The Law Established - Part 2 — John Metcalfe

The Law Established Through Faith

Three times over on the Sabbath, seventh day evening, or the seventh day was, is, and shall be till the end of time, the seventh day. Three times over on the seventh day evening, we have looked at the question at the end of Romans chapter 3, and we've looked at it in the Bible, which is of course the authorised version.

Three times over, we have looked at it, and the question in chapter 3, verse 31, is this. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yay. We establish the law. Now twice we have looked at this, and this is the third and last occasion on which, if the Lord will, we shall examine this question.

The Gospel Doctrine and the Rhetorical Questions of Romans

The apostle lays down the great doctrine of the gospel in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, between verses 21 and 26. He directs himself of his own coat, and he takes upon himself a coat of a rhetorical questioner, a hypothetical questioner.

He isn't asking the questions, he knows the answers, he has no need of the questions. But he knows these questions will be those which they will embrace the gospel, will either be tempted to ask themselves from within, and there are many questions you will be tempted to ask yourself from within, which you ought not to entertain, or they will be asked it from without, and they will be those who appear to be with us.

Do we then make void the law through faith, as though we were joining with them, and they were joining with us, when they're not at all undermining our faith? So he assumes this position of a hypothetical questioner, hypothetical questioner, not as if he were asking, he's not.

But in order to bring out the truth, and to give the answers, and to sanctify us, there is nothing to fear from any questioner. And in practice, as a hypothetical questioner, taking this position at the end of his having pronounced the gospel doctrine, he asks three rhetorical questions, rhetorical because they're not really inquiring, because he knows perfectly well what the answer is.

But they're the sort of thing that vile, hypocritical, humbugs will ask, to undermine our faith, and worse still, to undermine the gospel. Where's bursting then? If this doctrine of yours for be true, where is bursting then?

Jews only, or the Gentiles also. If we then make void the law through faith, three questions he asks, each of which he briefly answers, very briefly, not so much by argument as by categorical rebuttal.

He refuses the questions. He's not now concerned to give reason. There are times when thou dost not give reason. There are times when your wisdom is to say, get thee behind me, Satan. You don't answer.

You don't even think about it. At first, he gives thee brief rebuttals to the three questions. Now, I have been concerned on these three Sabbath days to take only the last question. Do we then make void the law through faith?

God forbid. Yay. We establish the law. He doesn't say how, not immediately, though we have expanded how we establish the law. So he takes the position of a rhetorical questioner, having delivered his doctrine.

Sound Doctrine as Essential to the Gospel

And I will say this again in passing. You cannot preach the gospel without delivering doctrine. And I don't care for 10 ,000 million charismatic or 10 ,000 million excitable experimentalists. If you haven't got the doctrine, you haven't got the gospel.

I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. He hath obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. Sanctify those who the truth, thy word is truth. If any man come unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed.

He that hath not the doctrine of Christ hath not the Father nor the Son. You cannot separate Christ from the doctrine. You cannot separate the Spirit from the truth. He's the Spirit of truth. And you can't know God without the doctrine of the gospel.

It's just lies, it's pretended experience, it's a mirage. You're forever seeking for something that appears, It's temporary to materialize, like shimmering pools and waving palms on the horizon of a desert.

But when you finally make it, it isn't there. And then you go on to the next horizon and it isn't there. But the doctrine's there. They're not afraid of any questions they want to ask. And he asks three questions in the position of a hypothetical questioner, and the questions are rhetorical.

And he gives very, very brief answers which are more categorically and dogmatically denial of their reputations than they are reasoned explications. ...concerned with the last of these questions. Do we then make void the law of true faith?

God forbid we establish the law.

Romans 4 Expands the Brief Answers of Romans 3

Now, that isn't the end of the story.

Because he takes up each of these brief answers.

He takes another, and expands it.

He takes the third, and opens it up. Chapter four, and that is what chapter four in Romans is about. Opening up each of the brief answers to the three questions at the end of chapter three, on the basis that some hypothetical no, some hypocritical humbug, is going to question the doctrine of the gospel because he's full of self-importance.

