The theme of the book of Romans is poignantly unveiled in its very first chapter, where Paul asserts, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes." This declaration not only encapsulates the essence of the Gospel but also lays the groundwork for the subsequent chapters, which meticulously delineate humanity's profound need for salvation. In our exploration today, we shall delve into the intricate reasons behind Paul's discourse in chapters one through three, emphasizing the necessity for individuals to recognize their condition before they can appreciate the transformative power of the Gospel. After all, as we often find in various aspects of life, no one is inclined to invest—be it time, energy, or faith—without first being convinced of a pressing need. Thus, join me as we embark on this enlightening journey through Romans, engaging in thoughtful reading and examination of the text, aimed at fostering a deeper understanding of our spiritual imperatives.

Today, we start a series on the book of Romans. I look forward to sharing with you and trust that you will engage in the reading and examining the text with me.

We start with the theme of the book revealed in chapter one and explain the reason behind chapters 1 thru 3. It was designed to show the need for the gospel. Man will never invest in anything until convinced of the need.

Takeaways:

• The Book of Romans begins with a profound exploration of the necessity for the gospel, highlighting humanity's inherent unrighteousness and the divine provision of salvation.
• Paul's declaration of not being ashamed of the Gospel underscores its power to bring salvation to all who believe, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile.
• Romans chapters one through three meticulously expose the universal need for salvation, presenting a compelling case for the relevance of the gospel in a world steeped in sin.
• The righteousness of God, revealed through the gospel, serves as a beacon of hope for the hopeless, illustrating the transformative power of faith in Christ.

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I certainly thank you for showing an interest in spiritual things and in this book in particular.

I have no notes with me and so I just have a New Testament.

This is not a sermon, it's not a speech.

If you'll open your Bible with me to Romans Chapter one, we'll go through the book and do our best to discuss this book.

And hopefully it'll be a blessing to you as it has been to me over the years When I look at chapter one.

Chapter.

Chapter one really sets the stage for the entire book because it gives us the theme in verses 16 and 17 where Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

And then he goes on actually further into the chapter, talking about the Gentile world.

I have a.

My laptop sitting here and it's.

Sometimes I get calls, as I'm sure you do too, spam calls and people I really don't want to talk to.

So I'll tell you truth, I think I'm just going to turn it off and that way we won't be bothered by the, the ringtones and all the other things.

That's so chapter one, verse 16 and 17.

We've just read there.

There's.

I think the word for is used three or four different times here in our reading that just elaborates or gives occasion for Paul to elaborate further by giving either the reason or giving an explanation for what he had just previously said.

The first four he says, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ really explains why Paul is so ready and anxious to go to Rome.

But it speaks in a negative tone because Paul doesn't want anyone to think that he hasn't been there any sooner because he's somehow ashamed of the Gospel, that he's bringing something to the table that's not very powerful and that is not very important.

Sometimes a person might think, well, if it was important enough to you, you'd have been here a lot sooner than you were.

And so Paul is saying, no, it's not that God.

The gospel is God's power to save.

In a positive way.

He had also expressed why he had wanted to be with them.

Now he indicates that he had been hindered until now.

What exactly he doesn't go into.

But he tells them in a positive way why he would like to come, come to Rome.

Rome is certainly a very important city in the Roman world.

Obviously it was the capital city, a very important place of influence.

Paul says, I want to be there or go to you, to impart to you some spiritual gifts so that you may be established.

Now Paul is talking about spiritual gifts to individual saints.

He's not talking about the church.

Don't think local church when you see this, please.

Paul is talking about imparting spiritual gifts to individual Christians, to saints, that they might together be encouraged and that there may be mutual encouragement between the two of them and that he might have some fruit among them as he has other Gentiles.

Verse 13 says just a word or two, if I may, to set the stage for a lot of New Testament teaching.

Paul wanted to impart a spiritual gift through the laying on of his hands.

This is a very common context of New Testament passages, one that we need to keep in mind when we try to look and apply these things to ourselves in our day.

When Paul went to the Corinthians, he says that they're not behind in any gift.

That doesn't mean that they didn't have problems and that there weren't carnality and issues relating to their misuse of their gifts.

But Paul was in the business of laying on hands to encourage and to build up the body of Christ.

That was the reason for the spiritual gifts to begin with.

When you look at chapter one or two, rather Acts, remember in Acts two, when Paul said, or Peter said, repent and be baptized in verse 38, Every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.

And then he says, and ye shall.

That's future.

You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Most people, well, I don't buy most, but a lot of people would assume that that is as immediate as the remission of sins would be.

However, while there was no issue of that, as you read it in chapter two, the reason you don't have that brought up in chapter two or any further explanation is because Jerusalem was full of apostles.

That's where the apostles were at, in.

In Jerusalem.

In fact, when they were scattered abroad and went everywhere preaching the word in Acts 8.

They were all scattered except the apostles.

But while they were there, they no doubt laid hands on saints.

They were again laying hands on those who had repented and were baptized for the remission of their sins.

But in Acts chapter eight, when Simon had gone to Samaria and preached things relating to the kingdom of God and the name of Christ, when those people obeyed the gospel of Jesus, they had not received the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit had not fallen on any of them.

Well, is that just because they were Samaritans and the Holy Spirit was partial and he wasn't going to?

No, no.

The Holy Spirit was promised to be poured upon all flesh.

And it was a, a great, the greatest demonstration of his spirit and power upon all peoples.

Young and old, men and women, slaves and bondmen, everybody.

It was just an extreme outpouring of the Holy Spirit in those days.

Well why then were the Samaritans without the Holy Spirit?

Because friends, it required the laying only the apostles hands.

And so when that was reported and they learned that Peter and John were sent down to Samaria so that they could lay hands on them, very clearly Simon saw the text says this.

Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles hands, the Spirit was given to them.

So again, remember in Acts 19 when Paul comes to Ephesus and he finds some disciples of Christ there and the very first thing out of his mouth was, have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?

Why in the world would someone ask that question?

I have never in my life had anybody asked me that question in any place I've ever gone to visit or I've lived.

Never, never had that.

Well that's because that was true of them and not to us for one thing.

And we don't have any apostles going around laying hands on people, but they did.

And I'm convinced that where Paul went and found disciples, he asked them the same question if he didn't know them.

Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed he was ready to lay hands on those saints?

Well they say, well we didn't know such was given.

We never heard of that before.

Well what, and what then were you baptized?

Oh, John's baptism.

Well that was a cue right there.

Because Peter in Acts 2:38, when he said that he wasn't, he wasn't immersing with, in John's baptism or by John, it was being baptized into the name of Christ.

Because those who are baptized into Christ, they know something about the Holy Spirit and, and the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Because the Bible says, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

That's a promise.

And if they didn't know anything, they wouldn't know anything about it.

If they knew only the baptism of John, right?

You remember when John even taught this.

He says, I baptize you with water, but he that cometh after me, he'll baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire.

The fire does not represent the, the.

The cloven tongues like as a fire that set upon each of the apostles.

In Acts 2, he's talking about a punishment of fire.

Look at the context, friends.

He speaks of the ax laying at the root of the trees and, and he speaks of the, the threshing floor and the harvest scene.

All judgment words that have to do with punishment.

So Christ is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit, that is to those who are obedient, and fire or punishment to those who are not obedient.

That's the idea of it.

He's going to either accept Christ and his message, or you'll reject him and the judgment of God, or God's verdict or his response will either be by punishment or by the benefit and power of the Holy Spirit.

And that was the promise that John gave in his lesson and the same promise that Peter gives in Acts 2 when he says, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

They.

They either going to go down with the ship, go down with those who were disobedient and rejected the Messiah, which were the majority of the Jews, or you'll accept him, repent of your sins and be baptized into his name, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So understand that when Paul was going to Rome, he is anxious to go there so that he could impart a spiritual gift to them.

But also he comes down to verse 15.

I'm ready to preach the gospel.

I'm not ashamed of it.

And then he gives the second four.

For it is the power of God to salvation.

The reason that Paul was unashamed of the Gospel, the reason he had confidence, is the fact that it was God's power to save.

Notice it's associated with God, not man.

In verse 18, the wrath of God is poured out against all unrighteousness of men.

If you want to attach something to man and the condition of men, then look at verse 18.

It's unrighteous.

But the Gospel, it's is the power of God to salvation, to avert this wrath of God and the unrighteousness of men.

And the reason that it has now gone.

I'm sorry, it is for the Jew first and also to the Greek those who believe.

So it's the power of God to everyone that believes.

Not even the gospel can save a disbeliever.

Only the gospel can save the believer.

It's the salvation of God unto salvation.

The gospel is.

But what makes it that powerful?

What is it about the gospel that that is the power to save somebody?

Well, Paul says in his third four, he says, for it is the righteousness of God revealed from faith unto faith.

As it is written, the just shall live by faith.

Because you see in the gospel there is a righteousness of God.

And for unrighteous man, that's what we need.

In the gospel is revealed the righteousness of God from faith.

That is to say, it starts with a source, perhaps the faith unto faith that is aiming at or producing faith.

Some, some just simply say it's a progressive thought of moving from faith to faith, ongoing building and producing greater and greater faith.

That could be the idea as well.

In either case, faith is the condition.

Faith is that which is.

It is based on that.

That is, that gives it its power.

It is God's power to save to those who believe.

It is God's power to save through those that are faithful who respond in faith.

The just shall live by faith.

Then he said, for the wrath of God.

This is the fourth four.

I believe the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

You see, the reason that this gospel that reveals God's righteousness, that's.

It's the reason it's revealed from faith unto faith.

The reason that there is in the gospel this righteousness of God is because unrighteous men stand convicted of their sins and are expecting and will receive the wrath of God.

So to avert the wrath of God, the gospel has been revealed that gives man a right or access to God's righteousness.

It.

I don't know if this is.

I don't know that it can be exclusively either a reference to God's personal character, righteousness or whether it's a righteousness that God gives to man.

I personally think that it's like the faith unto faith, so that it arises, comes from a source, comes from God, the faith in order to produce faith.

In the same sense that the righteousness of God is something that comes from God and that man can be a part of as well.

That man can share in that man can.

He can access and have a condition called righteousness of God.

We'll get to that a little bit Further as to how that even happens in chapter four.

But at least as we look in these early part of the chapter one, Paul lays down then this his theme of the book.

And then in chapter one he further talks about the Gentile world, that they themselves are without excuse, they're worthy of death.

Everybody that practices them and those that consent with those that practice them, they're all worthy of death.

They will, as long as they stay in that condition because they are unrighteous.

Because the unrighteousness of men will receive God's wrath, they are worthy of death.

That's just the nature of justice and God's righteous plan.

But if you are Jew living at that time and you see the ungodliness of the Gentile world, you might very well separate yourself from that and say, well, I'm not like that and I do this and I keep that and I practice righteous living and so on.

Well, Paul says, well, you're without excuse too.

Whoever you are that condemns the others, you condemn yourself.

You judge them and you say that they're worthy of death, but you're not any different.

He says, but you know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

And do you think this old man, you that judges you, who judge those practicing such things and do the same, that you'll escape the judgment of God?

Now I don't know that they were doing the same in the same degree or in the same way.

But truth is even when we speak the truth.

Some people think that they can speak truthful sayings out of their mouth, but it be full of deceit and lies at the same time and in the same way.

I think we can think that we can be living in righteous lives by doing good things and fail to realize that anytime we slip and anytime we sin and violate law, we're worthy of death too.

And this is what he's getting at, I think.

I don't know that those who said, notice he says that you do the same thing, that you'll escape.

I don't know that the Jews were vile sinners and committed adultery and lived the life of Sodom and Gomorrah, for example.

I don't think he's suggesting that.

But in principle at least they were violating the same teaching.

You know, a liar, like I said earlier, you can lie by just speaking overt words that are false in order to deceive your hearer, or you can choose not to say anything at all and based upon status quo and expectations, just leave out the telling of truth and deceive people in thinking that which is not true as well.

I think about Ananias and Sapphire.

Ananias and Sapphira had kept back part of the price of the land that they'd sold.

They'd laid back part of laid the proceeds at the apostles feet with the idea that they were following suit because Barnabas had just previously done the same thing.

He sold some property, laid it at the apostles feet.

They sold property, kept back part of the price and laid it at the apostles feet.

But with the idea that everybody would think that they laid it all out there, it was their right to do.

They didn't have to, you know, be pretentious and try to pretend to have given it all, but they did.

They wanted everybody to think differently.

Ananias didn't say a word that I could see anywhere in the text.

But Peter said you lied to the Holy Spirit.

That's a lie.

A lie can have different forms.

And sins in violation of law can have different forms too.

There's all kinds of forms of evil that we should abstain from.

And it's very likely that when he says you are you that judge another practice the same things that they were guilty at least in some form or the other.

I, you know, I think probably they were good about pointing finger at those who were violating it in the form that they condemned but didn't see it.

When they violated it in the form that they condemned they were guilty of.

You can deceive the government I suppose and cheat on your income taxes or you can go to your neighbor's garage and steal his lawnmower but both are stealing.

It's just different form it takes and the same thing can be true and I think was probably true in the case of these, the Jewish people.

And he says you're going to render according to your deeds just the same as those that you condemn.

And then over in chapter three, Paul asked well what advantage then does the Jew have if they're both in the same condition?

He said well into them was committed the law.

That's the advantage that they were given.

They had the oracles of God.

I don't really want to delve in the first few verses there except when it comes to the conclusion that he reaches in verse nine.

What then are we better than they?

Same question?

No, not at all.

For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

See they are under the wrath of God.

The wrath of God is against all ungodliness.

And that's where Men are all of them Jew, gentile alike.

And then he quotes several different passages actually in these verses.

And starting in verse 10.

There's none righteous.

No, not one.

There's none that understand.

There's none who seeks after God.

They have all gone out of the way.

They have become unprofitable.

There is none who does good, no, not one.

See, there's there.

There's no one righteous.

And he goes on, there's no fear of God before their eyes.

This is the general condition of the world without the gospel.

Because in the gospel is revealed a righteousness of God unto salvation.

But without that, man is left with his unrighteous condition, which is only going to receive the wrath of God, because the wrath of God we poured out against that.

God's justice demands it.

He cannot in any way fellowship or have any part of it, but will in fact punish all unrighteousness.

Well, that leaves man in a pretty precarious situation.

He has nothing, no defense.

In fact, in verse 19 he says that what the law says, it says to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God.

That's the condition.

There's nothing can be said in one's defense.

All the evidence is laid out there in, in a court of law.

And really that's what.

That's a context that we ought to be seeing.

Soon as we think about these words, even early on in the chapter one, when we laid out the.

The theme of the book, you'll see words like unrighteous, righteous, right, just.

And then later we see the word justify.

These are all from the same family.

Set yourself or put yourself in a courtroom.

God is the judge.

He's the one that will either pass the sentence of death or he's the one that will pronounce or acquit the guilty.

I guess there would be three possible scenarios.

Theoretically, you're either guilty and deserving of death, or you're either innocent because you've kept the law perfectly and therefore are deserving of the verdict of innocence and freedom, or you're guilty but by virtue of some situation or some condition, the judge acquits you of your guilt and releases you to go free.

Now those are the three different scenarios.

Guilty and demonstrate no faith.

Refuse the gospel, which in it reveals God's righteousness unto salvation, or you'll live so perfectly that you don't need God's grace and mercy.

And a just God could do nothing but say, well, you can go free.

You haven't done anything Wrong.

And so Paul puts aside that scenario by saying, nobody has done that.

All are sinners.

There's no fear of God.

There's none good, there's none righteous.

They're all unproductive.

All.

No one seeks after God.

So that's the condition.

No one has a defense.

You're guilty.

So we've wiped aside.

We've wiped out the person who's been.

Who can be walked free because he's innocent.

And we're left with two scenarios at this point.

We're left with.

Well, we have an introduction of it in the theme when he says, for in the gospel is revealed a righteousness of God, from faith unto faith, the just will live by faith.

He just introduced it.

He's going to come back to why that's so powerful here in just a moment.

But without that, without the gospel, this is man's condition.

It's a pretty bleak situation.

Nonetheless.

There's Nobody can come to their defense.

All are brought or become guilty before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight.

For by the law is a knowledge of sin.

See, the law, that's its purpose is to convict man of sin.

The.

The law stops the mouth of the guilty.

We're all brought.

There's nobody who has any right to.

Or any place to stand to defend themselves.

All the world is brought under the judgment of God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight.

For by the law is a knowledge of sin.

Now let me take you to Galatians for a while in chapter three, I think it's important that we understand why the law was given.

And so I take you to Galatians 3, where Paul asks that very question in verse 19.

What purpose then does the law serve?

It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.

And it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

Typically, when I think it's common when talking to people that some get the idea that the law was added to keep, to some way restrict sinners.

There's a statement made in First Timothy 1 that indicates the use of the law to restrain the unrighteous and the sinners.

And it may be that that's what's thought here, that the law was given because sin was already present and it needed to be given to, I guess, corral them and kind of restrain them.

But I mean, obviously there wouldn't be any sin if there were no law.

So which came first, sin or the law.

And I would simply say, well, they had.

The law had to come first.

Why was the law given?

It was added because of transgressions.

Not transgressions that were already present to restrain the sinner and to keep civility and peace in a chaotic world, but rather it was added because of transgressions.

In other words, in order to convict men and make sin more apparent.

It was added because of transgressions from the standpoint of convicting man and putting them under the guilt of law breakers.

Because once they arrive at that conclusion, then they are simply aware of their need for a Savior.

And before then they weren't prepared.

So it was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ from the standpoint of leading us to a solution to the sin problem.

It was added to make sin bold.

This is pretty much what Paul said in Romans 7.

You remember in Romans 7, Paul talks about to make that sin might become exceeding sinful.

Look at that sometime and read that.

It seems to me that Paul is making the very same point there.

Now, it's true that the law pointed to Christ.

Even the types and antitype studies where the sacrifices pointed to Christ and the day of atonement, the past, all of these pointed to the coming of Christ.

The prophets, of course, prophesied of the Messiah's arrival.

And it's true that, prophetically speaking, Christ fulfilled the law and the prophets.

But is that what he means when he says, it was a tutor to bring us to Christ?

It was added, if you go back a few verses to verse 19, 25 is what says it's a tutor to bring us to Christ.

Just verse 19.

What purpose did it serve?

Was it purpose to keep sinners from transgressing?

No.

Was the purpose to try to bring peace in a chaotic world?

It was added because of transgressions, that is to say, to convict men of sin.

That's what the law did.

It made us aware of sin.

I would not know what of the law, except the law said, I would not know sin except the law said, thou shalt not covet.

Paul would say in the Roman Letter.

And so the emphasis here on adding the law because of transgressions is to emphasize the same point Paul is making in Romans 7, and that is to make sin more apparent, without which there would never be a need for a Savior.

The conviction of sin would not be apparent.

And so this is the whole point, I think, of the Roman Letter when Paul says, therefore the tutor of the law was a tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

And see the connection.

He ties that into justification by faith, not by works of law, which is Paul's point in the Roman letter.

So it was the tutor to bring us to Christ.

Why?

So we might be justified by faith, not by law.

The law convicted us of sin.

The law could not save.

Now I say I'm talking about the that which God gave his people.

In this case, it would have been obviously the Jews, and they needed that tutor after faith had come.

We're no longer under a tutor.

And then he explains what we do have.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

There's neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female.

For you're all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

Another passage, please.

Romans 7.

I alluded to it a minute ago.

I think it's good for us to go back and look at it.

Here Paul asks a question that we would expect one to ask today, based on our study.

What then shall we say is the law?

Sin?

I mean, it sounds like the law was something bad given to man.

So was it sin?

And he says, no, he's not going to indict the law.

On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law.

For I would not have known covetous except the law had said, you shall not covet but sin, taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil desire.

Apart from the law.

Sin was dead.

I was once alive without the law.

And I would say to you, friends, that that would have been what some people call at the time of.

Before we reach the age of accountability.

In other words, it would have been the time when I was a child.

I was alive once without the law.

I mean, think about the Apostle Paul is writing this.

He was a Jew.

And if you were to think about a time in Paul's life that he was ever alive without the law, I mean, would there have ever been a time that Paul was without the law?

I mean, if you're a Jew, you're under the law.

You're born a Jew, born under the law.

As Paul puts it in Galatians 4.

4, when he talks about Jesus, he was born under the law.

Every Jew in a Jewish family is born under the law.

So when would there have ever been a time he was not that he was apart from the law?

The answer would be when he Was an infant when he was a child, he was alive once.

Notice that I was alive once without the law.

But when the commandment came, that is, when he became aware of the commandment, it was there already, but it came to him personally.

Then it says, sin revives.

And I died.

And the commandment which was to bring life, I found to bring death.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it killed me.

Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good was.

Then what is good become death to me?

Certainly not but sin, that it might appear sin was producing death in me through what is good.

So that sin through the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

For we know that the law is spiritual, But I am carnal, sold under sin.

And then he proceeds to explain.

For what I am doing, I do not understand what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate that I do.

If then I find what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells.

For to will is present with me.

But how to perform what is good I do not find.

For the good that I will to do, I do not do.

But the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

But if I do what I will not to do, Talking about his desire to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me out of the body of this death, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then, with the mind I serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin.

Now, Paul isn't condoning sinning in the flesh or serving the law of sin.

He's saying I'm in the flesh.

And because of that, though I intend to do the will of God with a mind, I serve him.

I serve the law of God with the mind, yet I am in the flesh sold under sin.

And Paul is admitting the fact that he's in a wretched condition, attempting to be justified by works of law.

That's the condition of wretchedness and misery, because it can't be done.

And so I thank God through Christ Jesus our Lord.

That's the solution.

And that's the answer.

I thank God through Christ Jesus our Lord.

So this chapter confirms what we've been saying about justification by works of law.

It's not done.

It's not possible.

It never has been done.

Well, I say it's not possible.

Jesus did it.

He's the only one that has done it.

But it puts a man in a position where he's in need of a Savior.

He's setting the stage for the whole theme of justification, which is based on faith and not by works of law.

To do that, one must be convinced and convicted of sin.

There is of no value to throw a life preserver out to someone who's playing in the water and having a great time.

But it's of great value if someone's striving to breathe, to get above the water and get a breath of air.

It's irreplaceable for the individual that's drowning.

He would gladly grab a hold of some kind of flotation device because he's in need of it.

And so I say to you, there is no value in presenting the Gospel of Christ because in it is revealed a righteousness of God.

If the sinner doesn't need it, if the sinner feels like he has, he's as righteous as he'll ever be, or he has no need for it or desire for it, the gospel is of no value to that man.

Well, it's valuable to him, but not to him personally.

He sees no value.

And as a result of that, as chapters two and three presented, there's a vast majority of people who will face the wrath of God.

God has provided every means possible for salvation.

It's accessible, it's our disposal, it's within our grasp.

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours.

Only John says in First John 2, but for the sins of the whole world.

The sacrifice has been made, the blood has been shed.

Jesus Christ became the curse for us.

For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.

He made the necessary steps for our redemption, our salvation.

And we want to look at that in our next session as we look further into chapter three, beginning at about verse 19 and following.