From Greenville, South Carolina, we present Let the Bible Speak. Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, preaching Christ in all His fullness. Thank you for joining us for another broadcast of Let the Bible Speak. Today we bring another in a series of studies in the book of Romans, messages preached by Dr. Alan Cairns, founder of Let the Bible Speak Radio Ministries. Dr. Cairns will be with us in just a few minutes. First, we invite your attention to this devotional thought taken from Faith's Checkbook by the great 19th century English preacher C.H. Spurgeon. Our devotional for today is entitled, Abiding in Obedience in Love. The text is John 15, verse 10, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. These things cannot be parted, abiding in obedience and abiding in the love of Jesus. A life under the rule of Christ can alone prove that we are the objects of our Lord's delight. We must keep our Lord's command if we would bask in His love. If we live in sin, we cannot live in the love of Christ. Without the holiness which pleases God, we cannot please Jesus. He who cares nothing for holiness knows nothing of the love of Jesus. Conscious enjoyment of our Lord's love is a delicate thing. It is far more sensitive to sin and holiness than mercury is to cold and heat. When we are tender of hearts and careful in thought, lip, and life to honor our Lord Jesus, then we receive tokens of His love without number. If we desire to perpetuate such bliss, we must perpetuate holiness. The Lord Jesus will not hide His face from us unless we hide our face from Him. Sin makes the cloud which darkens our sun. If we will be watchfully obedient and completely consecrated, we may walk in the light as God is in the light, and have as sure an abiding in the love of Jesus as Jesus has in the love of the Father. Here is a sweet promise with a solemn if. Lord, let me have this if in my hand, for as a key it opens this casket. For my sin he was wounded, for my guilt crucified. For my debt paid a ransom, for my straying he died. For my acts of rebellion, for my deeds full of pride. ♪ The Savior was beaten, my Lord crucified. ♪ ♪ Coming from His head, His hands, His feet, ♪ The curse of trial and sorrow meet, O'er thorns come host, so rich of root. ♪ I am rescued by his love, arms and tree ♪ By the gift of redemption, he shed blood, his will I bring ♪ Now there's no condemnation, now there's no penalty I sit at his feet. O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, O'er thorns compose so rich a crown. In these days when the forces of evil are devastating our land, God's people need to pray. More than that, we must engage in united prayer. Just as the apostles and the early church were of one accord gathering for prayer, the cry for our day must be, let us pray. To encourage the Lord's people to this end, Let the Bible Speak is pleased to offer a publication entitled The Case for United Prayer. Presented within its pages are excerpts from the works of Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Prime, and Pastor Richard Cross. The centerpiece of the book is Samuel Prime's first-hand account of the famous New York City prayer meetings of 1857 begun by one man, Jeremiah Lamphere. This simple effort was blessed by God until prayer meetings sprang up all over the nation and ushered in a mighty revival that spread across the sea to Great Britain, culminating in the great 1859 revival in Northern Ireland. To obtain your copy of The Case for United Prayer free of charge, simply email info at faithfpc.org. That's info at faithfpc.org. If you wish, you may call us at 864-244-2408. That's 864-244-2408. If you prefer regular mail, simply write, Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. That's Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. Just ask for your copy of The Case for United Prayer. As he proceeds with this study of the book of Romans, Dr. Cairns continues to deal with verses 23 through 31 of chapter 3 in a message called The Elements, Ends, and Effects of the Gospel. In this, as in all his epistles, Paul teaches that salvation is by grace, it is a gift, and it is by blood. These are its indispensable elements. In verses 24 and 25 of chapter 3, we find certain marks of the gospel. First of all, it glorifies God, not man. Also, it satisfies divine justice, for Christ is set forth as a propitiation, that which puts away God's wrath. Because of this, it magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the gospel justifies sinners. The rest of the chapter teaches us that this justification is made over to sinners by faith in Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Now here is Dr. Karens to continue this message, The Elements, Ends, and Effects of the Gospel. Propitiation deals with the putting away of divine wrath. Now this is what the heart of the gospel is. In chapter 1, we read, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness. It's against