What a time we've had just looking into God's Word. Telling norm that I feel a little bit scared to preach because I've taken the ball to the five-yard line And I would really hate to fumble it at this point So the reality is is we need to open up our Bibles and let God speak and Because here we see the good news. Some of you have to say, Shannon, man, this has just been bad news from beginning to end. When are you going to bring the good news? And I'm saying, look, I'm just following Paul. It's his fault. But open your Bibles to Romans chapter 3, and let us look at the good news together. are ramblings and so on. That would sing of your amazing grace that we would sing of the greatness of the salvation that is ours that we would say with Paul that we understand the height and the depth and the and of your love Lord we need your help open our eyes help us see the indescribable love Lord, we know that we can't on this human fleshly body, be able to fathom it to its fullest degree, but give us the ability to understand it as much as we possibly can in this human body. Help us now, please help me. And Lord, help those who don't know you. to recognize the gift that is offered to all who believe and help them believe, help them deal with this sin problem once and for all. Go before us, we pray. We need you in this hour. Through your Son we pray, amen. Well, as we said, we're going to come to the time of the good news. Before we do that, though, we want to get a running start forward. So therefore, we need to back up and then come forward. So let us be reminded of Romans 1.16. Romans 1 16 he tells us that he's not ashamed of the The gospel he the reason he's not ashamed the reason he cannot under no circumstances be ashamed is because that gospel is The power of God and my friends do we realize that and see that more clearly why and how? essential that power is Without that power, no man will ever be broken from sin's power. You see, sin's power holds us captive, and there's no way we can ever be released from sin's bondage without a divine power intervening. And that divine power intervenes when the gospel goes forth. Chains lock us. The power of God breaks us from... But he tells us that in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. And I say, like I've said from the beginning, if our gospel does not include the righteousness of God, it is not the gospel. Because according to Paul's own words, the gospel in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. And again, I will say it is shocking. This doctrine is lost. We may have other ways of communicating, like it's a red bead, or it's a white bead, or our little microwave ways, but at the end of the day, it's just not the same. Because the words righteousness of God are different than a white bead made clean. And we need to use and get back to biblical terminology so that we can be more poignant and more clear, because at the end of the day, it influences the way we act, and we'll see that tomorrow morning. But from there, he tells us that there is only one who will live eternally, 117, and that is who? The righteous only one and is the righteous. And he begins this, this, uh, presentation of how the non, the non-religious are not righteous, how the religious are not righteous. And then he comes to the Jew and the Jew is not righteous, regardless of the truth that's been revealed, regardless of the fact that, that you have the embodiment of the law, regardless of the spiritual blessings, regardless of all this stuff, man still is not righteous. Rather than being righteous, frankly, we are in rebellion. Rather than giving Him glory, rather we blaspheme the name of God by our actions. Those who are set apart for the exaltation of God in reality bring the destruction of the name of God. And when you think that isn't you, watch yourself. breaks my own heart, how me standing up as a pastor, and I could say things, and I think to myself, why did I just say that? Oh, I hope nobody saw me do that, right? Maybe that's just me. And then he comes and he begins to explain why. Why we are all know the truth but live in rebellion against the truth. And the reason why is because we are all under what? Sin. We're all under it. It has control. It has authority. It has power over us. It is reigning within the hearts of unregenerate mankind. They don't. There's none righteous. There's none who understands. There's none who who are righteous and da da da da da. And result. No hope. And results, every mouth is silenced. Every mouth is closed and the whole world is accountable to. That's the truth about man. And if Christ never came, you put a period, you close the story there. And the only thing we await is hell. The good news, it doesn't end there. The good news is that we're able to turn the page. We're able to go to the next verse. And the next verse tells us these two incredible words in verse 21. And what are they? But now. And you know, Paul has just built that up. You know, we've been waiting, Paul. Thank you for the but. But now. But finally, all right? But now there is good news. Now the light of hope is there. And the picture that Paul has built for us, you need to understand, the picture is we are sitting there guilty before God, unable to speak, before the judge, hopelessly guilty, right? in the midst of that hopeless guilt, but now. And the picture, you'll see it. And from that picture, remember it because that's where we were. But then all of a sudden, something happens. What happens? The king comes down and intervenes on our behalf. And that's what we are about to see. He says what he is going to do for us in this time is he is going to first declare and describe his righteousness or his good news. He's going to do that in verses 21 through 23. He is going to declare and describe his righteousness. That's the first thing he's going to do. The second thing he's going to do for us. In verse 24, he's going to explain how this good news is obtained, how this good news is obtained. And then lastly, what he's going to do, he's going to he's going to explain how this good news has been. Bye. not guilty. He says, you're righteous. What? And