I want to welcome our visitors and we're so thankful that you're with us during this month where we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation and God has been good to spread the gospel across the whole world, hasn't he? Open your Bibles, if you will, to Romans chapter 3. And we're going to be reading in just a moment in verses 21 through 26. And we're talking about faith alone this morning. What does that mean? Faith means to trust, to hold on to. And I want to ask you this morning, what are you trusting in for your soul? Ultimately, is it up to you or is it up to God? It cannot be both. 500 years ago, the same question was asked and it brought one of the greatest revivals in the history of the world. The question was, how are we justified? How is a person made ready to meet God and be with him in heaven? Do you know what the answer to that question is? The answer that Martin Luther gave turned the world upside down. He rediscovered the Bible doctrine that a person is justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Do you believe that this morning? Very few people 500 years ago understood the gospel that clearly. They were not trusting in Christ alone, but in Christ plus the sacraments, plus penance, plus good works, and a whole lot of other things. No one could ever, at that time, with that philosophy, be sure of heaven while they were on this earth. Martin Luther said this doctrine of faith alone is the hinge on which the gospel swings. He was in agony of soul until he rediscovered this glorious truth in Paul's letter to the Romans. Faith alone in Christ alone. So simple. But in his day, people were doing good works in order to gain heaven. They would even pay money, called indulgences, to spring souls from purgatory, which is a made-up doctrine in and of itself. Before Luther was saved, he was touring Rome, and he came across a man named Johann Tetzel at St. Peter's Cathedral at the Vatican, which was still under construction. Tetzel was an ancient prosperity preacher of sorts. Tetzel drew circus-like crowds and offered free sin passes. They called these indulgences for those who knew they wanted to sin and indulgence would buy forgiveness for them ahead of time. Regardless of the cost, a free pass to sin was a good deal for those not wanting to navigate the hoopla of the church's confessionals and sacraments. People at that time could also pay for their loved ones to get out of purgatory. Listen to an actual sermon by Johann Tetzel. These are his words, quote, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Seek him on behalf of your father and your mother. Do you not hear the voices of your dead parents and other people screaming and saying, have pity on me, have pity on me? We are suffering severe punishments and pain from which you could rescue us with a few pennies if you only would. Open your ears, because the father is calling to the son for release from purgatory, and the mother is calling to the daughter." We have those kinds of preachers today, don't we? But this was particularly disgusting to Luther. And of course, he heard Tetzel His word of assurance, he would say, quote, as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs, unquote. Luther came back from that tour of Rome completely grieved and beside himself. He was not yet converted to Christ as of yet, but he was being drawn. And yet as a teacher, professor, and lecturer for the church, he would often put out points of theology to debate. On October 31st, 1517, Luther, disgusted with indulgences, nailed the 95 theses or propositions to debate to the castle door at Wittenberg, Germany. Though Luther was not yet Born again, several of his propositions had the ideas of the five solas of the gospel. The Lord was leading him as he was studying in the book of Romans. And these five solas are just very lightly sprinkled in the 95 theses. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, on the authority of the scriptures alone. We believe these things and take them almost for granted, but these were new to Luther. He was rediscovering them. Luther said if the Pope had authority to grant forgiveness through indulgences, why didn't he grant them to everyone without charge 24 and seven and just forgive the whole world? Well, let me tell you about Luther's conversion before we get into our text. Luther continued to try to earn his salvation. One of the key verses that plagued him was Romans 1.17, the righteous shall live by faith. He was reading it wrong his whole life. All of his teachers, all of his professors had told them that you must be righteous first in order to live by faith. Whenever Luther read Romans 117, his eyes were drawn not to the word faith, but to the word righteous. Who, after all, could live by faith but those who were already righteous? The text was clear on the matter. The righteous shall live by faith. And for Luther, this was completely unattainable. Luther remarked, I hated that word, the righteousness of God, by which I had been taught according to the custom of all my teachers, that God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner. The young Luther could not live by faith because he was not righteous and he knew it. Meanwhile, he was ordered to become a professor at Wittenberg University, and during his studies in the book of Romans in 1519, this was his second study, he began to see a way through this dilemma. Listen to his discovery in 1519. He said this quote at last meditating day and night by the mercy of god I began to understand that the righteousness of god is that through which the righteous live by a gift of god Namely by faith Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise in itself through the gates that had been swung open Hallelujah Luther rediscovered what had been taught