Well, good morning to each of you. I invite you to turn and follow in your Bible if you would. We're in Romans chapter 3 beginning with verse 21. Romans chapter 3 and verse 21. Let's read the paragraph beginning here in verse 21, and we'll read down through verse 26. 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 fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Well, there's no question If we consider that paragraph, what the theme of this section is, this paragraph speaks about the righteousness of God, which is through faith. That's the theme of the book of Romans. Verse 21 brings us to a great transition from the first to the second section of the book. I was taught when I was in school to never begin a sentence with the word but. But Paul does that in verse 21. Really in the Greek it's now but rather than but now. But I think because of the beauty of this passage I'll just let it go. I think it's fine. for Paul to transition from the subject of the guilt and depravity of man to the righteousness which is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. And that's exactly where we are. We're right at the beginning of that transition. This wonderful, this most important paragraph Many scholars believe this to be the most important paragraph in the book of Romans. I think there's a close second in the discussion of Adam the first and Adam the second coming up later, but indeed it is a great paragraph. I was reading What others said, Bible scholars said about this, and I was surprised how many of them said that they think this is the greatest paragraph ever written in everything that was written. And there have been a lot of paragraphs written. There's not been a few. And I I would have to agree that this is so wonderful, this is so marvelous. This morning something happened that doesn't happen very often for me. I had to hurry to get ready to come to church. I was going over this passage once again and I forgot all about the time until my wife came in to the study and said, are you going to church this morning? And so I jumped up, I hit print on my computer and took off for the shower to come. But I was lost in the wonder of this lovely, lovely passage. This would be a good section for you to memorize if that's something that you're able to do. Paul has been focusing on the shame and sin of us all up to this point. Paul has been proving that we are guilty before God. In verse 19, Paul said that we're guilty and that our mouth should be stopped. We should not argue with this guilt, that we should acknowledge that indeed this is true of each one of us, of all of us. And that's important because no one is ready for the second section of Paul's epistle until you accept the first section. And the first section deals with our guilt, our depravity, our fallenness, The first part of the gospel is the bad news. And knowing the bad news should silence us so that we would acknowledge that we have a guilt and a need that we can never solve. And if you don't get the first part, you're not going to get the second part. And I think that that is at the heart of one of my my regrets in my life. I wish I would have seen and understood the righteousness of God through faith 40 years ago. But I think it was somewhat kept from me because the environment that I was in did not deal honestly with the matter of our depravity. And if I'm only a little depraved, a little salvation will do. But if I'm totally depraved, it's going to require a great salvation to redeem me from my sin. We are depraved. Paul taught in the last paragraph prior to this with a depravity. that's rooted deep within us and deep within every part of us. It's not partial and it's not superficial. And saying that it's not so doesn't make it, it doesn't change reality. Friday evening, Friday night, I was listening to Dr. John MacArthur answer some questions following the teaching that he gave and then I went as these little YouTube clips go to the comments on it and so I hear it said 16 more comments so I clicked on it and I was surprised that the people commenting on it were saying that disagreeing with John MacArthur's teaching concerning the depravity of man and the need of man. And the comments went on in this vein that I'm not as bad as what he said I am. Man is not as bad as what he said they are. And I was happy that Paul, not John, had already answered the comments. He said in verse 10 of chapter 3 that it's written. God has already said that before you guys blogged your comments, God wrote, God said what is indeed true of you and of me. Not only are we, as Paul says we are, condemned and guilty We're not able to do anything about it. You know, it's amazing to me sometimes how the judge will sentence someone because of a crime and declare them guilty and then attach a fine to it that the person can never pay. And that's our condition, that we not only are guilty, but we really don't have anything that we can do. about it in ourselves. We have no resources to help ourselves out from underneath that guilt. Paul very quickly says here that, and don't go running to the law for an answer. The law isn't going to help solve your problem. The law is just another witness against you. And indeed all that we can do is ask God for mercy. So to those who get the first part from chapter 1 verse 19 or 18 through chapter 3 verse 20, Paul has a second part. And this is a most glorious part of the gospel. Let me reread verses 21 and 22. 