Well, the passage that I'll be looking at this morning, a little later in the message, is in your bulletin, Romans chapter three. And so I would like to read that now just to prepare us. This is God's word. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we ask your blessing on the preaching of the word of God. We know, Father, that we are your children, and we need to hear from our Father. We are your subjects, and we need to hear from our King. And you give us your word so graciously. So help your servant proclaim the truth of your word to your people clearly, cogently, with conviction, and that we might all understand what the word of God has to say and how it bears upon each one of us. And I pray these things for Christ's sake, in his name, amen. Well, there is a deadly virus that is spreading over the land. It's not Corona. It's a theological virus. And this theological virus says essentially that Paul taught and preached a different gospel than did Jesus. And this is a dangerous, dangerous thing. It begins in the ivory towers of the universities. and the seminaries, and it just sort of whacks its way down to the person in the pew so that we who are churchgoers and believers do not read the writings of Paul with the same conviction that we read the gospel accounts of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a great danger for God's people. Because as Paul himself said, all scripture is God-breathed and profitable. And so we need to be very, very careful with that. We need a preventive medicine to cure us in advance so that when we hear of this or see it in print, we immediately say, no, that's wrong. I don't agree with that and we need to know why. And I think it is my job this morning to help us understand that. I will say this. If Paul knew that people were claiming that he promoted a gospel different than Jesus, Paul would be horrified. Paul loved Jesus. Jesus was everything to Paul, and in fact, Paul even said in Romans 15, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Jesus or of Christ. If you read Paul's letters. The name Christ occurs 379 times, I counted them this week. The prepositional phrases in Christ, in him, in the Lord occur 164 times. I counted those this week. But let's be honest. Paul does sound a little bit different than Jesus. What is the difference? Well, there was a great Bible believing scholar a number of years ago F.F. Bruce, if you have ever read Professor Bruce, you've appreciated his writings. He quoted from a liberal, non-Bible believing, brilliant Albert Schweitzer. And Schweitzer says this is a difference. And he got it right. Both are looking toward the same mountain range. But whereas Jesus sees it as lying before him, Paul already stands upon it, and the first slopes are behind him. I wish I could say things like that. That's brilliant, and it's true. I thought of West Texans. I don't know about you, but I love the Cap Rock. I leave the flatlands of Lubbock, and I head towards Snyder, and before you know it, I'm looking out, and I'm seeing different terrain, and it's awe-inspiring. It's beautiful. And I could describe it. But if I get in an airplane and fly over it, I see the very same piece of land from a different perspective. And I can describe that as well. But the descriptions will be somewhat different of the very same thing. That's what Paul did with what Jesus did. The same thing explained a little bit differently. Now, I want to look at this gospel matter of Jesus' gospel and Paul's gospel in a few moments. But before we do that, I thought it would really be helpful to look at Jesus and Paul, Jesus and Paul, Jesus and Paul on other things. And so the first thing that I wanted to mention is that Paul centered his entire life on the person and work of Jesus Christ. I said a moment ago, Jesus was everything to Paul. Paul says in Philippians 3, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. And remember, Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was a big guy. Indeed, I count everything is lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. Dung. In order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. Jesus was everything to Paul. And then there's Jesus's ethics and Paul's ethics. They're exactly the same. Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. What about Paul? Romans 13, he says, owe no one anything except to love. each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. So their ethics were the same. Paul's was just like that of Jesus. And then there's the matter of modeling your life after Jesus. That's what Paul did. For him to live was Christ. And so he taught. that we should conduct ourselves as Jesus conducted himself. He says in 2 Corinthians 10, I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Was not Jesus gentle and lowly? Jesus told his disciples, you must deny yourself. And Paul says, take every thought captive for Christ. He says, Christ did not please himself as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. And of course, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And he agreed to take and drink of the cup of God's wrath on the cross. We read in the gospels that the son of man did not come to be served. but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus washed the disciples' feet to demonstrate servanthood. His life was one continual act of service. And Paul tells the Philippians, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Paul understood that the