Lesson 10a
Romans 3:21-23 · Courtney Hemenway · May 27, 2018
Romans (2018-21), No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261910201454

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, you know, I guess kind of in these first questions, but maybe just with my hungry heart, you can tell the days that I highlight and do all these, you know, these are really good ones. So one was on the 25th and I just kind of perspective for this weekend and every day actually. It's one of those ones that I think is just a little bit ties into what we're going to talk about in the first one about some faith and just our position in Christ. It was on 525.

Believers are not occupying no position. At best, most are trying to attain victorious position by means of prayer, Bible study, commitment, re-consecration, surrender, and so forth. I mean, how many of you know that are trying to do and re-commit? Even down at Camp Belom, I get that a lot, about re-committing and doing all these different things that they have to do. But the answer is simply to abide where we already have been placed, in our risen Lord Jesus Christ. Abide above. Keep looking down.

Our Father has taken us over Jordan and placed us in Canaan, but the reality of it is never known until by faith we accept the fact on the basis of having died with Christ and that therefore heaven is our place, and we know it to be our place now, and that this side is not our place, and we know that it is not. The more we abide in the Lord on the other side, the less disappointed we will be here. For when we are there, we import new joys, new hopes into this old world from an entirely new one, and we therefore in every way surpass the inhabitants of this lost world. You must abide in Christ in heaven before you can descend with heavenly ability to act for Him down here.

The great secret of all blessing is to come from the Lord. Most Christians go to Him. Christian experience is our measure of apprehension of that which is already true of us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, again, I just thought that was a lot of what, again, I start by faith. The basis of everything is faith. It starts from our salvation. It's by grace. Salvation is by grace through That's a starting point and that continues through our entire life in Christ.

But again, how many are struggling to do and attain and this, it's just realizing where you're actually positioned right now, in the heaven, in the heavenlies right now. That's our position. That's the way God sees us right now is positioned in the heavenlies. And I always like that, looking down. Instead of looking up, we should be looking down from our heavenly position. Again, I just thought that was one of those good ones this week.

So, to start off our class, we are in the Romans class in Lesson 10. We have a lot of verses to cover today. Romans 3, 21-23. We have three verses today, so I'll start off with the verses for this lesson, beginning with Romans 3, verse 21. Now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So, question one.

What did Romans 1.17 tell us about God's righteousness?

I'm going to go back a little bit even before that to the beginning in Romans 1.1. Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. And then we can read in verses 16 and 17.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith that is written. But the righteous man shall live by faith." Again, some of those reasons why reading The Hungry Heart. Everything is on the basis of faith that we believe this.

So Romans 1.1, what do we see is the basis or focus of Romans in that verse 1? Paul, a bondservant of Christ, he is called an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. It's not that hard. It's the gospel of God. So as he lays this, what's that? The whole book of Romans is about that. That's the very first, that's where I read it. 1.1 of Romans is about the gospel of God.

Remember when we started off this class, remember how we put up on the board chronologically how the books are written, but then how actually they are in the Bible and they don't jive. It doesn't go from the oldest book to the newest book. It goes sequentially. And Paul's epistles.

So Romans 1.1 is the foundation. So right here we're getting off the gospel of God. That is what this is about. This is laying out the foundation. The gospel of God. So, whose gospel or good news is it?

These are not trick questions. These are not hard. So now in verse 16 we see that Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it's God's gospel, not his or any other human. So again, I think that's important that he's not ashamed of it because it's not his. It's not anybody else's. It's not the going theology of the day. It's not this.

It's gospel of God. He recognizes that this good news is of God, not of any man or himself. So I think that's important that he lays it out right at the very beginning of the book. He says this is the gospel of God. and now shows salvation is offered to everyone who believes in verse 16, which shows God's righteousness in verse 17. So, again, how is the knowledge or disposition obtained? These are not trick questions again. By faith. By believing or faith in the gospel.

Ephesians 2.8, again, when I started off in the prayer, we're saved by grace through faith. Again, the key is faith. The position, or however we get in any of these great truths, is by faith. It's by believing.

