Hi, I'm Marty McKenzie with His Love Ministries. Welcome to the Least of These podcast. We reach out to those the world has forgotten. If you'd like to know more about us and how you can donate to help us fulfill our mission, go to hisloveministries.net. Thank you very much and God bless you. What have I to fear? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arm I have mercy, peace, with my Lord to be Leaning on the everlasting arm Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Amen. Leaning on the everlasting arms. We're leaning on them, because we can trust them, because they belong to Jesus. Amen. All right. Well, we're going to be back in Romans and chapter 3. And we're finally starting to get to some of the good part here. For three chapters almost, almost all three chapters, we've been getting beat up every which way, cuz that's what the Bible does. It has to tell us that we're sinners and we're in need of a savior. And until you can get somebody to realize they have the need of a savior, then you can't get them saved. Because you got to understand that there's a need before you can do something about it, right? That's sort of like being sick. Sometimes if you don't know you're sick, you won't go to the doctor, right? People say, well, you needed to go to the doctor. I said, well, I'm not going to the doctor. We're gonna be teaching in the Book of Romans this morning, and remember the first. chapter really, and what does he do? He says, we've all sinned, right? He says all the pagans are guilty before God. Chapter 2, he tells us the moral man is guilty before God. And then he says the Jewish man is because he is trusting in something other than Jesus. And then he comes back on them in chapter 3, Condemns everybody said we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God that there's none righteous No, not one. We all fall short. That's where we're going to be today But basically that's what he says in the first part of it there. He's talking to the Jews and he's talking to everybody and And he says, talks about that the whole world's mouth may be stopped and condemned by God. And so when we get to chapter three, we're going to get to now these great verses in verse 21 today, that but now the righteousness of God has been revealed. And so as we look at that, you know, man's quest for Our so-called quest, I guess, for God or religion has gone down so many roads. The Jews have said you need to keep the law and most other false religions of the world say you got to do good works or good deeds to get into heaven. And some say you keep coming back until you get it right. Then you can attain a release from this world. And so the question is that we've been talking for three chapters, how we're all condemned. without Jesus, what is it that allows a man to be acceptable in God's sight? What is it that can remove the penalty of sin? And what is it makes a person's entrance into heaven a sure thing? And that's what he's gonna talk about today. You know, false religion says you gotta do something, right? I mean, that's what false religion says. It says do this or don't do that, right? Says keep the Ten Commandments do this don't do these things and you'll make it into heaven But you know what Jesus Christ when he died on the cross, what did he say? It is done Verses 21 to 26 in chapter 3 are probably the most important verses ever written. And there was a great man, commentator, and preacher named Donald Gray Barnhouse. And he drew a heart over these verses in his Bible and said this passage was not only the heart of the Romans, but the heart of the New Testament in the whole Bible. And so the first thing we wanna see today is the righteousness of God apart from the law. Let's read verses 21 to 23. He says, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So the first thing he says here is there's a righteousness from God and it's apart from the law. And so this is the great but now, what does he say? We've been talking about all this sin and all this condemnation, but then we see in verse 20, but now. And there's a total change right here, but now. That but's a strong contrast, right? But now, we see the righteousness of God apart from the law revealed. This but now, first of all, signals a new train of thought, but it also shows that during this period of time, the righteousness of Christ has been revealed. And so Paul, having shown the impossibility of being righteous or being right before God, By human effort, he now turns to explain that righteousness that comes from God, that which he has provided. And Paul speaks of that over in Philippians 3, 8 and 9. He says, Yes, indeed, I count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. So he says, second of all, he says that this righteousness of God Apart from the law was revealed. This righteousness is not obtained by the law and then second of all he says it's Witnessed by the law and the prophets now. What is he talking about the law and the prophets first of all? He's talking about the law was you know, of course the Old Testament law, right? That was what we considered the Jews considered the first five books of the Bible Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers and in Deuteronomy, that's what was called the Old Testament law. And the law testifies to this. It testifies to that, you know, all the way back in Genesis 3, if you remember, right after Adam and Eve had sinned in the garden, what happened? God said that he would put hatred between the seed of the devil and the seed of God. And God, the devil's seed would bruise God's seed healed, but God's seed, Jesus, would crush the head of the devil, right? And that's what he said back there. Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 this he's really talking about the the Jews here and he says the law and the prophets he's Introducing the fact that that God's righteousness was not foreign to the Old Testament I mean everything that Paul taught me New Testament. It was all there in the Old Testament, right? I mean if you go in the book of Acts, they accuse him of teaching a new teaching and But Paul tells them over and over again, I'm teaching what the Old Testament teaches. I mean, everywhere you look in the Old Testament, you see that the law, like I said, all the way back in the law, many, many times, back in Deuteronomy 8, verse 18. Moses was speaking and he said, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command you. And he's talking about Jesus, right? And then in the prophets, what is the prophets? That's the rest of the, pretty well, most of the rest of the Old Testament. When you get to chapter four, we'll see that. We hadn't got there, it'll be a while yet before we get there, a couple of weeks, but we see that that he uses two examples to prove the righteousness of God. First he uses Abraham, who was part of the law, and then he comes in and he takes David, who was from the prophets, and he proves these facts. And so, even though the Jews had great reverence for their scriptures, I remember, what is it Jesus said to him? He says, in John chapter five, verse 39, he says, you search the scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life, and it is these that bear witness of me. They searched them, but they didn't understand them, did they? They didn't understand that the scriptures were speaking to them. They thought they were immune to it. And even though we have a partial revelation in the Old Testament, we have enough to know that it's pointed to a savior. which was Jesus Christ, and that no man could be righteous. Even Job, I think it was, I'm trying to remember where it was at, he says that how could a man be righteous in the eyes of God? No man could be righteous in the eyes of God. That we need somebody to do it for us, right? It was said over and over and over again. What was it, Mike, I believe it was, or Malachi, he said that just shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2 for the just shall live by faith It didn't say the just shall live by the law But it says they shall live by faith. So he says it was revealed Witnessed by the law and the prophets and then verse 22. He says even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all is and on all who believe, for there is no difference, even the righteousness of God through faith. The point of Hebrews 11 is what? There's never been another means of salvation other than faith, right? I mean, what does the whole book of Hebrews 11 say? By faith, Abraham. By faith, David. By faith, Jephthah. By faith, and he names all these people over and over and over again. He doesn't say by law, he says by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. And he says, they did this, they did that, they did this, they did that. Why did they do that? Because they believe God, right? When they get to chapter four, Abraham, he says he believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He says it's through faith on all who believe. In Acts 10 43 says to him, all the prophets witnessed that through his name, whoever believes in him, will receive the forgiveness of sins. And a great man, a preacher, maybe some of y'all, I'm sure probably a lot of y'all heard of him, Charles Spurgeon, said faith is believing Christ is what he said he is, he will do what he said he promised to do, and then expecting him to do it. That's what faith is. That he is what he said he is, he will do what he said he will do, and then expecting him to do it. And that's faith, trusting in him, believing in him, saving faith. The scripture just shows us over and over again that it's more than just making a simple verbal declaration. Some people in the past have said, and they continue to say today, if you just believe God or say a prayer, They don't say that you have to live that way anymore afterwards. And that doesn't make any sense. A. W. Tozer said, something has happened to the doctrine of justification. The faith of Paul and Luther was a revolutionizing thing. It upset the whole life of the individual, made him into another person altogether. It laid hold of the life and brought it into obedience to Christ. It took up his cross and followed along after Jesus with no intention of going back. It said goodbye to his old friends as certainly as Elijah when he stepped into that fiery chariot and went away in the whirlwind. It had a finality about it. It snapped shut on a man's heart like a trap. It captured the man and made him from that moment on a happy love servant of the Lord. That's good, I like that. Today people say, you could be saved and your life doesn't have to change. You can live any way you want to and you can go to heaven. But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says if you're truly saved, you're gonna be different, right? From a human standpoint, salvation begins when a person in willful obedience turns from their sin to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what that's all about. He says, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference. Basically, he's saying it's for everybody, right? That's what he says, it's for everybody. He's talking about Jew and Greek, male and female, whatever color we are, it doesn't matter. And then verse 23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have sinned and can fall short of glory of God. All men of all races cannot meet the standard of complete perfection, glory of God. I think we talked about that a couple of weeks ago. If we tried to swim the ocean from one side of the ocean to the other, or jump from one side of the Grand Canyon to the other. Some of us would make it a little further than others, right? Some of us would fall on our face, but you know what? None of us would make it across, right? I mean, if we tried to jump to heaven, some of us would make a foot or two foot, maybe a half an inch or something, but none of us is gonna make it, right? It's the same way with getting to heaven. We might make a little bit of progress. But there's no way on our own we can make it on our own, because God did not set it up that way. He made it so that we have to put our trust in Him. And he says, not only did all of us fall short sin, but we also fall short. You know that word sin, let's talk about that word sin for just a minute. We talk about sin all the time. But that word sin means to, it literally means to miss the mark. It came from Back in the old days when you like be shooting an arrow at a target, shooting something at a target, and you shoot at the target and you miss the bullseye. Guess what? That's what we do all the time, isn't it? We're always shooting, trying to do what's right, but you know what? How many times do we miss the mark? Over and over and over again. That old saying, practice makes perfect. I don't know who came up with that. Practice makes you better. Bible says, exercise yourself unto godliness. But you know what? Practice does not make perfect. We'll be perfect one day when Jesus makes us perfect in heaven. So we all have sinned and fall short. That's like you shoot that arrow and it falls short. And that word fall short just means, continues to mean that we continually fall short. We keep on falling short. What is he saying here? That we've all sinned and we all keep falling short. And Paul's just restating what he's already said here, right? And we fall short of the glory of God. Think about this. God's glory is complete perfection, right? I mean, glory, God's glory is His outward shining of His inward characteristics. In other words, the Bible says that when Jesus was on earth, John 1 14, we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In other words, when Jesus was here on earth, what did He do? He showed us in human form what God the Father looked like, right? I mean, we told that story about Christmas and the guy didn't wanna go to church, and the birds kept bouncing against the window, and it was a storm, and they were gonna die, and the guy went outside. He keeps trying to shoo the birds away. He throws down some bread and tries to lead them in the barn. flaps his wings, he does all kinds of things, trying to get the birds to go in the barn. And he says, oh, if I was just a bird, I could show them the way. And then it hit him that that's what Jesus did. He came to earth to show us the way. That's what the whole reason Jesus came, right? to die on the cross and to show us the true way of salvation. What does he say here? He says, and here's something, nowadays preachers who speak of the sinfulness of man are looked down upon because they are always speaking about how bad man is and how you're going to hell. But these people forget the fact that the whole reason this is done is to show man a better way of living, is living based on what God has done and can do with us if we let him run our lives. Saying a man is a sinner is not just to make him feel bad about himself, but to make him realize what he can be through God, the motive is a good one. Y'all remember the story we told about Ringo the duck, right? He kept trying to get away, trying to get away, and people were just trying to help him. And that's what we're trying to do with people who don't know the Lord. We're trying to help them, right? We're trying to bring them to Christ. But they don't like us because they think we're trying to hurt them. They think we're trying to do something to them to stop them from having fun. But the reality is, if they trust Christ, they'll have way more fun living for Christ than they ever will living for the world, at least I know that's true for sure. And so he says in verse 24, let's see the justification by God. Verse 24 he says, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Let's stop right there. Being justified freely by His grace. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So being justified. Salvation is free, but it's not cheap. There's three words here that express the price that God paid for it. He says being justified freely through his grace by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And in verse 25, he says by his blood. So those are the words that show that grace wasn't cheap. And justification is one of those laws, excuse me, not laws, but words that comes from the law courts, which speaks of a man on trial before God. And it doesn't mean to make somebody something that they're not, but to treat them as if they were. In other words, when we trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that word justification means That we are treated as if we are not sinners. We're not sinners, as we're not criminals. It's kinda like, I've told this story before, it's kinda like, say I went and robbed a bank tomorrow. And they caught me on the camera, and the dye blew up, and it was all over me. And they had me on the TV cameras outside as I came out with the dye, and they had me on the bank cameras. And there was about 50 people in the bank, and there was about 300, 400 people outside watching as I came out. And they caught me, and I go to court. And of course, they're gonna find me guilty, at least I hope they would. Anyway, who knows in today's courts? But they find me guilty, cuz they got the cameras, the tapes, they got witness after witness after witness. And I got to die all over me, and so right before I'm sentenced, here comes the governor's representative. And the governor's representative comes in and says, Mr. McKenzie, I know you're guilty, but I'm gonna give you a pardon. That's being declared legally righteous. That's what that word justification means. We've said in the past, and this is only partially true, and some preachers hate this when you say this, it's just as if I had never sinned. God treats me just as if I had never sinned and never ever sinned before or never will sin again. That's what he does, is he declares me legally righteous. It's taking a guilty man or a guilty woman and saying, I know that you're guilty, but I'm gonna set you free. Isn't that what Jesus did on the cross? When the man next to him, one of them was still cursing him and all these things, and then the other guy says, this guy hadn't done anything. And he realizes Jesus is God and he says, today, he says, remember me when you get to heaven. He says, remember me. And Jesus said, today you shall be with me in paradise, right? That guy, he was part of the gang that was with Barabbas, the one that they let go. And Barabbas was a murderer, he was a robber. He was a thief, but he was a robber. He was not only somebody that just stole, but he was a person that killed when he stole. And he was literally a robber, which meant that he killed people when he stole from them. He didn't leave any witnesses, but he just said, Kill them all and then there's no witnesses. And that's what kind of man he was. And guess what? That's what he did. And that's what these guys were that were on the cross with Jesus. They were some of Barabbas' people. That word justified just means that he keeps on declaring us righteous. That we don't deserve it, but yet God in his amazing mercy, he treats us As if we had never sinned and never sinned again. And he just declares us legally righteous. I mean, he says we've been justified freely. That word freely is the one that Paul loves a lot. He says it's a free gift. I mean, a gift's free, right? He's going to say that in chapter 6 a little bit, a couple chapters later. But he says it's a free gift. I mean, a gift's free, right? At least it's supposed to be. But he says it's a free gift. And when Paul says that God justifies the ungodly, this shocks the Jews. Because the Jews think that this is the sign of a wicked God. But you know what? This is a purely legal transaction. But you know what Jesus is gonna do, or God's gonna do through Paul here, he's gonna come back and he's gonna show us how he can do that as we come back probably next week. He says, by his grace, remember what is grace? Grace is giving somebody something they don't deserve, right? I used to tell a story when daddy was alive that, I'll just tell it again because I don't know of any other example. Say I walked up to somebody or just anybody and I popped them upside the head And I said about five minutes later. I walk up say hey, do you want me $100? What are they gonna say to me? You're crazy Let's say I walk up somebody and I slap them I don't even ask them for anything about 10 minutes later or something or a couple minutes later They say you know what I got a present for you, and they reach in their back pocket. I don't even ask them for it And they reach in there and they pull out a $1,000 bill. That's what God does, is he freely justifies us. He gives it to us by grace. One man says before Christ there was judgment, but now there's grace. Think about what happened in the Old Testament so many times when people sinned and did all these things that were wrong. Remember back in Numbers when they had to put the serpent on the pole and all the people were dying over and over and over again? In Revelation 22, 17, he says, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him who hears say, Come, and let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely. Grace means that God gives us stuff when we don't deserve it. There's no