life of Jesus Christ from the very beginning, the incarnation until the death was one continual act of service. And so Paul can say who was a servant of that servant imitate me. As I imitate Christ. And he says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Live like Jesus lived. Be a servant. And that brings us then, I mean, we could multiply these things, but time doesn't permit. It brings us to Jesus's gospel and Paul's gospel, because that's the real issue. The naysayers would agree with everything I've said. Well, of course, it's obvious. But when it comes to the gospel, no, no. You see, you don't understand, Tim. Paul preached one gospel, but Jesus had preached another gospel. So what I want to do is just look at Paul's gospel in Romans chapter 3 and ask ourselves and look and see if we can discover, did Jesus agree with that? Did he say that? Did he do that? And so not to read it all again, but to capitalize on the key phrases or the key terms, we first have the righteousness of God. And that occurs several times in this text, in Romans chapter three, the righteousness of God in Paul's mind was front and center. It's something without which we are God's enemies and with which we are God's friends. It's everything. You've got to have righteousness and you've got to have the righteousness that God requires. There's no doubt that Paul believed that. The question is, what did Jesus think about righteousness? Well, Jesus thought enough of it that he got himself baptized to fulfill all righteousness. That should tell us something. And then Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. And they were the righteous ones. It's got to be better than that. And then he said, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Clearly. Perfect righteousness was at the heart of everything for Jesus. Paul just copied him, that's all. And then there's the issue of faith. Paul was adamant that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus for all who believe. You say, now wait a minute. What about Jesus? Did He stress faith as fundamentally a necessity as did Paul? Well, if you read the Gospels, you'll notice on a number of occasions he tells the Pharisees, your problem is you just don't believe. And he says to his disciples, believe in God, believe also in me. I think faith was pretty important to Jesus. There's a parable. He told so many parables and they're so wonderful. But he told a parable. It's the parable of the sower. I won't read it all, just the key line. And Jesus explains it. He says, the ones along the path are those who've heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved. Did Jesus think faith was important? Jesus knew faith was vital. You don't get yourself to heaven by your good works. You get to heaven by trusting in Him who did the work. And that was what Jesus came to do. Well, then there's the issue of sin. Paul says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Did Jesus believe that man was fallen and a sinner? Well, yes, he did. In fact, Matthew tells us that's the very reason he came. That's the reason God took the form of a human being, became a man, God, man. That's why there was a virgin birth. That's why he came into this world. He shall save his people from their sins. Matthew chapter one. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It's John the Baptist, of course, in John chapter one and then in Matthew chapter nine. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. Faith, faith, faith was at the heart of the message that Jesus brought. And then there's this matter of being justified by grace as a gift. Justified by grace as a gift. Well, some would say, no, Jesus taught you have to keep the law to be saved. Well, Did he? Our pastor touched on that recently and he didn't say that. He didn't indicate that Jesus really taught that. And he didn't. In fact, we have another parable. And again, I just summarize it quickly. But we have another parable. It's the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. And you know that the Pharisees were the higher-ups. They were the big men. And the tax collectors were pretty much scorned by the Jewish people. Not because they collected taxes, but they were kind of dishonest, okay? And so they enter the temple. And Jesus tells a parable about this, to make his point. And so he talks about the Pharisee. This is what the Pharisee does. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers. Or even like this tax collector. Now, here's a guy that was satisfied with his own righteousness. He was obedient and he was proud of it. But the tax collector, here's a guy who knew for sure he just didn't measure up. And so Jesus tells it this way, but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven. But he beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Now, what was this guy asking for? He was asking for grace. He was asking for mercy. He was asking for forgiveness. Because unlike the Pharisee who didn't measure up and didn't know it, here's a guy that didn't measure up and knew it. So what does Jesus say about him? He says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified. Rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Justification by grace through faith is exactly at the heart of this parable. Is that any different from Paul? No, same thing. Then there's a matter of redemption and propitiation. Paul says, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. Now, these are kind of fancy terms, but we all need to know them from the oldest to the youngest. And redemption simply means to buy back. I think sometimes we use the illustration, I don't know that they do this anymore, but when I was a boy they did. Some of you older people like myself will remember this. The redemption center for the stamps, my mother would collect the stamps and just before Christmas she'd go redeem them and we'd have Christmas. It's to buy back, okay? Well, Jesus bought us back because we are under the Adamic curse because Adam sinned and all humanity fell and is under sin and we are cursed by that and Jesus buys us back. That's redemption. Propitiation is a little bit different. And I looked up the terms just to be sure I'm correct on this, but it means to mollify It means to appease. It means to placate or placate. It means to conciliate. And we teach our children, turn that frown upside down. Turn that frown to a smile. And that's what Jesus does. It is propitiation. God is a God of grace and mercy to be sure, but He's also a God of justice and a God of wrath. And He hates sin and will condemn sinners. And the only way to change God's frown upon sin to put a smile upon sinners is that they be redeemed because God has been propitiated. And that propitiation comes through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus may not have used these terms the way Paul did, but all Paul is doing is describing in verbal terms what Jesus actually did on the cross. There's no difference. It's the very same thing. And Jesus talked about this in Matthew 17. You know, it's interesting in his early part of the ministry, he didn't talk about the death. In fact, he didn't even promote himself as Messiah that much in the earliest days because he didn't want them to try to make him king and the political military ruler. But as he got closer and closer to the end, In Matthew 17 we read, And they were gathering in Galilee, and Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day. Matthew 20, See, we're going up to Jerusalem. And as the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, And he will be raised on the third day. And then Matthew 20. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Even is the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. That was at the very heart. of why Jesus came to atone for the sins of the people. He will save His people from their sins. He didn't save them by leading a good life only. He saved them by sacrificing Himself on the cross as their substitute in their place under the judgment of God as God judged Him and He cried out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? And there he is suffering the justice and the wrath of God for you and me to propitiate God, to give his life a ransom to the judgment of God, to redeem us. Paul simply described what Jesus did on the cross. That's all. There's no difference. The one thing I haven't mentioned that I need to mention, and that is the resurrection, because in Romans chapter 3, in the passage that I've read, there is no resurrection. But there is in chapter 1, there is in chapter 4, I think in chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 8, and other places in Romans and throughout Paul's writings, he mentions the resurrection of Jesus Christ roughly 30 times and devotes an entire chapter to it in 1 Corinthians 15. So we know that Paul believed in the necessity of the resurrection of Christ. So what's missing? Nothing's missing. What we have in the writings of this great apostle that God raised up is summary form, verbal expression of the life and death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to urge you to read the Bible as a unit. Old Testament to New Testament. I want to urge you to read the New Testament as a unit. Gospels to all the other New Testament writers. I want to urge you to see that there is one redemptive story that runs all the way through the scriptures. It's stated in different ways under different eras, but it's the very same thing without which we are left in our sins, without which we are under the judgment of God, without which we are condemned forever and ever and ever. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Ronnie said, was it last week? Jesus is not an add-on, or the week before, I can't remember. He's the center of everything. Is He the center of you? Is He the center of you? Have you come to know Him as your Lord and Savior? Have you come to understand that He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him? the atonement on the cross, the resurrection from the dead, the satisfaction of righteousness and justice, so that He can impute His righteousness to us, that we have the very righteousness of Christ. The Bible describes it as being closed in His righteousness. Praise be to God. And so we are. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You for Jesus. We thank you for the Apostle Paul, who simply describes what Jesus was and did in different terms at times, but the very same thing. Help us to keep this gospel central in our minds. Help it to be the very core of our hearts that we are united with him forever and ever based on his finished work. of atonement and resurrection from the dead. Help us, Lord, not to grow away from the gospel, but to grow into the gospel, that it might become more and more precious to us, day after day after day, until you receive us into your presence. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.