So, we have it from Newell in the book on Romans. We now come to the unfolding of the word which Paul in chapter 1 declares to be the very heart of the gospel, the reason it is the power of God unto salvation. Namely, therein is God's righteousness on the faith principles revealed to any having faith." So again, the gospel is to just a few people?

To all. And it's obtained by a test. by some works, by something you do. It's only by faith. Again, and I think this is the foundational book, and as we get into, move into, we moved out of actually, which we'll get into question two, while we get there.

From Romans 1.18 to 3.20, what was God's purpose in these verses? So we're transitioning in 21. In chapter 3, verse 21, we're transitioning. So what was the first part of the Book of Romans from 118 to 320? To reveal His wrath. His wrath? Against ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. Okay, what else? We're guilty. We're guilty. And who's guilty?

This is great, looking at people. Everybody's pointing at other people. Not easy. Yeah, so this is all about, I think, setting up the condition that nobody is excluded. goes through great detail. We've been going through the book up until this point. And remember how many alls and everyone and this? It's basically, if you're a lawyer, there is no exclusion to here. There's no loophole. There's no Well, they're excluded. He's excluded. She's excluded. There's none of that. It's all, all, everyone. So, we get to the point of realization that everyone is under this condemnation in Adam. There's not an exclusion.

In Romans 1, 19-20, Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. Again, remember that everybody knows that there is a God. Don't let an atheist fool you. They are suppressing the truth that they know that there is a God. Everyone knows that there is a God. For since creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. So everybody knows it. Everybody has innately in them the knowledge of God. So you can't say, oh, I didn't know that. Or we always, you know, deepest, darkest jungles, they didn't know about it.

We said, and I think, you know, Mike has even said, you know, when the Inca thing came in and everybody, you look at even the remotest part, They know there's a God and usually they think he's angry and they've got to do all these things to perform. But everybody knows that there's a God.

Do you think, like in Romans 1, when man rejects God and he's given over to a darkness mind and that kind of thing, that that can result in a person really believing there is no God? Oh, I think they believe it. I think atheists truly believe what... At one time they did. They were presented with the fact that God requires them to be thankful and to honor him as God, but then they reject, and they're given over to the darkened mind and that kind of thing. I think that at some point they just sell out to the darkness. I think that's true. But they still know there's a God.

That's the key. I think they reject it completely. And they'll deny it. I mean, every atheist, there is no God. These verses say otherwise. They know it. They are choosing to reject it. Choosing to believe something else. But they know that there's a God.

This says that everyone knows there's a God and He's powerful. He knows, everybody knows that there's a God, and I know in my life, it's, and you can see it in any newborn baby, as innocent as they are, it's like OK, I don't want to believe in that God, but I know there is a God. I think I'm the God. And they put themselves that the first God we serve is the God of me.

I need to be given and I'm all that. I know what I'm doing and that kind of thing. Well, it's displacing what they know is true. Yeah. You know, whether they do it through, you know, as we get into the latter part of Romans 1, we're given over their lusts and everything else, you know, given over to The self is the center of the universe.

But again, I just think even no matter what God says, they know that there is a God. They reject it. Just like anybody rejecting Christ. They choose to reject it. Truth is still the truth. And I think that's where they get into is that there is not a true atheist. There are people who deny that there is God. But there's not a true atheist that doesn't know that there's a God.

And again, through history, we see that. Even the people who have never had any exposure, they know that there's a God. They're always trying to satisfy, you know, all the cultures or, you know, sacrifices or, you know, it didn't rain. What do we do to anger God or the one who provides rain? And everyone throughout all of eternity has known, every man has known that there's a God.

And so they are without excuse. They didn't say, well, that group's excluded. That's what I say. From 118 through 320, if you're an attorney in a case, there is not an exclusion. There isn't somebody who gets a pass on this. And that's the thing that I think is building up all that we're just getting into now, justification by faith. And getting to the point where you've got to 320 and you know there's just nothing good about the Adamic life. And you get to the point where we get to 6.6 where the best thing God could have done is to crucify us.

