deal with. So there is benefit in a good background.
What, then, is the superiority of the Jew? Much in every way—but not when it comes to sin. You may have a privileged background, but Romans 3:9 says that everybody is under sin: Gentiles and Jews. Everybody is a sinner.
Paul has got everybody. He has given the right, left, and uppercut. At this point, every heart should be soft.
He brings in the Scriptures:
There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none that understandeth,
There is none that seeketh after God;
They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable;
There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one.
And we have Romans 3:23:
For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.
Everyone has sinned. As Paul preaches the gospel, he uses the law and the Scriptures to show that we are sinners.
Romans 3:20 says:
Because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.
The law shows you your sin; it exposes you. If you know the Scriptures and are not saved—if you have any Scripture or Bible knowledge—it is like a standard or a wall.
When you stand against that wall, we can see how tall you are. You are not as tall as the wall. This is God’s standard: the law.
Why did God give the law? He gave it to expose your sins. When preaching to people who know the Scriptures, Scripture is a good starting point. You do not even need to begin from creation; you can begin from the Bible. You can begin with the law.
Paul is a master gospel preacher. In Acts, he shares the gospel in different ways. With idol worshipers, he begins with creation: “I am here to tell you about the Creator. He created all these things. He has not left you without witness. He gave you goodness and rain, and showed you His kindness.”
God had forbearance in their ignorance, but now the gospel has come to them. Yet when Paul speaks to Jews or people who know the Scriptures, he reasons from the Scriptures immediately.
He proves that Jesus is the Christ. He shows them that they are sinners who need a Savior, and that the Messiah must come and suffer for sins. This is his way of preaching the gospel.
Romans 3:19 says that whatever the law says, it speaks to those under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped.
Do not boast. If you are not under the law, you have your conscience to condemn you. If you are under the law, the law will condemn you. I hope every mouth is quiet and every heart is soft.
This is all bad news. The wrath of God is upon us and upon you. When you are sharing, do not always skip ahead and try to get someone quickly to do something. There needs to be a softening of the heart.
We want to learn from this preacher of the gospel to be wise in winning souls. As we speak with someone, we begin to realize that person’s condition and learn what angle to take.
Someone may be confused about God, so perhaps we start with creation. Maybe someone knows the Scriptures, so we begin with the Scriptures and show them the Messiah and Christ. Maybe someone is living in sin, and we work with that person to bring him or her into the light, so that the heart may be soft.
All this time, I imagine this preacher of the gospel sharing with unbelievers. He is preaching hell, but he is preaching hell with tears of love.
There is a difference. If you preach hell with happiness and hatred toward those who are perishing, something is wrong with you. It is like kicking a cat. What is wrong with you?
Why preach hell all the time with no heart in it? When preachers of the gospel preach the wrath of God, they are sad about the wrath of God. It is righteous wrath, but they are sad at the perishing state of sinners.
They pray for sinners. They care for them. They love them with the love of God. Remember, the gospel messenger and his message go together.
The wrath of God is already manifested, but why did God love the world? He sent His only begotten Son. His wrath is there, but His love is there too. He loves them so much.
Then, with a burst of joy, Paul steps into Romans 3:21. This is what he has been waiting for. He loves the good news. He is so glad about the glad tidings, and he wants to reveal them to you.
There has been a curtain blocking you. The god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, as 2 Corinthians 4 says. You are blinded.
But in the gospel, in the glad tidings, the righteousness of God is revealed. The curtain is opened.
Now he says:
But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction.
The curtain opens, and there is a burst of joy. Now you can see that there is a righteous way for this righteous God to save unrighteous sinners.
You are a sinner. You are under sin and under the wrath of God. But thank God, He has shown you a way to be saved.
What is His righteous way? All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but we are:
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
To be justified is to be made right with God. God has a right way. Christ Jesus died on the cross. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He died for our sins.
Someone must pay the price for your sins. Someone has to die for you. When Christ died for you, now you can be saved in a righteous way.
When the Lord Jesus shed His blood on the cross, when He loved you so much and died for you, what is your feeling toward that? Where is your heart? Is your heart soft toward that?
When this gospel is revealed and opened up, how do you feel? Are you ready for that?
You cannot believe if you do not see something. Make-believe is when you make something up and try to believe it. But real belief is when the curtain is opened and you see what is in eternity, then trust in it.
Belief is saying, “I believe in that. This is real. This is true. This is eternal. Christ died on the cross.” This is the good news. This is the glad tidings. The righteousness of God is now opened up.
Hebrews 10 says there is a way into the holy of holies. This is especially meaningful for people who know the Scriptures.
In the Old Testament temple or tabernacle, the presence of God was deep inside, and there was a curtain. No one could enter.
But when Christ died on the cross, God took that physical curtain and tore it from top to bottom. There is a way in.
