Humanity's inherent sinfulness and spiritual death demonstrate a universal need for the gospel. Scriptural examples and passages like Psalm 51:5 and Romans 8:5-8 reveal an evil nature, a propensity towards sin, enmity toward God, and inherent selfishness. Spiritual death, marked by an inability to respond and an 'odor of death' (Psalm 14:3), necessitates divine intervention. A broken law that no one can perfectly keep, coupled with God's command for repentance (Acts 20:21), underscores the gospel's necessity for salvation.
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This is the first of a series of studies on evangelism, and we're now going to learn something about showing the need of the gospel. There is really no point in trying to preach the gospel to people who don't know their need of it. And the great epistle of the gospel, Romans, begins with three chapters establishing the need of every human being for the gospel. I think you have to follow this course every time you witness to anyone or every time you preach the gospel. Begin with showing them their definite needs. Now section one, because of an evil nature.
One received by all through Adam. A. He begat a son in his own likeness. Genesis five and three. Now God waited until the third son, through whom the human race comes, to make this statement. It was true of Cain. It was true of Abel. But Cain killed Abel. Therefore Cain was left out of the human family genealogy because he disappears from the scene and it cests. descendants that carry on down.
And so it was Seth that he said he begat in his own likeness. That doesn't mean he looks like his father. It means that he was like him morally. And B, Psalm fifty-one five says, In sin did my mother conceive me? That was David's Psalm about his own sinfulness. This certainly did not mean that his mother was a wicked woman because he refers to her twice in the Psalms as the handmaiden of the Lord. And it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with the act of procreation. But it simply means that each person receives from his parents what they received and turned from their parents all the way back to Adam. And see, no clean thing can be brought out of an unclean.
So, fourteen, one to four. Light begets like, and sinners produce sinners. You may not find people ready to receive this, but it needs to be said. And second, our propensity towards sin. That means our natural inclination, that direction. A, speaking lies. Psalm fifty-eight three says they're no sooner born than they go about speaking lies. An old preacher whom I knew many years ago said I I brought twelve children into this world and every one of them lied to him before they could talk.
And he got into trouble with the dear mamas and grandmamas after that meeting. But it's true, just the same. There is a natural deceitfulness about us. And B, the desires of the flesh, Ephesians two and three. In fact, he calls them the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And C, we are hateful. and hating. Titus III. The hatefulness of the human race comes out in very small children. And D. The untamed tongue. James III, five to eight.
The tongue can no man tame, he says. It is an unruly evil. He even says it's set on fire of hell. None of us like to accept these facts, but they have to be said. This is what the Word of God teaches. And third, enmity toward God. Romans eight, five to eight. Now this states two things that are sometimes confused. It says, it is not subject to the will of God, neither indeed can be. So I want to separate those. A, it is not subject. And B, it can't be subject.
Now it's one thing for a person not to be subject out of choice. It's another thing that he is not subject and he couldn't be as he wanted to be. And this is true of the enmity of the human heart. And C, Romans five and ten, says when we were enemies. Now there's the difference between enmity and being enemies. There may be enmity in the heart, and it never shows up in actions. But in our case, we not only had enmity in our hearts by nature, but we were enemies of God. Indeed, these enemies shall be made his footstool, according to Hebrews ten, thirteen.
That is, those who are unreconciled. So the prognosis is not good. If a person remains an enemy, he can expect the judgment of God. And fourth, our inherent selfishness. That is that which we have naturally. Our inherent selfishness. A, living to satisfy our own appetites. Twice, in Romans sixteen, and again in Philippians three, he speaks about people who serve their own bellies. fact he says in Philippians three whose God is their belly and who glory in their shame this isn't very elegant language this is what God sees when he looks at the human heart and B even Christians seek their own things Philippians two the Apostle Paul said I'm going to send Timothy to you I don't have I have nobody else who will sincerely, genuinely care for your things, for all seek their own things, not the things which are Jesus Christ.
