The text today is in the Book of Romans. The Book of Romans, chapter 3, verses 21 through 26. We won't preach all of the verses that Guru read. We're going to go back and revisit verses 21 through 26. Our sermon title today is The Most Important Paragraph Ever Written. When you think about it, of all of the books in all of history, in all of the world, there is one book that is the most important book that has ever been written, right? It's called the Bible. The Bible is the... If you had one book and you had no other books written, the one book you would want to have is the Bible. And in the Bible, the one paragraph that is the most important paragraph that has ever been written is this one we're looking at right now in verses 21 through 26. This is called by the theologians, the heart of the gospel. The heart of the book of Romans. In Romans 3, verses 21 through 26, there are crucial doctrines packed in that will tell you how you can be right with a holy God. You see, that should be the burning question on your heart. One day you are going to die and you're going to stand before the Creator of the universe. And the question is, are you going to be led into heaven or are you going to be cast into hell forever? The heart of every single individual in the world understands that there is such a thing as right and wrong. It's called a conscience. Every single human being has a conscience. And every single human being knows that Almighty God exists. And Almighty God has placed within them a sense of right and wrong. And that when something wrong happens, there should be a punishment for that wrong. That's why wherever you go in the world, they have laws with punishments. Those are simply a reflection of that ultimate law of Almighty God that He has established, right and wrong, and punishments, and every human being knows that those principles exist. Now, they are crystal clear in the Bible. In the heart of individuals, it can be confused, and the conscience can become seared, and the conscience can become twisted and warped. That's why we take the Word of God and we help people see what it is. But understanding that you have broken the laws of God. Every single individual in this room, every single individual in this city, every single individual in this country, everyone in the entire world, in all of history, has broken the laws of a holy God and they know it. Every one of us know that we have been a sinner. that we have sinned and broken a righteous holy law. And that should drive you to ask this question, what must I do to be saved? We see that question repeatedly asked through Scripture. We saw it with the rich young ruler when he says, good teacher, what must I do to have eternal life? We see it all through Scripture, this burning question. How can a sinful man be right with a holy God? All of the world's religions will try to answer that question. And they will all give you the wrong answer. Your human philosophies will try to answer that question. And all human philosophy will give you the wrong answer. There is only one correct answer, and that one correct answer of how can a sinful man be right with a holy God has been given to us by God. God Himself has given us the answer to that question. So we don't have to scrape around and dig through ancient Egyptian tomes and try to find the philosophers of Greek philosophy and try to watch every episode of the Oprah program and try and figure out how can I be right with a holy God? What is God like? What is sin? What is the punishment? What is the means of salvation? Sadly, churches have taken the precious answer, the key to life, And they've hidden it from the people. They take it away from the pulpit. And instead of proclaiming God's word, they are now proclaiming their little tidbits of human wisdom. A little smidgen of humor here. And slather that over with some positive motivational talk. And then a few helpful ideas on how to get a promotion and deal with that incorrigible co-worker. telling you nothing about what really matters. You can get that tripe anywhere. You need the Word of God. When you come to church, you should be demanding that the Bible be opened and preached powerfully and clearly and convictingly. It should be piercing our hearts. And so we're looking at the heart of the Gospel, the most important paragraph ever written, which tells men how they can be right with God. If you get verses 21-26 wrong, you will get the Gospel wrong, you will get the book of Romans wrong, you will get the Bible wrong, and you will land in hell forever. But if you get this section right, praise God, you'll get the Gospel right. You'll find out who saves whom. You'll be able to discover what is the key to eternal life. And then when you put it into practice, you do what this key tells you to do. You put the key in the lock and you turn the lock. You will find, as Martin Luther said of this passage, this passage is a gate to glory. This is an open door into paradise. You know in your heart there's got to be something radically wrong with this world. And there's got to be something totally different available for us. Well, Paul has spent the first three chapters explaining the sinfulness of man. Why does he take three chapters, which when you're preaching verse by verse, you're talking about maybe 12 sermons, maybe three months worth of sermons where Sunday after Sunday, after Sunday, after Sunday, it's like, ah, when do I get a breather? It's like you are a wicked, depraved, rotten sinner on your way to a devil's hell. You have broken the laws of God. You have suppressed the knowledge of God. You have gone your own way. And the evidence of that is the rampant wickedness that we see in our world. And you see in your own life. The longer you have lived, the worse you have gotten. Just be honest about it. The longer you have lived, the more corrupt you have become. the more sin you have gotten into. Well, you lied about did you eat the cookies when you were a little kid, but then you start figuring out how, you know, if I lie a certain way, I can sell this product and make money on my lies. You see, you had a lustful thought when you were an adolescent, and now when you've become an adult, you have given vent to the most wicked expressions of your lust. Is that not true? And so God's Word says, for three chapters, man is under the wrath of God. And let's go back to the overarching verse that introduces this section in chapter 1 and verse 18. Chapter 1 and verse 18 says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. You see, the wrath of God is something people don't want to think about, but if you don't get the wrath of God clear, you won't get the cross clear. You won't understand your sinfulness, and you won't understand God's holiness. So these false teachers who get up and just give you the nice pablum sermons, The nice, soft, soper ones, you know, that just talk about encouraging words, and you're a great person, and you've got a wonderful future, and you're full of potential, blah, blah, blah. Those guys are minimizing the cross. They are minimizing, they're making nothing, they're making light of the holiness of God, the glory of God, the grace of God. I mean, if you don't think you're all that sick and you go to the doctor and he gives you a pill, thanks, doc. You don't have it. But if you are on your deathbed and you understand this is life or death, then you're much more grateful. You are much more praising. And so Paul the Apostle introduces anyone who comes to the book of Romans, they are slammed in the face with the biblical doctrine of the total depravity of man. That man is sinful in his thoughts. Man is sinful in his emotions. Man is corrupted in his motives. Man is perverse in his thinking. Man is corrupt in the actions that he performs. In every way, man is depraved. Even the will of man does not want the will of God. We want our own way. No matter what it costs us. If it costs us our marriage, I'm going to go my own way. If it costs us our children, I'm going to do what I want to do. God says that's all evidence of the wickedness of man. And so what the apostle has done, it is as though he is painting a dark night in order to put the lighthouse light in the center of that picture. If you just take the picture and make it all white, then the lighthouse light doesn't show up. But the darker and darker and darker the background, the brighter the light shines. And that's what the apostle is doing. What God is doing through the apostle is trying to vividly portray to us our desperate condition and our absolute necessity for Christ. So, he's introduced that in Romans chapter 1 verse 18. All of chapter 1, he has listed the sinfulness of man. Drop down in 1 to verse 29. 