throughout the ages. That the righteousness that we need to enter into heaven is not in us, but it's outside of ourselves. And it's obtained through faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ alone. With that in mind, let's stand together as we read this passage from God's holy word in Romans chapter 3, verses 21 through 26. But now the righteousness of God has been made manifest 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. You may be seated. We come to this beautiful realization, our first point, that salvation by faith was not invented in the ministry of Jesus or the Apostle Paul. The gospel of grace is ancient, as ancient as when God created the world and man fell into sin and God called after Adam, where are you? Faith alone is revealed in the Old Testament. It's not a brand new novelty unheard of in the old covenant. This is a doctrine now crystal clear in the work of Jesus Christ. And it's the same way of salvation that God proclaimed to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to Jeremiah, to Isaiah. The just shall live by faith, justification by faith alone. Notice in verse 21, he says, the law and the prophets, that is another name for the Old Testament, bear witness to God's way of salvation by grace through faith. It's a way of righteousness manifested apart from the law covenant at Sinai, the Ten Commandments. Paul had just gotten done saying in verse 20 of Romans chapter three that no one can be justified by keeping the law. It's impossible. It's never been by works or law keeping. God's people have always been failures at that. God's Old Testament people were given the law covenant at Sinai. They were told, do this, live keep the Ten Commandments and live Deuteronomy 6 25 and After Moses gave the law covenant at Sinai the people responded remember all the words that you have told us we will do and Before they finished that sentence they were condemned. I They couldn't keep the law and it wasn't meant for them to gain salvation by keeping the law. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 1.9, the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and for the disobedient. Is there anyone who is just? Is there any good? Is there anyone who seeks after God? Not even one, Paul says, quoting Psalm 14. So what is the purpose of this law covenant that Paul talks about and says that righteousness from God, a right standing before God on judgment day can never be found in the law. In fact, it's found apart from the law covenant and it's manifested throughout the Old Testament in the law and the prophets. Well, Paul says in Galatians that the law, that law covenant was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. In other words, the law says, do this and don't do this. And yet we break the law, realizing our need for Jesus. The law is saying, you are a sinner. You constantly sin. You keep breaking the law. Now here, let me introduce you to the Savior who will save your soul. The law will never save you. Jesus alone saves. Romans. tells us that we are justified by faith alone. And the law is to bring us to that point. As the Philippian jailer said, what must I do to be saved? Have you tried saving yourself? Have you tried improving yourself? It doesn't work. There's only one savior and you're not it. Jesus is our savior. The Law Covenant throughout the Old Testament was always a covenant of grace and redemption. It wasn't meant to justify people by works. It was always meant to show them that they could never be righteous in and of themselves. Whether it was Adam and Eve, or Abraham, Noah, Moses, or David, it was always a covenant that God would obtain salvation for those who trust in him. And this is very clear in the Old Testament. How do we know that the Old Covenant was redemptive? Well, whenever God came to reconcile his people, whether it was Adam or Moses or anyone else, it was always with a sacrifice, wasn't it? With Adam and Eve, the Lord killed animals in order to clothe them with skins, those animal skins in Genesis 3. Noah was justified by faith. He was a preacher of righteousness and he proclaimed that God was going to judge the world and all they needed to do in order to be saved was to trust in God by entering into the ark. And by the way, Jesus is our ark, amen? And after that ark landed on Mount Ararat, Moses took some of the clean animals, the scripture says in Genesis 8.20, and he sacrificed those clean animals to God. He wasn't saved by faith as a meritorious work. Faith is just that which links us to the work of Christ. And we're going to find out that all of these Old Testament characters and figures were linked to Christ. Abraham made a covenant of blood. And while Abraham was sleeping, God initiated this covenant and he carried it out all by himself. And God walked through the animals that were cut in two. Because it was God's way of saying that He was responsible for this covenant. All Abraham had to do, as we read this morning, was to believe. And it would be accounted to him for righteousness. That covenant, pictured by the animal, is a picture of whoever breaks the covenant gets that condemnation. They get killed. They get destroyed. We could speak of Moses who doused the people with blood at the base of Mount Sinai, demonstrating they would not be able to keep the covenant. And God asked, or Moses asked God to reveal himself. And God said this about himself. He said, I am a God that's full of grace and plenteous and mercy and abounding and unrelenting love. That is who God is. And he has not changed. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen. David wrote so many Psalms. about the justified man who is forgiven of his sins. Psalm 130 verse 1. If you, O Lord, should keep a record of our sins, who could stand? That's what David said. He knew that he could never justify himself by his works. In other words, our right standing before God is not based on our record, but on the record of someone else, namely Jesus. Remember King Solomon, when he inaugurated the temple, he offered 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats. And so the king and all the people dedicated the temple to God. The temple was God's dwelling place. The idea is that you can't come near a holy God unless justice is satisfied. No, I can't satisfy justice. You can't satisfy justice. But I know someone who has gone to the mercy seat, the cross, and Jesus has gone there and satisfied justice for you and me. So these, in the Old Testament, were all made right before a holy God, not based on their own righteousness, but based on a foreign, an alien righteousness, and a righteousness outside of themselves, as Paul said in Philippians 3, 9, that I may be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. Hallelujah. All I need to be connected to the righteousness of God, the work of Christ, is faith in Christ, trust in Christ. Were any of the Old Testament people or New Testament people perfect outside of Jesus? Let me ask you that. Were any of them perfect? No. Paul is talking about righteousness or justification. What does that mean? The righteousness of God means a right standing before God. And we do not have that. How do we get that right standing before God? How did they get it? Read Hebrews 11. How did the Old Testament people get that right standing before God? By faith and faith alone. The Old Testament witnessed to a right standing with God that was obtained apart from doing good works. And so if we want to understand the Old Testament, we only need to think of what Hebrews 9.22 says about it. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Constant sacrifices pointed to the fact that God's justice needed to be satisfied. And none of those people could satisfy the righteous wrath of a holy God. Remember in Exodus, where the people were told as slaves in Egypt at the last plague to paint the doorposts with blood from a lamb. And they were to take that hyssop branch and paint the door jams in the header. And remember what God said He would do? When I see the blood, I will pass over you. See, even then at that moment, their redemption could never be based on their works, but had to be based on a sacrifice. So faith alone is revealed in the Old Testament. But secondly, let me let me say this, that faith alone is required for justification. The work of Christ has no help for you unless you are connected to it by faith. Well. What is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11.1, God has revealed to you things not seen. I was not there at Calvary to see Jesus lay his life down for my sins, but there is rational evidence all around, and he has revealed it to me in the Holy Scriptures. So that though I was not there, I trust with my whole heart that he died for my sins. He died for your sins. When Luther announced this concept of faith alone in the 16th century, it created a cry of opposition that split the church in two. But let's read it right here in Romans 3, 22. He says, the righteousness of God received through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. And look at verse 24, they're justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Faith is required to be justified. What does it mean to be justified? As I said, it means to have a right standing before God, to be declared righteous in the presence of a holy God. How can a sinner be declared righteous in the presence of a holy God. That is the conundrum of the entire Bible. That's the conundrum of our passage. How can God be just and let sinners into heaven? Well, here it is. It's Jesus. Jesus is the reason God can let sinners into heaven. And There was a great cry in the church when Martin Luther began to preach this 500 years ago. It split the church in two because many people were afraid that what Luther was teaching was the idea that all one had to do was to have a casual, cavalier belief in Jesus, and then they could live however they wanted, any wickedness that they desired they could explore. And obviously this kind of doctrine is antinomianism. It's wrong. Jesus said, depart from me, you lawless people, I never knew you. Anyone who is a Christian has been transformed. And so it's kind of like the song that we sung this morning. Be of sin a double cure, save from wrath and make me pure. The righteousness of Christ applied to us. Makes us just before god, but the very presence of christ is invited into us to purify us in our lives Now we will never be completely pure until we see jesus face to face, but even our sanctification does not Merit our justification their their gifts from god So that while we are still sinning on this earth, we are at the same time perfectly righteous and just before a holy God. We have a progressive sanctification, but we have a positional righteousness before God, so that when we die and God says, well done, good and faithful servant, about that time you're thinking, well done. I didn't even do hardly what, according to my standard, much less your standard, God. And just about that time, Jesus is just going to go, shh, let me do the talking. And he shows his hands, his pierced hands and his pierced feet. And your well done is the well done that Christ has gained for you. Now that's good news. You must come by faith. He says, for there is no distinction, verse 23 of Romans 3, 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. All are sinners. The ground is level at the cross. All may come without distinction. There are no ethnic or social or economic barriers. Come kings and presidents, come to Jesus. Come little children, come to Jesus. There is no