And the apostle says, no, no, amen, for our sakes.

What a no. He's largely, this answer, that answer, and finally our question, the other answer. And he does so. Using the life of Abraham, and God's work in Abraham, as the basis, he is going to open up the whole truth that this question brings into dispute.

Using the principles common to all three questions, their brief answers, we're concluding this series by marking that the brief answer of 3 .31 is truthy. The famous are the other two, into which I do not now enter particularly.

It answers one exact answer in chapter four, precisely verses 13 to 17. By illustrating that exposition, using the life of Abraham, by illustrating that exposition in chapter four, 18 to 22. So 13 to 17, 18 to 22, very easy, very simple, so easy for you to follow.

Could anything be easier? I mean, really, do you have any difficulty about walking up? Then, there is the lower one, there is the next one, up you go. He answers the first question, the second question is answered, connect.

The third question is answered, connect, in chapter three, four. The first connected answer is, whoop, opened up. The second is, next, whoop, opened up. Briefly answered, 3 .31. Am I right? Or wrong? Sure?

Right, that one is also opened up in chapter four, 13 to 17. Why 13? Well, because he takes 13 verses, expands up, enlarging the other two answers. Having used up those 13 verses, he now wishes to come to this last question.

At verse 13, he committed it, and he, there, expounds the answer in chapter four, 13 to 17. He then illustrates that exposition in the next few verses, 18 to 22. And if time would only allow me, I would show you how in the remainder of chapter four, namely 23 to 25, he applied that answer.

But getting near towards three o 'clock this morning, I laid down my pen. I was going to say weary pen, but the pen doesn't get weary, it's the writer that gets weary. And I thought, I'll never get all this over.

So I don't think we're going to get to the application. I don't mind too much if you don't. But I do want to get to the exposition, because that's what's going to give bones to your soul. And I do want to give the illustration, because that's what will give you strength and enable you to make good.

Because if you hadn't got bones, you'd be no better than a jellyfish stranded on the beach like a modern evangelical, with the emphasis on the jelly. But you've got bones if you've got the doctrine. And if you've got the illustrations of it in the lives of these great saints, you've got strength.

And then you can move your bones to advantage.

Such as, have sinews to pull on bones and utilize the joints. That's what you need.

Abraham as the Basis for Understanding the Gospel

This, of course, where the exposition, the illustration, or the application of the answer to the first question, the very brief answer, or the second, or the third, or make it several. In each case, he takes the life of Abraham, though he enhances the first with David.

But in each case, principally, he takes the life of Abraham and the work of God on Abraham to show you, by exposition and illustration, how these things are true, and how they're brought home to the individual.

Firstly, therefore, the exposition of the brief answer in chapter 3, verse 31. Do we then?

Henry Coates puts on this hypothetical question as coach.

Rhetorical question. Do we then make void the law through faith? What do you think of that? And he comes and he says to the fellow, God forbid! There's more to say about it than that. And there is a lot more in it than that.

The matter's to you more than health, and wealth, and life, and death. So get it. The exposition of the brief answer, which, as we said, commences from verse 13, and goes on to 17. God forbid, yea, we establish the law as denoted from the life of Abraham.

No, you might not think so when you read verse 13, because it doesn't at first seem anything to do with it. Because verse 13 of chapter 4 says, For the promise that he, that is Abraham, should be heir of the world.

Well, what's that got to do with it? Well, that just shows how ill-taught we have been by our fathers who professed to pass on to us the Christian religion. Because it's got everything to do with it, only we don't realise it.

Because we haven't been taught.

And if you think that's a rash statement, defer your judgement.

The brief answer, of which this is the exposition, We, who are of the righteousness of faith, establish the law. That's the law of commandments given by Moses. Now this carries an inescapable corollary.

...of the law, do not establish it. As people who lay us under the law, as people who put us under commandments, as people who insist we attain to this degree of sanctification, or that degree of spiritual experience, or that degree of perfectionism, or the other second blessing, or baptism, or call it what they will, they're in fact laying a law upon us to which we must attain.