129. Being filled with all unrighteousness. Two total words. Filled and all. Mankind is filled with all unrighteousness. And these aren't mankind that lives somewhere out there somewhere, as though this doesn't apply to us. The Bible says you as an individual are filled with all unrighteousness. And then it goes to list those. And even this stinking list, this offensive, vile list is not a complete list. It's just a representative list. It says in verse 29, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, which is rampant in our culture. Rampant in our culture. And it is shocking to me that people come living with their girlfriend, not in repentance into a church, but flaunting it. And there are churches that brag about it. And 1 Corinthians chapter 5 says, you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that such a person should be taken away from you. Sexual immorality is rampant. There are churches that openly ordain sodomite priests and pastors. Wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, murder. I don't understand how God is allowing America to live, to exist. It would not surprise me at all if God allowed some Muslim hordes to come raging through America just to put an end to the abortion. Just to put an end to the slaughter of all the babies. It's shocking to me that the callousness that people have towards wickedness, the hard-heartedness people have toward those who are in need, toward those who are hurting, the forehead of flint that they have, full of evil-mindedness, whispering, backbiting, hating God, violence. Violence is the definition of America. We want the latest and most violent television program, the most violent football game, the most violent sport. We now have these ultimate fight things. And why do we want that? Because, man, they're almost bare knuckles on that. You mean they're not allowed to bite each other? I think we should vote to let them bite each other. Well, they're not allowed to gouge each other's eyes out. How come? I think they should be gouging each other's eyes out. Don't you? That would be a good show. Let's have a show where they're gouging each other's eyes out and biting each other. And then we're going to move to the old gladiator games where why don't we just slaughter the people? This is our culture. This is God's diagnosis of America. God's diagnosis of you outside of Christ before you repent and believe the Gospel. This is God's diagnosis of what you are like. Self-willed, rebellious, hard, unteachable, stiff-necked, hard-hearted, calloused-hearted. And God says there's only one solution. You are under the wrath of God in that wicked condition. And there is only one solution. And he says in v. 21 of Romans 3, but now. It's as though we have slogged through a sewer. And you come to the manhole cover and you're able to slide it off and pop your head up through the manhole and catch a breath of fresh air and say, but now. This is what the Gospel is, isn't it? But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. On your notes, you'll notice under the introduction there, there are some definitions. These definitions are crucial that you get these clear because the text is built around these key doctrines and these key doctrines have to be interpreted properly. All of the pseudo-Christian denominations and false Christian organizations will twist and pervert these crucial doctrinal truths. One is the righteousness of God. On your notes, you'll see the definition there. Righteousness means the perfect obedience that the law demands. That is called righteousness. And the man who renders that perfect obedience, is called righteous. So when it says here, but now the righteousness of God, is he speaking of the attribute of God's righteousness or is he speaking of the gift of God's righteousness? We know that he is speaking of the gift of God's righteousness because that is the whole theme of the book of Romans. If God came along to these wicked sinners, imagine, you come up to Any criminal, in the act of a crime, in the act of breaking the law, and you say, oh, Mr. Criminal, I just want you to know, our judge is righteous. He adheres to the law. Is that of any hope to that criminal? That doesn't give him a breath of air. That doesn't give him a chance. You go up to any sinner and say, by the way, wicked sinner, wicked, hellbound, God-hating, sodomite, immoral, lying, thieving sinner, I just want you to know the God who you are going to stand in front of is absolutely righteous. Well, thanks a lot. You just made his day worse, haven't you? So we know that this is not speaking about the attribute, the fact that God is righteous, and we know that He is. Many other passages speak that. But this is speaking of the gift of righteousness. Now, understand how crucial this is. Here, if you have been with us through Romans 1 through 3 up to verse 21, you should be understanding that your condition before a holy God is standing there with nothing to offer. It is as though you are going into God's courtroom and you will. God has appointed a day at 1730. God has appointed a day upon which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained, the Lord Jesus Christ. So you will stand before the judgment bar of God one day. And so what the apostle is doing is saying, all right, let's put you in front of the judgment bar of God. And what do you have to appeal to? Well, I appeal to my baptism. Well, you haven't lived up to what baptism means. I appeal to the Lord's Supper. You've broken the law of God, so you haven't lived up to what the Lord's Supper means. I appeal to my church membership. You haven't lived up to what that means. In other words, you're appealing to symbols. That's like an adulterer appealing to his wedding ring. What do you mean you're appealing to your wedding ring? You're an adulterer. Yeah, but I've got a wedding ring. But you're an adulterer. The whole point. is that your adultery is denying the meaning of the wedding ring. So for a person to be in God's law court and point to the great symbols that are illustrating the great truths, while they're breaking those great truths, is of no help to them at all. And so, let me show you again what he says here. Look in verse 19 of chapter 3. We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, in order that every mouth may be stopped. and all the world may become guilty before God." This is the point Paul has been driving to from the beginning of Romans all the way up to verse 19. The entire world stands guilty before God. Do you feel that weight? Now, if you're feeling the weight that you are guilty before a holy God and you have no mediator, you have no advocate, you have no remedy, you have no Savior, Now your question is, and Paul has just taken every objection out of their mouth. He has taken every defense and knocked it out of their hand. Well, I'm going to put my shield up and be defended from the wrath of God because my shield is that I memorized a bunch of Bible verses. And Paul says, you memorized a bunch of Bible verses and you didn't obey a bunch of Bible verses. Wham, there goes your shield knocked out of your hand. You have no defenses to stand before a holy God and say you know the Bible, you got a Bible on the shelf, you're a church member, you joined the church, you went through this, you taught Sunday school, you were a deacon, you were an elder, you were whatever it was. If you are not living it, then you have just simply made your case worse. Because now you're sitting against greater and greater and greater and greater light. And so, He says, listen, verse 19 again, 319. We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, and that is every man in the entire planet, because they are either under the law of conscience that God has written upon their heart, or they have a Bible. In that case, they're under the clear teaching of the Bible, the Word of God, which is crystal clear. And as a result, every mouth is taught, all the world entirely is standing at the bar of God. They have given their best defense. Their defense lawyer has stood in front of Almighty God and said, let me plead the case for this guy. He's a really nice guy and he does good stuff now and then. And he throws a few bucks in the plate once in a while and he goes to church pretty regularly. And every single one, every single one of the arguments in defense of the criminal have been thoroughly refuted." And now the defense lawyer is out of bullets. He's out of arguments. And he stands before Almighty God, before the righteous bar of a holy God with duct tape over his mouth. He has nothing else to say. The Bible says your mouth is stopped and all the world is guilty before God. Now, if we put a period there and that's the end of our conversation, then you are in desperate trouble. I've had this happen as I'm going through the gospel with someone at the door and understand when you're at evangelizing, you have got to get the guy lost in order to get them saved. You've got to spend a good half hour to an hour explaining to the guy why he even needs to repent and believe the gospel. Because every man proclaims his own goodness. Well, I walked an aisle in a church when I was 12. Well, are you living it? Well, no, but you're lost. The Bible says in 1 John 2, verse 3 and 4, if anyone says, I know Him, if anyone says, I know Him, I'm saved, and does not keep His commandments, he is a liar. And the truth is not in him. The evidence of whether you're truly converted is that you will live a life of obedience. That's the great doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. He that endures to the end is saved. If you don't endure to the end, it's evidence you're not truly converted. And so as you're going through with the person at their door or wherever you're evangelizing, whether it's at the beach or at the store or at a dinner, wherever you are, and you're going through the gospel with the person, you have got to get them to the point By asking them questions such as, so when you stand before God and He says, why should I let you into heaven? What are you going to say? All of them will say, I'm a pretty good person. Well, I'm not as good as that next guy, but I'm a pretty good person. Oh, yeah, I'm not as good as Mother Teresa, but I'm a pretty good person. And I think God grades on a curve, you see. And God's going to allow me into glory