Turn with me, if you will, to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 3. And I'm going to entitle this sermon, Why I am a Protestant. Why I am a Protestant. Many times people are ashamed to call themselves a certain thing. But I am a Protestant and that means I protest. I am a Protestant and that means I protest. And today we'll find out what we protest about. And so Romans chapter 3. and beginning at verse 19 on page 1750. Romans chapter 3, verse 19, page 1750. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law. Rather, through the law, we become conscious of sin. The word of the Lord. May we pray. Lord, would you help me with power in spite of my own physical weakness, in spite of the effect of medicines protecting the stent that caused me to be short of breath, would you so fill me with the Holy Spirit that I can speak with unction and power and anointing and vigor, mentally and physically and spiritually, that we may profit from the Word of God. For Jesus' sake, amen. There is nothing in this world that is more important than understanding that you and I can never please God by our own efforts. You know that most people think that they're pretty good. If you begin to ask people, you know, are you a sinner? Well, I can say, yes sir, amen. And understanding the law helps us understand that we're not good enough to go to heaven. I'm not good enough to go to heaven. And you're not good enough to go to heaven. And Saint Peter and Saint Paul were not good enough to go to heaven. There's only one person who's ever lived who was good enough to go to heaven, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he tells us here in Romans chapter 319 that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. So I think about Judgment Day. Think about Judgment Day. On Judgment Day, what am I going to say? If God asks me the question, why should I let you into my heaven? I have to say, Lord, I don't deserve to come into your heaven. I'm not good enough to come into your heaven, but I'm trusting in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the solid rock, and all other ground is sinking sand. That's our only hope of heaven. And he says there in verse 20, therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law. Rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. And he expounds on that later on in this book of Romans, which is my favorite letter. It lays the gospel out so plainly and clearly. Now notice verse 21, he says, but now A righteousness from God apart from law has been made known to which the law and prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Let that sink in. This righteousness from God I want you to think about the righteousness of God as a cloak, as a covering, like a raincoat or an overcoat that covers us, and it's a gift. God clothes us with his own righteousness when we put our trust in Jesus Christ. And he says, this is true, he says, this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. You know, you may have committed murder. You may have raped somebody. You may have stolen from somebody. You may be a pathological liar. You may be a drug dealer. No telling what you may have done. It makes no difference. If you will, on this day, Cast yourself on God's mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. He will blot out your sins. You will not only be neutral before God, but you will have God's own righteousness as a covering, as an overcoat covering you, so that nobody can point his finger at you and say, but look at him. because we have the gift of righteousness and that's for all who believe. And he says there's no difference. Verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All. That's every single one of us. That's the Virgin Mary. Did you know the Virgin Mary was not sinless? Do you know the Virgin Mary didn't even believe in her son at a point? And when she got worked on by her children, she went to try to get Jesus to come out because she thought he'd gone crazy. Did you know that? That's in the Gospels. She tried to get him to come out because she thought he'd gone crazy. Here's a woman who had a revelation from God that the child that she was going to conceive by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit would be God's own son. And she knew that she conceived the Lord Jesus without any human being involved in that whatsoever. And she gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a miracle! Wow! But even she struggled with unbelief. Even she was subject to the influence of her other children by Joseph, because Jesus was her firstborn son. And we have two letters of the New Testament written by her other children, St. James, the Epistle of James, and St. Jude, who was also a half-brother of Jesus. And so even Mary struggled with doubt and unbelief, and that's why Jesus said on the cross, to entrust his mother to John, the apostle John, who wasn't kin to them, but he wanted his mama to have spiritual nurture, lest his half-brothers lead her astray in unbelief. He wanted his mother to be comforted, and that's why on the cross he said, behold your mother, behold your son. So Mary struggled with unbelief. There's not a single solitary soul who doesn't struggle with unbelief at times and struggle with sin. And so he says, all, verse 23, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now look at verse 24, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Let's break that down. Justified freely. What does that mean? First of all, the word justify means to declare righteous. Not simply declare not guilty, but to declare righteous. and that we are justified freely by his grace. What does that mean? Well, Paul is being a little bit redundant because he wants us to understand so radically and clearly that we're declared righteous by God solely by grace. We're justified freely by his grace. And so one of the great doctrines of the Protestant Reformation that's kicked off on October 31st, 1517. One of the great doctrines is that we are right with God by means of grace alone. Grace alone. What we don't merit, what we don't earn, what we can never obtain by our own efforts, God gives it to us freely. He says, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. And we're going to expand on that redemption that came by Christ Jesus in a moment, in verse 25. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement. If you notice, there's a lowercase a there, and if you look down at the bottom, and it says, or as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away sin. I've used the illustration many times. There was a flower shop, on the main street in Alexandria, Louisiana, which is where we first moved a half century ago, and that flower shop used to have on their billboard this question, just how mad is she? Just how mad is she? In other words, you know, if you're a man, from time to time you put that foot in your mouth, you say something you shouldn't say, it's very hurtful, and it gets a reaction. Just how mad is she? And so the idea here is you come by $100 worth of flowers, and that'll take away her being angry at you. Well, that's the idea of a sacrifice that turns aside wrath or anger. Can we ever think of God as having anger or wrath? Oh yes, you can't read the Old Testament and not see that over and over and over again, time and time again. God is angry, his wrath is there. What can take away God's anger and wrath? Only one thing, the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement. The word that's used in the King James Version is propitiation, propitiation. And it simply means an offering that takes away not only the guilt, but the anger of someone we have offended. And notice that's through faith in his blood. I remember years ago I had a voice teacher who had studied in Europe and he taught me how to control my breath, which is a great gift right now, taking this medicine to keep my stint from getting clots around it because I'm out of breath. But my voice teacher told me how to control my breath. And he did that, as I've told you, he played scales with his right hand and punched me in my stomach with his left. And I'm telling you, that helps you control your breath. I'm not shaking. My voice isn't shaking as I do this. And the deal is, though, that I used to sing. And I would sing. I remember singing one time at a beauty contest with a US senator. He was the judge. And at that point, he didn't have a wife. His wife had died. And later on, he ended up marrying Miss South Carolina. The man was quite a connoisseur of ladies. And we got to visit with each other as I was singing. But anyhow, here's the point with that, going off on that story, is that I learned a lot of songs. And when I became a Christian, on September 4th, 1964, that's when I realized that I was not good enough to go to heaven, there really was a God, and that God had extended His love to me in Jesus Christ, and I wanted to know Jesus, and that night I came to know Jesus. It wasn't emotional or anything like that. I just knew that I knew that I knew that Jesus had done what I asked Him to do and saved me. Well, I had a neighbor across the ditch from my backyard who was a Christian scientist. And so she asked me would I sing in their service. Of course, I'd sing anywhere, anytime, for anybody. And so I was going to sing a song. I was going to sing the Holy City. Last night I lay asleep. There came a dream so fair, I stood in old Jerusalem beside the temple there. And when I got to a certain point, she said, oh, we can't talk about the cross and the blood. Why is that? Anyhow, you see, those things weren't real to her. Well, I went ahead and sang the Lord's Prayer for her, but I learned a great lesson. Talk about the blood of Jesus and that'll really offend people. And people call it slaughterhouse religion. Well, I'm gonna tell you the only way to get into heaven is that blood of Jesus. And that's how we're right with God, through faith in his blood. And then he goes on in the next sentence, he did this to demonstrate his justice because in his forbearance, he left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. What does that mean? It's kind of like you get behind in a credit card. And they're going to come after you, you know. And it's building up. It's building up. And the picture here is that all of the sins, going back to the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and on down, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah and all the others. All of those sins, what did God do? He left them unpunished. It didn't say that he would never punish them, but he didn't punish them immediately. He said to demonstrate There in verse 25, second sentence, he did this to demonstrate his justice because in his forbearance he left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. Now again, did he leave them unpunished? No, only temporarily. Look at verse 26. He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. What does that mean? It means that when Jesus hung on that cross. He was punished for your sins and my sins. He was punished in our place. The chastisement for our peace, the chastisement for our healing, the chastisement to make us right with God, fell on Jesus. That's why He could cry out on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Did God the Father forsake His Son? Yes, He did. Why did he forsake his son? Because the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all, quoting from Isaiah 53. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. And he did that to demonstrate his justice at the present time. And what does that mean? So as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. You know, if God never punished sin, he wouldn't be a just God. I want you to think about something for a moment. I believe the narrative that Adolf Hitler in Berlin committed suicide, got married to his girlfriend that he'd lived with for many years, and they committed suicide. And if that's all there is, he escaped judgment. Here's a man that's responsible for the death of millions of people. Millions of people. And did he simply Excuse me, I'm sorry. Did he simply escape justice and punishment by taking his own life? No, I'll tell you that he woke up and discovered that he was in hell. Wow. But God is just. He punishes sin. And do you know, and boy this is going to be quite a statement I'm about to make, do you know that if Adolf Hitler before he took the poison, had cried out to God and said, oh God, I'm a wicked man. I deserve to burn in hell forever. Would you have mercy on me for the sake of Jesus? If he had turned from his life of sins and cast himself on God's mercy in Jesus Christ, he would have been saved then and there. Wow. Do you mean Adolf Hitler could have escaped hell? by turning to Christ just before he died. And I'm telling you, yes. And if you don't believe that, you don't fully understand the gospel. Because the gospel is by grace alone. And it's received through faith alone. And the object of that faith is Christ alone. And so God is just. He punishes sin. And he also justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. And then he goes on. We're thinking about the Reformation. We're thinking about why are we Protestants? And we go on and we see here in verse 27, where then is boasting? It is excluded on what principle? On that observing the law? No, but on that of faith. Now we, notice we, this is the faith of the apostles. What was the true apostles' creed? It's right here. For we maintain that a man is justified, that is, declared righteous by faith apart from observing the law. Wow. Do you know the thief on the cross joined Christ in paradise that day? He was never baptized. He joined Christ that day. He had no good works to commend him to God. Oh, but he did. And so do you and I, because the moment we believe God takes the good works of Jesus and he puts them to our count, and he takes our sins and he lays them on Jesus. For we maintain, verse 28, that a man is declared righteous, justified by faith, apart from observing the law. Verse 29, is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there's only one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. And then look at verse 31. Do we then nullify the law by faith, this faith? Not at all, rather we uphold the law. And I want to make a comment. You know, we can say in the words of that Sunday school ditty, If you're saved and you know it, then your life will surely show it. Now what does it mean that your life would show it? It's how you deal with people. And I'm struck with the letter of James. And who is James? James is the man, not Peter, who at the very first General Assembly at the very first church council had the last word. Ever thought about that in Acts 15? Who was the one that sums up everything and said, well, this is what we've decided? It isn't Peter. It's James. He's called James the Just. He became the head of the church in Jerusalem. James the Just wrote a letter and he talks about faith and works and here's a way of saying it. We are justified by faith alone, but our faith is justified by our works alone. Now that sounds confusing. We are justified by faith alone, but our faith is justified by our works alone. In other words, You only truly believe that which you act on. So if justification means declared to be the right thing, we can say that we're declared to be the right thing by means of faith alone. But how do we know that our faith is genuine faith? By our works alone. In other words, we can look at Abraham's faith, we can look at Rahab the harlot's faith, and others. So we're declared righteous by faith alone. But our faith is declared to be the genuine article by our works alone. Now I want to go a little further. He's saying here, then, do we nullify the law by this faith? Not at all. Rather, we uphold the law. In other words, a Christian is going to be a different person by how he deals with people. And this is a very big deal when we think about October the 31st, 1517. You see, that controversy was about indulgences. And the Pope wanted to build a big, beautiful church. And he wanted to raise money to do it. And so they sold indulgences. And the indulgence sellers were like a lot of people. You know, preachers that have gotten in trouble because of their shenanigans sometimes end up going to work as fundraisers for churches. Did you know that? So for example, let's say that we wanted to build a new sanctuary, which we don't need, but you want to get your money for your sanctuary, you hire an ex-preacher who knows how to raise money. And he might make exaggerations, he might do this, he might do that. And these indulgence sellers were coming into Saxony, which is that part of Germany where Martin Luther was a professor of theology, and were making outlandish promises. And one of the objections, if you read the 95 Theses of Martin Luther, is that people bought indulgences and they didn't think they needed to repent of their sins. All I've got to do is buy this piece of paper. And the other thing is that indulgences raise money for this gigantic, beautiful church in Rome, but people neglected what the works that the Bible talks about that are important are. And what is that? It's not giving money to the church, it's giving money to the poor. It's helping poor people. Let me say this with this government shutdown. Poor people are going to need help. And the picture that we have in the book of James is helping other people who can't help themselves. Being kind, not giving money to build this gigantic basilica in Rome. And so all this money is taken out of Germany to go finance this beautiful work of art. And that's what Luther was railing against. How do we prove that we are real Christians? We prove it by how we deal with people who are in need. That's how we prove it. I've known a lot of people over my lifetime who really never understood that. Well, I just need to give money to the church. No, you need to help your neighbor when your neighbor's in need. That's the great test. Now I want to just go a tad further with this, looking at chapter 4, verse 1. When he says, not at all, we uphold the law. We uphold the law by how we deal with our neighbor. We're kind. And then what shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, declared righteous, he had something to boast about, but not before