NO GRACE TO THE UNCONVICTED & UNREPENTANT
Newell, commenting on Romans 1:22, writes:
"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" - rejecting the light of God's knowledge in their consciences, men now arrogated to themselves wisdom, and became - what? "Fools." "The fear of the Lord is the beginning" - of both knowledge and wisdom (Prov. 1:7; 9:10; 15:33; Ps. 111:10; Job 28:28). "They sit at the feet of 'professors' whose breath is spiritual cyanide. They idolize the hog-sty doctrines of a rotten Freud*, and count themselves 'wise!' They say, 'God is not a person; men evolved from monkeys; morals are mere old habits; self-enjoyment, self-expression, indulgence of all desires - this is the path of wisdom.' It is the path of those who go quickly down to the pit and on to judgment! The very morals of Sodom, as our Lord foretold, are rushing fast upon us, and God will bring again the awful doom of Sodom (Luke 17:28-31)."
"Now if someone objects, saying, 'This is a strange introduction to the gospel of God's grace,' we answer, 'It lies before us, this awful indictment of Romans One, and cannot be evaded! Moreover, until man knows his state of sin, he wants no grace. Shall pardon be spoken of before the sinner is proved a sinner? While the evidence is being brought in, the whole attention of the court is upon that. If the evidence of guilt be insufficient or inconclusive, there is no necessity for a pardon!
Preachers and teachers have soft-pedalled sin, until the fear of God is vanishing away. McCheyne used to say, 'A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hands of God.' But a preacher who avoids telling men the truth about their sin as here revealed, is the best tool of the devil.
* Crucifying Christ in Our Colleges, by Dan Gilbert, shows the monstrous doctrines of this evil "educator," whose influence is so great with many colleges and universities in the United States today. May God keep Freud's filthy feet from our shores!
Romans Verse By Verse, William R. Newell, Moody Press, 1938, pages 30-31