because I'm not that sinful. So as they present their argument, you have to defuse that. You have to deflate that. You have to destroy that argument. And then you bring them to verse 19. Now, we know that whatever the law says, and he gets to verse 19 specifically. I mean, the peak of his argument there is in verses 9 through 18. Verse 10 says, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none who understands, none who seeks after God. They've all turned aside. That includes you, Mr. Jones, Mr. So-and-so, whoever you are. And I've had them at that point say to me, well, if that's true, we're all going to hell. I say, okay, now you're starting to get the point. You're just starting to get the point. If God does not have a solution, we are all on a toboggan slide to hell. If God doesn't solve our problem, we have no way of solving it. How can a repeat murderer solve his own problem in court? He can't. Anything he says, you've got nothing to say. You're a murderer. So when you stand before a holy God and say, yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but God said, wait, wait, wait, wait. You are a vile, God-hating, law-breaking, stiff-necked, Sabbath-breaking, non-evangelistic, don't-love-your-brother, hurt-people, wicked sinner. You've got nothing to say in God's law court. So when you stand before Almighty God and you're now silenced. Okay, good. Are you silenced? It says then in verse 20, therefore, because all the world is guilty, this is 320, because all the world is guilty, therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. Because the law was never given to save anybody. The law has no power to save. The law has no power to change you. If you're driving down the road and you're going 70 miles an hour and you see a sign that says speed limit 25, does that law have any power to help you obey it? All it does is say you're breaking the law. You're breaking the law. You're breaking the law. You're breaking the law. We need something that can empower us to obey the law. and that will forgive us for all of our sins. And we don't have that. In ourselves, we have nothing. We have nothing in our hands we bring simply to the cross we cling. You see, this is why the cross, the cross, the substitutionary death of Christ, is the central symbol of Christianity. Understand how odd that is. The cross is not just like a nice-looking symbol. It symbolizes something. The cross was the electric chair. It was the hangman's noose. And so we're going to put a hangman's noose on top of the church? That's how bizarre that was in the early centuries to say, well, you're all gathered around a hangman's noose. You're all sit around and talk about how great this electric chair is. Well, we'll see why that is in a minute. But it's crucial that you get it clear in your mind that outside of God's solution, you have nothing. You have no solution. All of your religion, all of your heritage, all of the things that you can point to, utterly meaningless. Again, let's go back to a murderer. Here's a mafia murderer standing in court, red-handed, the blood still sticky on his fingers. And he said, oh, Judge, I come from a long line of Italian wealthy guys. So? That doesn't help your case. You see, nothing you can appeal to. That's why the law cannot justify you. So if you have gotten up to verse 20 and you're saying, alright, alright, I get it. I'm a wicked sinner. I have nothing to justify me. I can't appeal to my law. I can't appeal to my works. I can't appeal to my religion. I can't appeal to anything. What am I going to do? What is the solution? Alright, are you ready for verse 21? But now, the righteousness of God. This is the righteousness that God will give you free. This is the greatest news in all of the universe. There is nothing greater than you can hear that as you stand right now in 2009 before a holy God, dripping with your sin, covered in filthy garments, that God says, alright, do you understand you are hopeless? Do you understand you have nothing to appeal to? Are you going to keep bringing up my baptism? I walked an aisle. I prayed a prayer. I did this. I did that. I did the next thing. Are you out of bullets yet? Are you going to stop saying that yet? Because if you're still thinking in your mind, but I'm not that bad, let's go back to chapter one. And if you're still thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you don't understand at the church I go to, they sing just as I am. And I walked an aisle. And I prayed a real sincere prayer. So you're saying that a real sincere prayer saved you? No. See, what's happened is repentance and faith has been replaced by a really sincere prayer. Now, can a person pray that prayer while they're genuinely repenting and believing? Yes. But the issue is repenting and believing. And so if you don't have that straight, you need to go back to chapter one. Just get the CDs for the last three or four months, however long we've been in this, and just carefully, meticulously listen. Open your Bible, follow through, get yourself lost so that you can get saved. Alright? Now, but if you say, yes, I've been with you, I understand, I realize God has been breaking me down, I feel horrible about my sin, I feel hopeless in my sin, I know that there's no answer, I can't appeal to anything that I have done, I can't appeal to my heritage, I can't appeal to the fact that my dad was a pope! I mean, nothing you can appeal to! Right? That's probably not supposed to be, right? Verse 21, but now the righteousness from God. In other words, the perfect obedience to the law of God is God wants to give that to you. God wants to give you the perfect righteousness that is not yours, but he wants to give it to you so that it is yours. This is what this righteousness of God means. Another word you can use instead of the word of God is from God, the righteousness from God. But notice it is the righteousness from God that is apart from the law. The righteousness that God will give and credit to your account must be and has to be and can only be apart from the law. Because if you say the righteousness of God through the law, now it's not the righteousness of God. Now it's your righteousness and you don't have any. So if you say, wait, I'm going to really work hard, I want this righteousness from God, so I'm going to merit it. Then you don't understand, let's go back to chapter one. You have to see that you don't have the eyes to see the Gospel. You don't have the hands to grab the Gospel. You don't have the ears to hear the Gospel. You don't have the tongue to taste the sweetness of the Gospel. You, in your sin, are absolutely, utterly hopeless. This is why everything, everything rests upon the cross. We have no hope outside of Christ. If Jesus Christ is not the answer, there is no answer. You say, but I'm trying to be good. Let's go back to chapter one. You're not good. Yeah, but I'm going to be good from now on. Well, you've already been bad. So being good for now on doesn't change the fact you've already been bad. If you say I'm never going to steal anything ever again, even though you were a kleptomaniac, that doesn't change it. You've already you're already guilty. You have nothing to appeal to except the righteousness from God. If there was a way that you could get the perfect obedience of Christ credited to you, the perfect righteousness of Christ given to you, that would solve our problem, wouldn't it? The question is, is that even possible? Well, first of all, it's very crucial to understand in verse 21, this is a righteousness from God And it is apart from the law. That means it is absolutely apart from not just a few things you can do. That means the churches that teach, well, in order to get saved, you must be water baptized. That is a false doctrine called baptismal regeneration. It is taught by the Church of Christ, taught by the Church of Rome, is taught by the quote unquote Christian church. And all these churches that say so-and-so Christian church are claiming that they're non-denominational. They are simply baptismal regeneration. They are simply churches that say you must be water baptized to be saved. Water baptism is a command of God. Water baptism is a work of righteousness. It is the right thing to do. It is a good law of God. But if you take that good law of God, like every one of the other good laws of God, and say, hey, I'm going to add this. I'm going to add this. You have now eliminated righteousness from God and you've co-mingled human righteousness, which is you don't have any righteousness. Because one righteous act does not make you righteous. Righteousness is the perfect, complete obedience to the law of God. So to do one good thing does not make you righteous. It's not even a righteous act. That act of water baptism, which is a command of God, but it is not a command of God as a condition for salvation. To bring in that good thing now becomes a bad thing because you're going completely contrary to what God's Word says. If God says it is apart from the law and you bring in a good work, a law of God, and say I'm going to do this, You've now mixed it. You've now contaminated it. Because when you do one good thing, if I take, let's say that I've been out working in the yard and I'm covered with manure. I've been spreading manure, you know, black cow manure all over the flowers. I'm going to get a good thick layer of this so that my plants will grow. And I'm dripping. It's a hot, sweaty day. And I'm just, you know, I'm covered with this stuff and I'm stinking. And I say, oh, Honey, let me help