They don't establish it. ...the law, the corollary of experience, one of them. ...their private life to the thing they press upon us. They can't keep the thing about which they make such a noisy and indignant trumpeting.

But we who are of faith, faith is in this solid doctrine of Christ, which comes out of the word of God, which is not subject to change, or from age to age, or race to race, or school of thought to school of thought, or universities, or the wisdom of the world, because it came down from heaven by Jesus Christ and his early apostles.

Briefly stated answer of 331, God forbid, yea, we establish the law. In chapter 4, by opening and showing the very heart and root of the whole matter, and he does it in this way, he's showing that there are two ways of seeking righteousness, not one.

You can read about that in Romans 10. They, the Jews, going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

One will damn you, and the other will save you.

One will sink you into everlasting perdition in the flames of unquenchable fire. Though you seek, into the everlasting glory of an unending inheritance in Christ. There are two ways of seeking righteousness.

From which it follows, secondly, that there are, of necessity, two kinds of righteousness. Thirdly, one kind of righteousness is of God, and the other is of man. The first is by faith, and the second is by works.

You've got to do it. And if you don't do it, you're lost. And if you don't do it continually, you're lost. And if you don't do it till the day you die, you're lost. Fifthly, these can never be mixed. Two ways of righteousness.

There can be no mixture of the only two ways of righteousness. It's the works. You have some faith, you suppose, but you add some works, and faith loses its character. It's the faith, and works suffuses and swaps the whole, the same.

As if you had a carafe of crystal clear water, and dropped in a few drops of black ink. The whole character. It's the works. You can't add works to faith, without that faith becoming corrupted and polluted, and losing its pure character, and grace.

If you mix them, you corrupt the character of grace and faith. Thirdly arises the question, isn't the apostle not afraid to face it? Ways of righteousness or not? Either which kind? Why bother to have a righteousness anyway?

Why bother? What does it matter? Why concern ourselves with righteousness at all? Due to the religious. Apart from what kind of righteousness? So what? That's what they're saying, isn't it? So what? What difference does it make?

All. Nothing but righteousness makes all. And you can't put anything else, like a universal solvent you choose to call love, in the place of righteousness, and make it make a difference. Because if you do that, you might as well tear this book up and throw it away.

In this case, why bother? Either take it from here, or take it from there.

There's a world to come after death.

Of the body. After death. The body cannot perish. It cannot decay. And it cannot die. Keep in mind the third day from the dead. Heed it. A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see. Then afterwards, then, the desert is coming.

There's a resurrection. The word doesn't apply to the soul. It is a word that applies to the body of the wicked. Oh God. Oh. And it won't decay. And it won't die of disease. And it won't get old.

And it won't die. ...handed to us in religion. To me? I suppose, shut up alone?

...30 years to all intents and purposes. The immensity of that... ...a way of religion by those that went before us. We want the truth. We want the whole truth. And we want nothing but the truth. We don't want John Metcalfe any more than we want the Pope.

We want the word of the Lord. That's all. Nothing else. Just tell us the truth. When John Knox... ...he bonded it on... ...matters. ...day after day. The man died. At the hospital. He died wide open. I sent my other friend to save the doctor.

He couldn't get up. And my father pretended he didn't know any French. That's rubbish. He knew the French. He was a Frenchman, but he never let them know. And they thought he didn't understand. It said to the doctor he didn't bother any more.

Because where he was going, it didn't matter what his... ...it mattered what his... And he said to the doctor... ...didn't matter. I had to go and look at it, which I hated. I thought it always do things that McCall practiced.

Don't like it. But I had to honour my stepfather, and I did. And I fulfilled my duty. ...you somewhere... ...of what will happen... ...forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever... ...and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever...

...world without end... ...and change after that. ...after death... ...one, two... ...there's a world to come after death. Not just an existence to come after death. A world to come after death. Since Adam...

...generations have passed into... ...the underworld. ...till the end, till... ...it won't go on forever. There's a new world... ...there's a world to come coming. And it won't be... ...night, day, night, day...

