God's Sovereignty and Man's Accountability

You know, sometimes God places us in the midst of situations and circumstances that speak more clearly than we ever could to certain issues. Recently, I had such an experience. As we are walking through the Book of Romans and taking our time to examine these great doctrines of the faith, we cannot help but be reminded of the fact that we live within the context of culture that lives by the adage doctrine divides. We just need to love Jesus and love people. We don't need to get caught up in the minutia. We don't need to get caught up in all of the little details, disagreements, debates, verifications. It's just not important. Last weekend, I saw this idea, this cultural concept, just crash in on itself my grandfather's funeral. You know that last Saturday I had the duty. The responsibility, the honor, and the privilege of preaching at my grandfather's funeral. And it was an absolute disaster in more ways than one one. It was a disaster to be there and look at my family. And see. The great tragedy, and to see what sin has wrought in the lives of those whom I love. But it was also a very particular instance that caused me to realize the incredible importance of doctrine. As I sat there behind the pulpit and the service started, it was announced that there was a minister who was going to come and open up the service, and so she came and stood up at the podium to open us in prayer. Well, now we already have a doctrinal issue of a female pastor officiating at this service. But I decided I would be good. So I sat held my tongue, not my house, not my rules. And then there was another instance wherein this idea of doctrine being incredibly practical and relevant just came crashing in on me. As the lady passed, stood up and looked toward the family. She's a friend of the family. I don't know her, but she was a friend of the family, and she looked toward the family and said, let not your heart beat trouble. Your grandfather. Came to me in a vision on the morning that he died to let me know that he made it over and asked me to comfort you. Well, so I'm sitting there thinking, Okay, I have. To preach at my grandfather's funeral. And now my first assignment is to reach up and drag him down out of heaven where this woman just put it. So I did and tell people that my grandfather went to hell. I just told him that there was nothing in him or in his life that would indicate that he didn't, and that there is no vision that overrides and overrules the gospel. That's an instance where doctrine is very practical. When somebody dies and there's a funeral, your doctrine becomes extremely practical. When somebody gets married, our doctrine becomes extremely practical. But newsflash, when you get up in the morning, doctrine becomes extremely practical. And there is no doctrine more practical than the doctrine of justification by faith. This doctrine that Paul is building up toward for us in the Book of Romans, as he is explaining for us what it means to be justified by faith, the first thing that he does is drag some folks down out of heaven. He basically says, there are some of you who have believed all your life that this is what it means to be saved. You believe that you're okay, you believe that your group is okay, but another group is not okay. And it is true that there are some people who are right with God and others who are not. But you're using the wrong yardstick to make the distinction. And he starts by waylaying the gentile world. And after he waylays the gentile world and his Jewish compatriots are shaking their fists in agreement, he says, oh, did you think I wouldn't come to you? And so he does. But at this moment in chapter three, what Paul is doing in the last part of this particular paragraph in verses five through eight, is he is answering some objections that would have been raised and had been raised by those who opposed this gospel that he preached. He answers these objections and demonstrates for us the incredible practicality of doctrine, the necessity of doctrine, the importance of doctrine. So if you join me here. In Romans three, beginning a verse five, and look at the necessity of doctrine. But if our unrighteousness serves to show back up, let's go go back to the first verse there, so we get the whole thing in one even flow. Look at what we looked at last week? Then what advantage has the Jew or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way? To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their unfaithfulness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means? Let God be true though everyone were a liar. As it is written that you may be justified in your words and prevail. When you are judged. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say that God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way. By the way, that parenthetical statement that you see here is actually a very well known and often used rabbinical teaching technique, and what it is is an apology. Paul is actually apologizing, He's speaking words that are hypothetical, He's speaking on behalf of his opponents, and he actually utters the phrase or introduces the idea of the possibility of God. Being unjust and so pious was this. Jew that, immediately after even suggesting such a thing, he offers what his hearers would have readily understood as an apology for having to speak such a word in order to make his point by no means, for then how could God judge the world. But if through my lie, God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come? As some people slanderously charge us with saying their condemnation is just, There is a pattern here, and the pattern goes like this. There are two conditional statements, two if then clauses but if then then, immediately followed by but if then then. Both of these are hypothetical. Both of these are stated rhetorically and both refuted by the apostle Paul. But as we see him go through this exercise, there are several things that we learn about. This practical issue of doctrine. The first is this we see that Paul is instructing in sound doctrine. I know that this actually sounds obvious to us, but I'm afraid that it's not. Because the way we often go through the Biblical tech and the way we have been conditioned to look at the Biblical text, is to sort of break it down into its component parts and look for principles that we could apply to certain areas of our lives or things that can comfort us in our time of need. That is not to say that either of those is necessarily or inherently wrong. There are things that I need to apply to the way that I live, but that's not what the Bible is. The Bible is not just a book that I'm to dig into to find something that I need for the moment. The Bible's not just a book for me to go to in order to find comfort. But ultimately, what we realize is that the Book of Romans was written by the apostle Paul in an effort to instruct God's people, and his effort to instruct God's people did not consist of five ways to have a happy life and ten ways to reduce stress and four ways to have healthy heavy kids. That is not his instruction to the church. He meant for this to be read publicly in the church, and it is chock full of doctrine from beginning to end. This is the way God's people are to be instructed. Doctrine is practical when it comes to the way that we live our lives. There is nothing more practical. Everything that we do expresses what we believe or don't believe. So what Paul is doing here is he's exercising something that he has, for example, told others to exercise in their ministry. And two Timothy chapter four, for example, he tells Timothy, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction. He warns him that the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but instead of enduring sound doctrine, they'll gather for themselves teachers accordance with our own desires. Who will tickle their itching ears. And immediately he comes back and he tells yell, tells young Timothy. But you you're not. To be like them. You're to be sober minded. You're to endure suffering. You're to do the work of an evangelist. You are to fulfill your ministry, which goes back to what preach the word, teach the doctrines. That is the responsibility of all of those who handle God's word to teach the doctrines, not just the practicalities, because if we run directly to the practicalities, oftentimes we try to do the right thing for the wrong reason end up doing it the right way, and it doesn't end up being the right thing after all. Amen. So we see the practicality of doctrine in that. That's the way Paul instructs the church in all of his epistles. In fact, we see the indicatives and the imperatives. We see the indicatives or the doctrinal truths, and the imperatives that flow from the indicatives. In other words, whenever we find indicatives in the scriptures, whenever we find indicatives in the New Testament, indicatives in the epistles, whenever the apostles are saying to us, believer, do this believer, do that believer? Live like this believer? Live like that? Those imperatives are always accompanied by indicatives. In other words, because you belong to Jesus Christ, therefore do this, or because of what Christ has done, therefore believe that. In other words, all of the practical outworkings of our faith are directly related to the central, crucial and core doctrines. The doctrines and he is instructing here in sound doctrine. We've seen it thus far from the beginning of the Book of Romans, as he is laying out his argument. For the doctrines. Secondly, there's the defense of sound doctrine. We see for example here in verse eight. Look at verse eight, and why not do evil that good may come? As some people slanderously charge us with saying, and he says their condemnation is just so. Actually, what Paul is doing here is defending sound doctrine against those who have who have assailed sound doctrine. We see for example, in Titus chapter one, verse nine. He tells Titus basic explaining what he means in one Timothy chapter three about elders being those who are able to teach. He expounds on that and Titus chapter one and verse nine, and he gives us three things. Number one, that he holds fast to the doctrine as taught, so that he may be able to instruct in sound doctrine. And finally, to refute those who contradict it. But not only is it the responsibility of the elder to do what Paul is doing here. Obviously he is refuting those who contradict sound doctrine. And it would be one thing if that was just the responsibility of those who are teachers. But for example, in one Peter chapter three and verse fifteen, Peter says to all believers, always be ready, always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope as in you, yet do it with gentleness and with reverence. We also find in Jude three. In Jude three he says, I'm writing so that you wait contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all handed down to the saints. So not only is there the idea of the proclamation of sound doctrine or the instruction in sound doctrine, there's also the picture that we see here as Paul goes through this teaching, that he is defending sound doctrine, and that's important. Though it makes us uncomfortable, it is important. Doctrine must be defended. There are those who assail the doctrine, and we must stand against those who assail the doctrine, which is precisely what Paul does here. But look at the way that he does it. Look again at verse five. Remember last week we looked at the fact that it acts. He went first to the synagogue, to the Jews, and then he went to the gentiles. But the question is what did he do in the synagogue. He reasoned with them in the synagogue. He didn't just preach to them in the synagogue. He reasoned with them in the synagogue. So what we have here is the result of his reasoning with them in the synagogue. There are some questions that have been raised. As Paul has proclaimed the gospel again and again and again, and specifically when he's proclaiming it in the synagogue, there are those in the synagogue who are making charges against him. And as he makes his argument for justification by faith alone, he realizes that some of the things that he has just said in chapter two and now beginning in chapter three. Rub people the wrong way. Not only do they rub people in the wrong way in general, but in particular, they rubbed people the wrong way. And here's the way it rubs them verse five. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? By the way? That phrase what shall we say? Is not used in any other book, but it's used here in chapter four, verse one, Chapter six, verse one, chapter seven, verse one, chapter eight, verse thirty one, Chapter nine, verse fourteen, and chapter nine, verse thirty. What shall we say, then, by the way. When Paul uses this throughout the book, of Romans. He is about to offer a question to which he's going to give the answer. He is the one asking the question. But here we know he's asking a question that represents those who oppose him that God is unrighteous to inflict wrath. On us by no means. That's that Greek phrase that we see a number of times throughout Romans, MEGANI may it never be? For then how could God judge the world? But if through the lie, God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come? There's the question people are saying, Paul. If you believe this, if this is what you're arguing, aren't you sort of saying this about God? Aren't you making an argument that would present God as being unjust? Aren't you making an argument that would basically present God as the author of evil? Who are those who oppose this sound doctrine? Because we see that it's proclaimed, and we also see that it's the but defended against whom, well, there are a couple of different options. Some have argued that what Paul is defending. Against here is actually Jews, who are libertines they're Antinomian. They don't like the idea of the law. That really doesn't make a whole lot of sense in light of the argument that Paul is making. There is another argument, And I want to read this for you. It's a rather extensive quote. But the more I read it and tried to pare it down, and the more I tried to just characterize it, the more I realized that it's just good enough and important enough to be read some Tom Shriner. Listen to Schriner. The Jews probably argued that entrance into the Covenant was by God's grace, but it was maintained by keeping the law. Jews who responded appropriately to God's grace through lawkeeping would be. Saved by the way. Doesn't that sound familiar in our day those people who argue, Yeah, yeah, we're saved by grace, but we're kept by our own works and our own righteousness. God gets it going, but we have to sustain it. The Paulling view was both similar and different. Paul also maintained that entrance into the Covenant was by grace, but he insisted that the decisive reason for one's entrance into the church was God's unconditional election. This is the doctrine that bothered them. They thought that election was conditional, conditional upon what conditional upon you? Being born a Jew? How do I know I'm elect? Because my mother's a Jew? How do I know I'm elect? I was circumcised on the eighth Day. That's how I know that I'm elect. It's conditioned based upon my lineage. It's conditioned based upon my keeping of the law. Paul, however, destroys that because he's arguing for unconditional election. Paul agreed that lawkeeping was necessary to be saved, but he emphasized that obedience to the law was the result of the Holy Spirit's power at work and believers. The Jewish opponents argued that the logical corollary of the Pauline view of human corruption spared Jews from moral responsibility. According to Paul, some Jews would be the beneficiaries of God's saving grace, while others would not receive his mercy if human beings could not cooperate with God's grace, and if his grace shines more brightly in rescuing helpless human beings from sin than Paul's Jewish adversaries concluded the Pauline Gospel taught that we should do evil in