you with your contact lens. Is that a good thing? Well, yes and no. Maybe you might want to get help. Stay away from me. So when you bring your sin, even though it may be what would be a command of God, it's tainted with your sin. You're bringing your sin into the picture. Now, this righteousness from God comes apart from the law. It is apart from law. You've got to get that clear that it is absolutely, Robert Haldane put it very well. He said it is absolutely, totally distinct, separate from, apart from every single thing that a human can do, including walking an aisle and praying a prayer. You don't get saved by walking an aisle and praying a prayer. You get saved by repenting and believing the gospel. But now in our evangelical churches, we've added another man-made tradition. He said, if you want to be saved, you've got to walk an island and pray a prayer. No, that's not what the Bible says. Show me the Bible that says you've got to walk an island and pray a prayer. I'll show you in the Bible repeatedly where it says you must repent and believe the gospel. Salvation is not by doing things. It's by the grace of God, the free gift of God. Now, the righteousness, this perfect, pure, sinless righteousness of Christ that is going to be... The word of God here, means that God is the author of this righteousness. God is the source of this righteousness. God is the giver of this righteousness. God is the instigator, the beginner, the middler, and the ender of this righteousness. It is all the perfect, sinless righteousness of Christ that needs to be put onto your account. That's the only hope that we have. Because that's what the law demands, isn't it? The law demands, the law doesn't say obey me most of the time with a good attitude or give it your best shot. I mean, let's say we're all lined up on the edge of the Grand Canyon. Is it going to be, I don't know how far apart the Grand Canyon is, let's say it's a mile apart. And we're all lined up on the edge of the Grand Canyon and we say, you know what? Just give it your best shot. It doesn't matter if you jump one foot or 100 feet. The end result is the same, isn't it? You go crashing on the rocks below. That's the way the law of God is. It demands, let's say, a mile. Exactly, you get that mile or you go crashing on the rocks below. I mean, if you're like the roadrunner and you go all the way across and the coyote smashes against the wall on the other side, you've still not made it. That's a long way. I was one foot shorter than the mile that was required. You're dead. You see? This is the law of God. The law of God demands perfect, absolute, complete, total obedience in every single fiber of your being. The law of God demands that you love God with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your soul, all of your strength, all of the time. How many of us have they done? When I'm witnessing, I say, you know what? I'm a full-time pastor, and I haven't obeyed that law walking from my car to your door. What do you mean that you're obeying the law? You're a good person. You're dripping in sin. You stand before a holy God soaked in your wickedness completely, absolutely, without hope outside of Christ. And if you drag in some human work, no matter how well-intended it is, If it's something man-made, something that even God has commanded, the clear laws of God cannot be mixed with the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God will eventually produce obedience to the law of God. But you don't bring in your foul, contaminated, diseased works and mix them with the righteousness of God as though that will then be acceptable to God. Salvation is sola gratia, sola fide, sola Christus. It is only by the grace of God, only by faith, and only by Christ. Salvation cannot have any admixture, underlying circle, whatever you need to do, apart from the law. By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. And salvation has to be totally separated, distinct, without the law. Look over in chapter 4. I want to highlight this a little bit more. Chapter 4 and look at verse 6. Well, look at verse 5. But to him who does not work, but believes. You see the two distinct things? There is your works, your attempt at trying to obey the law, and then there is saving faith. But to him who does not work, but believes, on him who justifies, people are really trying hard. Does God justify people who try hard? Romans 4, 6. What kind of people does God justify? Say it again? The ungodly. And you've got to come before Him with that confession. King of the universe. Creator of everything. Almighty God. I am ungodly. If you say, I'm not that bad. I'm a pretty good guy. I'm trying hard. Then you don't qualify. Go back to chapter 1. But if you say, Almighty God, I am hopeless. I'm a wicked sinner. I'm ungodly. Even my thoughts, I can't even keep my thoughts on the things of God for five minutes. I can't wake up in the morning and live a whole day obeying Your Word, loving You with all of my heart, all of my mind, all of my soul, all of my strength, all of the time. I'm absolutely shot through with disobedience. I am ungodly. Almighty God, please help me. I'm ungodly. That's who God justifies. He says in verse 5, Him who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, His faith, His faith, His faith is credited for righteousness. We're going to get into unpacking that in a couple of weeks. Just as David described the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness, as long as he's worked real hard and been water baptized. No, it says apart from works. It's like how many times does God have to say it? How many angles does He have to say it from? How many ways does He have to say it? Listen. There are literally hundreds, hundreds of millions of professing Christians in the world today. Hundreds of millions of professing Christians in the world today that are in a building with a cross on top of it, and they are thinking, boy, I sure hope I'm good enough to earn my way to heaven. They don't even understand the cross on top of their building. They don't understand who Jesus is. They don't understand the righteousness from God. This is a gift from God. God wants to give you credit to your account, perfect, complete, total obedience, loving God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and give that to you. That doesn't mean that he's going to give you the ability from now on to start loving God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. That's called sanctification. We're talking about justification. Salvation, getting saved, getting justified requires the gift of God's righteousness credited to your account. Look over in the book of Galatians, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians. And I'm harping on this because. I know. All around us are people who have Bibles, And they will say they believe in the free gift of God's grace. And when you talk to them, you say, then, how did you get saved? Well, I walked an aisle and I asked Jesus to save me and I got baptized. You just confused it. If they just simply said, I repented and believed the gospel. That's the condition. That's the biblical condition. Sola fide, solely by faith. Now, will faith pray? Yes. In our 1689, it says, saving faith and saving repentance is commonly connected with prayers and cries for forgiveness. You're like the tax collector in the temple pounding yourself on the chest. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. But that would never work for someone down on the other side to say, you know what? That's a neat church growth technique. You know what we could do? We could have More people in the building, if we told them, all you need to do is say this little prayer. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Do you see how completely messed up that is? The man was not saying the words, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, as a formula to get saved. He was crying from his heart, recognizing he was hopeless. He needed the mercy of God. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Galatians chapter 2, it says in Galatians chapter 2, look at verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified, not justified by the works of the law, by any works of the law, by part of the works of the law, by some of the works of the law, by one of the works of the law. You are not justified by adding any single thing, any bunch of things, any 50 things, any 500 things you can do. to the grace of God. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And he says in Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed, the apostles, we believers, have believed in Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. So you've got it three times in that one verse. One verse, three times. Not justified by works, but by faith. Not justified by works, but by faith. Not justified by works, but by faith. That's why it requires the Holy Spirit to peel back the scales. Because this is so simple. This is not rocket science. If it was, I couldn't be preaching it. I'm not that smart. I need it to be right down the cookies on the bottom shelf where the kids can get them. You know, help me, Lord, to make this real clear. And I need to have it clear. And so three times in that one verse, he says salvation justification is not by works, but by faith is not by works, by faith, not by works, by faith, faith in Christ. Well, let's go a little bit more. Let's go back to Romans chapter three. In Romans chapter 3, he says, but now the righteousness, the perfect obedience to the law of God in heart, mind, soul, loving God, your emotions, your will, every single thing, you don't have that. You need it given to you as a gift. You need the righteousness of God from God credited to your account as a gift because you don't have it. I don't have it. It comes apart from the law. And now it says it's witnessed by the law and the prophets. Paul is not coming up with some new doctrine. This is not some like in the Old Testament, they were saved by working real hard. And then in the New Testament, they are saved by grace. Paul doesn't want you to get that idea. In fact, look in Romans chapter four and he gives an example. He says in verse one, what then shall we say that Abraham, our father, has found? And then he goes on to demonstrate, and we won't do it right now, he goes on to demonstrate that Abraham was justified by an alien foreign righteousness that was credited to his account. Then he uses another Old Testament example in verse 5. I'm sorry, verse 6. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness. How? Far from works. Salvation has never been by works. Salvation before the law with Abraham, under the law with King David, has always been by grace alone through faith alone. This is a very important point because there have been what we would call ultra or hyper-dispensationalists or the old dispensationalists who were not clear on this and they confused the teaching of the Word of God and got people to thinking that somehow in the Old Testament you had to earn your way to heaven but in the New Testament it's by grace. It has always been by grace because men have always been sinners. We have always been lawbreakers. Nobody, it doesn't matter whether it was Adam or anyone, Abraham, nobody, nobody loved God with all of their heart, mind, soul and strength all of the time. Nobody has ever meticulously obeyed every single law of God, done what they're supposed to do and not done what they're not supposed to do at all times with the right attitude even in their thought life. There is one who has done that, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you need His righteousness, His perfection put on your account. If you go with your imperfection, you will have a trap door open unto you and you'll drop into hell forever. You have nothing to stand before God. And so, back in Romans chapter 3, we find that the righteousness from God is apart from the law. It's not earned or merited or deserved by 1 or 10 or 50 or any of the laws. But the Old Testament verifies that. It is witnessed by the law. You can find numerous passages. What about Abraham in chapter 15 of the book of Genesis, where he believed God? And it was accounted to him for righteousness. What about King David in the Psalms where he is confessing in Psalm 51 and he's pouring out his heart, Lord, against you and you only have I sinned. And then he says, if you will forgive me, I will tell people of my righteousness. That's right. Your righteousness. You see, that is the only chance we have. is if God gives us the perfect, sinless righteousness of Christ. And it goes on a little bit more then. Let's go on to fill in a couple of your notes here. Number one on your notes, God's righteousness is given to all who believe. 21A, God's righteousness is revealed without the law. 21B, God's righteousness is witnessed by the law. In fact, look in the Gospel of Luke with me. I want to show you a good passage, Luke chapter 24, about it being witnessed by the law, the righteousness of God as the free gift being witnessed by the law in Luke 24. And look at. Verse twenty five. Twenty four, twenty five. Then he said to them, now this is after the resurrection, and the disciples are there, and Jesus is saying to the disciples, O fools, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Christ to have suffered? In other words, if we read the prophets, we would read about the suffering of Christ? Yes! The Proto-Evangelion is all the way back in Genesis 3.16, the very first foreshadowing of that in the misty darkness. It's still foretold that Christ would crush the serpent's head. But he says in verse 25, and he said to them, O fools and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses, that's Genesis, all the way through all of the prophets to the end of Malachi. He expounded to them in all of the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. The Old Testament clearly, repeatedly hammered on the fact that we need mercy. One of the great words in the Old Testament is the word hesed, which is your mercy endures forever. Your mercy endures forever. Your mercy endures forever. Remember that psalm? Every single verse. Your mercy endures forever. Your mercy endures. Well, what is mercy? Mercy is another way of speaking of God's grace. It's another way of speaking of undeserved favor. So, the entire Old Testament witnesses to the gospel that Paul was preaching. Now, let's go back a little bit more in Romans 3, verse 22. Even the righteousness from God. All right. Now we've got the definition of the righteousness. We've got definition of man's sin. We know that man is sinful. He has no righteousness. The only hope he has is for a foreign righteousness to be credited to him. But now the question is, I want it. If someone said, listen, the cure for your terminal disease is down at the pharmacy on the shelf. Well, how do I get it? Right. If we all have the disease of sin, and our only hope is the righteousness of God, how do I get it? Well, look at verse 22. Even the righteousness of God through faith. And it's not just faith as an abstract, like, just have faith. You know, click your heels three times. There's no place like home faith. This is faith in Christ. So, on your notes. Verse 22, salvation is by Faith in Christ alone. Keep a finger in Romans, but go back over to the book of Ephesians. This is one of those classical texts that you should have memorized or be working on memorizing. In Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Look what he says in verse 8. Ephesians 2.8. For by grace you have been saved through your works. Is that what it says? No, by faith. It's not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works. Because if you could work your way into heaven, even just by your baptism, I can picture it now. You walk into the pearly gates and you put your thumbs under your overall straps. I made it. How did you get here? Well, you know, I walked 14 old ladies across the street. Ah, 14. You should have seen me while I was on earth. I walked 73 old ladies across the street. Right? It would just be boasting. It would just be, for all of heaven, one guy comparing how good he was with another guy. Oh, I got here. I tithed, faithfully tithed. What a wimp. You only tithed? Man, I triple-tithed. You did? Ooh, wow. And all of a sudden, you've got little clusters of people around the guy who's the big shot. Because he can... Oh, man, you should have seen me. Bible says is by grace you've been saved through faith that not of yourselves It's the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast Then he has an interesting phrase for we are his workmanship That's who gets the boasting for all of eternity. We will be saying this to each other man when I was on earth I was a godless God-hating wicked lawbreaker and then God in his sovereign mercy came and peeled the scales off my eyes. He said, Lazarus, come forth! And with the power of His Word, the power of the Gospel, He gave me life and pulled me out of that grave. Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, now and forevermore. To the praise of His glory, both now and forevermore. It is all because of Christ. That's why we've got a hammer on Christ. We've got to preach on Christ. We've got to talk about Christ. Christ. Biblical preaching is Christ centered preaching. And so he says. In Ephesians 2, 8, but you notice he he brings that phrase in there by grace, you've been saved through faith and not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works. Grace saved through faith. Grace saved through faith. He does that right on the same way that Paul deals with the issue back in Romans. He has just started in verse 1 of chapter 2. Look at Ephesians 2, 1. And you he made alive. But you notice it says he made alive in italics. He sort of gives you the answer at the beginning. In the Greek, it's not that way. Here's what it says in the Greek. And you who were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. By the way, that's you. among whom also we all, all once conducted ourselves. The whole manner of our life was in the lust of the flesh. We fulfilled the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath, but God..." You see that? So, He does the same thing in Ephesians 2 that He does in Romans. He just takes longer in Romans. And He says, listen, you who were dead in your trespasses and sins, He's made alive in Christ. But you see, we won't see the need for Christ. Christ will be like, what do I need him for? Things are going fine. I'm doing pretty good. I've got a good job, got a good paycheck. You know, my third wife, you know, she's pretty and she's pretty good. And, you know, I send the kids off to boarding school and I got a nice... What do I need Christ for? That's the guy you have to take the sword of the Spirit. As Spurgeon said, the needle of the law. jab it in his skin so that you can draw through the silken thread of the gospel. Their skin is like a rhinoceros. They're not going to want the gospel because every man will proclaim his own goodness. I'm not that