strings attached. Even though God gave us the gift of grace, guess what? It cost God a lot, didn't it? It cost him his death. And then this word redemption, let's finish up this one last word through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Redemption is a commercial term, and it was used in the Old Testament to speak of purchasing the freedom of a prisoner or a slave for the purpose of setting them free. And that's what Jesus did. He paid the price to set us free. What does John 8 say? If the Son sets you free, you should be what? Free indeed, that's right. When Jesus died on the cross, it was to set us free from the burden of sin. What's that old song we sing? Power and the blood. Would you be free from the burden of sin? There's power in the blood. There's power in the blood. There's wonder, work, and power in the blood of the lamb, right? And Titus 2.14 says, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. And then Paul says, or excuse me, Peter says, in 1 Peter 1.18 and 19, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. So the death of Christ on the cross was the price of payment for human sin. And you know what? Nobody can say that Jesus wasn't just when he did that. That's what he was doing was he was legally setting us free. But just judge, if you do something wrong, he can't just say, well, I'm gonna turn you loose. But a righteous judge, he may pay your penalty, he may pay your price. And as the young boy one time, I think y'all remember this illustration that the young boy, he came before the judge and the judge paid his fine that day and kept him from going to jail or youth detention. A little bit later on, the boy came back and he said, there's that old soft judge again. And that day he didn't show any respect for the judge. He didn't humble himself. He was just arrogant and prideful. And he said, the old judge looked at him and said, last time you were here, I was your savior, but today I am your judge. Jesus wants to be our savior. He doesn't wanna be our judge. He wants to set us free. As we finish today, we need to make sure that we know Jesus is our Lord and savior because if we don't, we're not gonna make it to heaven. There's only one way to get to heaven and that's by trusting in Jesus Christ and him alone. You know, I've told y'all before, communion doesn't get it. Baptism doesn't get it. None of those things you can't add to what Jesus did on the cross. But the Bible says, whoever believes in Him shall be saved. It doesn't say whoever's baptized. It doesn't say whoever takes communion. It doesn't say whoever does good works. Or it doesn't say whoever believes and does these things. But it says whoever believes shall be saved. So don't put your trust in a person or except for Jesus Christ and Him alone. Well, let's pray and we'll close. Father, we love you. We thank you for this time and we thank you that we can be justified, legally declared righteous because of what you did on the cross through Jesus Christ. Lord, we love you and thank you. And we ask if there's even one here today that doesn't know you today, they would ask God to forgive them and save them and put their trust in Jesus Christ and Him alone. Father, there's only one way to get to heaven. You said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one gets to the Father but by me. So Father, work in our lives. And for those of us who know you, let us be appreciative. Let us be thankful today. for what you've done for us. And remember, this is the day the Lord has made and we will be glad and rejoice in it. Father, we love you and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Hi, I'm Marty McKenzie with His Love Ministries. Please help us reach out to those the world has forgotten. Everyone we minister to is locked up in some way, shape, or form. Those in the nursing home facilities are locked up in bodies that do not work, in a wheelchair, or in a bed. We minister to children and youth who are locked up because of behavioral problems. Some have told us we want to have a real family because their parents have lost or given up custody of them. Other kids are locked up because they've committed crimes. We also minister to those locked up at the jails and the prisons, to those locked up in addictions to drugs, alcohol, depression, and suicidal thoughts, to those locked up in a variety of other things that keep them from becoming who Jesus wants them to be. He came to give us abundant life, joy, and set us free. And these people that we minister to are not free. Our desire is to show them whatever their background, no matter what they've done, to see how much God loves them. We seek to help them receive forgiveness and freedom from their sin in Jesus Christ. We minister in the local area of Savannah, Georgia and surrounding Effingham and Chatham area. We have recently expanded our ministry to the Lexington, Columbia, South Carolina area. We do over 2,000 services every year. We hope and pray that you will support us in some way so we can continue our mission. Go to HisLoveMinistries.net and click on the Donate Now button or send it via regular mail to Post Office Box 1881, Lexington, South Carolina, 29071. We hope and pray that you will do that. Thank you and God bless you. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. John 8.32.