He's laid it all out here. My favorite parts are the ones JD went through on Not Not Righteous. Well, I think we still have them up here. An open grave. There's no one who is worth anything. We strive for blood, we do. That's our Adamic nature. There is no one, there is no one that is righteous in Adam.

And so, we've laid it all out. So now, again, we're having about this. What did they do with the knowledge of God? We know that God, they know that there's a God. What did they do with it? Suppressed it. Suppressed it. And then they traded it. They traded it. You know, that's the thing. They deny it, and then they, well, if I don't have that, I want this.

So, in Romans 121, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God, or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. So, then we look at 212. So again, this is just building on the case.

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. Again, Jews are special with the law, and we're not under the law. For all have sinned without the law. Have we covered everybody now? We've got the Jews who think they are under the law and we had something. Those who are not, no. He lays everybody out on that one.

Now the summary I think occurs in the verses that we talked in Romans 3, 9 through 12. And this is the one that I think we built kind of again to the crescendo of we've laid out, we know that there's a God, we've exchanged it, we've done everything to deny it, run away from it, and this is kind of right before we get to the passages that we're going to go through in this lesson. And not at all, we've already charged both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. So, in verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one, There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God. Again, I do a lot of legal work too. These are things that there's just no way around it. All have turned aside together, they have become useless. There is none who does good, there's not even one. Anybody excluded from this list? Anybody want to raise your hand who said I wasn't part of this?

Yeah, you're going to have to explain how the scripture missed you on this one. So what was God's purpose through Romans 3.20? So what was his purpose? I kind of laid it out, but what was his purpose? Just beat us up? Tell us we're scum? What was the purpose? This is for good news, right? This is the bad news part. Good cop, bad cop. We're good, bad, okay. So what was the overriding purpose? Was it just to say you're bad people? We're all under wrath. Or judgment? Yeah. Right. It was to bring the whole world under judgment, the judgment of God, guilty and helpless.

We see this summarized again in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Again, those overwhelming statements, for all have sinned and fallen short.

Is there an exclusion? Is there a note on your Bible, you know, subtitle A over to the side that says somebody is excluded? for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." So, all this is laid out that says we're all under judgment in Adam. Nobody's excluded. We're all under God's judgment. So, we get to question three.

But notice the words, but now. What change of course does this signal? So in Scripture, what does the phrase but now or but God usually mean or signal? Good news. Good news? Like J.D. was just saying. We've had the bad news and now the good news. I'm trying to think. Is it always good news? I don't know. Seems like it. I'm trying to think. Is there other words? I mean, it's usually just... It's a contrast. Yes, it's just a contrast. It's just a good point. I don't know if that means always good news. Usually it's, will Paul lay out everything and then he'll say, but now, and move on to the application of it or the result of it. I don't know if it's always good. You've got a thought on that? Well, sometimes the but now means, let me explain how suffering as a believer comes.

And it's truth. It's proper understanding. But now we have this, or this is where we stand in our position. I never thought of it that way, whether it means always good. There's a lot of times I think that Paul writes from the perspective of, it's not this, it's this. Yeah, right. But that's what I mean. Is it always good? I've never really thought about that. It depends on how you define good. Okay, so we now have in our verses, but now, verse 21, but now. So the question is, so what now is the change? If it means a contrast or a change, so what is the change? Now you're all really good people? God's righteousness?

Yeah. Okay. Apart from the law. Apart from the law. So, yeah, this doesn't mean you're an open grave, your throat's an open grave, you're a terrible person, but now you're really good? Is that what it means? But now you've changed? Is it signaling what you've done? No, we've just been made available to all who believe. There's a way of escape now. I may not escape, but there's a plan in place. Yeah. Now there's a plan.