the Gentiles, it's against the Jews, it's against the world. The wrath of God. It's a terrible thing. It's a real thing. How do you put away the wrath of God? by the blood atonement of Jesus Christ. We read that God set him forth to be a propitiation. This way of salvation satisfies justice. It puts out the fire of the wrath of God so that there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Then it magnifies Christ. It magnifies Christ. The mark of the gospel of the New Testament is the magnifying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, whom God set forth. That's a verb that has caused a lot of questions and a lot of opinions. Some say it means that God ordained him. That's a possible meaning, and it's true, God did ordain him. Some say it means God-purposed. And if you look at the other two occurrences of this particular word in the New Testament, you'll find that's the meaning there. Yes, God-purposed. But you see, I think here it's not talking about the purposing to send Christ, it's talking about revealing Him. He's talking about publicly declaring Him, and I think our translators have got it right. God has set Him forth. God is revealing Him to you. He's displaying Him to you as the propitiation Men want to look on the Lord Jesus as a philosopher. They want to look on the Lord Jesus as a great teacher. They want to look on the Lord Jesus as a wonderful moral leader and even as a religious reformer. But the Father says, look, I am displaying him to you as a sacrifice of propitiation. Magnify Christ and his blood atonement. If you're ever going to be a preacher, young man, make sure you preach Christ. That's what Spurgeon said when they were opening the Metropolitan Tabernacle. I propose that the grand subject of the preaching from this pulpit will be Jesus Christ. Oh, I would to God that every Baptist in the world was doing that today. I would to God that every Presbyterian was doing it. I would to God that we'd get away from all the tomfoolery of man-made subjects and just preach Christ. That's the need. Another Brethren evangelist, A.P. Gibbs, tells the story of an old preacher who was standing up before a number of young preachers just setting out, and he said, young man, preach a full gospel, Christ and nothing else, nothing less. Preach a plain gospel, Christ and nothing more. Preach a pure gospel, Christ and nothing else, nothing less than Christ, nothing more than Christ, nothing other than Christ. God has presented Him. Isn't it amazing that God Almighty says, I present my Son. And you can go to Protestant, evangelical, fundamental churches and listen to the sermon from one end to the other and never hear the very name of Jesus mentioned. I've done it. Remember years ago when we weren't long in this country, we had a visitor over from Northern Ireland, we were away at another service on vacation time? We went to hear a very brilliant preacher. My wife and the other young woman, we were all a lot younger then, came out and said, my, he could preach. He could preach. And so he could. His oratory was far above the average. His skills in homiletics, far above the average. His ability to reach out and touch a congregation and bring them out to where he wanted, my, he had all the skills. I said, did you not notice? I listened very carefully. He preached for 45 minutes. I heard a lot about God. because he was in an Old Testament passage. I never once heard the name of Jesus Christ. There's something wrong there, you know. There's something sadly, terribly, terribly wrong about that. And I am not for a moment, and do not misunderstand, I am not for a moment questioning the orthodoxy, the Christianity, the graciousness, the reality of the experience of the man who's a preacher. I know that man and I believe that he's a good and gracious and godly man. But he missed it. He missed it. God says, I present Christ. It's the mark of the gospel. Magnifies Christ, and thank God it justifies sinners. Notice, being justified. I'm not going to go through the full force of that word again, as I've already done so in the past weeks, but being justified. freely by his grace. Notice it goes on in verse 25 to speak of the remission of sins that are past, the passing over of sins from your past. no penalty upon you because of your sin. My, here is the gift of righteousness. Here's the justification that God gives when he saves. He says, I declare you righteous. It's not I make you righteous in the sense of making you virtuous. Now, the Lord will also do that, but he's talking here in the terms of the law court. He's talking about the legal ground for us having a right to heaven, and what he's saying is, I declare you righteous, free from condemnation. Through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, my grace flows to you to justify you freely. And notice the method of this. It's by faith. Notice the constant emphasis through this passage on faith. Verse 22, by faith, and this