God. What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Wow. And then he says, now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. Verse 5, however, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. God justifies who? The wicked. If you can't say, well, I'm wicked. You're missing the boat. God justifies the wicked. That means the thief on the cross, who was a wicked man. And he was there railing against Jesus along with his comrade. And then he turned and he said, we are suffering justly, but he's suffering as an innocent person. God justifies the wicked. God declares the wicked righteous for the sake of his son. Verse four, when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, the man who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. And verse six, David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." What does that mean? I want you to think about that. It's from the 32nd Psalm. And if you read the story of David, you discover that he wrote that psalm in light of the fact that one day He looked over the rooftop, and he was where he wasn't supposed to be. He should have been out with his army, conquering the Ammonites. Instead, he stayed home, and he had a nice nap on the roof. And he looks over, and there is Bathsheba taking a bath in the late afternoon. And he looks at her, and he says, mm-mm, that girl sure does look good. But she wasn't a girl. She was another man's wife. And so he sent servants to bring her up. And there she was. And he took her as if she were his wife. And then she sent him a note. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. The monthly visitor did not come. I am with child. Now David's thinking, do you know under the Old Testament law, adultery was a death penalty offense? Death penalty offense. Even though he's the king, it's a death penalty offense. And so she sends word and he's starting to think, Lord, what am I going to do? And instead of getting on his face before God, he starts relying on his own carnal reasoning. And so he writes a note and he sends it to his commander in chief, Joab, and he said, send Uriah the Hittite. to jerusalem and then when you are our lives he sold while you're here go home and uh... uh... here's some food take this food to your wife no sir he says i can't do that my fellow soldiers are out there fighting the lord's battles and i'm i'm not going to do that and so he stayed and slept at david's door now that's loyal to david was not happy about and so then this a point about the match Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker. And so David comes up with the idea, well, I know what. I'll get him drunk. And you know, it's amazing how many people have been deliberately gotten drunk by somebody who wanted to take advantage of them. Because when they're full of alcohol, they're empty of reason. They can't think straight. And what do you think he did? Once again, he fell down there and slept at David's doorstep. So David said, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? So he wrote a note. And imagine the coarseness, crassness, hard-heartedness of David. He sends this note by way of Uriah the Hittite. to Joab, and he said, I want you to put Uriah on the front lines of the hottest battle, and then I want you to fall back and let him be killed. And that's exactly what happened. And Joab writes a note and says, well, and Uriah died. And David got away with it, didn't he? No, he didn't. No, he didn't. Because God knows what's going on. And God confronted David through the prophet Nathan. And he tells him a story about a man who had a lot of wealth and the poor man had one little lamb that was like a pet dog who slept in his bosom and drank out of the man's cup and he loved that little lamb and the rich man stole that lamb and killed it to feed a guest. And David said, such a man is worthy of death! And Nathan said, Thou art the man, you're the guy. Now what happened then? David broke before God. And one of the things he wrote was this 32nd Psalm. Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. Now that's the heart of the Protestant gospel. The gospel that preached by Luther and Calvin and Knox Zwingli and Huss and others is simply this. The only way to be right with God is by grace alone. And the only way to receive that is through faith alone, even though it's not alone. and the object of our faith is Christ alone, and all of this is to the glory of God alone, and the scripture, and the scripture alone is the one trustworthy thing that God's given us to understand how to please Him. That's what I celebrate on October 31st. That's why I am a Protestant, and I commend Protestantism to you because Raising money to build a big building will never get you into heaven. Attributing millions of dollars to the church will never get you into heaven. But, in the words of Augustus Toplady, in my hands no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling." And so if you're watching on television today, let me encourage you if you've never come to that point in your life where you said, God, I deserve to go to hell. But save me, save me, save me for Jesus' sake. I want to promise you, if you do that, if you call on the name of the Lord, if you turn from your sin and cast yourself on God's mercy in Christ, He will forgive your sin, He justifies the wicked, He declares us righteous, He will receive you, and you will go to heaven when you die. May we pray. Lord, bless this message as we ponder This coming October 31st, the events that change the face of Europe and of our own nation, core value of Western civilization, the priesthood of the believer, that we can think for ourselves and choose for ourselves, and Lord, that Christ, not man, is king. For Jesus' sake, amen. Our closing hymn is number 128, I Sing the Mighty Power of God. I sing the mighty power of God that made the mountains rise, that spread the flowing seas abroad, and that the lofty skies. I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rise, rule the day. The moon shines at his command, and all the stars obey. I sing the goodness of the Lord that filled the earth with food. He formed the