Yeah, I guess the thing is, you know, also, it's not us that changed. We didn't suddenly become miraculously good people after, you know, 118 through 320. We suddenly decided I'm a pretty rotten guy, I need to change, but now I'm going to be different. I really know that I'm a really bad person, but now I'm going to change. Is that what this is implying? Not at all. Not at all. No one puts it this way.

The first words, but now, should be hailed by us joyfully, as beginning an account of something heavenly different from our guilt and helplessness, detailed in the preceding part of the epistle. So, it's something heavenly different. It's God doing something. We didn't do anything. We didn't change miraculously. It's now God has done something different or has offered something different. So, question four.

Does God allow any law principle here when it comes to His righteousness revealed? So, does He allow any law principle when it comes to His righteousness being revealed? Is it under the basis of the law? No, not at all. Verse 21, right off the bat. But now, so it's a change, apart from the law. So, law has nothing to do with this, other than the condemnation part, which he explained all through 118 through 320. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So, if the righteousness of God is apart from the law, what does that eliminate? Works. Works?

Self. What? Self. Self? Self-effort? Self-anything? So it's apart from the law. It eliminates any effort on my part to obtain or stand in the righteousness of God. Right. Anything to attain righteousness by our self-effort is now being eliminated. It's saying, this is totally apart from any human effort to attain righteousness.

Which is, to the Jew, the law was to attain righteousness, to be clean, cleansed, sin covered up. My sin is not away, but it's covered up. So now this is apart from the law. This is apart from anything, any human effort. to attain God's righteousness, or the righteousness of God.

So, it eliminates any works of man. Righteousness is now on another principle than our right doing. So now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So it eliminates the works of man. Righteousness is now on another principle other than our right doing.

Now the great and most common error in setting forth God's righteousness here is to allow law at least someplace. Man cannot, it seems, get over reasoning thus. But since God once promulgated the dispensation of law which called for human righteousness, he must thereafter be bound by it forever. And this principle, despite divine assurance over and over and over, that the present dispensation proceeds on an altogether different principle.

And I think that you see that even now. The reform, a lot of people still cling on to the law. They still think it's God plus me. It's an equation. Righteousness is obtained by God and my efforts. And they want to put themselves back under the law. We have friends, and again, it's in the Galatians 1, that the law was a tutor to point us to Christ. But now that Christ has come, there's no longer need for the tutor, the law. They forget that second part. We still need the tutor. We still need the law. And they subject themselves to the law.

I know in the Bible study, in Parker and stuff, it was very tough for the women there to try and understand that they're not under law. I mean, you point to scripture after scripture after scripture that says you're not under law, that is really uncomfortable.

The old man does not like that one bit. because it takes him completely out of the equation. It's not God plus man. When you pull the law in any works of man, now it's God. God alone. The old man hates that and rejects that and will fight it tooth and nail. And that's what they found. We go over verse after verse. Well, did you point out this verse?

You're not under law. You're under grace. You're not under law. There are several scriptures Yeah, but the law is holy and righteous and good and all this and they just got to be under that because there's got to be something on our side of the equation that we do.

And it's all, it's just the hardest thing to get people away from that, that we're under grace. And again, our definition of grace is what? Unlimited and unmerited blessings. Unmerited, there is nothing we do to receive that. And that's the hardest thing for people to try and understand. When we try and teach grace, we're making people slackers. What do you mean I don't do anything? It's free, it's unmerited.

It is not that God has the right to demand legal righteousness from us, but that he does not do it. Righteousness, which is of God, speaks in a way diametrically opposed to man's law, obedience of any sort whatsoever. So it's completely different than man. There's no legal demand on you. There's no work. There's no thing that you do other than by faith, which is a non-meritorious act, to obtain this righteousness.

I go back to a lot, in Galatians you see this, they tried to mix law and grace together. And does that ever work? Can you mix law and grace? Can you have 99% grace and a little bit of law? There are some tricky verses, specifically 1 Corinthians 9.21. So, just to read that to you, I think this will connect what we are talking about, maybe clarify a little bit.