...but day after day will utter speech... ...and night after night will show knowledge. There won't be any night in the glory. And there won't be any light in the depths of outer darkness. ...determine where you are.

...world to come after death. And life after death... ...must end... ...with two results. ...bliss... ...lying entertainers... ...section of bliss... ...unlying bitch jockeys... ...matter... ...so very, very much...

...the question is... ...should for these things the same mean? ...a hard answer to that question... ...and only give it to me from God... ...and I don't care what you do. ...answer... ...shake me with typhoid typhus...

...black water fever a lot... ...there is no... ...and God has given... ...you've said that, you've said all the gospels about it. The gospel isn't about... ...as they call it... ...is damned for the right righteousness...

...and it's exactly this the verses 13 to 17... ...say they have to answer. Well you see, that's why in fact... ...the answer that doesn't appear... ...to relate to the question... ...do we then make boy the law through faith...

...yet God forbid we establish the law... ...what's that got to do... ...with verse 13... ...for the promise that Abraham should be... ...heir of the world... ...heir of the world... ...well we're coming to it...

...I don't want to jump my... ...let's just get along steady... ...let's climb this ladder run by run... ...and not fall off... ...you don't want to fall off do you? ...no... ...I don't want you to fall off either...

...it's exactly this that verse 13 to 17... ...sets out to answer... ...verse 13... ...it's the question of imperative... ...verse 13... ...for the promise... ...that Abraham should be... ...heir... ...of the world... ...now you don't inherit... ...till after death... ...inheritance comes in... ...about the world... ...then after the end of the world... ...the death of it... ...never mind yours but mine... ...the question of inheriting... ...and if so in the nature of inheritance... ...after death... ...inheriting the world to come... ...the life... ...and example of Abraham... ...provide us with the answer... ...and it's this that we're about... ...by the grace of mercy of God to expand on... ...firstly verses 14 and 15... ...it is not through the law... ...in any shape... ...or in any form... ...basically the law... ...assumes goodness... ...and ability... ...in you... ...and demands it... ...to a degree... ...by itself and not by your consciousness... ...whether it be a religious attainment... ...consistent presence... ...every moment... ...every day... ...that's what the law requires... ...motionally... ...intellectually... ...volitionally... ...in body... ...in soul... ...and spirit... ...and it's written down... ...and at the last day... ...the books will be opened... ...to come... ...it's not through the law... ...for the promise of the world... ...was not to Abraham... ...nor to him... ...nothing you do... ...the law behears... ...faith is made void... ...and the promise of none effect... ...it won't work... ...you won't inherit anything... ...won't be fulfilled... ...if you think you can do it... ...by your own works... ...and your own effort... ...and your own religion... ...and your own pray... ...and your own cry... ...and your own experience... ...they which are the law behears... ...faith is made void... ...and the promise of none effect... ...firstly... ...it is not through the law... ...because if they... ...that are of the law behears... ...faith is made void... ...but in verse... ...31 of chapter 3... ...the questioner... ...had just been... ...complaining by innuendo... ...oh... ...we make the law void... ...through faith... ...but here the apostle Paul... ...turns the tables and says... ...you make faith void... ...by your works of the law... ...and everyone who turns... ...to the works of the law... ...or the Westminster Confession... ...and follows it... ...makes void faith... ...by his faith in the law... ...and the Westminster Confession... ...requires you to walk by the law... ...and what they call the rule of life... ...though God calls the sentence of death...

...here the apostle shows it was they...

...who made faith void... ...through the law...

...verse 14... ...for if they which are of the law be heirs... ...faith is made void...