It's a sad commentary on Christians. We have an evil nature. Now, this does not mean that we play into the hands of the people who teach the babies who die when they're little or lost in all of this wicked kinds of teaching. and who teach baby baptism and all the rest of it. Small children are not condemned because they are sinners. The Lord takes them home to heaven because he has suffered for them, and they have not yet rejected him. Now, section two, because of spiritual death, We need the gospel because we are spiritually dead.
One, the sentence of death was pronounced. Genesis two, fifteen to seventeen. Now we know that this reaches to physical death because A, Adam transmitted physical death to the human race. Romans five and verse twelve, by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin. But it's more than physical death. B, he transmitted spiritual death. This is stated in both Ephesians two-one and Colossians two-thirteen. Number two, the characteristics of death.
A, lacking power to move, feel, or respond. This is what Webster says about death. Death is the state of being in which a person lacks the power to move, feel, or respond. Now, these things are said to be true of us who are spiritually dead. In that same order, the spiritually dead, according to Romans five and six, are without strength. That's lacking power to move. In Ephesians four and nineteen, they are said to be past healing.
And in Matthew eleven, sixteen to nineteen, it says there is no response. He said you are like children playing in the marketplace. And one says we have piped to you and you have not danced. And we have mourned to you and you have not wedged. He said you criticized John the Baptist because he didn't eat and drink. Now you criticize the Son of Man because he does. There's absolutely no response from the human heart until the Spirit of God produces that. And see, there's the odor of death. We know this is true physically. And in John, eleven, thirty-nine, Lazarus' own sister protested against opening the tomb because he'd been dead for four days.
But this is true spiritually also. In Psalm fourteen and three, it says, they are all together become filthy. And the word in the Hebrew language is the word for stinking. He says, this is true of all human beings. They are all together become filthy or stinking. Almost any non-Christian, when he opens his mouth, you get the smell of death. It may be in his profanity. It may be in his filthy talk. It may be in his selfish talk, it may be in his covetous talk, but there's a smell of death about it. The minute he opens his mouth, and D, it brings sorrow to others.
In Mark five, thirty-six to thirty-eight, you have the story of Jairus' daughter, and the people, including the parents, were weeping, and quite sorrowful about the loss of this child. And in Romans nine, one to three, the Apostle Paul says, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart because of my people, the Jews. Now, number three, life comes only through hearing the voice of the Son of God, the Son of Man.
A, this is true physically, and I've given you the reference for the three raisings from the dead performed by our Savior. In Mark five and forty-one, he raised from the dead Jairus' daughter. In Luke seven fourteen he raised the son of the widow of Maine, and in John eleven forty-three he raised Lazarus. This was a little girl who had just died, a young man on his way to the cemetery, and an older man who had been four days in the tomb. So in each case, the Lord raised them from the dead by just speaking a word. Now this is true spiritually. In John five, twenty-one to forty-six, he says, The hour has come, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
And then in the twelfth of John, he said, The words that I speak unto you, will give you life. If you hear my words, you will live. And then he said, if you don't hear my words, these same words will judge you in the last day. So spiritual life comes by hearing the words of the Lord Jesus. Now we don't hear an actual voice, of course, but we hear his voice in power by the action of the Holy Spirit upon the word. Now section three says, because of a broken law. There are people who will immediately begin to talk about keeping the law.
Well, if they want to talk about the law, number one, the Holy God could give only a holy law. Romans seven, twelve to fourteen tells us that the law cause Paul all kinds of difficulty. But he said, that's not because there's anything wrong with the law. The law is holy and just and good. But he said, I'm carnal, carnal, soul to understand. Nothing wrong with the law. I sometimes use an object lesson for children and have shown something just out of reach of a sketch of a person, maybe several people, some taller than others.
And I say to them, now, what's wrong? Well, they say whatever it is they're reaching for is hanging too high. I say, could anything else be wrong? Finally, some bright child will say, well, the people are too short. And this, of course, is exactly what the law was intended to prove. It isn't that the standard is too high. God couldn't give any other standard except a perfect standard. But we are too short to reach it. So, number two, the Holy God cannot overlook... even one infraction. Change two and ten. If a man keeps the whole law and yet offends in one point.
Now, there are ten commandments, and some of these commandments have several points. Covetous, for instance, is covetousness. For instance, he commands not to covet a man's wife or his house or his ox or his ass or his men's servants or his maid's servants. Well, you may not want his wife. You wouldn't have her on a Christmas tree, but you'd be glad to have his house. Or maybe you don't want his house, but you'd like to have his ox. You don't have ox enough. You've got Cadillacs. The same proposition. And one point, just one point in one of those laws. God says you're guilty of the whole thing.
It's a broken law, even if you only break one link. Now, A, the first recorded breaking... of each command was punished by death. And we don't have a record of how each of these was broken for the first time, but every time he records the first breaking of a law, it was punished by death. And B, a curse was pronounced on every lawbreaker. Galatians three in verse ten, a verse that you ought to memorize so that you can use it, Those who put themselves under the law, he says, are under curse, because it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Thank God our Savior has made a curse for us, and we've been redeemed from that curse. A people who have rejected Christ, who talk about keeping the law, are just asking for a curse. Number three. The law was given only to Israel. Romans two and verse fourteen says the Gentiles have not the law. And in chapter nine of Romans and verse four, he says that the Jews have many advantages over the Gentiles, much every way he says. And then he mentions among other things that to them pertain the law.
They have the covenants, they have the promises. The Messiah came to them. They have many advantages. One of these was that the law was given only to Israel. A. It was given to them only to convict. Galatians two, fifteen, sixteen. We who have received the law, he said, we being Jews, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. The law was given to Israel only to convict. And B, Gentiles may put themselves under the law.
According to Galatians four and twenty-one, he says, tell me, ye that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear what the law says? And in the last chapter, no, the fifth chapter of Galatians, he says, if a man accepts the mark of the law, which was circumcision, He is then a debtor to keep the whole law. So there were Gentiles who put themselves under the law. And forth the universal guilt of the human race. Now this is declared at the close of that section of Romans, which is given specifically to show that all are sinners. In the first chapter of Romans, he shows that what we would call the down and outer, the openly ungodly.
the immoral are sinners. And he puts them first because everybody's quite willing to admit that this is true. Then in the first part of the second chapter, he takes up the moralist, the one who looks down his self-righteous nose at the down and outer and says, I wouldn't do a thing like that. But he said, you who condemn others have the same thing in your hearts. And finally, at the close of chapter two and the first half of chapter three, He tells us about the Jews, and they were the most religious of all the people. In fact, the only ones who ever were given a divine religion. Christianity is not a religion, it's a faith.
Now these religionists were guilty also. And then he brings in fourteen indictments showing us from the law that the whole human race are guilty. And he sums this all up by saying, Whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped. So put that down under A. Every mouth stops. And B, all brought in guilty. Now I've used the word brought in instead of every mouth might be stopped and all the world be found guilty before God. This is a legal term.
It's the same term that we use today when we say the jury brought him in guilty. That is, the jury found him to be guilty. So the whole human race is brought in guilty. And C, by the law, we're told in this same section, is the knowledge of sin. The knowledge of sin by the law. The law is said in the book of James to be like a mirror. And you look into the mirror and you find out that your face is dirty. And you look at the holy law of God and you know that you're a sinner. And finally, D. In John three eighteen, he says he that believeth not is condemned already.
So we're already condemned. Nobody needs to wait until he dies to find out whether he's good enough to go to heaven or bad enough to go to hell. So far as God is concerned, the verdict has already been brought in. In the twelfth of John, the Lord Jesus said, Now is the condemnation of this world. That was at his crucifixion. And the crucifixion of Christ has resulted in the condemnation of the whole world. Our last section, four, God commands repentance. One, the definition of repentance. The word in the Greek language is metanoil.