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. And Paul here says that there is a righteousness that's provided for those who are guilty and depraved. It's provided, it's manifested, it's revealed. Apart from the law, it comes to us not through the law, but it comes from another source, from another direction. And if this doesn't strike us as glorious, like I said earlier, we need to go back and restudy chapters one and two and the first part of three. Because this is the most glorious truth to consider, that there's a righteousness provided for sinners that's apart from the law, that comes from another direction, that comes from another source. And that source is none other than God himself. Notice in verse 26 that God is both just, that's the judge, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. He's both the judge, the one who declares to be true what's true, but he's also the one who brings the answer. He is the judge and the one who offers to us the answer to our guilt and judgment. This is the heart of the gospel. It's salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. This is the heart of the gospel. He's speaking about the righteousness of God that's revealed to those who believe. received by faith or through faith and indeed only the righteousness of God has ever and will ever save any one of us. What does Paul mean here specifically when he speaks about the righteousness of God? It's a common expression that he uses. He uses it often in the Book of Romans. He uses it in his other writings. What does Paul mean when he talks about the righteousness of God? Well, in the Old Testament, the righteousness of God describes the truth that God is utterly true and consistent with himself He's right in all that he does. He's perfect and true in everything he does. He's the righteous God. And certainly that is a meaning of the righteousness of God. It's part of the meaning of the righteousness of God. But there's, there's, there's something else that I think that's included here in the righteousness of God. And in that, that is that God provides himself for us in his trueness and in his rightness so that we can stand before his righteousness. God is faithful to every word that he's ever spoken. He is. He's never been untrue to himself. And sometimes we see the righteousness of God expressed in his condemnation of sin. That's part of the righteousness of God. When God condemns the sinner, he's being righteous. Because he declared that the soul that sins, the person who sins, is going to die. But God has also expressed or said to us that He is going to save His covenant people, that He is going to redeem His covenant people. and his righteousness is used to describe as well not only his condemnation of the wicked but his justification of those that believe upon him that's also called the righteousness of God. The glory of the gospel is that in Jesus Christ God's righteousness is revealed to us in salvation The righteous God is in a right way, righteously making a way to pardon guilty sinners. He's taking those who have been in the wrong. He's taking those who are guilty before God the judge and without wavering in His righteousness, without diminishing His righteousness. That means without compromising. I think that most people that would claim to be Christians, and I say the word claim, would say that, I believe that I'm okay because God is going to overlook my sin. for one reason or another, God's not going to overlook any sin. That's one thing God never does. God always deals with sin. The gospel has nothing to do with compromise on God's part. It's not God saying, well, I'm just going to let you go. You know, even the mercy of God. is only righteous because someone else took the condemnation. Someone else took the punishment. And so without diminishing his righteousness, yea, even showing his righteousness, demonstrating that he's righteous, God has done this marvelous thing. He's made a way to count as righteous those who are in themselves sinful and guilty. And that is most marvelous, that God, without compromising, without watering down his word, without being untrue to himself, has found a way to count the sinner as righteous before him. And the way God did this is through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. who took our flesh, he came among us. He was baptized in the Jordan, identifying with us, with sinners. He stood in the place of sinners and hung upon the cross of Calvary. As Wesley's hymn says, in our place condemned he stood, that he might seal our pardon with his blood. And when we understand this, that we are by nature and by practice, that means that we not only have a sinful inclination, but that we have done sinful things. We're sinners by practice as well as by nature. We're guilty and condemned and without hope. And we come to understand that God in his righteousness, that is without compromise, that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit devised a plan, devised a strategy whereby sinful men and sinful women, sinful boys and girls might be counted righteous before him because of the exchange that Jesus Christ made. In this exchange, God counted his son who knew no sin in any way. He counted him to be sin, 2 