Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Romans 3. Romans 3. Our text will be found in verse
21 and 22. I've entitled this Righteousness
by Faith. Righteousness by Faith. He says, but now, this is in
contrast to what he said before, which was very dark, and now
he's going to shine the light. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith. And notice these words, vitally
important, whose faith? By whose faith is this righteousness
made? By the faith of Jesus Christ. Then notice how this righteousness
is both imputed to and imparted to us. It says, unto all and upon all
them that believe. So righteousness is made by faith,
it is made by the faith of Christ. And righteousness is received
by faith, and that is our faith in Christ. And we're going to
go into detail over this. And notice at the end he says,
there is no difference. No difference. I might have to
stop there because I'm not going to get to that second part, so
I might as well just go ahead and let your mind just focus
on this. Now, it's my prayer tonight, especially the Holy
Spirit would impress upon the hearts of everyone that hears
what had gone before. He says, but now. When he says
that, he's switching from dark, very dark themes. But it's very
important for us to understand you're not going to appreciate
the light until you've experienced the dark. And it is important that divine
justice and the guilt of our sin be impressed upon us. That's
not a subject that men like to hear. It's not a subject that
is very pleasant. But without it, you don't understand
grace. You don't understand grace. If
there's any light or goodness in you, if there's any ability
for you to obey the law, then salvation is not by grace. There
is no salvation. But this is true and it should
be impressed upon us that all men are under sin. All men are
totally depraved without any hope of ever obtaining this thing
called righteousness. observe the universality of this
depravity, he says there's how many righteous? None righteous. No, not one. Who understands
Righteousness. Who understands who God is and
what God... There's none that understand
it. There's none seeking after God. All together we are unprofitable
in this matter of divine righteousness. You put all of our works together.
Take everything a man considers to be good, and sincere, and
right, and good, and you put it together, God says, and he
says, it is unprofitable for you. You know why? Because there
is none that doeth good. No, not one. Well then, what about the law?
Isn't that why the law is here? To teach us to how to be righteous, Is the law given for the unrighteous
man so that he may become righteous? What does Paul say? Look at it.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
in his sight. Is that the purpose of the law?
I had a man today, I was talking to him, he had read through the
whole book of Deuteronomy, he had just started into Joshua,
and I asked him a very basic question, what's the purpose
of the law? He just read the law. What's
the purpose of it? There's no answer. Well, there's the answer. Look
at the answer. For by the law is what? The knowledge of sin. Look what it says. It says, therefore,
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. I'm sorry,
verse 19 says, for we know what things ever say the Lord says
to them that are under law, that every mouth may be stopped and
all the world become guilty before God. That's the purpose of the
law, is to shut our mouths in this matter of righteousness.
You don't have any, you can't get it, you can't earn it. In
this matter of righteousness, we are hopeless and the law can
do nothing but condemn us. And the truth is this, we are
all born under sin. Therefore the law cannot justify
us, it cannot make us righteous, and the purpose of the law then
is only to expose guilt. And notice these words, no flesh
is justified in his sight, and the previous verse, everyone
become guilty before God. That's a key phrase. Why? Because before each other we
can justify one another. That we do. We have reasons why
we're not obeying this law. We've got plenty of excuses.
And see, I understand your excuses. Because your excuses are the
same as mine. But it doesn't matter what we
think. You're not going to stand before me. And you're not going
to stand before each other. You're going to stand before
God. And whatsoever the justice of God says about, what does
the justice of God say about sin? It says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall surely die. Now it is always my hope that
the Holy Spirit should always convict sinners, expose and convince
them of their total ruin. Why? because it's always there
that God begins the work of grace. It's always there. You see, when
God searches for a sinner, he finds him where he's at. He doesn't
wait until he's better. You know what that was at him?