...and these are the kind of... ...trips in religion... ...up with which we've had to put... ...from the beginning... ...mixing together the law and the gospel... ...as you may read in Galatians... ...or Colossians... ...or Corinthians... ...up with in religion from the beginning... ...and it's only got worse... ...up with which... ...our champion the apostle... ...will not put... ...but delivers us... ...by indignantly exposing... ...the worth-mattering... ...self-justifying... ...doctrine-twisting... ...self-righteous mask... ...of those who exploit... ...religion to their own clerical advantage... ...because the law does not require faith... ...or requires works... ...and since the law doesn't require faith... ...it won't accept it... ...even if you bring it... ...it doesn't want it... ...so therefore it's made void... ...faith is made... ...three-twelve... ...it is a work... ...and works are what you do... ...but faith stands in what he... ...nothing else... ...stands in what God... ...not what you do... ...or what you do about it either... ...exclusively... ...is by the racist system... ...works ruling out faith... ...if so... ...God doesn't need it... ...was first promised to Abraham... ...it must be my faith...

...because it is said of Abraham... ...Abraham believed God...

...not worked the law... ...it must be thy faith... ...then lay that the law cannot be aired... ...for the law is not of faith... ...no... ...it's of works... ...all lay that walk by it... ...work by it... ...in any shape or form... ...which includes all Arminians... ...who are second cousins to all papists... ...all Arminians... ...all Pentecostals... ...all Charismatics... ...require works...

...you've got to have this experience... ...if you haven't got it... ...you don't belong... ...you've got to show forth this sign... ...if you can't show it forth... ...you don't belong... ...that's works... ...that's what you've got to do...

...but faith stands in what God had forth... ...and forth... ...who thought human free will... ...or their choose of his work... ...coming forward... ...or their doing this... ...or their doing that... ...cannot be of faith... ...because faith stands in doing nothing... ...but owning everything... ...so they can't inherit... ...not unless they give that up... ...inherit wrath to come... ...they're of works...

...but Abraham was not... ...Abraham was of faith... ...and the promise was given to him... ...not them... ...now the second reason... ...that the promise of resurrection... ...eternal life... ...everlasting glory... ...and the inheritance of the world to come... ...is not of human merit... ...by the works of the law... ...in any shape or form... ...or the choice of man... ...in any degree or type... ...or the attainment of some spiritual plane... ...by whatever works it might have been done... ...if it was done... ...but by the free peace of God... ...by Jesus Christ...

The Promise to Abraham Rests on Justification by Faith

...now follows in verses 14 and 15... ...it's this... ...if they which are of the law beheads... ...promise would be made... ...of none effect... ...is this Paul... ...and why would it be made of none effect?

...that made to Abraham... ...in Genesis chapter 17... ...when God promised the whole land of Canaan to Abraham... ...which Paul interprets... ...to the fallen countenance... ...of every beguiled... ...besotted... ...bemused... ...bedumped... ...bedarkened... ...criminalist... ...Paul interprets as the inheritance of the world to come... ...that promise... ...of the resurrection... ...eternal life... ...everlasting glory... ...and the inheritance of the world to come... ...is not of human merit... ...by the works of the law...

...you can't lay hold of it... ...you can't lay hold of him... ...you can't lay hold of God... ...your armies are long enough... ...and it's not in heaven that you should say... ...you should ascend into heaven...

...to bring down Christ from above... ...it's outwith the reach... ...of human free will... ...for the promise... ...everlasting glory... ...of resurrection... ...and of the inheritance of the world to come... ...is not of human merit...

...by the works of the law... ...but by the free grace of God... ...through Jesus Christ... ...for if they which are of the law be heirs... ...the promise is of none effect... ...the promise that is... ...made by God... ...in Genesis chapter 17...

...which Paul calls... ...the promise of being heir of the world... ...and God has given that promise... ...not to the wise... ...but to the foolish... ...not to the noble... ...but to the base... ...not to the things which are...

...but to the things which are not... ...but no fleshly glory in his presence... ...not to either of them... ...it was not to Abraham through the law... ...but through the righteousness of faith... ...how do you know Paul?

...because the promise was established... ...in Genesis chapter 17... ...but Abraham was justified by faith... ...in Genesis chapter 15... ...then the promise in chapter 17... ...two chapters and ages later... ...was on the basis of a justification...

...by faith without works... ...two chapters and ages before... ...that's how I know John... ...says Paul to me... ...he's over there... ...you can't see him... ...it's a bit just... ...not quite in the line of sight...

...it was not to Abraham through the law... ...but through the righteousness of faith... ...because the promise... ...in Genesis 17... ...was on the basis of his... ...having already been justified by faith...

...and if you're justified by faith...

...you've got the promise...

...it was not that Abraham earned it... ...this promise of the world to come... ...of the resurrection... ...of the everlasting glory... ...he didn't earn it... ...he couldn't do anything... ...or attain to anything... ...or come to some religious standard... ...to get it... ...it was not that Abraham earned it... ...it was not that by his own righteousness... ...he earned God's favour and promise... ...in Genesis 15... ...in fact Paul says about it... ...in Romans 4, 5... ...Abraham was ungodly... ...and God justified the ungodly... ...he was a worthy... ...and the name of the blessing... ...is justification by faith...

...he was reckoned righteous... ...with a righteousness not his own... ...which God had brought... ...and bestowed... ...and dropped upon him... ...as if it was its own... ...when he was reeking with ungodliness... ...and that's called God's blessing...

...and with it goes God's promise... ...of the resurrection... ...to everlasting life... ...and to eternal glory... ...in Christ Jesus... ...freely... ...by grace... ...without works... ...then or after...

...but to him that worketh not... ...the righteousness... ...because he's got none... ...and no ability to bring it forth... ...but to him that worketh not... ...but believeth on him... ...and justifieth the ungodly... ...his faith... ...is counted for righteous...

...he hath not it... ...as if he had... ...and nothing else will do me... ...and I can't live or die... ...with anything else... ...and if you can... ...in Genesis 15... ...they received the promise in Genesis 17...

...then the promise rests... ...just as this table rests... ...which was before they did... ...otherwise you couldn't put the table on it... ...could you? You couldn't put it in the air and drop... ...weren't it easy, right?

Gravity, what? Yeah? That's it. So you've got to put the platform there first, yes? And you put the table on the platform afterwards, right? The platform is justification... ...by faith for the ungodly... ...and the table is the promise... ...the sure... ...the certain... ...the established... ...the absolutely unconditional promise... ...of resurrection after death... ...from the grave in the body... ...and the inheritance of everlasting glory... ...in the world to come...

...where are we? It's not through the law... ...but it's through the righteousness... ...how could it be by the law? It was justified by faith as it is written... ...Abraham believed God... ...and it was counted to him for righteousness...

...how could it be by law then? Because the law doesn't own faith... ...the law is not of faith... ...the law demands works... ...he that doeth them shall live in them... ...if it's of faith... ...then neither of the law cannot be aired... ...because it rests on the basis of justification by faith... ...because they of the law depend on works... ...which Abraham did not... ...he renounced works... ...he condemned himself... ...he trusted in God alone... ...to give him the righteousness... ...he knew he hadn't got the ability... ...much less the product... ...to bring forth... ...and he couldn't do it... ...and God had pity on him... ...and God spent... ...and God showed him that he had it... ...for the ungodly... ...and Abraham believed God... ...and it was counted to him... ...for righteousness... ...if it's of faith... ...then neither of the law cannot be aired... ...because they depend on works... ...which Abraham did not... ...he renounced works... ...he condemned himself... ...he trusted in God alone...

...and this is the man and the woman... ...and as it is written... ...I made thee the father of many nations... ...the promise of resurrection... ...everlasting glory... ...eternal life and the inheritance of the world to come...

...be through the law... ...which one of you is holy enough to earn it... ...you are a you... ...you can look back on ten nights... ...and say I'm holy enough... ...pray to God... ...and get hours on your knees in praise...

...and if you did that you're not worthy... ...because there's nothing from a polluted heart... ...and pride comes in... ...what can you earn... ...all these promises were given to Abraham in Genesis 17... ...after he was justified by faith in Genesis 15... ...but Genesis 15, Genesis 17 and Genesis anything else...

...Abraham had no law... ...the law wasn't in the world when Abraham lived... ...when Abraham was justified and received the promise... ...the law had not been given... ...to prescribe a rule of righteousness for man... ...to work by to please God...