Corinthians 5.21. He had no sin of his own, but he counted him to be sin so that he could count the sinner who is in Jesus Christ to be righteous. That's the heart of the gospel. That's what the gospel is all about. And so, when we speak about the righteousness of God, we're talking about God righteously condemning sin, even when To condemn sin meant that the curse fall upon His only beloved Son. So that He could rightly or justly or truly accept us. Because of the righteousness of Christ that's given to us. That's the legal position. That's the status. That's the relationship. that we have with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Philippians chapter three, Paul confesses that one day he pursued righteousness on his own. I hope you're not doing that today. I hope you're not pursuing righteousness on your own. I hope you're not going down that aisle. going down that road. And Paul had himself convinced in his own practice and in his life that that he had found righteousness on his own until he discovered that he had a sinful heart. Remember that 10th commandment came and condemned him of covetousness that dealt with the heart. And then Paul found that God had provided a righteousness for him, not through the law, but through the Lord Jesus Christ. And as Paul trusted in Jesus Christ for mercy, when Paul believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and came to the Lord Jesus Christ, he was joined to Jesus Christ by faith. so closely joined, so wonderfully joined, so marvelously joined that the righteousness which was Christ's became his own. And he discovered that in Jesus Christ that he could approach the throne of God with boldness, even though he had nothing to pay the debt himself. All the tears that he could cry would not avail all of the right things that he would ever do would not pay the debt, but he could stand before God. With the same confidence that Jesus Christ. Could stand before his father. And that's a great confidence. And I've carefully weighed that statement. I believe it is not an exaggeration. It is true that in Jesus Christ that we have the same confidence before God is what Jesus himself has before God, that the righteousness of Christ provided for us is so perfect and so complete and gives us great boldness to stand before God. And this is what Paul is talking about here. This is what Paul is making known. It's dimly seen in the law and the prophets, but now it's clearly seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. that God has provided a righteousness for all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to break this apart just a bit. Paul says in these first couple verses four things in particular about this righteousness of God. Number one, The righteousness of God is offered to us apart from the law. In verse 21, it says, apart from the law. That is to say, if you desire this righteousness of God, this standing before God, it can be yours, but it's going to be yours apart from the law. This means that it's offered to you apart from anything that you must or can do to earn it. This is very important for you to understand as a Christian. And if you're not a Christian, if you're not a Christian, the basic instinct of a person who is not a Christian thinks that God loves him and will save him because of who he is and what he's done. I know that to be true. I thought that about myself, raised in a Christian home, taught the scriptures, And for years I thought I was quite fine, I was quite okay, that God loves me and he's gonna save me because of who I am. But I came to discover that I was not a Christian and I can never be accepted before God on the basis of my own righteousness. So instead of your own works, instead of your own effort, you've got to understand that the gospel is that righteousness is given to us as a free gift. And Paul emphasizes this here. He says it's, in verse 24, it's not by works but by grace. We're justified freely by grace. We're not justified by works. We're justified by grace. And God does not, as Christians, after our conversion, God does not accept us because of the kind of Christians we are. He doesn't accept you because of the kind of Christian you are. The moment that I think that, as a Christian believer, that God accepts me because of my level of obedience, in that moment, I destroy the gospel and I am, as Paul says in Galatians, fallen from grace. And that's what it means to fall from grace. It doesn't mean to lose your salvation, but it means that your confidence now is in yourself rather than confidence in the grace of God. And that grace, which Jake introduced to us at the beginning of our first service, that which is given to us freely and unearned by God. And our obedience, our obedience in baptism or in any other Christian behavior, our prayers, our fastings, all of that, none of that. is the basis of our justification. Now, it is true that this is a great offense. This is called the offense of the gospel and reproach comes upon those who believe the gospel truly. It humbles man to realize that he is depraved and empty and that salvation is apart from his self-effort, and that doesn't change from now all the way to the end of our journey. It never changes. Dr. Ferguson said, you must never smuggle your own works down into the foundation of your salvation. And I say a hearty