To those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. So, the conversation is, yeah, well, we are now under the law of Christ. That's what I've been told, however. And those are the kinds of conversations that you'll get in with more of the Reformed side of things. There's another one in Revelation 6, too.

It says, "...bear one another's burdens thereby fulfill the law of Christ." So the question is, what is the sole law of Christ? Are we under the law of Christ? Well, clearly, Paul says law of Christ in two places. Those are to believers. So what do we do? What is that? And that's where that distinction of that word, law versus principle, becomes a very big factor in understanding these. And that's exactly what I mean. It's the principle. It's the principle of Christ, right? Yeah. Which is grace. Which is grace. And it is love for one another, and it's all tied into the very person of Christ. But without those distinctions of principle versus law, and the larger distinction of we are no longer So it leads us to Christ, and that law of Christ is a principle factor, not a mosaic law.

Anyway, I had those things come up over conversations years ago, and it caught me off guard a little bit. been exposed to the principle? Yeah, and there's so many different things on that, on the principle versus the law, all the distinctions. But there's so many things that, again, when you go, you're not under the law, the law, and so many of these things.

It does get contorted pretty quickly, but that's still, to me, it's evident the old man is still struggling to become valuable. Right. The underlying of all that is they're trying to make the old man do something. Well, it's really sad because, especially in reform camps, because they've got their big butt also. There are some other things that are very important and we'll slide those in underneath as we go here.

That's kind of funny because Galatians is basically the legal case of grace versus law. And, you know, it's pointing out all these things that we have in grace and how we are not in law. And, you know, I love those verses, too, where, you know, okay, you really like the law. So what is the law meant to do? Let's read these scriptures. Oh, it's to, you know, well, the law is bringing us to Christ because it points out that you cannot do it by law. And the law was meant to exaggerate the sin nature.

But we always want to add a little bit at the end of the day. We want to throw in just a bit of something I got. Just a little, not a lot. And it's very subtle a lot of times. And you can make it very pious. God's law is holy and righteous, absolutely. But, one again, how many people have been saved by the law?

Well, it shows up in another word these days, and I think you mentioned it earlier, but commitment. Think a little bit about that commitment factor. Are you here today? Because you made the commitment. It's your little effort. I got here. I got here. I'm committed. I'm committed. It's what I did today. Rededication. I have difficulty in that at camp. We have a lot of rededications in that. It's tough. I get a list of all the rededicated, not a list of the people, but numbers. Rededicated or recommitted. You swallow hard on those.

So anyway, I guess the biggest thing is when the law creeps back in, that's the old man. If you feel like you have to do something, you are required to do something other than simply believe. Figure where that's coming from. I've said this many times, I look at these verses and Paul, who was so knowledgeable about the law, trying to convince people who have been under the law and so subjected to the law for so long to tell them, oh, and by the way, you're not under the law. What is your greatest thing you think about? And then tell somebody, if somebody comes up and tells you, no that's wrong. What is your reaction? You kidding me? You're crazy.

And you see it, I think, in Galatians, just the pleadings of Paul, saying that you're not under law, you're under grace. I use this example many times when we did the catering stuff, when these people are under law, and they just think it was a Jewish meal. And all the things that they were under, and they really just believed this, that you can't have milk with whatever, and the silverware had to be this and that. I can understand Paul trying to go to these people and say, you don't need to worry about that.

You really don't. Their reaction is, you're kidding me. My whole life has been this way. So I understand what he's getting through, but he's built a case through 320 that there is absolutely nothing good in you. So how can you get out of this present position you're in?

I think Paul is very careful though. I don't think he ever says blanketly, you're not under law, without explaining. You're not under this, but now this is the principle that's in play. And he's very careful to do that, rather than just say, you're not under law. He's there with the explanation.

We're designed by God to be under something. So we have to be either under law or in this case grace. And I don't mean to imply that he just punches him in the face and says, he goes through quite a bit of, well just like this, he's gone through three chapters of explaining that there's nothing good in yourself and there's no way to obtain God's righteousness in and of yourself. You can try to under law, you can do anything else, but it's not going to get you anywhere. So yeah, it's never that he just punches you, but he gets to a point where you're not under law, you're under grace. And there's been a whole lot of foundational work before that, sure.