distinction. Come old and young, male and female. Come Asian, African, Latino and Anglo. Come Indian, Filipino, Arabian and Jew. Come one and all to Christ. Come rich and poor. Come religious or non-religious. Come to Jesus. There is room at the cross for you. One of the wonderful things about the last book of the Bible is that it pictures before God, around his throne, a people that Christ has purchased for himself. A people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Millions, billions of them on that last day surround the throne of God. People from everywhere of different colors and different senses of humor and different languages and different ethnicities. And God has drawn out of the mass of humanity from all of those nations. And one thing that they have in common is that they're all sinners. And the other thing that they're in common is that they all put their trust in Jesus. Hallelujah. What a savior. All without distinction are sinners. All without distinction need a savior. All without distinction need to be justified by his grace as a gift through the payment of Christ on the cross. Oh, all are guilty. We're so guilty. Sinners, by definition, cannot save themselves. Trying to save yourself would, in essence, be the same as trying to perform open-heart surgery on yourself. You can't do it. It's impossible. You need someone else. And I'm thankful that God has sent that someone else. For we are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Come to Him. Jesus said, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Oh, that tells us the third thing that is so glorious this morning, and that is that faith alone rests on Christ alone. It's not based on my faith. Faith is not a meritorious work. Faith is simply saying I have nothing. I have nothing to give. Nothing in my hand I bring, only to thy cross I cling. That's what faith is. The object of my faith and trust must be Christ. Not myself, our church, or anything else. In order to have God's righteousness, I must put my full faith in Jesus Christ. And so the means of appropriation of all the benefits of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is through faith and faith alone. Don't misunderstand. Faith does not merit us anything. The doctrine of justification is really justification in Christ alone. It has nothing to do with me. Faith in and of itself, Paul says in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, is a gift. Our whole salvation is a gift. I love him because he first loved me. No one can come unto the Father except they're first drawn by the Father. And all who are given to the Father will come. This is such a mystery. Don't complicate it. Just look to Jesus Christ. Trust in christ alone if you trust in christ plus your good works or plus a good marriage or a plus You know a decent progressive sanctification or that you're a good person then you're doomed It's not my sanctification that saves me. It's the work of christ on the cross that saves us luther put it this way in his lectures on romans and by the way He wasn't yet born again when he wrote these. These were his early lectures. But he said this, The moment I ground grace in anything in myself, present in any measure through myself, no matter by what means produced, grace has forfeited the right to be called grace. In other words, if it's God's grace, then it's nothing in me. Salvation is trusting in Christ plus nothing. So my good works, are evidence that I am born again, but they do not improve my standing more or less before a holy God. It is Christ alone that justifies me because of his meritorious life and substitutionary death. Now listen to this, as we trust in Christ alone, know this, that redemption was free for us, but it cost God everything. Redemption It says, comes through Christ, Jesus. And we are justified by His grace as a gift. Someone said that grace is God's riches at Christ's expense. Amen. God's love is a scandalous love. You might say, well, it's just not fair. You don't want fairness. Grace is God's free love, his sovereign love to you. It's God's redeeming sacrifice. What does that mean? It means whether you've committed one sin or a thousand, you are deserving of hell. All equally need to be saved. And all one must do to be saved is to look to Jesus Christ and live. Look unto me, all the ends of the earth, Isaiah said, God said in Isaiah, and be saved. Well, what is redemption? He says, it's through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What am I putting my faith in? In the redemption that Christ has accomplished. What is redemption? Well, in the Old Testament and in ancient days, they didn't have chapter 11 and bankruptcy laws, so that if you borrowed some money and got into some trouble with your business and lost your business, and you couldn't pay back the money, you would have to enlist as a slave. You would go to the slave market and put yourself up for sale at the slave market. And you would ask for the amount that you need to pay off your debt. And it may take five years, 10 years, it may take a lifetime, but you would be brought into slavery. And here's the picture of Christ that we're all in the slave market of sin. We're all in debt. We have a debt we can never, ever pay. And Christ comes and they say, how much for you and how much for you and how much for you? It's so much. It's infinite. How could you ever pay that? And Christ says, I will pay it. I will give my blood. Who are you? Well, I'm the son of God. I am the sovereign. I am the creator of the world. My death, my blood is of infinite worth. And so Christ's redemption saves us, but it could save a billion, trillion worlds of people. And yet if you were the only unrighteous person on earth, And all the other people were perfect. And you, the only wretched sinner, he would have gladly given his life just for you. Salvation through Christ's redemptive work. Oh, it was free for us. It's by his grace as a gift for us. It costs us nothing. We just have to admit that we have nothing to merit before a holy God. But oh, how costly our redemption was for the Lord God almighty. God, it says in verse 25, put him forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. A propitiation, what is that? Propitiation means to satisfy the righteous wrath and justice of God. Now listen to this, this is so interesting. The root of this word, propitiation, is mercy seat. You know the story of the mercy seat, don't you? That once a year on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur, the high priest, would go with a rope around him and with bells upon the fringes of his garment and go beyond the holy place into the holy of holies. And he would take the blood of that lamb and he would pour it on the mercy seat. Look to the cross. The cross. Is our mercy seat. Christ is our mercy seat. God looks to the cross and through the cross he sees you and he declares you righteous because you're trusting in the blood of his only begotten son. It was. free for us, but it costs God everything. Faith alone does not rest in me. It doesn't rest in my ability to articulate doctrine. It doesn't rest in perfect faith or perfect repentance. It rests on Jesus Christ and Christ alone through his propitiation. Well, what about God's justice? Verse 25, he says, this was to show God's righteousness or justice, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. So God did this. God sent Jesus to bear the wrath for our sins in order to demonstrate that God is a holy God. God is not just some effeminate grandfather in heaven saying, winking at sin and saying, oh, it's no big deal. No, God is absolutely just and absolutely righteous. And it was to demonstrate his justice. in His divine forbearance that He sent Jesus Christ to bear the wrath for our sins. Not only for ours, but it says for former sins, for all of those in the Old Testament, the blood of bulls and of goats could not take away their sins. Jesus Christ is the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. And so if anyone is to be saved, both Old and New Testament, there's only one place to look, to Jesus Christ. For the Old Testament saints, it was a belief in the coming Messiah. And while they did not understand all the things that God would reveal in the New Covenant, they were trusting in the Lord, and it was counted to them for righteousness. Let me say this finally, that faith alone reflects God's righteousness. This was to show his righteousness at the present time, at this new covenant age, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. God presented Jesus as the wrath bearer for our sins to demonstrate that he is the God of holiness, that he is the one that the angels cry out day and night, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. That God is not turning a blind eye to sin. That God is not just excusing your sin because he's nice. That's not the God of the Bible. Our God is kind, but he is just. And in order to be kind to sinners, he must provide a mercy seat. Someone to bear the wrath in our place. And so Paul says in the next chapter, that to the one who does not work but believes in Christ, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Oh, God justifies the ungodly. How can God be just and still allow sinners into heaven? He's just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. He did it all, amen? My everlasting soul is not resting on my works, but on Christ's work. Are we justified by works? Not by my work in any way, but yes, by Christ's work. Christ, through his active obedience, he fulfilled the law perfectly in my place. Christ, through his passive obedience, through his death, his sacrificial death on the cross, Substituted for me so that God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. There's a divine exchange. There's a great exchange and it all occurs through faith. You say, what must I do to be safe? Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. In 1521, Martin Luther was called to an assembly in Worms, Germany, to appear before Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. He thought he was just arriving to prepare for a debate, but he quickly discovered that there was a trial underway in which they wanted him to recant his views of justification by grace through faith in Christ. And Luther replied, Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with clear reason based on Scripture that I cannot and will not recant, it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience. And then he added, Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen. And Luther stood there. By faith in Christ alone. If you're here this morning and you're believing in Christ, then celebrate. But if you're trusting in anything else, throw yourself on the work of Jesus Christ. Come to the cross, come to him by faith. Jesus said, I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death unto life. Let us worship Christ for what He has done. He said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. It's not my righteousness that I plead. I plead Christ's righteousness and have a holy standing before God through sola fide, faith alone in Christ alone. Here I stand and here you stand. We can do no other. Amen? Father, we thank you for this time that we can come to your Word. And as weak as the Word is preached, we know your Word does not rest on the instrument, but on itself. And so we ask, Lord, that you would take this word and empower it in our lives to encourage all of us, Lord, not never, never, never to trust in ourselves, Lord, but to trust in Jesus alone. We ask in his name. Amen.