bad. And so God says you are that bad. In fact, you're a hundred million times worse than you ever imagined. Jonathan Edwards said inside the hearts of the sons of men, hellish desires reign. You read the Puritans and you start saying, and this guy is saved? I mean, oh God, what a vile cesspool of darkness still resides in my heart. And these are guys writing commentaries on the Bible, living holy lives. But they understand the sinfulness of man. We don't have the slightest, razor-thin, sliver understanding of our sinfulness. When you do, when that begins to grow, your praise for God begins to grow. Because the grace of God becomes overwhelming. The more you see your sinfulness, that you don't deserve anything, the greater the grace of God becomes. And Jesus said, He that is forgiven much, loves much. We have all been forgiven. One of our sins, One rebellion against our husband, one disobedience to our parents, one lustful thought, one angry thought is enough to light the fires of hell for 10,000 eternities. We need Christ. Our only hope is the righteousness of Christ given to our account. Let's go back to Romans. Romans 3, and he says in verse 22, even the righteousness from God through faith in Jesus Christ. So the empty hand that receives this blessing of righteousness is the empty hand of faith, and even that hand of faith is a gift of God. As sinners, we don't even have hands. We don't have eyes to see the beauty of the gospel. We don't have ears to hear the glorious gospel song. We don't have a taste bud in our mouth to taste and see that the Lord is good. All of that has to be given to us from God so that we will receive the glorious gospel of Christ. And it says in verse 22, even the righteousness from God through faith in Jesus Christ. And by the way, He passes pretty quickly over Christ because he's going to really dig into that in the next verse or two. But he wants to point something out before he gets to Christ. He mentions Christ, but he doesn't really unpack it in this verse. He says, by faith in Christ, and it's to all and it's upon all who will believe. There's no difference. We have all sinned. So no one can say, oh, the gospel is just for the Jews or the gospel is just for America or Christ is just for northern Europeans or Christ is just for those horrible, wicked, heathen or Christ. We have all sinned. And he says it is to all and on all who believe. Why? Because every single one of us that you see, the variations that we have between each other. Are not seen by God. On this earth, one person is nice, another person is mean. One person is wealthy, another person is poverty-stricken. One person is highly educated, another person can't spell I. I mean, you know, there's all gradations in humans, right? And God has concluded all of us under sin, that He might have grace upon all. You might say, well, you know, You can go to the other. You know, one person says, I don't need Christ because I'm good. The other person says, I'm so bad. God wouldn't have anything to do with me. And what he is saying here, it is to all and on all who believe. You've got to repent and believe the gospel. You've got to put your saving faith in Christ. And so on your notes, number two, God's righteousness comes only through the redemption that is in Christ. God's righteousness comes only through redemption in Christ. Verse 23, on your notes, justification is for all because all have sinned. There's no difference. This is not a Jewish Gospel or a Gentile Gospel. This is not a Protestant Gospel or a Catholic Gospel. It's not a Muslim Gospel. It's not a Hindu Gospel. It is one Gospel and no matter who you are, what your sin is, you need it. And it will be effectual to everyone who will believe. Well, what do I have to do? Believe! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You see, you are in the deepest hole, the deepest predicament, the deepest sinfulness, the deepest hopelessness outside of Christ, You've been scratching on the walls of this mine that you're at the bottom of, and nothing happens, but it just gets deeper. It just keeps getting deeper. And all the things you try just keep getting deeper, and you get more and more in your sin, until you stop clawing and say, Almighty God, I am ungodly. I am hopeless at the bottom of this mine. I am in sin. And the only way you're able to say that is because the Spirit of God is already opening your eyes to that. And you cry out in repentance, God, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You put your faith in Him. And all of a sudden, you're brought up by the power of God to the light of day. He says in verse 23, the end there, there's no difference, no distinction. God doesn't make any distinctions. And we should not make any distinctions in our churches. Let me take a practical application to this. I think it is a sin against God to have a white church, a black church, a Hispanic church, an Oriental church, whatever. That's not how it should be. There's not going to be different compartments in heaven. There is one God, one Lord who is rich unto all who will call upon Him. There shouldn't be, well, I want to go to a church filled with upwardly mobile professionals. You know, those are my kind of people. And we can make some good business contacts there. That's why when you come into a Bible-believing church, you put all of your junk, just leave it in the trunk. You know what I'm saying? Just leave it all out there, you know. Well, I like this kind of music. I don't care what kind of music you like. You're in church. And you die to yourself, and we're trying the best we can to sing worship songs that are the best we can do, bringing glory to God. Well, I like kind of a high church. Why don't we have 48 violins and cellos? We don't have 48 violins and cellos. You bring them in, we'll stick them up here. We're just going to worship God the best we can do and stop worrying about, well, I like it this way and I like it that way and I like this kind of seat and queue and all that kind of thing. We've got one God and there is no distinction. And in James, it says, how dare you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with partiality? You can't have partiality and you say, You know, a poor person comes in and a rich person come. The rich person is driven up in a limousine and his guy with his leather boots up to his knees and his little cap comes, you know, runs around, opens the door for, yes, sir, here's your door, sir. And, oh, that guy's wealthy. He's a mayor or a president or a big shot millionaire. And, you know, oh, come on into our church. What's the best seat in the house? We need to put him somewhere because if he likes it, he'll give. So we're going to pick a really nice spot for that Mr. Moneybags. And then another guy comes in and, what's that smell? Hey, come on in, but you got to sit maybe over near the door where there's a lot of ventilation on the floor. We don't want you to mess up our seats. The Bible said, no, you can't have that kind of, that's not Christianity. That is the kind of nonsense evangelicalism that we have in America, but it's not Christianity. And all of that, breaking down the walls of division amongst us, comes because the wall of division between us and God is gone. It says there's no difference if you want to get saved. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. No one comes with any advantage. I'm a Jew. No advantage. I'm a Gentile. No advantage. I'm a pastor. No advantage. I'm not a hypocrite. I don't go to those churches. I've always stayed away from church. No advantage. Well, I've got a Bible. No advantage. I pray it every single day. No advantage. You come through Christ by faith in Christ alone. That is our only chance. And he says, because all of us have sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. That's such a beautiful phrase, the glory of God. Let me show you a couple of verses that deal with this glory of God so you'll understand what it's saying. Look in chapter 5. And look at verse 2. Go back to verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by works, by faith, by being justified by faith alone, not faith plus works, not works plus faith, faith alone, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no peace in Mohammed. There's no peace in Buddha. There's no peace in your ancestors. There's no peace in any of your man-made religions. It is Christ and Christ alone. We'll see why that is in a minute. Through whom, through Jesus Christ, we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Grace means undeserved favor, free gift. This grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. What is the glory of God? What does it mean that we are hoping for the glory of God? Because of Christ, where we have always fallen short of the glory of God, in Christ we now have access and anticipate the glory of God. Let's look at a few more scriptures that deal with that. Look over in chapter 8 of Romans. Romans chapter 8 and look at verse 18. For I consider, well, go back to verse 16. I don't want to miss this. The Spirit himself, notice this doesn't say the Spirit itself. The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit is a person. He's a him. The Holy Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Now, hold on a second. That means by grace, by the grace of God through faith in Christ, we are joined with Christ. We become children of God. We become heirs of God and joint heirs, not sub-heirs. Joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Well, what does Christ inherit? Everything. So in Christ, you get everything. Pleasures forevermore, perfect health, Perfect temperature, perfect everything, eyesight, ears, joy, peace, fellowship. I can spend the rest of the day just talking about that. But then he goes on to say, if indeed we suffer with him. That we may also be glorified together, obviously together as Christians and together with Christ. The Old Testament says, my glory I will share with none. But Jesus is God, so he is Glorified. And that means the glory of God is the brilliant display of all of His attributes. The way that a sun is the brilliant display of all of the colors of the rainbow. The resplendent outshining of the glory of God. All of the attributes of God. All of the brilliance. All of the majesty. All of the royalty. All of these things we will actually be sharing in. That's what it means to be glorified. Let's go a little bit more. Verse 18 says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Go a little bit further in the Book of Romans, look at chapter eight, verse 32. I'm sorry, chapter eight, verse 30. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, and whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. Now, Scripture tells us that we are in the process right this moment as a Christian of being changed and transformed from one degree of glory to another, to another, to another, to another. That process which takes the period of our life will be ultimately finalized when the Lord comes back and we're with Him. So, let's make that glorification a little bit clearer. How have you changed since your conversion? When you repented and you believed the gospel, you put your faith in Christ alone as your Savior. You submitted to Him as your Lord. What kind of a person were you then? And how have things changed? Do you have any more joy now than when you were a wicked, bar-hopping heathen? Quite a lot more joy? Multiply that by a gazillion. Do you have any peace that you didn't have when you were a fornicating drunkard now? Has that improved at all? Amen. And take all of these incredible communicable attributes of God, the And the progress that you are seeing in your life will then be absolutely magnified when Christ returns. The Bible says He that has this hope in Him purifies Himself as He is pure. We long for that day when we're finally glorified. And then we have all of the fruit of the Spirit, all of the communicable attributes of God maximized. Well, when you're a heathen, you fall short of that glory, don't you? You don't have the love that you should have or you will have when you come to Christ. You don't have the peace. You don't have the clarity of your conscience. Now that you've come to Christ, does it not just feel good to know that you're forgiven? Have you ever had a situation where you've wronged somebody? Let's say I've wronged my wife, Laurie, and I go to her and I say, I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have done that. Would you please forgive me? You know, please forgive me. And she embraces me and she says, yes, I forgive you. Do you not feel good? Does that not bring joy to your heart and peace to you? If you don't know Christ, you're not going to experience that forever. You need Christ. And so back in Romans chapter 3. We find that the glory of God is something that is progressive during this life and will be maximized in the next life only in relationship to Christ, only when you turn to Christ. But notice something in verse 24. Being justified, justified and righteous come from the same root. There's a whole group of words, but they don't mean the same thing. Look on your notes and you'll see the definition. Righteousness is the perfect obedience. See where it says up there on the top under the introduction. Righteousness is the perfect obedience that the law demands. That's called righteousness. The person who renders that obedience is called righteous. To justify is to ascribe righteousness to a man or to pronounce him righteous. Well, how can God pronounce a wicked sinner righteous? I'm not righteous. The only way is if you have an alien righteousness given to you. The only way is if you have the righteousness of Christ credited to your account. Then God can look at you and say, you are perfectly obedient to the law because of Christ. Christ is the one who was perfectly obedient. That's why it all goes back to Christ. And that comes freely, but notice he multiplies words to emphasize again that it's not by works in verse 24. Being justified, declared righteous freely by his grace. He uses two crucial words to make it crystal clear, by the way, did I make it clear? Do you understand that you are not righteous? Do you understand that your only hope is to have the righteousness of Christ credited to your account? Do you understand that all of your works are filthy rags? Nothing good that you have done can contribute one whit to your justification. And by the way, if that's not clear, your justification is free. And in case I didn't make that clear, you are justified freely as a gift. I mean, it's like God is just saying, listen, don't let anyone rob you. And there are hundreds of millions of professing Christians today in churches who have been robbed of this most precious truth. And what I'm teaching you is the Reformation teaching. It's the interpretation. The imputation of the righteousness of Christ is the interpretation that sparked the Reformation. We would all be blind in our sin, if we listen to those godless priests. He says, there is no difference, verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified, declared righteous, declared as one who is perfectly obedient in every aspect, loving God with your heart, mind, soul and strength as a free gift. Now, wait a second. If you're a thinker, and this is one of those passages, you've got to think. If you're a thinker, you're saying, how can God righteously do that? Here I am. I am unrighteous. And God comes along and says, I want to give you my righteousness. Aren't there a whole bunch of problems with that? For example, what about the penalty of my sin? Doesn't that have to be taken care of? And what about the fact that I am bound, I am chained in my sin? Don't those chains need to be broken? And what about the obligation, the debt, that I owe to the law? Doesn't that have to be paid? And what about the lack of fellowship with God? What about the wrath of God that the whole thing started with? Doesn't the wrath of God have to be satisfied? For God just to meander in here and say, oh, here, let me give you some righteousness. There's a lot of problems that we've got. There's a lot of problems that have got to be solved. And God has solved all of them. Look what it says in verse 24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption. The redemption that is in Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus alone, no one else is our redeemer. Let me give you a little bit of a of a definition of redemption. It is on your notes there at the top under the introduction to deliver from bondage By the payment of a ransom price. Deliverance from bondage by the payment of a ransom price, look over in your Bible, in the book of Galatians, Corinthians, Galatians. And look at chapter three with me, Galatians, chapter three. You see, we go to these other scriptures as a correlation principle to emphasize that this is not some quirky interpretation that I came up with. This is the Bible teaching and Galatians chapter three. And when we talk about redemption, let's see if I got the right verse here in verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. having become a curse for us. There is the keyword for. F-O-R. As our substitute. As the one who took our place. God is able to give you the free gift of righteousness by grace, freely, by grace, without works, freely. He's able to do that because Jesus Christ has redeemed us. He has become the curse for us. Christ has redeemed us. Look over in chapter 4. And look at verse 5. To redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. Look over a little bit more in the book of Titus. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus. Titus chapter 2. And look at verse 13. 2.13 of Titus, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus? He's God. He's our God and Savior. Verse 14, who gave Himself for us. There's that word again. For us. In our behalf, in our place, in our stead, in order that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people who care nothing about good works. It says we're zealous for good works. So understand, works have nothing to do with getting you justified. Justification has everything to do with producing good works. You will not produce good works if you're not justified, but you've got to already be justified in order to produce the good works. Let's go a little bit more over into 1 Peter, Hebrews, James, Peter, 1 Peter. You remember, redemption is releasing from bondage by the payment of a ransom. So, what was the ransom price in 1 Peter chapter 1? And look at verse 18. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold. I was given a little news article from, I think it's the New York Times or Washington Post, can't remember, one of those big city newspapers, how the Roman Catholic Church now is selling indulgences again. Just amazing. You know, and it goes on to explain, I mean, it's got the websites where they are and the churches where you can buy them. And you go in and you buy time out of purgatory. Of course, they never tell you how long purgatory is. It's like, let's say that purgatory is eternal and in purgatory you're burning in the fires. What's the difference between that and hell? And so you know, someone walks up to you and says, I'd like to give you two months off your time at purgatory. All you have to do is give me $1,500. What is two months in light of eternity? Right? You won't notice it at all. But he says in verse 18, No, you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold. You can't pay money to get your redemption. You can't buy time out of hell. You can't buy your way into heaven. It's not with corruptible things like silver and gold. From your aimless conduct, received by the tradition from your fathers. But here's what you were redeemed with, verse 19. You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb without spot and blemish, he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. This biblical principle, look over in chapter two of the same book, chapter two, and look at. Verse 24. Who himself? bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed." So, back in Romans chapter 3, what I want you to see from this text is this. You are not righteous. You have nothing to stand on before God. God comes along and says, I want to grant you as a free gift, my righteousness, the perfect obedience of my Son, who lived a sinless, spotless life, the Lamb of God, without spot or blemish. I want to give that to you as a free gift, without works, without debt, without paying for it, without meriting it, without earning it, without deserving it. without doing anything at all for it. I want to give it to you if you will believe in my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what does Christ have to do with giving me this free gift of righteousness? How can I get this gift? Because Jesus Christ is the one who died to pay. You see, we have two problems with the law. The penalty of the law and the practice of the law. We are under the penalty of the law because we have not fulfilled the practices of the law. Jesus has done both. He lived a sinlessly perfect life and then died on the cross to pay the penalty of the law. So He practiced the law, He obeyed the law, and then paid the penalty of the law. All of that is now to be given to you if you will repent and believe the gospel. This is the greatest news. I can't emphasize this enough. Amen? This is fantastic stuff. And he says in verse 24, being declared righteous with God freely as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ. Christ paid the ransom price of his precious blood. And understand the price of our redemption could be paid with nothing less than the blood of the eternal son of God. That that is Does that not heighten the value of your redemption? If it took Christ stepping down from glory, the Incarnation, taking on Himself the form of a servant, living a life of perfect obedience with four gospel testimonies, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, telling us how perfect His life was, and then dying on the cross. Now, the cross is the central symbol because notice what it says. through the end of verse 24, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There is no redemption without the cross, because the cross is where the blood was spilled. The death of Christ was the price of your redemption. You can't have the righteousness of God without the substitutionary death of Christ. That's why everything in the Bible. I mean, if you could take all the pages of the Bible and just put them on that back wall. Just put them on the wall, just from Genesis 1 all the way across. You know what the very center would be? The cross. Everything points to the cross. The cross is the only way we can have the righteousness of Christ. You were redeemed by the blood of Christ. And it says in verse 25, whom God set forth as a propitiation. Another big theological word, but on your notes it's defined for you. Propitiation is a wrath-satisfying sacrifice. And now Paul's argument comes full circle. In 118, he has said the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And Christ bore the wrath of God so that we could have His righteousness. Again, the cross is the means by which The righteousness is credited to you. The hand of faith, believing in the cross, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we preach Christ crucified. And he says, Jesus Christ is the wrath satisfying sacrifice. People who are not preaching the wrath of God are not preaching propitiation. How can you preach Christ without preaching propitiation? You can't preach propitiation if you don't preach the wrath of God. And so Christ is the one who bore. Now, was God's son, as the emergent church is saying, some cosmic child abuser? That God comes along and grabs his son by the scruff of the neck and says, I want to save these people, so I'm going to slaughter you. That's not how it works at all. Notice it says God set forth The Lord Jesus Christ as the propitiation by His blood. Jesus said, no man takes my life. I lay it down willingly. Jesus was the willing sacrifice. That also tells us another perverted view that is in the Roman harlot, which says that God is angry with you. You've got to go to Mary. And she goes and talks to Jesus. And Jesus goes over to the father, who's just like hopping man, jumping around. Oh, I hate those humans. OK, dad, calm down. Calm down. That's not how it works at all. The Bible specifically says that it was God who set forth Jesus as the propitiation. So this was the plan that we see that over in Ephesians or I think it's first Peter that he foreordained. So this is all part of the sovereign plan of the Trinity. You see, we don't have any division within the Trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in absolute union, calmly understanding, planning, decreeing and executing everything necessary for our salvation. And he says God has set forth Christ as a propitiation. But notice the propitiation is not by his life. The propitiation is by His blood. You see that? If Christ had lived a sinlessly perfect life and then just died of natural causes, that would have not been of any help to us. He had to live a perfectly sinless life, just like a lamb in the Old Testament could not be without spot and blemish and just sort of wander around out in the woods and die of old age. That lamb, without spot and blemish, had to be taken to the temple. They had to press their hand on its head as an identification, as a way of visibly transferring the sin of the worshiper to the substitution. And then that lamb dies. When Christ was living a sinless life, that was so that we could have that. But the way that it became ours is that Jesus had to suffer the wrath of God in our place. And that's what happened on the cross. Christ didn't die of natural causes. He died under the wrath of God and he cried out on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's when God temporarily hid his face from his son as he was layered with the sins of man. He became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God, Corinthians says. And so this propitiation, this wrath satisfying sacrifice is the sacrifice of Christ and his blood. And it is through faith, not through works. So we have our sins propitiated. I'm sorry, the wrath of God propitiated our sins forgiven and washed away, expiated, cleansed away by the blood of Christ. And that all comes through faith. to demonstrate his righteousness. Now it's being of the attribute of God's righteousness, because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that had been previously committed in the Old Testament. All those sins that were committed in the Old Testament, the sins of David, the sins of Abraham, the sins of Moses, the sins of those who were believers, they were saved by faith, but it was faith on credit. Their faith was a forward-looking faith. Ours is a backward-looking faith. Make sense? We look back to the cross, they looked forward to the cross. It was the same substitutionary death and the same faith, from whichever angle you look at it, that the salvation and the righteousness came. And so God had to demonstrate, it could be understood, or misunderstood I should say, it could be misunderstood that, wait a second, Look at all these guys in the Old Testament. They weren't punished for their sins and they didn't have a savior. They didn't have the cross. So God says, no, I'm going to demonstrate my righteousness. Is God careless about the sins in the Old Testament? Is God indifferent to sin? Does God not care? You know, we can look back at the cross and say, OK, we know God cares that sin must be punished. But in the Old Testament, are we saying that God didn't care about that? No, God had to demonstrate that he was righteous. And it says in verse 26, well, how did he do that? To demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So God's righteous attribute of being just, his justice, the law could not be thrown out the window. The law had to be exalted, magnified and fulfilled. And the law demanded a penalty for man's sin. So, we'll wrap it up with filling in the notes at the bottom of your page. God's righteousness is possible only through propitiation. God publicly displayed Jesus as that propitiation. God publicly displayed Jesus to demonstrate His justice. No one can accuse God of being unjust. Because both attributes of God have to be upheld. His love and His justice. His grace, His mercy and His truth. And on the cross, mercy and truth kiss, as they say in the Psalms. All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer.