So boys and girls, probably most of you know something of the story of King Hezekiah. And perhaps you remember when Hezekiah was sick. It was a sickness that today we would call a terminal sickness. It was a sickness unto death. And the prophet came and revealed that to him. that there was no human cure. There was no prospect of healing. It was only when the Lord God intervened and healed Hezekiah and gave him 15 more years of life that he could be healed from that illness. That's a picture to us of the depravity of our nature, a picture that's further described in the Bible with leprosy. There were some forms of leprosy that were incurable, and those forms in particular are again a graphic picture of our depravity. the corruption of our nature and the fact that in us, there is no avenue for cure. In man, there was no avenue for a cure. That's our state spiritually, and yet, let's take one more step. It's worse than that, because we are accountable for this spiritual terminal disease that we have. We sinned in Adam, but we sin willingly and freely. So let's take the example of a foolish person, drunk, driving way above the speed limit, goes off the road, hits a tree, and within a few days dies. There was no recovery for him, but his terminal disease came from his own folly and self-centeredness. Now, that's the state of all of us as we are in Father Adam, and as we are born and conceived in the womb, as King David says, and sin my mother conceived me. And we must understand this, and this is why the apostle has spent such a long period of time in this book to describe to us this reality. For remember, once he introduces the theme of the gospel, he doesn't really spell out justification. He simply quotes the reality that just man shall live by faith. He then says, then in verse 18, why that is necessary. And for the wrath of God's revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, ungodliness before God, unrighteousness before men. He then goes on to establish that both with the Gentile and the Jew. Now, in chapter three, He brings all this together, as we saw last week, as God's prosecuting attorney. He gives the indictment in verse 9. What then? What did we say? Are we better than they? Are Jews better than Gentiles? Not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, under the bondage, the guilt, the dominion of sin. No human escape possible as it's written. There's none righteous, not even one. That's his indictment. Everyone is unrighteous, a guilty sinner in the sight of God. With that indictment, Paulist prosecutor first calls on the character witnesses, our own character to witness against us. And there he points out that we are blind and dead and apostate and corrupt, and there's not even one who does good. His second group of witnesses come from our words, our actions. He speaks of our speech. He says it is defiling, it is deceitful, it is deadly, it is destructive. And then he moves to our actions, summarizes all of our actions and the fact that our feet are swift to shed murder, not just physical murder, but we leave a path of peace, of destruction behind us. and no peace accomplished by us. And he comes then to the conclusion of the indictment, and that is, there are none who fear God, not even one, which is the same as saying there's none righteous, not even one. So he comes now to the final verdict. You see, we want to talk back. We hear these sayings, we say, but Lord, this doesn't describe me. I'm a pretty good person. I'm not a murderer. I don't slander my neighbor. I don't produce destruction by my speech patterns. And so just as in human courts, there's some that try to do plea bargaining. Boys and girls, you might know about plea bargaining is when you're caught dead handed doing something that is bad and forbidden. You'd say, well, yes, I did do that. But remember what I did yesterday. and how good I was in doing my chores. Or perhaps, as the sentencing comes, there's extenuating circumstances. Well, yes, I know I did that, but if you only understood, well, she hit me first, or I've just had a bad night, or whatever we do in the family. Well, this is what people do in court, and this is what we try to do with God, isn't it? to plea bargain, to lure the sentence, or to, well, there were these extenuating circumstances, and Lord, I want you to take that into account. Paul sweeps all that away with these last two verses of this final verdict, 19 and 20 of Romans chapter three. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin." So I want to show you here that because all men, women, boys, and girls, all are guilty and condemned, no one can be justified or can be right with God by law-keeping. Because we all are guilty and condemned, not one of us can be right with God law-keeping. We're in our own state irrecoverable, and there's nothing within us that can recover. In fact, we grow worse to worse. We're going to look at two things. We're going to consider in verse 19 the universality of sin, condemnation, guilt, and And in verse 20, the absolute impossibility of our doing anything about sin, guilt, and condemnation. The universality, verse 19, of sin, guilt, and condemnation, our inability to do anything about sin, guilt, and condemnation. Well, first in verse 19, the universality of sin, guilt, and condemnation. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. Now look, notice the now we know, because it really picks up on verse nine. What then? So Paul says, what's our response to all that I've said now about Jew and Gentile? What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. We've all been charged as under sin. So now we know. on the basis of the evidence that Paul has given as the prosecutor that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. In the first place, we need to answer the question, what does Paul mean here by law? And the New Testament uses this word in different ways. It can refer simply to the Torah, particularly as it focuses in the Ten Commandments. And that obviously would be a basis of the condemnation of all people. But in the context, we must remember that the New Testament also uses the word law to talk about all of the Old Testament. And I believe that's what Paul is doing. Why? Because what does he quote? He hasn't quoted from Exodus and Deuteronomy, has he? He's quoted from the Psalms and from Isaiah the prophet. And so the law refers to the scriptures of the Old Testament, but particularly as the scriptures of the Old Testament reveal our sin, as in Ezekiel, and the punishment of our sin. So it's an absolute standard, says Paul. I've used that standard to enforce the indictment that I brought, that there's none righteous, not one, there's none who fear God, there's none who seek after God. That is the testimony of the law. And it is a written testimony. The law says, but you'll notice above he talks about that which is written in the law, in the end of verse 9, as it is written before he then gives these summaries of the Psalms and of Isaiah. So this first phrase, or clause, the law says, refers to the absolute a record of God's testimony in Scripture about us and about our sin and about condemnation. But notice, these things are recorded in the law. It speaks then to those who are, and better than under the law, to those who are in the law. What does it mean to be in the law? See, it's different from being under the law. We are under the law, Paul begins with that. To be in the law here means to be in the law under its jurisdiction, particularly with respect to guilt and condemnation. To be in the law judicially, to be in the law responsible then for our sinful acts. That's what he means when he says that the law says these things and it speaks to us. How does the law speak to us? about the Spirit of Christ speaking to us through the written word. We do not have the written word apart from the Spirit's message to us. We don't have the Spirit's message to us apart from the written word. They must go together. But the Spirit speaks through the infallible scriptures. He speaks to us of our being in the law. So the law says something, and then we are spoken to by the law. Let me illustrate it in this way. You are driving down Interstate 26 to Columbia, and the speed limit's 70 miles an hour. Now that is the law written, see? That's what the law says. But you're going 90 miles an hour. And so the patrolman pulls you over, and he speaks. He says, the speed limit's 70, but you're going 90. And then you start your extenuating circumstances, or well, I didn't realize this, or I'm in a hurry, or I'm late for an appointment. The law says 70. The patrolman speaking to you says you're going 90. You're under the jurisdiction, you're in the law, under the jurisdiction. And thus, it doesn't matter whether you're a citizen of South Carolina or not, a citizen of the United States or not. a citizen from another country, or one of these people now that talk about being a sovereign nation. It doesn't even matter if you are an alien immigrant. The law says, patrolman speaks, and thus the law says, and the Holy Spirit through Scripture speaks to each one of us, objectively, personally, experimentally, that we are in the law, accountable then to God as law keepers and law breakers. And by this, he says, the law speaks to those who are in the law. In other words, all are then spoken to by the law, and what is the result of that? The second half of verse 19, so that, two things. It's easy, boys and girls. What's the first? Every mouth be closed, and all the world become accountable to God. The first, in a sense, talks about our guilt, doesn't it? Every mouth be closed. It's language that's used in Scripture for being appalled by something, to put your hand over your mouth or to be full of respect. But you remember Job uses it in his first expression of repentance. That's where he begins. I put my hand over my mouth. He has spoken wrongly about God. And he begins to be humbled by that. Now what Paul says here is, if you understand what the law is saying to you personally, each one of you, then you should be silenced. You should be speechless. You have no excuse. There are no extenuating circumstances. There's no escape hatch. There's no, I didn't know. or I didn't really mean to do it. Listen to me. You must hear the law of God speaking to you, and you must put your hand over your mouth. Because until you do this and are silent before the law, you cannot be converted. You cannot be a Christian. No one can be a Christian until he's been silenced by the law. We do not divorce repentance from faith. Faith is turning from sin. Faith is a realization of who I am and the guilt and condemnation under which I labor, and you must be silenced. Even you boys or girls or young people who have been in the church, many of you, maybe all of you, but some of you at least we know have been converted from the earliest age, perhaps some even in the womb. Now you were conceived in sin. But at some point God has changed your heart. But you too, you too, boys, girls, teenagers, you too, must come at some point, probably a number of times in your experience, as you begin to realize who you are, you're suddenly silenced by the law of God. Because you recognize that you'd be lost and undone. You have no excuses, and then you all the more revel in Christ Jesus. But until you have come to that, face to face with your sins, before the judgment of God, to be in the law is to be in the law, judicially, forensically, until you've come there, you're not converted. You need to understand this. Even as older Christians, are there not times that It's been your experience like mine that you've been silenced again by the law, by the memory of past sins or current behavior. And we have no excuses to God, do we? We're guilty. You must know that. You must know that. And because we're guilty, we then see that we also are accountable. So the second thing is that all the world may become accountable to God. Now the term world means lots of different things in the Bible, and we have to read it in its context, but here it's defined by two other terms, so that all those who are in the law and all of those who are in the law are the world. So the world here is all of the natural descendants of Adam and Eve, the only exception being our precious Savior, who was conceived and born of a virgin. Everyone else is an Adam, and so all the world may be accountable to God. This word accountable is only used here in the New Testament, and it means accountable, again, in terms of a law court. You could translate it guilty, but it has with it, again, this forensic, this legal element, that it's before God as judge that you are accountable. And that means, then, that we are under his wrath and condemnation, for we have sinned. There's none righteous. No, not one, Paul begins with the indictment. Galatians 2, 16, Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ, not by works of the law. So all of us then are under this condemnation of God. And again, you must realize this. I don't know some of you here today. I don't know if you're converted or not. I don't know that some of you children are converted or not. But you must understand that you're under God's condemnation, accountable to God. In other words, you're going to stand before Him and give an answer. for every sin. And this then causes us to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is where Paul takes us now in the second thing. So we're in this condition. It is irreparable. It is incurable. There is no power within us or in any other person to bring us out of this condition, this spiritual terminal condition that's leading to eternal death and hell. And Paul then enforces that in verse 20. Because, you see, because. Why is this a problem? because by works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Now Paul brings us, he's already used forensic terms in 19, he's acted as a prosecutor in verses 9 through 18, but now he brings us to this focus. We're talking about a legal relationship with God. Justified doesn't mean that you have improved your life, Justified doesn't mean that you are a moral person. Justified means but one thing. It's when you stand in court and the judge says you're not guilty. That is to be justified. You're not guilty. It has nothing to do with your nature. Nature will change, but it has nothing to do with your nature. At this declaration, it's the judge saying you're not guilty. Now how's the judge going to say to you and me we're not guilty? were all to be silent before Him, were condemned before Him. And so, how are we going to be right with God? Well, Paul answers the question negatively here and positively in verse 21, we'll come to in two weeks, by the works of law. Now, and actually, it's not the law. If you look at the footnote, the numeric standard, by works of law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. Now in the first place, as I've mentioned, he's quoting here Psalm 143 verse 2, which I think is quoting Job chapter 4. But Paul changes the quotation by going from man to the word flesh. And here we bring together what you might have thought was incompatible when I talk about a physical problem and a legal problem. Paul talks about a physically organic problem and a legal problem by using the word flesh. Instead of saying man, which is in the Hebrew, he says no flesh, and this is Paul's doctrine of sin, that we all are by nature fleshly. It goes back to Christ's conversation with Nicodemus, that which is born, he who is born of the flesh, humanly birth is flesh, and that is to be corrupt and sinful, as Paul has just described. So because of sin, Because of our nature, there's not one of us that can be judicially right in the presence of God, regardless of what we do. So as I said, the word law, of the law, doesn't have the definite article, it's simply of law. There's nothing that you or I can do. There's some that want to say, well, this is, of course, ceremonial law. and being circumcised, or eating the correct foods, or observing this or that festival, or whatever. And obviously we can't be justified by ceremony law, but that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about a court. Others will say, well, this is referring to law that doesn't come from faith, works that don't come from faith. But no, he says, apart from the law, or because of the law, of law, No flesh will be justified in his sight. It is absolutely impossible. You can do nothing, nothing to atone for your sins. This is you can do nothing to deliver yourself from eternal illness. You can do nothing to deliver yourself from this condemnation. Give up. Quit trying. Don't think you can make yourself worthy to come to Christ. that you can reform your life somewhat and then add Christ to it, nothing. No work of the law, of law. Why is that? Well, it's then explained to us that through law comes the knowledge of sin. Again, it's not the law, through law comes the knowledge of sin. The law of God written, reveals to us the standard of holiness. That law is also reflected in our natures, as we saw in Romans chapter two, so that all people, yes, the Gentile, who doesn't have the written law, has it written in his heart with sufficient clarity that there's none innocent before God. It matters not whether you've heard the law of God written. We all know that we are guilty sinners. And what is the purpose of law then for a sinner? Now there's, you know, two main purposes of law. You could say three, one's to restrain sin, but the law for the converted person is one thing. The law for the sinner only has one purpose. And Paul shows it here, that through law comes the knowledge of sin. Obviously then he can't be talking about the ceremonial law, can he? He's talking about the pure, upright law of God and its purpose for the sinner is to drive him outside of himself, to cause him to be silent before God and to be broken down before Him. This is what law does because none of us can keep the law. James says, who keeps the whole law and yet stumbles on one has become guilty of all. And Paul says, as many as are the works of the law are under a curse, for it's written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. So Paul brings us to this point. And you know what I'm talking about. You know how the law of God has pierced your conscience and how you responded to that. Did that silence you and drive you into the arms of Christ? Or did you make your excuses or did you ignore it? Or do you love sin so much you couldn't care less? The law is going to do this and you can quiet the conscience periodically, but the law speaking to you is bringing you the knowledge of sin so that you will not try to justify yourself in the sight of God. This is the final verdict. We all are guilty sinners under God's just wrath and condemnation, the God who says the soul that sins must die. And we cannot recover ourselves, and no human being can recover us, and no church ceremonies can recover us. And we'll come to the recovery in verse 21. But we must be here first. We must be here first, that we are all guilty, condemned, And none of us can be justified by his efforts, by his works, by his law keeping. We're irrecoverable. And I trust you see this about yourself this morning. Yes, as a Christian, but particularly any of you that are trusting anything else, your parents, your Christian family, your good behavior, your baptism, whatever it is, understand that you're under God's condemnation. But you know, you cannot talk about this without talking a bit about the wisdom of God. This is all part of His glorious plan, because just as Isaiah, by God, would pronounce healing to Hezekiah, I, as God's prophet, pronounces the healing that is ours through the most remarkable plan of redemption. That all this was God's holy will, that we've fallen out of And we'd be in this irrecoverable state that he then, in the fullness of time, would come to us and take to himself a human nature. And in this mysterious incomprehensibility of the God-man, he did for us what we cannot do. He obeyed the law perfectly, but he also offered his life as a sacrifice to appease the justice of God. So the God who says the soul that sins must die. If Christ died for you, then you died because God is just. And he punished your sins in Christ. What glorious wisdom and grace and splendor. So we look at the Savior. And here is our confidence and trust that you you rest comfortably in him today and and the praise that should come as we saying, oh, fountain of unceasing grace, your saints exhaustless theme, great object of immortal praise, great object of immortal praise, essentially supreme. We bless you for the glorious fruits your incarnation gives. the righteousness which grace imputes and faith alone receives. Let us pray. O glorious God, we thank you that you deal well with us. You're faithful in the exposure, Lord, of our nature and our sin, and we We thank you that you shut our mouths, and we thank you that as your people, you have shut our mouths, Lord. You have brought us to a place of hopelessness apart from the hope that you provide for us in Christ Jesus. So pray, Lord, for any of these children who are not regenerate, who are living in sin and playing games, that your spirit even now would convict them that they're in law. under condemnation because they're guilty, cause them to see the beauty of the Savior. We pray the same for any adults here, Lord, that would be in this condition. And then we pray that we who are in Christ will be filled with joy, wonder, awe, love in the consideration of this glorious object of immortal praise, essentially supreme. Amen.