order to advance the good of God's saving impotent sinners. Indeed, the opponents wondered how God could legitimately judge his people, since human beings were so corrupt that sin was inevitable and all depended on God's electing grace. Therefore, Paul's Jewish adversaries drew out what they believed were logical implications of the Pauline Gospel in order to reject its validity. Paul, if you believe, as you've said, that man is totally corrupt and completely unable to cooperate with God. If you believe, as you've been arguing, Paul, that God saves sinners by free grace and that their election is unconditional, It is not based on anything other than the grace of God. It is not based on anything other than God's election of that person. And that God is the author of salvation from beginning to end. That salvation is moneargistic rather than synergistic. If that's your argument, Paul, then basically you're saying that evil is good because it brings glory to God, and we ought to just do more evil so God can be more glorified. And if I can't do anything, then why should I try to do anything? Isn't that what you're arguing, Paul? His answer, mag Gnoyta, may it never be. What I'm arguing is very simple. What I'm arguing is, and he's going to say this in the next paragraph, but let me summarize what I'm arguing is, those of you who are Jews, you have no problem saying that the gentile world is rightly condemned because they don't keep God's law. But what I'm saying is you don't either. Therefore you're also rightly condemned. All men are rightly condemned. However, this is the rub. In Paul's day and in our day, there are those who take the view that is classically referred to as the semi Pelagian view, that says, in the fall of man, there is just enough of an inkling of goodness, just enough of an inkling of righteousness for. Man to be able in and of himself, perhaps. Not to save himself, but at least to offer the last and decisive measure that there is at least enough in man for man, if not to pull himself up by his own bootstraps to at least grasp his fingers around the loopholes and pull while God does the work. There is at least enough of an inkling in man for man to be able to cooperate enough with God so that God can perhaps look down through the corridors of time and see which men would act upon that little inkling of goodness that remained in them, that wasn't touched by the fall, so that God could respond by electing those that he knew would do their little part. And Paul says, may it never be. His opponent said, Okay, guess we're saved by grace. You're right, Paul, because I didn't decide from whose womb I would be born. You're right, we're saved by grace. It is because I was born at you. I didn't choose to be a I was circumcised on the eighth day. I wasn't even able to say, okay, go ahead. So yes, Paul, yes that was by grace. But I tell you what, God's grace brought me into this community of faith. God's grace brought me into this covenant community. But it is my works and my keeping of the law. That will justify me when I stand before God, Paul says, manganoita, may it never be. That is simply not the case. What are you saying that I can do nothing to save myself? And that's where the first question comes from, Paul. If you're saying that I can do nothing to save myself, you might as well go ahead and say that God has no right to judge me since I can do nothing to save myself. Look at the first question in verse five. But if our righteousness schervech to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say that God is unrighteous? Is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? There's the question God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way. He doesn't even want to voice that opinion. By no means for then how could God judge the world now he hoists them on their own? Petard? Wait wait wait, wait, hold time out, time out. You're saying that God is unjust if he holds you to account and you don't have the ability to do what's required of you, and that somehow, well, God shouldn't be. Able to judge the world. Because he would be unjust if he required something of you that you were unable to give. Paul basically says, I got one question for you. You do believe that He's going to judge the Gentiles? Right, well, yes he is. But why Well because they weren't born Jews. Oh really, so he's going to judge judge them for something they had nothing to do with. Well, but also they weren't circumcised on the eighth day. Again, he's going to judge them for something they had nothing to do with. Well, well, but I mean, but they also they don't keep the law. Yeah, but you said yourself, they don't have it. So Paul paints him into a corner. Why is it that you believe God's going to judge the gentile world although they, according to your own argument, can't do anything about their predicament, But you don't believe he's going to judge you by the same standard. This goes back to his argument in chapter two. You talk about the law, but you break it yourself. You consider yourself a teacher of the law, but you don't hold to it yourself. So here's the question, what is the other alternative? There is no other alternative. Then he gets to a specific objection in the next verse. But if through my lie, God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? It's another version of the same argument. Here's