you can imagine the scene. You can imagine the pandemonium. So therefore, a lot of explanation needs to take place. And he's going to explain it for us. But understand this aspect of the righteousness of God is pervasive. Let me show you how pervasive it is. Look at 21. It says, but now apart from the law, what has been revealed? The righteousness of God. Look at verse 22, even the righteousness of God through faith. Look at 24 being declared, being justified or being declared righteous as a gift. 25 that to demonstrate his righteousness verse 26 to demonstrate I say this his righteousness of this promise at this present time so that he would be Righteous and one the one who declares one righteous or justifier Verse 28 to maintain that a man is justified or declared righteous by faith. I 22, but it was credited to him as righteousness. Verse 25 is delivered over because of our transgression. It was raised because of our justification or our being declared righteous. Five, one having been justified or having been declared righteous by faith. That's not enough you look at chapter 5 verse 16 at the end. He says many transgressions resulted in Justification or may resulted in many being declared justified verse 17 those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of his Righteousness. Are you getting the idea? This is pervasive. This is this is the whole theme of Verse 18, there resulted justification of life to all men. Verse 19, the many will be made what? Righteous. Verse 21, so that sin reigned in death, so grace will reign through what? Righteousness. You say, Shannon, come on. Why are you doing this? Because I want you to see how in the world have we missed it. You want me to go someplace more familiar turn to Romans chapter 10 One we quote all the time And I want you to listen very closely to this As I want you to see something and this will break our hearts 10 to 4 I testify about them that they have a zeal for God speaking the Jews they have a zeal for God and Problem, but it's not in accordance with what? Knowledge now look at verse 3 of fascinating verse not knowing about what? Not knowing about God's righteousness. What are they doing and seeking to establish their own? They did not subject themselves to what? the righteousness of God Verse 4 for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes Verse 6 the righteousness based on faith All right, let's get more familiar Go with me to verse 9. I think we all know this we could probably quote it together and if you confess with your mouth Jesus as And believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. You will be with your heart. A person believes resulting in righteousness. Oh my goodness. How could it be there? And we miss it all along, but you see, we can go anywhere. We can go to, to, uh, is it first green? Second Corinthians five 21. And God made him who knew no sin. It's apart from man doing, attaining righteousness in the law. It's aside from that. He tells us more about that righteousness. But let me just, just get this in your head. It's the righteousness of? The righteousness of? The righteousness of? It is outside of us. Belongs to Him. And as we'll see, it is credited to us, not ours. We are saved by a righteousness that we don't even know about because it belongs. He gives us three descriptions of this righteousness. He says, first, this righteousness is witnessed by. The law and the prophets, meaning it is not a new righteousness, it is a righteousness that the law and the prophets talked about. And that's why we'll see tomorrow when Paul, when Paul describes this righteousness and tries to exemplify it, he goes to two people right in the Old Testament, the two big men, the two studs of the Old Testament, Abraham and David. And he'll show it was credited to them as righteousness. So we see this is not a new righteousness. This is the one that has been revealed all the way in the Old Testament and has been made more clear to us in this present day. It's not new, it's old. Salvation of the New Testament is the same salvation of the Old Testament. How were they saved in the Old Testament? One way, the righteousness of God. That's how. And how do you explain it? What do you mean? We'll explain it in a few moments. The second description he gives of this righteousness, look in verse 22. He says, it's the righteousness of God, which is through what? This righteousness, it comes by means of faith. When we place our faith in who? What does he say? When we place our faith in Jesus, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. My friends, Jews, if they don't receive Jesus, don't receive this righteousness. If you want to say he's just a prophet, my friend, you have a problem. Because you must receive and put your faith in the person in the work of Jesus Christ. And what happens when you do that all of a sudden, you're credited is righteousness. Because this righteousness is credited through faith. All of a Wait a second, why is it for all who believe? Why? He tells us, look at the four in verse 22. Four does what? Man, it's so easy. Bible interpretation's easier, you know? He explains why. Why is it available for all who believe? Come on, talk to me. For there's no distinction. Because there's no difference. There's no difference. We are all under sin. And that's what he begins to say. He explains it, what he means, what he means. There's no distinction. He tells us verse 24, all have sin and have fallen short of the glory of God. We all memorize that as kids. We've all said we have all broken the law, and here is referring to the deed, not the power. We've all sinned. We all have sinned, and we've all fallen short of His glory. This concept of glory is just an incredible thing to study, by the way. Because really, glory was lost when? At the fall. Somehow before that, there we had, we radiated the glory of God. Potentially, that's why all of a sudden when we sinned, Eve, you're naked. Because the glory no longer shone forth. But what will happen in the future day, we will return to what? Glory. And one day there will be no need for sun because of the glory of God radiating out. And man, one