If you tarry until you're better, you will never come at all. See, God finds a sinner right
where he's at. in his ruined condition. He meets
him there. It's always my prayer that the
self-righteous man should cease his vain attempts to please God
by his obedience. You'll never please God by your
obedience. It's never going to merit righteousness. That God would convince men of
their madness in trying to add their works to Christ. This is
the prospect of all false religion, that Christ has some portion
in this matter of righteousness. He's done most of the work, but
you have to contribute something to it. Paul said, if you be circumcised,
and you can put anything but circumcision there, if you join
the church, if you think that's it, if you think obeying the
law is it, then Christ shall profit you nothing. It's either
all of Christ or it's none at all. So then here the conclusion,
to all that are born under sin, that no flesh shall be justified. Now, the question then must be
asked, so who can be justified? It's so total, it's so absolute,
it's so universal, this matter of depravity, that there is nothing
we can do to merit righteousness How then can a man be justified? Because this is the vital question
every sinner would ask. If the law can only expose my
guilt but cannot help me to be righteous, how then can a man
be justified before God? How is a sinner who is truly
guilty made truly righteous? Well, let me tell you the answer
is very beautiful. It's very glorious. The answer
to that question is always found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Look what Paul says now. He is connecting. Now if you
want to take this passage here in verse 21 and 22 and you can
connect it to verse 15 through 17 of chapter 1. He's going right
back to the premise in which he started. He said, He said,
as much in me as I am ready to preach the gospel to you at Rome
also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why? It
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Why? For therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. This gospel of Jesus Christ,
it is in this gospel, is the answer. The gospel. Because in the gospel it is contained
the righteousness of God. Isn't that what Paul was arguing
that we need? From verse 18 when he talks about
the guilt of the Gentiles to the end of that chapter and he
starts talking about the guilt of the Jews and then he lumps
us all together as guilty. What do we need? We need righteousness. And where is that heard? Where
is that taught? Where is that found? It is found
in the gospel of Jesus Christ alone. Thus in verse 21, look
at this. But now, all that other stuff
I said is true. Everything I said about you is
true, but now let's turn this and see how a man is made righteous. The apostle will now take us
from the depths and darkness to the glory and the riches of
God's grace. Having laid out the dark and
hopeless condition of our nature, he will now shine the light of
hope to all who are made to know their need. Now listen to me,
does anyone here need righteousness? Now Paul made the case that everybody
does. It's true, you can't read that
and not see that he has already made the case. We have proved,
that's what he said, I have already proved both Jew and Gentile under
sin. So everybody needs it, not everybody
realizes it. If you realize your need, this
is then the message for you. that the righteousness of God
is found only in one, not one place, not a place, but a person. The righteousness of God is found
only in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That's the only place
it's found. Over in Isaiah chapter 45, listen to what the prophecy
said. It says, Surely one shall say, In the Lord I have righteousness. Who's that? Now Paul just told
us all of us have no righteousness. So who can that be speaking?
Who's the one speaking? It has to be Christ. He is the
only one that has come into the world without sin. He said, I
have righteousness. I have righteousness. and strength. So now, having shown our need,
he shows us the remedy, the righteousness of God. He says, but now the
righteousness of God. A righteousness not of man, therefore,
he says this, without the law. I was talking to that same man
about the law after he had read the law. He had read through
Deuteronomy. And I asked him how many laws
were in there, and he said ten. And you know that everybody's
chuckling now, but it's true, there's 613. There's a lot more
than ten. And I'm so thankful that there
is a manifestation of the righteousness of God that I need that's without
the law. And he said it's clear, it's
manifest. It's as clear and as crystal. It is plainly seen,
that's what he's telling us. This righteousness of God that
God purposed to give sinners, listen, is by no means a cooperative
effort. It's important for men to understand. God's not asking you to cooperate
in this. He said, I'm providing a righteousness without you,
without your obedience. Well, seeing that all went before,
that's good, because I ain't got none. I ain't got no obedience. I've not obeyed. So there's a
righteousness without the law, without a cooperative effort.
The gospel does not reveal a righteousness that Christ merits and then gives
us, as Christians, the opportunity to improve it. Now, is this not
religion? Okay, Jesus saves you, but now
you have to improve on this. You have to add your righteousness
to His. It's like He did almost, He almost
completed it all. And you get to insert your righteousness,
something you're doing into that gap to make it complete. That's not the gospel. That's
not the gospel. No. The righteousness that God
gives, listen to this phrase, the righteousness of God. Well,
who's this righteousness belong to? It's God's righteousness. It's
God's righteousness. It's his own righteousness without
any contribution of man's obedience in any degree. You know, when
I was thinking about that, I was thinking about that altar in
Exodus, Exodus chapter 20. Moses was commanded, he said,
if you build me an altar out of stone, I don't want you to
put your hand to it. I don't want you to chisel it.