...it wasn't in the world... ...the law was not in the world says Paul from Adam to Moses... ...but Abraham was and he was there when the law wasn't... ...so how could it have been by the law... ...no law had been given for man to work by or earn favours with God...

...this is to Paul Galatians 3 .17... ...now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made... ...and the law which was 430 years after... ...this is how... ...either justification or the promise... ...and make the promise of nothing...

...the law came by Moses and prescribed a righteousness... ...for man to earn God's favour... ...addressing his mind, his mentality... ...his intelligence, his understanding... ...his susceptibility, his volition... ...his passions, his emotions, his affections... ...his life, his soul, his body... ...and prescribing exactly and precisely... ...the forensic rectitude required continually... ...to please God...

...and without that you can't earn anything... ...but you can't do it... ...and you know you can't do it... ...and no one ever did do it... ...but it's right that we should have done it... ...and that's called being a sinner...

...that's what you are... ...and what sinners need... ...is free grace with father Abraham... ...that's what you need... ...none kept it... ...none ever will keep it... ...none earn God's favour... ...430 years before either Moses or the Lord... ...God freely justified Abraham... ...though he was ungodly...

...though he had nothing... ...he pleaded God to bless him with favour... ...freely justified Abraham by grace alone... ...without works... ...giving him a gratuitous everlasting righteousness... ...by faith... ...to which he had not contributed... ...one single good work... ...good intention, good feeling... ...or atom of goodness... ...in his totally depraved soul... ...in all grace... ...and to cap it all...

...God then favoured him with the favour of favours... ...the promise of the world to come... ...as his inheritance... ...an everlasting life... ...by the resurrection from the dead... ...but clearly... ...the law and its works... ...were 430 years in the future... ...and therefore could have contributed... ...absolutely nothing... ...and required absolutely nothing from Abraham... ...in order to gain these blessings...

...he didn't gain them... ...and that's the only way you're going to be saved... ...and that's the only righteousness... ...that will get you diploma... ...get your eye on England... ...oh for God's sake, get your eye on it... ...hence he who hopes to justify himself... ...by his own presumed virtue... ...or supposed religion before God... ...of necessity must insist upon works... ...but don't insist upon your own... ...or your own standards... ...like the rotten, corrupt, evil legal system... ...of Great Britain... ...into which we have fallen... ...where right is what they think it is... ...and opinion supposes it is... ...and where murderers go free... ...and rapists are let off...

...to the entirety of these rotten people here... ...that are bringing blood on the country... ...and the curse of God on a once blessed land... ...don't set your own standards... ...make sure you've got God's... ...because that's what you're going to be judged by... ...in the resurrection... ...however, the pearl of the deepest reason... ...why those who seek merit by works... ...can never inherit the promise... ...is this, verse 15... ...because the law of work is wrath... ...the law of work is wrath...

...it can never bring peace... ...neither to you nor to God... ...any shape or form moreover... ...bring righteousness...

...never kept it... ...and because in the very effort to keep it... ...it brings indwelling, inbred sins... ...the likes you never knew were there... ...like rebellion... ...like I won't raise in the heavens...

...like a shut-out god... ...you don't give a hank for it... ...when inbred sin... ...that's what the law brings out... ...it does nothing but reveal man's innately evil state... ...that is otherwise hidden from him...

...by the devices and wiles of the devil... ...so that he never knows what's inside him... ...but the law brings it out... ...it brings indwelling, inbred sin to life... ...but this calls forth... ...of course it calls forth God's wrath...

...the law work his wrath... ...because it reveals... ...how hateful and unbelieving you are... ...and what a hater of God you are... ...when once he shows the one he is under the law... ...how you hate him for bringing a law like that on you...

...you resent the law, it's only your duty... ...but you resent it... ...rebellion works, envy works... ...desperation works... ...enmity, hatred work... ...and that brings down God's wrath... ...like a fool you defy him...

...and you lift your hands to heaven and... ...I've done it myself... ...is that going to inherit the promise? ...is that righteousness? ...may you go back under the law... ...but Paul says Romans 4 .15...