day we'll lose this fleshly body and we will be returned to glory. But there is a hope now. According to Paul, we in this life, we are transferred in some miraculous way from glory to glory. I say, God, just give me another aspect of glory. But the reality is we now and forever until eternity fall short of His glory. According to Romans 8, verse 29, we will one day be glorified. Hallelujah. Till then, we're just this flesh. But we all fall short of it. And therefore, salvation is available for us all. Amen. So this is how Paul describes this righteousness. This righteousness is revealed, number one, as well as not only revealed, it's witnessed by the law and the prophets. Judicial term righteous And again Romans 8 4 talks about how in us the requirements of the law are fulfilled in us It's the same idea all that the law demanded was fulfilled in Christ and therefore Christ gave all the laws Demands and the fulfillment of all the laws demands are then fulfilled in us. Does that make clear? That's the righteousness of God Again, the righteousness of God is the holiness of God in relationship to the law. We are declared right. You can imagine the face of an individual who's declared righteous when he's what? Guilty. But he says that this is obtained look at verse 24. We are declared righteous as a what? Everybody as a what as a gift It's a gift Sometimes I realize when I preach I get so wound up that I just kind of stay at this level Let me bring the other airplane down a couple notches but listen When Christ came to us, when God came to us and declared us righteous, it was a gift. We didn't do anything for it. He just came and gave us the gift. It was free. We didn't earn it. We didn't do anything. He just gave it to us as a gift. You imagine. Oh, my goodness. What a gift. You know what Christmas is? The celebration of this gift. You can imagine. The guilty guy, he gets the gift. What would you do? You'd hold onto his legs and say, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. That's what salvation is. We get the gift. Why me? This gift's for me? Are you sure? That's what it's all about. The gift, the gift. So secondly, not only is it a gift, but it is a gift that has been given, motivated by what? Everybody motivated by what? His grace, the motivation for the gift has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with what? Him. For by grace. It's not. Us at all. You say, well, what about faith? I mean, we get righteousness through faith, right? But wait a second. We are for by grace, we are saved through faith. And that what is that referring to both? It's referring to the faith. And that is not what of ourselves. It is a gift of God. So even that faith. Is a gift of God. We love him because he first what loved us You say I don't understand neither do I But it says this righteousness is a gift and that gift is motivated from his grace not me his capital H his grace and that gift is Motivated or made available through something and what is it? Through the redemption Through the redemption which is in who Christ Jesus We know what this idea of redemption is. It's the buying back, right? I The purchasing of somebody's debt, if you will. The idea is a slave market. And we've heard this over and over again. But the picture there is, look, a slave usually was a slave because they owed money. And because they couldn't pay back, therefore the slave had to work under a master. because he didn't have the money to pay. And so therefore, by working, he paid that off. At the end of seven years, he's free. But what happens in this scenario is our sin can't be paid back. And so we're guilty. We are there. So what Christ does is he steps on the scene and he pays the debt which we could not pay. And in the process, we are what? Set free from the debt against us. We are justified as a result of this redemption. We are we are saved and we're justified because God paid a debt we couldn't pay. Hallelujah. And again, it's the Messiah, Jesus, who paid that debt. You see, he didn't come for glory, he came for suffering. He came to deal with the problem of man. And that is the debt. He had. Clear? Shannon, help me understand this more clearly. How was this good news provided? Christ publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. What are we talking about here? Let me help you see this. What God did is he says, there's a problem. I must provide a solution. So God made a plan. And that's why Christ cried out in the garden, Father, my will, but yours be done. But please, if it's possible, let this cup pass. You see, Christ was following the commands of God, the Father. So God, the Father, said, no, my plan is simple. My plan is, Son, that I will display you on a what? And when I display you, I will do it publicly. And you will be a propitiation in or through your blood. Say propitiation, that's a really weird word. You're right. A propitiation was a sacrifice. It's a propitiationary sacrifice. Or listen to this, a wrath removing sacrifice. Jesus took and appeased the wrath of God on our behalf. See, I want you to pause again here and look at this. There's a problem. This man is guilty, right? And the judge just came and declared him to be righteous. And we as witnesses are watching this, and what are we saying? I can't believe it. This is unjust. How can this judge do that? I mean, in our courts, if that happened, we'd say it's unjust. This man's unrighteous. He's an unjust, unrighteous judge. Am I right? And that's what was happening. So what God did, what the judge did, if you will, is he says, no, wait a second here. This sin will be paid for. This sin will be paid for. On the cross. And he took our sin and laid it on the cross, and what he did was he crushed his son. He poured forth all his wrath, all his fury on his son. Many, many more. for our iniquity. That's why he says at the end of verse six, but the Lord caused all the iniquity of us all to fall on him, this suffering servant. That's why it says in 53 verse 10, that the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. He was pleased. In verse 11, it says, as a result of the anguish of his soul, this is Christ, by the