Metanoil. M-E-T-A-N-O-E-O. The last O is a long O and omega. And it means, quote, to perceive afterwards. That's the literal meaning of this word. To perceive afterwards. Which means, of course, to change one's mind. You look back and see that was a mistake. That is repentance. And B, it is explained by Christ's parable in Matthew twenty-one. Now this is the story of the two sons. The father sent them to work in the vineyard. And one of them said, I go, sir, but he didn't go.
And the other one said, I go not. But after he repented and went. Now what did he do? Cry a hat full of tears? No indication of that at all. He just saw that he was wrong. What made him see it? I don't know. Nothing has said about it. Maybe his father helped you see that he was wrong. Anyway, he repented. He simply changed his mind. Now, second, number two, God overlooked the times of ignorance. In the past, God did not deal with people exactly as he does at the present time. Romans fourteen and sixteen, and it says in times past, He suffered or allowed the nations a certain amount of latitude.
And in the seventeenth of Acts in verse thirty, he says, The times of their ignorance God closed his eyes to. The King James Version says he winked at, but the word means he closed his eyes. The times of their ignorance God closed his eyes to, but he now commands all men everywhere to repent. Now, number two, God overlooked the times of repent. Now, I gave you that one. A, holding men responsible for the light they had. Romans one, verses eighteen to twenty. There you're told that even the heathen, who have no real gospel light, are responsible for the amount of light that they have, that which they can see in creation.
at which they know of God, and that includes his eternal power and his Godhead or his wisdom. Now number three, God required repentance, A, of idolatrous Israel. And I've given you two Old Testament quotations. In Jeremiah eight, he said they have refused to return unto me. And in Ezekiel fourteen, verse six, He commanded them to repent and to turn from idols. So this was required of idolaters Israel. And B, it is now required of both Jews and Greeks.
Acts twenty, twenty-one. Paul says, preaching both to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And C, it is commanded of all men everywhere. Now that's as inclusive as you can get. All men everywhere are commanded to repent. If you don't insist on this, all you do is produce a lot of chaff, a lot of tears. This business is saying, well, you'd like to accept Christ, wouldn't you? And nod your head while they nod their head. This means nothing. Unless they know they're in lost condition and are willing to repent, there will be no real life.
Number four, God used various means to bring me to repentance. A. His goodness should lead to repentance. Romans two in verse four says, You shouldn't have to have God forced this upon you, just looking at your past life and seeing how kind he has been, how patient he has been, should bring you to repentance. And B. godly sorrow worketh repentance second corinthians seven nine and ten and see instruction in the word will produce it second timothy two twenty four to twenty six he says the servant of the lord must not strive but be gentle in meekness instructing those who oppose themselves if for adventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and so on.
So by instructing people in the Word, we can lead them to repentance. And D, the seeming delay in Christ's return should lead them to repentance. Second Peter three, four to nine. He plainly says that God is not willing and any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And this accounts for why God has waited all this time. And finally, number five, repentance is preparation for the gospel, but no part of it. Let me state that again. I want this to be very clear in all your mind. Number five, repentance is preparation for the gospel, but no part of it.
I've heard people say that You have to be converted, you need to be born again, and this is the same thing as repentance. This is not true at all. Repentance is the acknowledgement of our need of the gospel, and it is quite possible for a person to repent and never be saved. We know this from the sixth chapter of Hebrews, where he plainly says that some people repented. But he said their repentance did not go on to an actual belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says it's impossible to renew them again to repentance. Now these people were not saved, and yet they had repented.
Repentance ought to lead to conversion. I believe there are a good many people who have repented, but the clear gospel has not been presented to them. But I believe there are great many more people who have had the gospel presented to them without being given an opportunity to repent first. And I think this is a great mistake. We take this up more as we study this, but let's be sure that we show the need of the gospel.