the practicality, and why not do evil that good may come? As some people slenderously charge us with saying how wrong is that? Paul says, their condemnation is just, that's how wrong that is. They know that's not true, and yet they charge us with it anyway. Their condemnation is just. They know that's not what I teach, but they charge me with it anyway. Their condemnation is just. They know that that's not what I'm saying, but yet they say that I have to be saying that their condemnation is just. That's not what I'm arguing. Now here's what's a little uncomfortable. You have to remember that the letter was meant to be read in its entirety. Paul doesn't answer the question here. He's got some more building to do. And when we get to verse nine, and we see the guilt of all men in verse nine as clearly as it stated anywhere in the Bible, we finally come to a place by the end of verse twenty where we say, you know what, there is no answer, there is no hope. We're all condemned. If God is just, he's got to judge us, and that's where he's got us, right where he wants us. And there's that phrase that comes in about Jesus Christ being offered as a propitiation for our sins, so that God could simultaneously be just and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus Christ. If we don't understand man's inability and conditional election, we don't understand salvation by grace alone. If we don't understand that as a result of the fall, man is completely and totally and utterly depraved. In other words, remember we've said before, not that man is as bad as he could be. By God's common grace, that is not the case. And we all ought to shout Amen, not just for me, but for everyone else out there. Amen, praise God that I'm not as bad as I could be, but also praise God that my neighbor's not as bad as he could be. If we don't understand this, we don't understand salvation by grace because we're holding out this idea that man may only do one percent to God's ninety nine percent, but still his is the deciding factor. There was a famous tract, an evangelism track. It was a Dwight Moody tract, and it was this famous track that had a picture of an election ballot and on the one side it had Satan, the other side God, and in the middle it's you. God has cast his vote for heaven. Satan has cast his vote for hell. Now it's time for you to cast the deciding vote. But wait a minute. Don't we have to repent and believe. Yes, but you can't even do that in and of yourself apart from the regenerating work of God's spirit. It is God who works in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Turn with me to the right, if you will, and look at the Book of Ephesians, because that sound doctrine that Paul is defending is the doctrine of unconditional election. The election has to be unconditional. If you're familiar with Tulip, total depravity is the T the U unconditional election, the L limited atonement, the I irresistible grace, the P the personance of the saints, the you in that is unconditional election. By the way, unconditional election is absolutely necessary because of total depravity. If man is totally depraved, in other words, if man is depraved in every part and facet of his being, then that means man is completely unable to cooperate with God in any way apart from the miraculous work of God in the life of that sinner, and that work has to be unconditional because of man's condition. It has to be. That's the doctrine that Paul is defending here, the doctrine of unconditional election, election based on nothing that God foresaw in man, not this election that most contemporary Christians in our culture argue for they see the word election in the Bible, so you can't just deny that it's there. They see predestination in the Bible, so you can't just deny that it's there. They see foreknowledge in the Bible, and you can't just deny that it's there. So what you do is you go to Romans chapter eight. You know those whom he foreknew, and here's what you do. You do this little dance. Now, those whom he foreknew. What that means is the ones that he foreknew would choose him. So he chose people based on the fact that he knew that they would choose him. Really, then I have reason to boast. God elected me Why because he looked down through the corridors of time and there he looked and he saw me, and he said, wait a minute, I think there's one who's going to choose me. I think there's one who's going to act upon that little spark that they all have. Yes, wait, yes, there is now that I see in history or in the future. What vote he's going to do. I will come back before the time that he's even born, and I will say, I love you. Now. It's only because you first loved me. But I love you, folks, I have reason to boast. If that's the case. My election is conditional. If that's the case, and the condition is God knew that I was going to be better than other people at using that spark that all of us have, I have reason to boast. Fesis Chapter one, beginning a verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, in heaven and on earth. And him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we, who were first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of His glory. And him. You also, when you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. To the praise of his glory, the purpose of his will, the praise of his glory. That's