way, because of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. Appreciation. Because his knowledge because his knowledge the righteous one My servant will justify the many as he will bear their iniquity End of verse 12 because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressions He himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressions. It was promised and it was fulfilled hallelujah You see, it was God's plan to crush his son. Say why? For what purpose? Paul tells us there's a purpose in the past and there's a purpose in the present and future. Look with me at the purpose in the past. Middle of verse 25 says this was to demonstrate what? His righteousness why why did he need to demonstrate his righteousness? He tells us because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously what? committed you see Just like we sit here and say wait a second. This is unjust and So was the rest of heaven saying the same thing. You see, he says there that he played Christ, what, publicly. That was an important word put in there because he wanted to publicly show the world, I am not an unrighteous judge. I am actually a righteous judge. You say, well, why would they say you were unrighteous? Why? Because all the past believers, Abraham and David and all of the rest, were all forgiven of their sin. It was just like God said, you're free. And the rest is, what do you mean? How could you free him? You're ungodly. And so therefore he takes his son and There's a saving faith given by God, and there's unsaving faith, which is generated by man. This unsaving faith generated by man, it results in no transformation. It is just mere belief that never transforms the heart. The one given by God, it is a faith that transforms the inward being and has total confidence to the point of one surrendering his life to Christ. And when one has true saving faith, when he has the obedience of faith, talked about in Romans 1, what happens? God, Christ becomes both, God the Father becomes just. How is he just? Because he's a judge who does what? Punishes sin. And he's justifier in that he's also a judge who sits there and says, you are declared what? Righteous. So the same judge deals with sin, and the same judge releases us from the penalty of our sin. Same concept is communicated in 1 John 2, and I will drop it and leave it. He says this. and he himself is the propitiation for our sins. Oh, friends, when you see that word, our, you must rejoice, because it's our sin. Not only for ours, only also for those of the whole world. My brothers, This salvation is amazing. Turn to Colossians chapter 3. Or chapter 2, this just has to be said, because you'll see it's all over the place. Colossians 2. Verse 13, when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having what? Having forgiven us of all our transgressions, what do you mean? How did you do that? Continue on having what? Canceled out the certificate of death consisting of the degrees against us, which were hostile to us, having and he has taken it out of the way, having what? Nailed it to the cross We had sin which damned us and he took that sin and he nailed it to the cross And when he did that christ paid it and canceled it out completely thus he was able to what forgive us of our sin Let me tell you the heart and soul of the gospel is the righteousness of christ and you I want to end by reading two things. One is a poem that I just think is just powerful. And then I want to end by reading a passage. Here's the poem. May God just help us understand the depth of this love. And it's for me. You know, how do you? It's for me. O long and dark the stairs I trod, with trembling feet to find my God. Picture trying to climb stairs. Want to get our brains in it? With trembling feet to find my God, gaining a foothold bit by bit, then slipping back and losing it. Never progressing, but striving still. with weakening grasp and faltering will, bleeding to climb to God. While he serenely smiled, unnoting me. Then it came a certain time when I loosened my hold and fell thereby. Down to the lowest step, my fall, as if I had not climbed at all. And now when I lay despairing there, listen, I put my foot on the stair. And on that same stair where I lay afraid, faltered and fell and lay dismayed and low when hope had ceased to be, my God came down the stairs to me. Isn't that the gospel? One last passage, Luke chapter 18. Look with me in verse 9. He says this. And he also told this parable to some who were what? Who were trusting in what? Themselves that they were what? That they were righteous. And therefore they viewed others with contempt. And this was the parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Verse 14, I tell you, this man went to his house, declared righteous rather than the other. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. Friends, the gospel is I am this guilty sinner. I have no hope of saving myself. I know it, I'm convinced of it, and my only response is, God, I'm guilty. God, help me. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's the only response we have. It's the judge who comes to the sinner and says, let me take that sin. Let me pay for it. And I want to declare you righteous in my sight. Friends, that's the gospel. Why should I let you into my kingdom? Lord, because you made me righteous. because you paid for my sin because of you. I want to ask you, one of two people in this room, either those who are the sinner and in need of bending the knee and crying out for mercy, or you're one who was the sinner but has already been declared to be righteous. You are the sinner. Oh, brother. Oh, brother. What are you going to do with your sin? How long are you going to run when salvation is offered? Just bend the knee. Throw yourself at the mercy of God. Ask God, save me. Give me your righteousness. Put your faith in Christ and His finished work. Throw yourself at His mercy. Faith comes from hearing. But if you are saved here, then you rise up with the redeemed, and you declare this good news to the world. Not out of obligation, but because it's what? Good news. And it's so good that we can't help but tell others. Amen.