amen to that. You must never do that. You must never smuggle your own works down in to the foundation of your salvation. So, first of all, we see that the righteousness of God is apart from the law. Number two, although it comes to us apart from the law, the law and the prophets do bear witness to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. It says at the end of verse 21 that the righteousness of God is witnessed by the law and the prophets. What does Paul mean here? Well, he said it before in chapter 1 in verse 2. This is marvelous to see and understand because it opens up the Old Testament to us. What did Jesus do when he met those two men on the road to Emmaus? He was explaining to those two guys what it was that just happened in Jerusalem. They were suffering because they didn't understand. It didn't make sense to them. And Jesus explained Christ, that is Himself, to them from the Old Testament. And he, I don't know if he went from Genesis 3 to Isaiah 53 to Psalm 22, these great passages that deal with the suffering servant of Jehovah and the redemption that is going to come and forgiveness that's going to come through him. But he was explaining to them that the Messiah was indeed going to suffer and die. You know, if you read to the end of the Old Testament and then you stop, you stop too soon. You should read on. You should go ahead and go past those blank pages and go on into the New Testament. But Paul is saying here that we're in the New Testament But we can understand the Old Testament, the law and the prophets all refer to righteousness, the righteousness of God coming apart from the law. God never even in the Old Testament, he didn't give the law to make people righteous. The law was a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ. And so I think especially to his Jewish audience here, Paul is saying to them, go ahead and turn the page and go on into the New Testament and discover what the Old Testament was about. Go ahead and you want to know what the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings and pictures, what it was all about. Just go into the New Testament and you'll find that the Old Testament bears witness to what we see in the New Testament. You know, the gospel as we have it here in the book of Romans and in the New Testament is not a new gospel. It's the old gospel just made newly clear to us. It's not a new gospel, but just made clear in a new way. So the righteousness of God is revealed apart from the law, The law and the prophets bear witness to the righteousness of God. Number three, the righteousness of God is by faith. Now, my translation in verse 22 says through faith. I'm going to use the word through faith or by faith or in faith interchangeably and Here Paul says that this righteousness of God is apart from the law. The law bears witness to it. But now he tells us, well, how can we have it? How can we access it? If we don't go back to the law to get it, where do we go to get it? Well, the answer is simple. We go to Jesus to get it. We go through faith or by faith or in faith to Jesus Christ to receive this righteousness of God. He says clearly the righteousness of God can be yours through faith in Jesus Christ. You know Jesus Christ has a warehouse of righteousness and I don't want to cheapen the riches of Christ by using the word warehouse. But it gives the picture that there's a lot there. You know, warehouses are not the little smallest room in your business, are they? That would be the big room the warehouse is. And in Christ, there's a warehouse of righteousness. And if you're going to be righteous, you're going to be righteous because you go through faith to Jesus Christ. When someone discovers that they're not right with God, it's so common to try to, or just to try harder. I'll try harder. I'll do harder. I'll do better. I know that I'm not right. I'll try to do better. But if you do that, it's going to crush you. It's going to overwhelm you. You know, you trying harder to be righteous yourself is like trying to improve an airplane so you can fly to the moon in that airplane. Now you say, Philip, don't you know that they're past the moon? Well, I'm just revealing my age. When I was a boy, going to the moon was the big thing. This past week, one of these machines that were sent out into space was circling Saturn, and it finally crashed there. They let it go. and I know that man's explored beyond that. But can you get to the moon in an airplane? Can you get to the moon if you have an airplane with very big wings and a very strong engine? The answer is still no. You can't make the wings big enough. You can't make the engine strong enough because airplanes require air. to hold them up. You know, if you're going to get to the moon, if you're going to ever get to the moon, you're going to have to get out of the machine called the airplane. You're going to have to walk away from it and get into something that, a rocket that God built. And the airplane is our own works. It's our own efforts. And some people do take the airplane higher. You know, some of us in our own works, we can only get about 2,000 feet up there. Where other people, they have a finer machine and they go to 10 or 20 or 30 or 50,000 feet. But none of them ever get to the moon. and we'll never get to righteousness in the machine of our own works. The only way to reach righteousness is to leave our own self-effort and get into the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the way into Christ? What is the way we must go on? if we're going to receive the righteousness that is available in Jesus Christ. You know, in the New Testament, and this was something that Professor John Murray made a point out in his commentary on the Book of Romans, and I thought it was very helpful. I've been thinking about it for weeks, and it's delightful to me. You know, he says when the New Testament speaks of believing in Jesus Christ, The language would probably be better translated by the words, into Jesus Christ. That we don't believe in Jesus Christ, but we believe into Jesus Christ. You know, faith in Christ is not an idea that I have while I'm merely going about my own business. It's not that. Oh yes, I know about Jesus and I believe that he is Jesus and I believe that he died for me. No, faith in Jesus is actually going to Jesus. It's going into him. It's being joined to him. And the Bible everywhere speaks about being in union with Christ and being hidden in Christ. And brothers and sisters, when we move into Jesus Christ, all that is Jesus Christ, not his deity, accepting that, but all that is in Jesus Christ, becomes ours. So faith in Jesus Christ is not just mental ascent to certain truths, but it's believing into him. It's coming to him in trust and hope and asking for mercy and believing that he is the rock that's cleft for me in my wilderness. that his side was opened to give me entrance into him. And that is how the righteousness of God becomes ours. It's not some holy water or perfume or something there that's sprinkled on us. but it is something that is ours because we become one with Jesus Christ through faith. It isn't that marvelous that he would allow individuals like us to be one with him. I thought about this thinking about that this morning that, uh, I'm sure you've never done this. You've never moved to another place. because you didn't want to be too close to someone, you would never do anything like that, would you? Jesus didn't do that when we drew near by faith. Praise God for that. He didn't say, well, put your name in there. Is it going to ruin my sterling reputation? But he bid us come in all of our need, in all of our sin. He welcomed us to come. Isn't that most marvelous? He didn't go like those guys that were traveling from, was it Jerusalem to Jericho? Maybe I got it wrong. And when they saw the poor guy along the road and some of the ones said, well, we probably shouldn't be identified with those. It's going to cause this problem. Praise God, Jesus didn't do that. He didn't say that to me. He didn't say that to you. But he bids us come just as we are. What is faith? Faith is my empty hand. reached out to take hold of Jesus Christ. You know, we're pretty tight-fisted people by nature. And as our need becomes known to us, it seems that we grip even tighter to our own devices as we try harder But then God in his grace, he begins to open our hands. And then we realized that there was nothing worth holding onto in that hand anyway. And so we come nothing in my hand, I bring realizing that I have nothing to offer. So with an open hand, we take hold of Christ or maybe Christ takes hold of our open hand. and accepts us into himself. And when we are accepted, we come by faith or through faith into Christ being in Christ. We now have come to the place where the righteousness of God is full and ample and glorious and adequate. Jesus said in John 3 that just as those who were bitten looked upon the serpent that was on the pole for healing, so the Son of Man is lifted up on the cross to bear our judgment against our sins. And all those who look to Jesus or come to Jesus will be healed. It is as simple as that. Sometimes it's a long journey for us to get to that place, but coming there, then we realize that it's more simple than what we think it is. And I praise God for that too. It's not so complicated. It's simply trusting Him as the one in whom I find righteousness, the righteousness of God. Number four, and lastly, not only is the righteousness of God received by faith, but look at the end of verse 22. Now there's a difference in translations here. Some do not use the word all twice. The New King James translation says that that the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. Now, he already said that the righteousness of God is through faith. Why does he say again, to those who have faith on all who believe? Well, salvation is by faith, but salvation is for all of those who have faith. There was a time when God looked upon humanity and he saved one man. He covenanted with one man and his children with Abraham. He chose one small people group to be guardians of the oracles of God and guardians of the lineage of the Messiah, the Redeemer. There was a time when it was one people. But now, Paul says, the righteousness of God is freely offered to all who believe. The emphasis here is on the word all. The work of Christ on the cross is not just for the Jew, but also for the Gentile. not just for the rich, but also the poor, not just for those that live on this side of the tracks, but those that live on that side of the tracks, the wise and the simple, the old and the young. And Jesus Christ is offered to all and for all who believe. There's no group, there's no person who is prevented from coming. You may be rich, you may be poor, you may be wretched, you may be cultured, you may be the wisest person here this morning, you might be the most simple person here this morning. There's only one way by which you will ever receive the righteousness of God. It's through faith in Jesus Christ, but it is available for all. And it seems to me that it's a little bit like the narrow gate in the Sermon on the Mount, that the broad gate is wide at the beginning, but it's ever narrowing and destructive the farther you go. But the narrow gate is a narrow entrance, but it's ever widening. It's the way of life beyond it. And it is through faith, that narrow gate, that we come to Jesus Christ. But it's not a restrictive idea. It's not a restrictive gospel. And Paul hurries on to say, it's only by faith, but it's for all who have faith. And do you see that? On the other side, it's a great multitude that cannot be numbered. I've said this before. that the church is at the same time smaller than what we think it is and bigger than what we think it is at the same time. Why the all? Why does he emphasize that? Why does he say that it's to all? Well, verse 23 says, because all have sinned. It's for all. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What is sin? Well, sin's the transgression of the law. Sin is not conforming to the will of God. Anything that's not in conformity to the will of God is sin. But there's something more here, and I want you to get this in conclusion. And I quote again from Dr. Ferguson, the tragedy of our lives is not simply that we have rebelled against God and broken His law. And we have. But the tragedy of our lives is not simply that we have done that. The tragedy is that we have lost our destiny. We were created to reflect the glory of God. We were made as image bearers. We were created to enjoy the glory of God and one day to be brought into the glory of God. John 17, Chris, like you mentioned in the first service. Our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And this is quite amazing, to enjoy Him forever. But man has come short of the glory of God. That is, man doesn't reach his destiny. We fall short of the glory of God. That's so well said. A non-Christian may think it's impossible to both glorify God and enjoy him at the same time. Uh, this non Christian looks at glorifying God as a difficult and arduous task, thinking that if I want to glorify God, I'm be miserable in my effort. And they, they may even admit that it's important to glorify God because we're supposed to glorify him. And, but it's certainly not enjoyable. And so the non Christian thinks that you can have one or the other, but not both. You can have both if you're a Christian. If you come to Christ in faith, he will take you by the hand and surprise, surprise, you find joy in Christ. You find joy in obedience. You find joy in the gospel. You find joy in living for the glory of God. You find joy in God's word, and joy in the church, and joy in the hymns, and joy in the prayers, and joy in the people of God. And living for Jesus becomes the joy of your life. The problem with not being a Christian is that we long for joy, but we discover that we can't find it anywhere. Not lasting joy we can't. I think I mentioned this maybe recently that it's interesting to me that C.S. Lewis wrote his autobiography some years after his conversion and he did not title it Surprised by Grace, though grace is surprising, but he titled his autobiography Surprised by Joy. He was surprised with the joy that he found in his Christian life. He received the righteousness of God through faith. His soul was saved, certainly. He was saved by faith. But he writes that I received something that I didn't expect. Joy. I received joy. I enjoy being a child of God. I enjoy serving the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you think about God? How do you think about the gospel? Do you think about the righteousness that is yours in Jesus Christ with joy? Isn't it a blessing this morning to be able to understand that today, right now in Jesus Christ, I'm as righteous before God, even though I'm in Romans 7. but I'm as righteous before God as Jesus is because his righteousness is ours. I would like to talk about a question that I asked some of my children and my wife this week. Does this righteousness that is ours in Christ change our lives? Does it make a difference in our life? Or is it just judicial? Is it just legal? But we'll have to save that for another time. So we talk about how that the righteousness that is ours in Christ percolates through this life and changes us. And the story only gets, it only gets better. Let's close with prayer. Father, we rejoice in your kindness to us. We rejoice in your wisdom and providing for us a righteousness for declaring us righteous without compromise. And God, we wouldn't want that. We wouldn't want you to be anything different than what you are. We wouldn't want you to be not true to yourself, although that is a foolish idea. You will be and you must be. You always are. But we thank you, Lord, that You have devised a way to bring us into the Lord Jesus Christ and make us accepted to you so that bold we can approach your throne because of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.