the doctrine that Paul defends here, the doctrine of unconditional. Election, that salvation is of God. Now, let's put a pin here in Paul for a moment, because some look at this doctrine that explains theologically how salvation happens and what God does, and assume that this ought to be their disposition. What are you doing waiting to see if God's gonna save me? It's unconditional, you know. Are you praying? Why am I gonna pray? It's unconditional? You seeking him? Why am I gonna seek him? It's unconditional. Are you pouring over the gospel because you have to come to repentance and faith, you have to believe the gospel? Yeah, well, why would I want to do that? It's it's it's it's unconditional. That's the posture that some people take. Let me rest this to you as clearly as I can seek the Lord while he may be found. Well, wait a minute, I thought it was unconditional. It is unconditional. It's Him who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Cry out to God, Or why would I cry out to God because you want to? Why do you think you want to? Well, you think you make yourself want to? That is God working in you. Cry out to God. Beg God for his salvation. Cry out to God. Throw yourself upon his mercy. Cry out to God. Beg him to change your soul and to save you, and to forgive you of your sin. That's what you do. Yeah, but I thought it was unconditional. It is. That is the work of God in your heart, and you would not desire it nor carry it through apart from God. Seek Him while he may be found. Come to Him in repentance, in faith. Preach the Gospel to your children, Preach the Gospel to your neighbor, that perchance God might grant them repentance. Yeah, but I thought it was unconditional. It is unconditional. But God ordains the ends as well as the means. Preach the gospel, plead with men, beg them to come to repentance. Don't ever stop, don't ever give up. And that is completely and utterly consistent with the doctrine of unconditional election. How do I know it? Turn with me to the right and look in chapter ten of the Book of Romans, look beginning at verse five. No one could argue that Paul doesn't believe in the doctrine of unconditional election. No one could argue that Paul doesn't believe in the doctrine of total depravity. No one could argue that Paul doesn't believe and teach the doctrine of limited atonement of irresistible grade. No one, no one could believe or argue that, and that in the Book of Romans, he teaches it all multiple times again and again to make sure that you know that that's what Paul is teaching. And yet there are those who say that if you believe in the doctrine of grace, you don't believe in evangelism. And yet. The man who wrote Romans Chapter one, Romans Chapter two, Romans Chapter three also wrote Romans Chapter ten. Be any of verse five, For. Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandment shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith, says do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The Word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we areclaim. That we proclaim because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and disjustified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says everyone who believes in Him will not be put to sho for there is no distinction between jew and Greek. For the same Lord as Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then, will they call on him and whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us. So faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. Same guy who teaches total depravity says, God, to hear the Gospel, and you got to respond in faith. The same guy who teaches unconditional election says, go preach to. The heathen. Because they need to hear the Gospel and respond in faith. The same guy who teaches limited atonement or particular redemption says, preach to everyone. The same guy who teaches irresistible grace says, go tell them. And the same guy who teaches the perseverance of the Saints says, watch how you live. Don't buy the lies. And false conundrums that you hear from the opponents of Pauline theology. He defended himself against them here, and those who believe them are still having to defend them against the very same attacks to this day. He answers them, but he doesn't spend a lot of time. After this, He immediately goes to the guilt of all men in that passage to slay all men. And after immediately going to that passage, that proclaims the guilt of all men, and slays all men, and has us laying in the dust of our own sin, believing that we are absolutely hopeless. Comes the next and perhaps most beautiful paragraph in the entire Bible, where the doctrine of justification by faith and the repitiation for sin and Christ's blood is exalted to the highest of heights, and we look up from the dust and from our defeated state, and are finally in a position to behold and rightly exalt our only hope, who is Jesus Christ. Do not dare trust in your self, Do not dare trust in your works, Do not dare trust in your lineage, Do not dare trust in how good you are compared to the unrighteousness of other men. Calling the Lord, while he may be found repent of your sin, believe in Christ, cling to him and him alone, because he is indeed your only hope. Does that make God unrighteous? Mag cannoita, May it never be? Nothing could be further from the truth. Let's pray