The Whole World Guilty Before God

[0:00] this message was recorded at vision baptist church in alfred georgia it is our prayer that you'll be blessed by the preaching of god's word all right take your bibles if you would and open them to romans chapter 3 romans chapter 3 and we'll read there in the bible romans chapter 3 and today we're going to find the whole world guilty before god that's what the holy spirit is going to prove to us before the day is over the whole world guilty before god you've been in romans you've watched god as he takes us through this and he shows us that man is a sinner and man has failed god and man is without any opportunity any option of defending himself we are were sinners before almighty god read with me if you would romans chapter 3 starting in verse 1 the bible says what advantage then hath the jew or what profit is there of circumcision this is before i keep reading well listen to this the jews were saying now wait a minute paul you can be hard on those gentiles you can be hard on those guys but you really can't be too hard on us we're the special people we're the group that god loved we're the chosen people we're the circumcised people we have the word of god it sounds to me like you're trying to lump us in with everybody else uh sounds kind of like southeastern united states cultural christians we're like hey don't lump us in with all the big bad west coast people or the big bad people anywhere else but he says hey what advantages the jews first paul says in verse 2 much he's got a lot of advantages much every way chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of god god gave them his word he trusted him to write his bible they've given us 39 books they're fixing to give us 27 more including this one verse 3 for what if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of god without effect god forbid yea let god be true let god be true but every man a liar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged but if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of god what shall we say is god unrighteous who take a vengeance i'm talking like a man i speak as a man god forbid but then how shall god judge the world for if the truth of god hath more abounded uh through my lie unto his glory why am i yet also judged as a sinner and not rather as we slanderously be reported as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just what then are we better than they no in no wise for we have before proved before both jews and gentiles that they are all under sin if you have your bible open you should underline in that verse paul says let me just make it clear nobody's better than anybody we have proved both jews and gentiles that all all are under sin starting in verse 10 he's going to quote old testament he is a good expository preacher he uses the word of god he says as it is written in the old testament what the prophets say and here's a string of verses he goes and gets there is none righteous no not one there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after god they are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they have used a seat the poison of asp is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their way in their ways and the way of peace they have not known there is no fear of god before their eyes now we know that what things whoever the law saith is said to them that are

[4:05] under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before god you should put a circle around that part that's where the whole title comes from that's where the that's the crux of this chapter that's the main point that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before god verse 20 and because of that therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin underline by the law is the knowledge of sin father in heaven i pray that today you would help us to realize who we were before you saved us and if there's someone here today that is not born again doesn't know you and hasn't been forgiven of their sin i pray god that you'd help them to realize that all the world stands guilty and no one can say anything no one can say they're okay no one can say i have my own opinion i pray dear god that you would work in our lives and i'll give you praise and honor in jesus name amen romans 3 he's concluding we'll get the rest of it next week he's concluding an argument he started off telling you the gospel is good news and then he showed you how man started in the beginning knowing god and man has progressively denied god and not believed in god and going all the way down a horrible spiral that's in romans chapter 1 in romans chapter 2 he comes to the jews and he says you guys claim that you're good he said but you tell other people not to steal but do you steal you say you know the bible but are you doing what you know to do and in romans chapter 3 he's going to conclude the matter and when he gets through he wants to say hush don't try to defend yourself no excuses nothing you can say everybody is guilty before god by the way that is a fantastic truth when we learn it when we learn that we are guilty when we learn that we have failed god then we are ready for grace but today chapter 3 is going to be pretty harsh he's going to say over and over to us you cannot go to heaven without me you are not good enough without me he is going to establish very clearly in romans chapter 3 that all the world is guilty all the world is guilty the whole world is guilty before god so number one if you want to write something down the law condemns all of us the law condemns everyone everywhere the law that's the old testament that's what god's word says look if you would in romans chapter 3 in verse 9 what then are we better than they no in no wise jews you are not better than they hey gentiles you're not better than they we have proved before we have before proved both jews and gentiles they are all under sin look at john 3 18 if you don't have this verse in your heart and memorized you need to know this in john chapter 3 in verse 18 every person on the planet is condemned already the bible says in john 3 18 he that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he had not believed in the name of the only begotten son of god you see what happens is we tend to think that people are born innocent and they're going to grow up and they get to a place in their life when they choose to accept god or not to accept god to be saved or not to be saved and in john 3 16 you got that most beautiful and powerful verse that god loved the world 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 which is so true it is true but you should not take by that universalism or the idea that everybody's all right that everybody's going to get saved because he says hey in case you don't know i do love you and i did give my son for

[8:09] you and you can all be saved but you need to know that up front you're condemned already john 3 18 he said that they're condemned already so everybody stands condemned everybody's on death row everybody's sitting right outside the lake of fire everybody's sitting right down the hall from the electric chair everybody is condemned already the bible says if you maybe write it down there romans chapter 6 and verse 23 the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord sin has a wage the wage is death so here it is the jews are condemned the jews wanted to know if paul was denying that they had something special as the people of god they say hey you're saying that we're not good you're saying that we don't have something different you say we don't have something special they had been persecuted they were the people of god and they had the scriptures given to them and they were special they hung on to knowing the scriptures they hung on to the fact that they wrote the scriptures they hung on to their circumcision and they did have an advantage they did have an advantage the word of god was committed to them they had been the group of people that had the bible if anybody ought to know god it ought to be them but just because jews had the bible doesn't mean they believe the bible it doesn't change the facts could i just say that it's very easy for you to think hey i grew up in a in the southeast during united states of america i've gone to bible believe in churches all my life i believe the bible i believe god i read the bible i believe all that and this is exactly what paul would say you're just like a jew you think because your mama was and your daddy was and you think because you got a bible and you think that all that but that's just simply not true it's not a matter of having a bible it's not a matter of being a member of a group it's not a matter of an outward thing like circumcision or baptism we've all sinned we've all sinned and we're going to need god the bible says in romans chapter 3 and verse 5 that god will judge the world but what he wrote in the word he said jews yeah you got the bible but don't you know what god's going to do he's going to ride you i you had a bible and i told you verse 5 he said if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of god so hey guys you got a bible and you've been doing wrong and if anything it just shows that god is more right the jews of the jew are condemned the gentiles are condemned romans 3 9 that you've already read with me once says what then are we better than they no in no wise we're not one bit better off than they are because we have already proved in romans one and two we've already proved that gentiles and gentiles are all under sin the gentiles didn't even have a bible the gentiles didn't have the word they didn't know the truth and they had sinned everybody has sinned all men everywhere are guilty before god they are all under sin just a slight overview of your bible if you study the bible you find that god has worked with man in different ways all through the bible and the whole context of the bible the first thing it screams is jesus christ is the only way he is the lamb of god he paid the sin debt and all can be saved but then god worked in different times throughout the bible to say this you are a failure you are guilty man you have no excuse shut your mouth you have failed you say well what kind of ways has he done that in the garden of eden they were innocent in the garden of eden they were in a perfect environment oh there was a devil there was a snake there and there they only had one rule if you said well if we didn't have so many rules we could do better but in the garden in a period of innocence they failed the test they came out of the garden and you would say well they're out of the garden now and what's god going to do he lets them have their conscience they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil now they know right from wrong but you know what they do they choose to do wrong and they get kicked out of the garden and we're in genesis chapter 4 where it's really getting kind of cranked up by genesis chapter 6 man is so desperately wicked that all he ever thinks about is doing wrong he doesn't love god that god only has eight people on the whole planet and god destroys the world everything that happens

[12:14] in the world says man you failed you failed when you're innocent you failed when you had a conscience they came out of the ark and they set up human government and you would say all right now they've got a fresh start they're going to start over they surely have learned from their mistakes they've surely learned from the time they were innocent they've surely learned from the time that uh that they had a conscience surely now they'll straighten up but you know what they do they get together and decide they don't like god they will build a tower of babel and they will raise themselves up to god they elevate themselves they set themselves up and god destroys the tower divides man gives languages and says strike three you failed when you were innocent you failed when you had a conscience and you failed when you had human government but out of the middle of every one of those god brings forth grace to say hey you couldn't but i can you couldn't when they failed in the garden a lamb died when they when they felt under when they failed under conscience god provided an ark and saved eight people when the human government messed up and the whole world is divided he calls out abraham and he starts another time to show him he's not give you a promise he has a dispensation or a time of promise when he says let me show you if you had a personal relationship with god if you had god's promise you'd do all right but they didn't do all right from abraham now for the rest of the book of genesis they're going to mess up again man is number four failing the fourth time in a row and he fails so desperately that god says all right i'll give you perfect divine law and i will show you what if you had the real law straight from god what if a man could go all the way up to heaven and say god what would be a perfect law give us that law god gives him that law and comes down and for the next two thousand years they have the law they have the old testament they have the ten commandments they have god speaking to them they have god leading them but they fail desperately again man always fails man fails every test that's ever put before him and god even in the law said hey here's the law to show you you failed and every time you fail i got a lamb that can die for you i got an animal that can pay your price you fail but i have a plan you mess up but i have a plan and then god who is a man who's failed so desperately under divine law god opens up an age of grace he sends jesus down and he sends the church and and he says anybody anywhere can all be saved and they can all turn to christ but man is so profoundly and deeply wicked he says nope not interested grace is in their face and they kill jesus grace is in their face and they turn their back on him so then god has one other thing he's yet to do but he's going to prove over and over seven times over he says you failed you failed number one you failed six times in a row and now he's going to set up a kingdom soon and in that kingdom jesus will reign and he will put satan under in a pit in a bottomless pit and for a thousand years the lord jesus himself will make the rules the lord jesus himself will govern the earth and you would think with a perfect king and the devil gone that man would do right he's had six chances surely he's learned from history but you know what man will do by the end of the thousand years he'll raise an army and fight god man shakes his fist in god's face and says i won't do it god has systematically proven to man that he refuses to love god he refuses to seek god man is a complete and utter failure if god doesn't provide the means of salvation nobody will first thing you should have written down the law condemns us the bible condemns us history condemns us man is a failure and i don't know what your excuse is i don't know what you're saying well if i had a perfect environment well they blew it in a perfect environment well if we had good laws they blew it when they had good laws well if we could just do what we thought was right they blew it when they did that too if they if we just had a perfect king and and no devil to mess with us they're going to blow that one too so from genesis to revelation god says this y'all stink that's pretty hard isn't it god looks down and said i made you but you're a bunch of rebellious sinners and you refuse to trust me and you refuse to believe me

[16:21] so that leads us to the second thing i hope you'll write down and that's the condition of man and so what he's going to do now is he's going to say to them let me prove to you from the bible you know there's jews listening to him and those jews are thinking wait a minute paul you're a tad overbearing you're a tad overbearing i mean we're jews we are the people we're the chosen ones we've been circumcised hey we are not one of them and we have the very law of god and god is good you've admitted it yourself and basically what paul says is yeah i do but seven times over you've been tested and by the way you claim you have the word of god but you don't even know what it says because let me show you what it says and so paul stands to he just rears back and pulls out a bible and says open your bibles and he begins to run them through a series of verses from the old testament and he hooks them all together in a message he has a sermon outline that comes from psalms and isaiah and other places and this is what he says to them about the condition of man look at you what it first at romans chapter 3 verse 9 what then now i've told you you stink what then are we better than they no in no wise for we have before proved both jews and gentiles that they are all under sin and so the jews are still sitting going you can say that all you want and you can even talk about us but just to be honest we're okay we're the people of god and he says okay let me open your book let me open your law and quote it to you so in verse 10 underline in verse 10 he says as it is written you know what's wrong with most bible preaching today there's no bible preaching you know what's wrong with most bible preaching is we don't say as it is written you know what i failed at many times in my past life and my own preaching was we didn't we don't go enough to as it is written so paul says as it is written look at verse 10 as it is written there is none righteous you ought to underline in your bible there is none righteous how many righteous are there would you tell me how many it says how many righteous are there not even one that's what none means none is like no one put together none nobody not one no one there is none righteous no not one verse 11 there is none that understands you say well i think i understand no you don't no you don't there is none that seeks after god verse 12 they are all going out of the way they're together become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one there's none you shall know that in your bible there is none there is none that means you that means me that means none that means nobody anywhere not a jew not a gentile not a person in the old testament not a person in the new testament not a person in china not a person in africa not a person anywhere on this planet there's none righteous no not one there's none that understands there's none that seek after god he used another term that's really broad in verse 12 he said they are all going out of the way they are together become unprofitable there's none that do with good every condemnation starting in verse 10 is simply quoting from the old testament let me just give you a few examples in verse 13 he says their throat is an open sepulcher in psalm chapter 5 and verse 9 it says there's no faithfulness in their mouth or inward part is very weakness wickedness their throat is an open sepulcher paul said hey it's written in your book you're supposed to know it you just you just told me that it was committed to you the oracles of god didn't you you've been saying it was your book all right this is what it says about you this your book says you messed up verse 10 chapter 10 and verse 13 the poison of ass was under their lips they have sharpened their tongues in psalm 140 verse 3 they sharpened their tongues like serpents adders poison under their lips romans 10 14 whose mouth is full of curse and psalm 10 7 says their mouth is full of cursing he's quoting the old testament in romans chapter 10 he says their feet are swift to shed blood and that's isaiah in romans chapter 10 in verse 18 he said there's no fear of god before their eyes and that's psalms 36 that's psalm 36 the jew would claim he had the law

[20:25] and that was an advantage so paul quotes the law the law to them and proves that they having the law do not even know what it says here's what the law says we're wicked we're wicked man is wicked jews are wicked if you think having the law is an advantage you need to think again if you think having the law is an advantage you need to think again those jews would have looked at him as oh oh oh oh oh you can talk all the bad stuff you want about them gentiles we know they're not circumcised they're not one of the jews they don't have the oracles of god but we are very special people we are the jews we're a special people he said okay let me quote your book to you there is none righteous none seeks after god there's none that understands they're all going out of the way they're all together becoming unprofitable we have failed god we have failed god i want you if you would that's the condition man i want you to look if you would at verse 20 let me remind you what the purpose of the law is look in verse 20 romans 320 very important verse the law's purpose the bible says therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin by the law is the knowledge of sin and what was supposed to happen when you read the old testament law was not that you were supposed to come away saying i am better than other people i can compare myself to other people and think i'm good the law was supposed to show you you can't the law was supposed to show you that you failed the law was supposed to take you to jesus that's what the purpose of the law is the jews didn't seem to understand it the law was never meant as a means of salvation it was meant as a means of breaking you so many of us even think man i keep the ten commandments no you don't and by the way the jews had this really pious attitude the apostle paul says in philippians chapter 3 before he comes under conviction he said when i look back on my past i was born a jew i was born a hebrew of the hebrews i was i was circumcised on the eighth day and by the way if you want to talk about keeping the ten commandments i was blameless do you remember a young ruler that came to jesus and jesus said he said hey how can i find eternal life in the in the and the jesus said keep the ten commandments and the guy looked at him said i've done that ever since i was a kid i'm a good guy but see good guys can't get saved and good guys can't get right because the law is supposed to show you you failed and the apostle paul will finally figure that out the law is a schoolmaster to bring you to grace the whole purpose of the law was to say you failed you have failed god you haven't done right you you are not good enough you can't make it on your own you were supposed to look at the law and say i don't know where to turn you read the old testament you'll talk to me and you'll say boy that's a harsh time that was the time when god was harsh he was harsh because he was saying to us all through the scripture you can't you can't you can't from genesis to revelation he was saying you failed you failed you failed seven times over at least seven times over in seven major ways he shows us that we failed then all every story we fail man always fails man always fails so law was meant to bring us to grace the law is the ministry of death and i'll show you that in just a minute in second corinthians chapter three but the law's ministry is to kill us but the law's ministry is to say he's in trouble the law's ministry is to open you up and look inside and say throw him up he's going to die there's no hope for him the law's ministry is to say you have failed god the law shows you what sin is so you'll know that you're a sinner so you'll know that you're a sinner the law gets you sick enough to need a doctor sinful enough to need to see your condition and know you need to be saved by grace sinful enough to know you need a savior it brings you to a point of helplessness so that you need help now listen to this real quick somewhere along the

[24:30] way we've developed a jewish mentality in many of our lives and we think almost that god's got this record he's keeping it if my good outweighs my bad i get everything's okay between me and god and here's what he says look i want you to get romans 3 romans 2 romans chapter 1 2 and 3 i want you to get them straight here's what he said nope all the good you do bam outweighed bad bad bad bad oh you say well i i've been baptized bad well i've been circumcised bad oh i know the bible bad and before it's all over he's saying this you messed up you are condemned you are a sinner you are on your way to hell and roman you see you can't get to grace until you've been through sin and seen that you're a sinner you can't get to salvation you don't need salvation which means rescued if you don't know you're sinking i was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore you don't you're not sinking because you've never believed you sinned that's what he's saying in romans 1 2 and 3 he's saying boy guys you're in trouble you're in trouble i gave the law to show you you were in trouble because you can't get delivered and help unless you know you're in trouble you can't get delivered to help we tend to think of the law is like this i do better at keeping it than you do i got enough i got one notch up on you we look at it as a way to compare ourselves and measure ourselves we're not as bad as they are and here's what the bible says oh no you are too you all stink you all stink every one of you and the only way you'll be saved is what jesus did so let me give you the conclusion if i could james chapter 2 and verse 10 the bible says for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all so if i were to say to you and i don't do it anymore because when i was young i was foolish enough to let people lie to me right in church but i would say is there anybody in this room that's never ever disobeyed their parents and then somebody always raised hand yep me i never disobeyed my parents one time well any of you that have children probably know that person was creatively thinking they were saying i don't remember ever disobeying my parents never i mean any of us that our parents know that our children have disobeyed us uh if you ever disobeyed your parents you blew it and then the bible would say hey don't commit adultery and you could easily say well i've never done that but when jesus came along he said let me explain to you what i mean by don't commit adultery i mean if you've ever looked at a woman and thought a thought in your heart that you shouldn't think about that woman you've done the commitment of adultery oh boy we're fried and he looked at the guys and said hey i told you don't commit murder and everybody said oh i have never killed anybody said let me explain what i mean by that what i mean by that is if you ever hated somebody in your heart you've killed a guy what he was trying to say was don't defend yourself shut your mouth you have failed you are a sinner that's what the bible's saying to all of us you say i won't get i won't get help i won't get help until i know my condition so the law was to bring me to god and so he says hey whosoever keeps the whole law and offends one point if you mess up one little thing it's the same as having broken every rule no man can keep the law no man can keep the law those that have it failed those that didn't have it were already failing only faith in jesus can save i'd like to ask you to open your bibles to second corinthians chapter 3 and verse 6 if you would open your bible to second corinthians chapter 3 and verse 6 if you would and go there that chapter with me now we already preached through the book of second corinthians we went verse by verse through the whole book but this is a good review for us second corinthians chapter 3 second corinthians chapter 3 if you would and verse 6 and the apostle paul is trying to establish very clearly that the old testament was a ministry of death a ministry of condemnation a ministry of killing to bring you to a new testament which is a

[28:36] ministry of life look if you would it says in second corinthians chapter 3 and verse 6 who also hath made us able ministers capable ministers of the new testament not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life now just stop here and watch this you see in the old testament you had the letter of the law and explained exactly what you were supposed to do and man always failed one guy one day was out on the sabbath day on saturday and he was outside and he picked up a couple of sticks and when he picked up these sticks and they were told not to work on the sabbath day they said they they came to moses said we caught him picking up sticks what do we do moses i'm not sure i mean that's really not that bad i mean he wasn't doing a whole bunch he didn't cut a truckload of wood he's only picked up a couple of sticks let's put him in a holding cell for a minute let me go ask god he comes back and says god said kill him he's working no words god's saying hey there's no gray area here you're the in or you're out the letter kills but the spirit makes alive when the spirit's the holy spirit what he's going to do in the new testament i'll show you this before i move over there can i just say to you in the old testament did you know every time they did wrong you know what he kept saying to them i have a solution for you and he provided them a sacrifice all through your old testament you can easily find all the law and all the rules and not realize that every time he showed them their failure he showed them his grace every time he showed them they had messed up he said i have a solution and so he makes an ark to get out of to get noah and his family off the above the flood and out of harm's way he makes he makes animals that die and take the sin he makes a goat that they let they pray over and put their sins on his head and the goat carries about he makes a lamb that's put on an altar and slain and by the way if you came and you said i can't afford a lamb he said not a problem i'll let you use a pigeon he said i can't afford a pigeon he said no problem can you bring some flour can you just bring me some crushed up wheat if you'll bring that i'll i'll take that offering because it's not about you and it's not about what you can do it's about what jesus did on across the calvary the letter kills but the spirit makes alive look if you would at chapter three and verse seven second corinthians chapter three and verse seven and i hope you already have it remember underlined from our last time through but if you don't underline it this time but if the ministration of death the ministration of death the ministry of death written and engraven in stones was glorious so that the children of israel could not steadfastly behold the moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away now i want you to look this way just a second listen you see the law was a fantastic thing and the apostle paul said the letter kills and i'm a minister of the new testament he said you understand that the giving of law was a fantastic thing he went up into the presence of god god looked at him his face shown he got the very the finger of god wrote out the ten commandments and he came back down with the ten commandments and god brought the law to us and he said and that was so glorious but it was a temporary thing it was the fading of his face because the purpose of that law was to say you have sinned the law simply said you're going to die i mean the law is saying you're going to die it's a school master it is it is to take you to jesus that's the purpose to show you who it is look in chapter three and verse nine if you would second corinthians chapter three and verse nine for if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory now if you have your bible open there which i hope you do second corinthians chapter three would you underline this the letter kills in verse seven or six in verse seven underline the ministration of death the ministration of death in verse nine underline the ministration of condemnation and then underline the ministration of righteousness now before i go to these last points i want you to look this way listen to me here's what the old testament does for us here's what the law does for us and jews you may have the law but here's what it does for us it stacks up our

[32:36] sin like cordwood it stacks up our sin like firewood it stacks up our sin and big mountains to say you have sinned and every thought you've ever had and every idle word you've ever spoken and every idea you've ever had that was wrong he's got a record of it all and that's the whole point he said you think you're doing good i know every thought you've ever had i know every idle word you've ever spoken and that's death there's no way you're going to change this scale and then there's the ministration of righteousness and that's second corinthians chapter five and verse 21 where jesus comes forward and in isaiah chapter 53 and he says hey i will take your sins and i will place them on jesus and he will pay your sin debt and he that knew no sin will become sin so that you who are sinners can be made righteousness and the very righteousness of god so the old thing said you sinned you sinned you sinned you failed you failed you can't and the ministry of righteousness is but jesus can bam and the ministry of jesus says hey take all of his sin i'll go to the cross and i'll pay his sin debt and all of our sins were laid on him isaiah 53 6 and he paid all the sin debt and paul stands for it he says look guys the law simply told you y'all messed up i wouldn't be bragging about the law you're like walking around with a electric chair tied around your neck saying i'm really proud of this electric chair i'm fixing to die in it you're walking around with the 10 commandments written on your chest and you're saying i got the 10 commandments yeah you do that's every reason to kill you that's every reason to show you're a failure and once you realize you're a failure though the ministry of death he kicks in and says hey romans chapter 3 will end we won't get to it till next week you got to come back but next week we'll find this out he's gonna look at it say do y'all figured it out yet you can't keep enough rules to get there so you're gonna need what i did on the cross look if you would at 3 6 the letter kills 3 7 the ministry of death 3 9 the ministry of condemnation and the ministry of righteousness you must put your faith and trust in jesus christ he is the only hope you have it is what god did through jesus on the cross that offers our only hope of salvation we will be saved by his grace and goodness or we will not be saved at all there aren't two ways to get saved there aren't two things you can do just like in the garden when man realized he was naked alone and ashamed and jesus came to him that's where you need to find yourself today you know we're in genesis also on sunday nights we're in genesis and you remember what happens when adam and eve sin they realize they're naked and it's getting towards evening when jesus has the habit of coming and walking with them and talking with them in the evening and adam and eve have now sinned and all of a sudden they look down and they realize they've been naked all along but all of a sudden they look down and they realize they're naked and they're ashamed and they're embarrassed and they go find a place to cover themselves up and they sew fig leaves around themselves and they don't want to see god and by the way it wasn't them that went looking for god it was god who came looking for them and god comes down to him and he says adam adam where are you he knew where he was but he needed adam to know where he was he needed adam to know where he was and adam says hey i'm hiding because i'm naked he said who told you he was naked did you eat of the tree you know he knew he ate of the tree he needed adam to realize you violated what i told you to do you sin and now you're embarrassed and adam said well we made these dresses out of fig leaves here we got some leaves together and sewed them together and made us something to cover us with we're embarrassed and the god of heaven said okay take that off i'll put clothes a coach of skin on you and cover you and jesus came you see it's all about you realizing your sin before you get the covering of skins in romans chapter 3 and verse 19 romans 3 19 see every mouth has to be shut because all are guilty verse 19 now we know that whatsoever things whatsoever things to the law saith it says to

[36:38] them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before god now listen to this if you would you have to understand biblically the excuse that's running through your head right now doesn't work that's what he's saying you know the bible well the bible tells you pretty good you're in bad shape hush quit making excuses quit trying to cover yourself up quit trying to hide your sin the god of heaven knows all of it and we are guilty and so the last verse for this morning romans chapter 3 and verse 20 therefore because of what i've been saying in romans chapter 3 nobody gets saved by keeping the rules therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight nobody will get saved by keeping the rules you see what he said to him he said uh you guys are bragging about having the rules your eyes are bragging about having the the law and that god committed to you the very oracles of god well let me explain something to you your very oracles say you're sinners and you have failed god you have blown it and then he says so let me explain something the law won't save anybody so nobody's going to go to heaven because of how many times they've been baptized or how many times they prayed a certain prayer or how many times they went to church or how much money they gave or how good they were or how submissive a wife they were how good a husband they were how good a parents they were or how much they did for their community because nobody is going to make any points with god but doing a good stuff because the good the the law says this you failed you failed you failed you failed you failed you failed you failed you failed you failed you said well i did something good all right you failed you failed you failed you did something good failed fail fail fail fail fail good fail fail fail fail you've got so much failure you can't make it so let me explain nobody gets saved by doing what the book says you get saved by trusting what jesus did on the cross of calvary if you haven't done that i invite you to do that today if you have done that praise god because when you walk out of here you can know you're saved and you can know that you're secure because it wasn't what you did it's what he did it wasn't what you did it's what he did and that's where security comes from it doesn't come from well i got baptized and i prayed the prayer and and hey i even got foundations under my belt at church so i think i'm all right none of that counts what counts is this wasn't what i did it's what he did are you sure you're born again father in heaven i love you and i thank you for the opportunity to be in your house and i pray god that you drive home this truth and i pray you'd shut mouths and open hearts and i pray you'd prove in their whole the holy spirit would prove in their heart to them that they are guilty we were all guilty before you i pray god that you'd help us to trust you for salvation that comes only through what jesus did on the cross of calvary and i'll give you praise for it i pray god that christians would just do they decide that it's not about what they do or what they have done that their security rests in what jesus did and they will love you and thank you for your goodness and your grace you have been listening to austin gardner pastor of vision baptist church for contact information location service times or more audio and video recordings log on to www.visionbaptist.com you you you you you you