Question five, does a believer need a personal standing before God in order to be righteous? No. No? We have a no? We preach Christ crucified. Ask for personal standing. Okay. Others? Do we have a personal standing? Do we need a personal standing? Well, he got it right away. What would a personal standing look like if we didn't have one? That's a good question. So what would be your personal standing? What would that look like if we had one?

I think we've been answered that between chapter one and chapter two. I think if you had it, you would have your own righteousness. My righteousness. Which I would think that I could go before God and say, why do I need your righteousness? I got mine. I'm perfect.

Or I was born in this country, and I'm this color. You just went through all these things to distinguish or prevent a personal standing from being possible, right? That's what I'm saying. No matter where you're born, no matter how much money you have, no matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile, or where you come from, All are guilty. Yeah. So what is your personal standing? After he's just laid out that, you know, none is righteous, no not one, you know, laid out all of sin, everything. And so what's your personal standing? I got nothing. I got one little thing. You know, I did help that lady across the street the other day. That was pretty good. You know, I'm pretty proud of myself.

So yeah, the personal standing, he's laid it out pretty succinctly in the Uptale 320, where he has basically said, there's nothing in your personal standing. There is nothing other than what we'll find out is in Christ. That's where our personal standing is. And again, when you look at the engineering, the logical progression of this, you know, everybody's wiped out or covered under this. There's no exclusions. Now, what's going to happen?

If you told me there's absolutely nothing good in me, zero, nada, nothing, if I walked away, what would you guys be feeling? Well, I would walk away because I thought you were wrong. Yeah, because you think your personal... There's something good about you.

Sure. But if I leave you with that, and God speaking and said, you know, there's nothing righteous about you, there's nothing good about you, and walked away, that's a horrible position. But now. But God. Okay, now's the transition. I've told you what you are in yourself.

How are we going to remedy that? How are we going to change that position? How are we going to change what I've just laid out, God? Laying out that you're all in yourself, there's nothing good. It's interesting that point right there because the conclusion is that I can't change. I can't change my position. Something on God's side of the ledger, He's going to have to remedy this thing somehow, because I can't remedy it. Just before this, just... And oh by the way, he's under no obligation to remedy it. Yeah, I mean, he doesn't.

You know, I think about, you know, you're a Jew and you've looked through history and we swallowed up three to five thousand here. You know, you're wondering, What's he going to do to me? He's now told me all these things about me. Am I looking at the ground to see if I'm going to be swallowed up? What's my next step? God is not happy with me. Or God knows about me. And he's telling these truths about me. Now what do I do?

This is a verse I've been waiting to bring up for a while. What muted opportunity? Well, I was waiting for the right time. I don't know if this is it or not. Cheryl mentioned this a while back. It's Ecclesiastes 3.11.

It says, He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. So it's interesting that while this is the summing up of all guilt, Just like in Romans 1, it talks about the fact that he's made himself known to man, and he set eternity in the heart. So people come with a guilt standing, having eternity in the heart. They want a solution to an eternal problem. So there's something... I mean, why do we want to be out there? Why do we put so much energy in looking beyond ourselves?

Man wants to reach the Creator, but In an effort to do that, he trades the truth of the Creator for the lie of the creature. And that's where he stands in this situation. But this, but good news coming to each man, can satisfy this eternity that God has placed in their heart, and their longing for Him as the Creator. Now, those are not meritorious things. But those are the nature of the creature as they long for a solution to this eternal problem that they have in their minds, right?

Yeah. You know, the thing I was thinking about in correlation to that is that there's, without Christ, is there ever rest? Nope. They're never at rest. So they're always seeking somehow to obtain rest and peace. You know, that's the thing that I always am struck by is that they'll go to a great extent, look everywhere else but where it's promised peace and rest. And that's the old man steering them everywhere away from where true peace and rest is. And that's where, you know, in the eternity, in the heart, in the time, everybody I think wants peace and rest. But they don't find it in the world. But their old man is pointing them in every direction but where it's promised. Do you think that every man seeks like that? I don't know to what degree each man seeks, but I know God put that there. Yeah, and based on no understanding, it seems to me that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, so you have to leave that in His hands.