I don't want you to take a tool and make it pretty. And God said
this, the day that you put your hand to it, it's polluted. Now what do you suppose that
means as far as a picture of Christ in yourself? Christ is
the altar, isn't he? In the Old Testament, the altar
is a picture of Christ. So what is he saying? If you
add your work to his, you've polluted it. That's what he's
telling us. Another illustration of that
was when David, you remember he's carrying that ark from the
house of Obed-Edom, he's carrying that ark on a cart. And God said
you're not to carry that on a cart. You're supposed to have staves,
and you're supposed to have men carrying it on their shoulders.
That's how you carry it. But you remember, David was sincere.
He wanted to really celebrate. And man, he threw a big party.
He built a new cart, and it was a beautiful cart. It was the
best cart. I kind of sound like Trump. It's
a perfect cart. It's great. Sorry. I made fun of him. Anyway, it was a great party.
It was a spectacular event and everybody was out celebrating
and he had that Ark of the Covenant on that cart. And you remember
the ox stumbled and that cart was about to fall. The Ark of
the Covenant was about to fall onto the ground. And there was
a priest there named Uzzah. And Uzzah with all of his love
and sincerity in his heart, he put his hand up so that the Ark
wouldn't fall. You know what God did? killed
him. Why? Because it ruined the gospel
picture. The gospel, David ruined it. David was at fault to begin with
for not preaching the gospel. Basically, when that ark is carried
on those staves, it is saying a gospel message. It's a gospel
message. And David was preaching a false
gospel. And when Uzzah put his hand to
the ark, it's a picture of false religion. When you put your hand
to Christ's righteousness, God's going to kill you, friends. I
don't care how sincere you are. And I mean, there's some really
sincere people. And they'll weep, and they'll
pray, and they'll cry. And you think, well, man, you know,
God, they're really sincere. You put your righteousness to
His, God will kill you. So it's not a cooperative effort,
friends. The righteousness of God without
the law is manifest. For only God's righteousness
is the only thing the justice of God will accept. I told you
God has no respect for persons, isn't he? If you are righteous,
God will accept you. If you are found with sin, God
will condemn you. What's the only righteousness
God will accept? What's the only righteousness there really is?
It is the righteousness of God. Now, another question, if a man
is without righteousness, and the righteousness of God is required
without our own personal obedience, how do such men obtain this righteousness? Well, the apostle shows us that
this gospel of the righteousness of God, this gospel, he shows us by the
gospel how this is accomplished and how it is applied. He says, even the righteousness
of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe. Now, it's astounding to me that
this gospel, as I just told you about David and that ark and
the altar, this gospel has been preached from the beginning.
Paul says this in that previous verse, he says, by the deeds
of law shall no, I'm sorry, but now the righteous God without
the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
This gospel I'm preaching to you, it's been preached since
the beginning. It's been preached since the
beginning. Remember, the very first people
to hear the gospel was Adam and Eve. The seed of the woman shall
crush the head of the serpent. Who's that talking about? Jesus
Christ. That's how sin is going to be
dealt with. By the seed of the woman. Now, she misunderstood
that. And when Cain came out, she said, Oh, I've gotten a man,
child. She said, This is him. We know
he wasn't him. But you look at that picture
of Cain and Abel, right? You have a picture of false religion. Cain. Cain offered the fruit
of his labor. He offered the work of his hands.
And God rejected it. And so men in religion, they
offer the work of their hands, the fruit of their labors before
God. And what will God do? God will
reject it. Then you've got Abel, and he
kills a lamb that he had nothing to do with. He didn't create
that lamb. He didn't make that lamb. He
didn't cause that lamb to grow. He just watched it. That's all
He did. Shepherded it. He didn't do anything
to do it to keep it. God did. What a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You go later on, you see Moses
and the Passover. Children of Israel in bondage
under slavery. You got Pharaoh when Moses came
up and said, let my people go. You remember what he did to them.