Hebrews 10 says that the curtain is the body of Christ. Jesus Christ died on the cross. His body was torn. He is that curtain. He is our way in.
How is the curtain opened? You see Christ crucified. That is what we preach: Christ and Him crucified.
To see the way into God’s presence, you see His blood shed and the curtain opened. You see Him crucified on the cross. This answers every problem.
This answers the rebellion of man, because God has come and made a way for man to be forgiven of sins. It answers the prophecies of the Old Testament.
It also answers questions in our minds about how God saved people before the cross. Romans 3:25 says that God passed over sins previously committed in His forbearance.
How could the sacrifice of an animal save anyone if only God’s Son could save? The just God is just in doing this because when He saw the blood, He saw the cross.
Remember that the cross is outside time. It happened in time, but it touches eternity and covers all time. The cross is the fullness of time in Galatians, and in Romans it says Christ died in due time.
The cross came at exactly the perfect time. Not only was it at the right time, but it covers all time.
Sometimes we ask, “How could the righteous God save people in the Old Testament when Jesus had not yet died on the cross? Is that fair? Is that right?”
This came up at a youth conference recently in our discussion group. It was the exact argument, and we came right here. This is the righteous way of God.
When Christ died on the cross, every Old Testament believer who had the blood and responded in faith was saved on the basis of the cross. God covered sins, and when the cross came, it all came upon Christ.
All the Old Testament saints have been saved by the cross. There is no way to be saved except through the Lord Jesus, even in the Old Testament. That is why Abel’s sacrifice was so good: he had the blood.
When an animal died and blood was shed, God saw His Son. He was looking ahead to Christ. The forgiveness was based on the cross.
Romans 3:26 also shows that God is just in saving you today simply by believing. Why is that just? Why is that righteous? Jesus Christ did not die today, this year, or even while you have been alive. He died almost two thousand years ago.
Some may reason, “It is not fair that God would save us today because Jesus died back then. He cannot die for me today.” But remember: the cross is outside of time. It covers the past and the future.
The cross happened in time, but when Christ was crucified, it touched eternity. It lifted up salvation for all mankind.
We do not have to do anything with animals; we can just pet them. We look back and see that Christ was crucified on the cross, and we praise God. We thank Him for it. We believe on Him.
If you have never believed in the Lord Jesus, simply trust in Him. Say, “Lord, I believe. I receive what You have done on the cross.”
In this preaching of the gospel to sinners, the first aspect needed is faith. The reason the righteousness of God is revealed, the reason the gospel is unveiled, is so that people may see something and trust in it—believe on it.
If you do not see anything, what are you going to believe in? Merely coming forward, merely praying, merely following a few steps, or merely quoting a few words will not save anyone.
But if faith is included, even if it looks messy, the person will be saved. Faith is trusting in the Lord Jesus.
This is why Paul goes through all the bad news. You may think, “Jeffrey just preaches bad news all day.” But if our hearts are softened by the bad news, then when we hear the good news, it will soothe our souls and free our spirits.
When the righteousness of God is manifested, we will love it.
If you are saved today, we can thank God for this. This may not be anything new that we are talking about.
What I hope we can grasp is that when we share the glad tidings with others, we should experience the good news freshly right then. Experience afresh that He has forgiven you of your sins.
I mean in a spiritual way, not merely in your mind. Do not memorize four steps. Memorize Christ.
Do not merely memorize the Romans Road. I am not against that. What I mean is, do not merely spout it off.
If we are experiencing the gospel today, then when we share Christ, He will come forth.
I want to pray. I pray that we can touch the spirit of the gospel, even as we read through Romans and watch Paul, the preacher of the gospel.
Even in our own lives, as we pray for people, remember that Paul prayed for these Romans so much. May we touch the heart of God. Let us pray.
Lord, we learn that Your righteous way is a marvelous way. This righteousness of God—we praise You and thank You for revealing it to us.
We do not know how we can be saved, but You sent forth Your Son. We do not know how our sins can be washed away, how we can be made clean, but through His shed blood You have cleansed us.
Lord, we do not know how all mankind, who have rebelled against You, can be loved so much, or how we do not receive the judgment we deserve. But we see the judgment on the cross, and we just want to praise and thank You.
We worship You and bow down and say, “You are our God. You are our Creator. You are our Lord. You are our Master. You are our Savior, and You are wonderful.”
Lord, we really thank You. We pray that You would touch our hearts for this lost and perishing world, for the souls out there that need this good news revealed to them.
Lord, we know that wrath is already revealed to them everywhere, but we pray that You would give us opportunities. Give us the heart and the spirit of the gospel so that we can share, manifest, reveal, and express Christ to this fallen world.
Lord, we pray that if anyone is here or listening who has not been saved, right now they would soften their heart. Draw them with the pierced hands, the pierced feet, the blood, and the love of God, that they would believe on You and be saved.
We commit ourselves to You in Jesus’ name. Amen.