However, once there's a rejection of who God is and your mind is darkened, you don't seek anymore. I mean, you might seek for rest or anything, but you've already made the decision that what I'm looking for, God doesn't have. Yeah. In exchange, you know, you're looking for something else. Well, that's the situation with the most religious unbeliever to the most, you know, unreligious. Seems like your point is, to the point you made earlier too, that once you make that decision, was on, can you get to a point where you absolutely don't believe there's a God?

But I think that's very similar. The scales are put over your heart and your eyes to where I do believe that the atheist walks convinced to know God and at some point those scales will fall off again. It's at the great throne judgment and he will once again be convicted and know he made that choice and made that rejection. I think even though you have the scales and all that, I think because the scripture tells me they all know it.

I think that's where there's no peace and rest. An atheist will never have rest. They will never because they're suppressing the truth. And even though they totally believe that there is no God, they do not have the rest and peace because they're denying the truth. And again, they may believe it. But in their heart they know it. The scripture tells me that. That they all know that there's a God.

They were without excuse. You know I had a daughter who got hoodwinked by the quote IRS that called her. She apparently was pretty convinced because she gave this guy a large sum of money. I don't know how much. But the second my wife called because she saw that they hit on her account and called her.

She knew. You know what I'm saying? It's similar to that. Somehow she put herself in a really bad situation, but somehow she knew. The second she heard my wife's voice... There's something in there. I don't know. It's almost related to... We had a similar one with my father-in-law. And it was like, he got the call and was, no! It was just immediate, but no! He just knew.

And, yeah. Well, we're really good at heartening ourselves. Yes. Oh, absolutely. He used to be a pharaoh. You know, that's the picture of that term, right? Yeah, hearten the hearts. Yeah. I mean, he's sitting here watching these creation and all the gods that he helped, you know, the river, the sky, you know, everything was being We can't show man anything for them to believe. And again, this comes to the importance of the Holy Spirit, the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

That's the only one who's going to change it. There's nobody else who's going to change it quickly. I just was wondering, who does the hardening in these verses? Is God hardening their heart or has man hardened their own heart? Because I think that can be He kind of gives them over. In the end of Romans 1 it basically said he gives them over. He says, well if you don't want me, you get you. You want this? Have fun. Yeah, it is. You want this? Okay, here it is. And then at that point there's no... Well, I mean, I don't say that. Never.

I mean, it could be that the Holy Spirit is using... I know people who have just been hardened for incredible amounts of time, and then the Lord works on him and convicts him. And to me, I go back to he uses all things. Did he make a mistake in letting him go there? He didn't. You know, and we thought, oh man, it should have been. It's like whoever the pastor, whenever he said it was like 70 year old, and he finally came to the identification truce, and he felt so guilty, and it was like, oh, you know. Well, did God screw up for the first 70 years? No. He brought him right to that point for that reason.

You know, that's why my two things I pray always about is God's sovereignty. He's in control of all these things, and He loves you. So no matter what you're going through, he's allowed it. And that's how you can consider it all joy and all these different things is because you know ultimately he's in control. He's the one allowing it. Does he allow us to sin? That's a really good one. Does he allow us to sin? Think about that for next week. It doesn't allow you to sin. Alright, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for just this time. We thank you for the power of your word and just what it means to us as believers. Again, as we move into these portions of scripture where justification by faith in your work and your completed work on the cross of Christ and just the life we have in Him. Again, we just thank you that you haven't left us alone. You've left us with your word and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We just thank you for that. And we just pray for Vern in the next meeting. Again, just that he'll provide the word accurately and prepare hearts to receive it. And we thank you and just ask that all that we do this day will honor and glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray.