I'm good to go. Alright, we're going to, Lord willing, finish up chapter 3 of Romans as we're going through the entire book of Romans. I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles, you listening around the world, open up to Romans 3. I'm going to read verses, as you can see on the screen, 21 through 31. And if you have a personal Bible, I usually encourage people to put a little heart there, because this pretty much is the gospel right here. If you were to ever take anybody to scripture, and you wanted to really show them the Eugalion, the good news, the gospel, this is it right here, church. So I'm gonna read these verses, then we're gonna dig into the text. So please follow along. Romans chapter three. verses 21 through 31. Here we go. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested or revealed. It was witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe There is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now look at verse 24, being justified as a gift. It doesn't say being justified because you paid for it. Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed. for a demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Chiding the Jews here in verse 27, he goes on and says, where then is the boasting? It's excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of a law. Or, is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also. Since indeed God who will justify the circumcised, that's the Jews, by faith and the uncircumcised, that's the Gentiles, through faith is one. Do we then nullify the law through faith? And I like how the King James says it, God forbid. On the contrary, we establish the law. So let's put up slide five. Let me draw you into the text here. Here's a question. Church, I want you to think about this. What does it look like when a person comes to a saving faith in Jesus Christ? Now think about that. What does it look like when a person comes to a saving faith in Christ? On slide 5, I like how Paul Washer, slide 5 and 6 puts it. Washer says this, One of the first noticeable results of true conversion, look at this, is a biblical separation from the world, a gradual divorce or withdrawing from all that is displeasing to God and in opposition from His will. Do you see that? One of the first noticeable results of true conversion, church, is this separating ourselves from the world and divorcing or withdrawing away from all of the things that is displeasing to God and in opposition to His will. Look at slide six. He goes on to say this, through the work of regeneration and sanctification, that means setting you apart, God promises, now listen, this is really important. God promises not only to take His people out of the pagan nations, but also, look at this, to take the influence of the pagan nations out of the people. You see, God effectually draws them to Himself. So God will draw His people away from the moral corruption of the fallen world. We don't participate in those behaviors that the fallen world participates in, church. And He brings them to Himself. Amen? So, in our last time together, we were looking at how are we made right with the Father. We had looked at what it actually means to be justified. We looked at how we are redeemed. Slide seven. A couple more things from Washer here, slide seven and eight. So we learned that to receive the gospel means that, as we've learned, we reject the world. So Washer puts it this way, and he says it better than I could ever say it. To receive and follow the gospel call is to reject all that can be seen with the eye, held in the hand, in exchange for what cannot be seen. It is to reject personal autonomy and the right to self-government in order to enslave oneself to a Messiah, that's Christ, who died 2,000 years ago. So to receive the gospel is not merely to pray a prayer asking Jesus to come into my heart, but it is to put away the world and embrace the fullness of the claims of Christ. So a genuine receiving of the Eugalion, the gospel, it not only involves a disdain for and turning away from sin, but also a disdain for and turning from any confidence other than Christ, especially a confidence in self. The question we need to ask this morning is, can that be said about you and I? Are we willing to reject personal autonomy? Have you come to the place where you've enslaved yourself to the only one that bore your sin on that cross? That's Christ. Let's look at slide 9, so let's kind of like get through this. I don't want to keep you here all day. So he says in Romans 3.26, for the demonstration, so think about a demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ. So the question we need to ask ourselves is, okay, Paul, what did you mean when you use that word demonstration or declaring, as the text says? Well, he's demonstrating or declaring his righteousness. So what does this mean? Church, God is giving evidence to his righteousness. Remember those two important words we read back in verse 21? The Greek words are nuni de, it means but now. at that moment, but now, God has done something, but now. And he says, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested or revealed. So, back in verse 21, you and I saw God's way of making a person righteous, but here in this verse, there's a slightly different meaning because here Paul is using the words demonstration or declaring. So here, the meaning of righteousness has more of the flavor of God doing something to declare God's own righteousness, not just what He's given to us, but rather all of His glorious attributes of Himself. Here in this verse, He's speaking of His own holy and just and righteous character. So that word, demonstration, is the Greek word indikos. It has the idea of proving or declaring something. So what is God declaring? What is He proving? He's proving His righteousness on account of sins that are past. So church, this is important. What God did at Calvary 2,000 years ago, was to pour out upon His only unique Son, His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, His wrath for sin. He punished the Son for all the filthy, rotten things we've all done. Paul is explaining how God could pass over all of those sins in the past. Hear me this morning. Church, it was on that And listen, you guys listen around the world, if the church you're in is not preaching the blood of Christ, repentance and the cross, run from it. It was on the cross that all of the sins that were committed back under that old dispensation, the Old Testament that God, as we have read, passed over or had forgiven. Now, these two words, passed over, I don't want to gloss over them. I want to make sure we understand what did he mean when he used those words 2,000 years ago. You see that word there passed over, the Greek word is paresis. It's actually a word that was used back 2,000 years ago in Roman law. So it had the idea of this individual or a person who actually would make a will and after he made the will he actually left someone out of the will. So the person may have given friends and family members some of his possessions, but he had passed over an individual. So there was this passing over, but we need to understand the idea was to overlook intentionally or to allow to pass over. So think with me, church. Under that old sacrificial system where the animals were sacrificed on the altar, for sins. Church, we have to understand it really didn't deal with sin the way the cross of Christ dealt with sin. All it did was really point people forward to the one and only ultimate sacrifice that would cleanse them, as well as you and I, from all unrighteousness and reconciles to God. So, think about it. On that cross, all the sins all the way back. and all the sins all the way forward were all dealt with at the cross. Don't let any false prophet tell you differently. All of the sins were included at the cross of Calvary, and all of the sins that you and I will commit today and tomorrow, if you're born again, are also taken care of there. Church, that's the justification of God for giving any sins at any time that have been committed. The cross declares that He would be the just. and the justifier of the one who has saving faith in Christ. So that word just has the idea of being morally and ethically sound, doing what is morally right and fair. Since God will never allow sin in heaven, all sin must be punished. He is just. All sin must be punished. because, as we read in Romans 6.23, the wages, the paycheck, the payment for sin is death. But the text says, the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So what does this mean? I really want to unpack this for you. So the work of Christ reveals to you and I the justice of God in that the Father punishes sin in the person of His only unique Son, Jesus Christ, and the righteousness of God's salvation is by way of faith in Christ alone. God's mercy would not allow Him to leave man to his own fate. God's justice, though, demanded that a punishment had to be made for sin because He is a just and holy and righteous God. So the only possible way to save someone was Jesus being that propitiatory offering and then a call for faith on our part. So then, the way God can be just and the justifier of the ungodly sinner, that's us, is that He has punished the sins of the ungodly, that's all of us, in His Son. Slide 10. He poured out His wrath and anger on His only Son. What does Isaiah 53 say? He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquity. And the chastening for our well-being fell upon Christ. And by His scourging, we are healed. Man, you should highlight that in your Bible and get on your face and thank God because you won't be burning in hell for all eternity because of what Jesus did for you on that cross. God, Church, listen, God has done what He said He would do. He has shown us that He is a righteous God. He made a public declaration of it through His Son on that cross. He is the just and justifier at the same time. He took all of his anger against our sins and punished his son. But he didn't stop there. He did something else. He took his son's perfect life of obedience and righteousness and he said, hey sinner, I'm going to credit all that to you. I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to put it in your account so now that you can be restored and reconciled to the Father. So the only way we can stand before the Father is that you and I are clothed in the righteousness of the Son. That's what we call the doctrine of atonement. That's the gospel church. There's nothing in our hands we bring, simply to the cross we cling. So what is atonement, slide 11? It is a reconciliation of two alienated parties. It is this restoration of a broken relationship. We were part of that brokenness. It is accomplished, hell, by making amends, by blotting out offenses, by giving satisfaction for wrongs done, and that is exactly what the father did. for His people through His Son. In Christ Jesus, God restored or reconciled us to Himself and He overcame His own hostility that our very sins produced. Slide 12. There will be a test on that at the end. Romans 3.27. This will be slide 12 and 13. So Paul then, after Paul lays all that out, Then he comes to this state because he knows who he's talking to. He says, well, where then is the boasting? It's excluded. By what kind of law it works? No. But by a law of faith. I like how the NLT puts it. Here's our modern vernacular right here. Boom. Can we boast then? I got myself saved. I'm better than them. Can we boast that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No. Because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law, it's based on faith. There it is, boom. See, Paul knew his audience. He knew that the Jews had this tendency to boast. He already addressed that when we learned that back in Romans 2.17. But if you bear the name Jew, that's slide 14, rely upon the law and boast in God. Yet, here we church here in chapter 3. We see, yet again, Paul coming back to this subject. I think church, I think Paul is anxious to see whether they see the truth. He doesn't want to leave anything to chance. He wanted these Jewish Christians in Rome to have a deep, intimate understanding of the gospel, the truth of the gospel. He was aware of the lingering tendencies of the Jewish Christians to somehow think that even now they are still different or superior to the Gentile Christians, or that they had some privileges over them. But Paul says no, in verse 515. It's excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but a law of faith. Because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. Church, hear me. God's way of salvation through the shed crimson blood of Christ leaves absolutely no room for any human being to boast. We have nothing to boast about. We sin every day in thoughts, words, deeds, actions, and motives. And we all know that. What does Paul mean when he uses the word bosun? The word is called klossos. It means to be egotistical, proud, puffed up, you're bragging. It's seen that Paul felt the need to use this word, and it's a very strong word in the Greek language back then, because he knew full well that this was an area of struggle for the Jews. It was also, at one time, Paul's own struggle before he was converted. Remember, Paul was a Pharisee. He was trained at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the most renowned rabbis of that day. He was better than most. You know, back before Paul was saved, he would boast about his nationality and his birth, his training. He was intimately acquainted with bragging and boasting and being prideful as a Jew. So He has just described for them God's way of salvation. You see, what He did and what the Bible does, it brings us face-to-face with the cross, the death of the unique Son of God. And at this point, He wanted to see whether or not, do they get it yet? Do they fully understand? Are they still boasting? Are they still full of pride? Is their ego all puffed up? Are they still holding on to the laws and the ceremonies and the rituals to save them? Are they still clinging on something else? And at this point, we need to ask ourselves the same question as we grapple with this text. Are you and I still clinging on something else to save us? Well, if I go to church every Sunday, God will let me in. If I put a couple of coins in the offering plate, God will let me in. If I do something nice for people, God will let me in. It's nothing to do with it at all, as we've been learning. Are you trusting in something else other than Christ to save you? You gotta understand, people today are absolutely, and you know, Dr. Carter's been taking us through ecclesiastics. There's nothing new under the sun. People are no different today than the people back in the Old Testament. People today are still selfish, self-centered, prideful, and self-righteous. And every one of us struggles at one time or another with these different sins. I know I do. How about you? You know, many still think that they can stand before God and declare that they are more acceptable than others, more deserving than others. Oh, I see what that person did over there, so-and-so over there. Oh, wow, oh, I don't do things that bad. I ain't talking to any of you, that's right. They focus on self. So the world revolves around them and they are the sole authority in everything. They think that they give meaning and purpose to life. That church, that's what boosting looks like today. I'm going to take us through slide 16 through 19. I want to share with you some important points that MacArthur says and these are very sobering and I want you to look at these things. We're going to take our time and go through them. This is important. MacArthur says the greatest lie in the world And the lie common to all false religions and cults is that by certain works of their own doing, men are able to make themselves acceptable to God. He goes on to say, or ask this question, what is saving faith apart from works? So he lists some things that neither prove nor disprove true faith. But these are sobering points that we need to reflect on. Do you know that you are born again? Do you know that when you drop dead and your time here is done, do you know that you are going to be stepping into glory? So look at slide 17. First, he covers this thing called visible morality. A person can be outwardly moral and still not be saved. Second, a person can have intellectual knowledge of God's truth and that is not necessarily a proof of saving faith. People can know a bunch of Bible verses and spit them out, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're saved. Third, religious involvement is not necessarily a proof of saving faith. Coming to church on Sunday, don't think just because you come to church on Sunday that you're saved. Slide 18, fourth. Active ministry in Christ's name is not necessarily proof of saving faith. We can go in the kitchen and whip up eggs and bacon and potatoes and all kinds of nice stuff, but that isn't necessarily proof of us being saved. Fifth, even conviction of sin does not necessarily demonstrate a saving faith. People can have some remorse for some things that they did wrong. Assurance of salvation is not an infallible mark of saving faith. The world is filled with people who are sincerely convinced in their minds that they're right with God. They have made some prayer or made some decision in the past. But he completes this with, slide 19, there are some reliable proofs of saving faith. What are they? There's a love for God. Here's a question I want you to ask yourself and be honest and don't lie to him or yourself. Do you really love God unconditionally? Be really honest about that. Ask yourself, do you really love God? You see, a true child of God, however, despite his often failing his Heavenly Father, will have a life characterized by delight in God and His Word. Here's a couple questions I want you to think about this morning. Do you look forward to opening up your Bible each day? Or does your Bible get the leftovers? You know, Saturday night comes, early Sunday morning, and there's dust here. I don't want people to know that I haven't been in the Word all week. Do you spend time alone in God's Word? Do you open up the Bible and look forward, God, what are you going to share with me today? Is there a delight? Is there a joy that you're going to be able to hear? Listen, when you open up your Bible, this is the biggest problem people have. They're looking for that still small voice. They're looking for some woo-hoo thing, you know? But God speaks today to us directly through His Word. God the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Trinity, co-eternal, He is fully God, never works independently from His Word. ever. So when you open up your Bible and you start reading it, a conversation has begun where He's speaking to you. If He was sitting right here in the chair right now in bodily form, everything He'd want to say to you, He's already said. I know some people don't like that, but that's what the Bible says. I'm insignificant. That's what the Scripture says. It says His Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are His. I didn't write it, He did. So, do you look forward to opening up your Bible each day? Or does the Bible get hardly any time at all during the week? Second, slide 19. Repentance from sin and a hatred, a hatred of it that always accompanies true contrition. Remember, we talked about attrition and contrition. Attrition is, I'm only sorry because I got caught. I'm angry and upset and grieving because I got caught. That's attrition. Contrition is deep emotional pain and sorrow for how you have sinned against holy God, the dirt that we are trying to dictate to the God that knit us in our mother's womb. Ask yourself that. Do you have attrition? You're only sorry you got caught? Or do you have contrition? You know, Lord, I have really sinned against you. I screwed up real bad. There's this emotional thing. Third, there's this genuine humility. A person cannot be saved as long as he trusts in and exalts in himself for something else other than true God. I thought that that was a really good list of stuff for you and I to really stop, slow down, forget all the other garbage out there, and say, am I truly born again? Because one thing every person on Earth knows, whether they're a believer or an unbeliever, is one fact. Everyone knows that someday they're going to die. There's nobody ever argues about that, really, that they're saying. They don't. They know someday you're going to draw your last breath here on Earth, and you're going to stand before holy God. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10 says, we all must appear before the judgment seat of God to give an account of the deeds we did in the body, whether good or bad. So there's going to be accounting. It frightens me to almost think that there's going to be that big VCR tape and your life's going to be right there flashing on. All of our sins and thoughts, words, deeds, actions, and motives there. And if Christ is not the one that paid your sin debt in full, it's over. It's over, church. So as we can see, God's way of salvation removes any boasting. There's no room or provision for it in God's way of salvation. I hope that by now we really understand that. And there's nothing that we could ever do on our own to be good enough to merit salvation. That's why He came for us, church. We're almost done. Slide 20, verse 28. And again, here's another verse to highlight in your personal Bibles if you ever want to, or underline. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Do we remember, you can put up slide 21, do we remember what the word justified means? There you go, look at her. So, very good. So verse, justification. is the act whereby God pardons a sinner and accepts him as right in God's sight. That right there should blow your mind. That right there should boggle your mind. We maintain that a man is justified where God pardons a sinner. You could have been a murderer, rapist, you could be whatever. bank robber, drug addict, it doesn't matter what it is, but can you imagine with all the sin that you and I have committed over our lifetime, that God pardons us and accepts us as right. That's love, that's agape toy. That should blow your mind, isn't that awesome? He pardons us and accepts us. And Paul is saying that's how a guy is made right or a woman is made right, apart from the law. by faith. Again, Paul wants us to understand that we can't keep the law. God's way of salvation is one where the law has been kept perfectly for you, because you couldn't do it on your own, and neither could I. And it was done by Christ. It was all God's plan, all God's work on our behalf. Now, this is not to in any way imply that the law is not important. The law still makes demands, and it is our tutor, but God has provided a way whereby we can be saved even though we do not keep the law, because we can't. That's why Paul says, apart from the works, the ergon, the working of the law, man is justified by faith. Now it's very important, and I'm almost done, that we understand that faith, now this is important, faith is how That is how the righteousness of God in Christ becomes ours. Please understand. Faith isn't what saves us, it is Christ and His shed blood on the cross, His death that saves us. So God's way of salvation is one which reveals to you and I that the law has been kept and fulfilled for us by Christ. So it is the Father putting His Son's righteousness, His Son's life of perfect obedience into our account that saves us. So faith, now listen, that is the channel, the instrument whereby Christ's righteousness now becomes ours. Your faith is not your righteousness that saves you. Your faith is what connects you to Christ and His righteousness. Your faith, church, is a gift given to you by God so that you can believe and come to Christ. Faith is a gift given to us by God so we can believe the truths revealed in the Scriptures. But here's something else to understand. It's not just saying, no, I believe, so therefore I'm saved. You see, true faith always has an element of trust and commitment to it and an element of obedience. So if I'm trusting, placing my confidence and my reliance in Christ, that also means that I'm going to walk in obedience with Him. I'm not going to say, I believe, and then keep living like He doesn't exist. So then what can we conclude? That by faith, you are aware of the truth, you believe the truth, you accept the truth, and you literally abandon yourself to the truth. The question this morning is, are we doing that? If somebody walked around and videotaped me from the past week, would it reveal that I believe that? Would it reveal that you believe that? I have only 18 more pages of notes. No, I'm kidding. Slide 22 and 23. We're almost done. Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, the Gentiles also, since indeed God, who will justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcised through faith alone. Put up slide 23, and again, here it is in our modern vernacular. Is God the God of the Jews only? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. There is only one God. And he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether you're a Jew, or a non-Jew. That's a pretty profound statement that Paul makes there. So what was he trying to get across to that young church in Rome that wasn't really much bigger than ours? Namely, the Jewish Christians there? What was he trying to get across? Church, he's trying to point out to this young church in Rome that God's way of salvation completely removes all distinctions between people. That's important. The distinction between a Jew and a non-Jew, as far as salvation is concerned, has been abolished. All human beings are in the same condition before God. That is so true for every one of us today. It doesn't matter your nationality, it doesn't matter what the color of your skin is, where you hail from, who your parents were, where you go to church, all of us have the same condition before holy God. So the point that we conclude then from Paul's teaching is that only those who have come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ alone are saved. he covers the circumcised. Physical circumcision confirmed a Jewish man's membership into the covenant community of Israel. That's what it was, it was a reminder of a covenant. It brought him into this vital contact with all the promises that God made in his covenant with Israel. But as we've learned from Paul's teaching, it never was designed to secure somebody's salvation. You see, receiving the inheritance offered in God's covenant with Israel still depended on – they had to have faith – didn't depend on the ceremonies, or the outward conformities, or the rituals, or the sacrifices. So what do we see here? Church, the same God who deals with Israel, also deals with the Gentiles, and it is clear that He does so according to His own justice and His own mercy. Hear me this morning. There's only one way of salvation for Jews and Greeks, and that is Christ alone. So you are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, as the scriptures clearly teach. There's no other way that you're saved, by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. The same God who dealt with Israel also deals with us. So what are the marks of a true church? I'm going to close with something called a Belgian Confession. The Belgian Confession Church, you can look it up online, is probably one of the oldest doctrinal statements ever penned. This is a doctrinal statement that was presented to King Philip back in 1561. I want to read Article 29 of this to you and then just finish up here. I'm pretty much done. So we talked about, first, how you came to a saving faith in Christ. If you're a part of the true church, this is for you and for me. The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks. The church engages in the pure preaching of the Eugalian, I mean the gospel. It makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them. It practices church discipline for correcting faults. In short, it governs itself according to the pure word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only head. By these marks, one can be assured of recognizing the true church and no one ought to be separated from it. Slide 25. The document goes on 25 and 26. For those who belong to the true church, We can recognize them by the distinguishing marks of Christians, namely by faith, by their fleeing from sin, not to it, by pursuing righteousness once they have received the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ. They love the true church and their neighbors without turning to the right or to the left, and they crucify the flesh and its works. Though great weakness remains in them, they fight against it by the Spirit all the days of their lives, appealing constantly to the blood, suffering, death, and obedience of the Lord Jesus in whom they have forgiveness of their sins through faith in Him." So what can we conclude? A man is made right with God by faith, not by works, not by keeping the law. Doesn't matter who they are, Jew, non-Jew. Doesn't matter if they're circumcised or not circumcised. A man is made right by faith in Christ alone. At the cross, every division is abolished. So Paul is, in essence, teaching us that there's no use in discussing it any longer. The facts are clear. Let me finish up here, slide 27, 28. Paul writing to this church of Ephesus. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, broke down the barrier of the dividing wall." And slide 28, the NLT. For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united the Jews and Gentiles into how many people, church? One people. When in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. The wall is broken down. How? Church, the shed crimson blood of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death on that cross at Calvary. Both Jew and Gentile come together in Christ by the Holy Spirit under the Father. Because listen, we're all saved the same way. Paul wants them to understand that the law has been set aside because Jesus fulfilled it, something we couldn't do. So there's only one God, and so everyone in the world must be under one God. And this one and only true God has provided His one way of salvation for Jew, Gentile, for all people. We all need to hear the same gospel. And put up my last slide, 29. We're going to stop there. For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all and a testimony given at the proper time. I'll read it in the NLT. I'm sorry, slide 30. There is one God and one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity. That's the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. So, I don't want to go on and on and on. I'm going to ask you to bow your heads this morning. I know we covered a lot. I really wanted to get through this chapter for you.