gift is upon all that believe. Verse 25 again, it's through faith in his blood. Verse 26, it's to the one which believeth in Jesus. Verse 27, it's the law of faith. Verse 28, he's talking about being justified by faith. of the law. Verse 30, God justifies the circumcision and the uncircumcision, the Jew and the Gentile, by or through faith. Verse 31, it's through faith that we establish the law. Notice this constant emphasis on faith. That's the method of salvation. There's no other way. Faith, not generally, but faith in Christ. Not faith in Christ generally, but faith in His blood. In other words, the faith of a modernist that says, I believe in Christ, but I deny His blood atonement, is not saving faith. The faith of the one who says, I believe in a Christ who is, say, the Christ of liberalism, or the Christ of neo-orthodoxy, or the Christ of the social gospel, or the Christ of some philosophy, that is not the Christ of Scripture. It is faith in His blood. Faith in the merits of His sacrifice. Men and women, I tell you, when a poor, guilty sinner comes with his sins to the Lord Jesus, by faith in His blood, he passes out of a state of condemnation into a state of acceptance with God, being justified freely by His grace. What does faith do? You've often heard of ABC. Well, here's AAA. And this AAA will certainly take you on a better road than any road in America or Europe, for it'll take you the road to heaven. First of all, it assents to the truth of the Word of God, what the Bible says about God, about man, about sin, about the law, about Christ, about the cross. It assents. Then it abandons all hope in our own works, and finally it accepts the person and the propitiation and the pardon and the promise of Jesus Christ, justified freely by his grace. How do we receive it? Through faith in his blood. Now those are the elements of this gospel, the means, the marks, and the method. Now what is the end of the gospel, the purpose? Verse 25 and 26, God has set him forth to be a propitiation. through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Now, the Bible tells us there are many purposes behind the death and the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's a big subject all on its own, Titus 2.14 for example, he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. There's one purpose for the death of Christ. Galatians chapter 1 verse 4 tells us another, that the Lord Jesus gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from the present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Ephesians 2 verse 16 gives us yet another purpose, and it was that he might reconcile both Jews and Gentiles unto God in one body by the cross. You could go through the New Testament. Here are the ends, the objectives. of the gospel. But now in Romans 3, 25 and 26, Paul gives us another objective, and it is to declare God's righteousness. Now that's very easily said, but here's a big question. What does it mean? You've heard me say that again and again through these verses. What does it mean? I think we read with blinders and blinkers on, and we accept, we understand it, but do we really? To declare His righteousness. The usual answer is, well, I should say there are two kinds of righteousness. There's the justice of God. what some call a judging righteousness, and then there's the righteousness which He has provided to justify us. That's a saving righteousness. So which is it here? Most commentators say it's judging righteousness, it's the justice of God. God declares His justice, and certainly that's a great truth. If that's the meaning, then this text tells us three things. It talks about Christ's sacrifice satisfying divine justice. That's a great truth. Jehovah took the sword of justice, and He buried it in Jesus Christ. And for us, that sword is sheathed forever. bless God, he satisfied divine justice. Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America. Founded by Dr. Alan Cairns, Let the Bible Speak is also heard in many parts of the world through the international radio outreach of Let the Bible Speak, produced in Northern Ireland. The Free Presbyterian Church stands without apology for the absolute inerrancy of the Bible, emphasizing preaching that centers on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and is militant in its stand against the ecumenical apostasy and the efforts of the world to infiltrate the Church. For further information about the Free Presbyterian Church, you may email info at faithfpc.org. That's info at faithfpc.org. You may call us at 864-244-2408. Or you may write, Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. Again, that's Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. Also, we encourage you to visit the website of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America at www.fpcna.org. That's www.fpcna.org. This is Charles Kelsch saying thank you for listening and inviting you to join us again as we let the Bible speak.