He made their labors hard, right? He said, you're going to make
those bricks, but I'm not going to get you the straw. You're
going to have to go get your own straw. And then you got to make the
same number of bricks. He gave them an impossible task. Isn't that a picture of the law? Listen, you have to have the
righteousness of God, but you've got to go get your own righteousness.
Impossible task. But how were they delivered?
They were delivered by a lamb, by the blood of the Passover
lamb. What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You can go on and on. The tabernacle, that tent in
the wilderness, badger skin, ugly on the outside, beautiful
on the inside. What a picture of the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God and man. You see the high priest in his
robes with the children of Israel on his breasts, on his chest? What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ, making an offering for sin. You see, he's the priest,
he's the offering, he's the altar, he's everything. You see, this
gospel, this message of God's righteousness, these Jews say,
well, this is something new. No, it's not something new. This
has been preached from the beginning, that the righteousness of God
should come, how? By Jesus Christ. That was always preached. The
prophets, there are many prophecies we can go to. I'm going to quickly,
you can write these down, Isaiah 9 and verse 6, Unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given. Oh, the deity and humanity of
Christ right there. And what is His work? What is
this God-man's work? The government shall be upon
His shoulder. His kingdom, His people, He is
going to bear the responsibility of that kingdom on His own shoulder. Isaiah 42 and verse 1, Behold
my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth. Who is that? Who is the only
man that God is ever delighted in? It's His Son. You know what
He says about His Son and His work? Isaiah 42 and verse 4,
He shall not fail. What He's going to do, He won't
fail to do. Isaiah 53, you know this very
well. He says, He shall spring up as
a root out of dry ground. You know, David's line was dead
as a stump in the desert. David's line was as far from
the throne as you could possibly get. And God says, I'm going
to raise up David's son out of that dead root. And He did, didn't
He? He's the offspring of Jesse.
He said, as a root out of dry ground. Isaiah says, don't misquote it
for you. He shall be despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We hid as it were
our faces from Him. We esteemed Him stricken, smitten
of God. But, what? He was wounded for
our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Is the Gospel
not preached in the Old Testament? And what is God going to say
about his wounds? What is God going to say about
his offering? Verse 11, He shall see of the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. So what does the Old Testament
say about the righteousness of God? It says it's going to come
by one person. By Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. But now, He
who was spoken of in prophecy and types, listen, He's come. He's already come. The Son of
the living God, Jesus Christ, has come into the world. For in Him is the righteousness
of God revealed, because He is the author of righteousness,
and He is the giver of righteousness. Behold, if man cannot ever merit
or obtain righteousness by his own obedience, how is this righteousness
merited? Now remember, what is righteousness?
What is righteousness? Righteousness is a perfect obedience
in every way to the law of God. That's what righteousness is.
Righteousness is perfect obedience and conformity in thought, in
word, in deed, and motive to the law of God. So behold what all the word of
God witnessed, look at this again, even the righteousness of God,
verse 22 in our text, even the righteousness of God, which is
by faith of Jesus Christ. How is this righteousness merited? By the faith of Jesus Christ. See what the scripture has said
about Jesus being our federal head. How that God hath made
him to be all our wisdom, all our righteousness, all our sanctification,
and all our redemption. You see, this was an act of God.
This was an act of God. God made him to be those things
in a covenant. In a covenant. We call it the
covenant of grace because that's what it is. It is a covenant
of grace. It is an eternal covenant that God made with his Son concerning
his elect people. And He made Christ to be all
of these things. And this act of God was done
by a sovereign election of grace in that covenant. When God purposed
us to be righteous. You that are believers, when
did God purpose this? When was this planned? It was
in eternity. When God chose you. God purposed
that you should be righteous. We read it, we've read it millions,
hundreds of thousands of times. Ephesians 1, you know that the
Apostle blesses God. He said, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ. Now how did he do
that? According as he had chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. What purpose? That
we should be holy and without blame righteous before him in love having predestinated
us under the adoption of children. Now how in the world is he going
to do all that? By Jesus Christ, that's how. How did God determine that you
should be made righteous? By Jesus Christ. This was already
determined. And so, as God purposed in eternity,
as the law and the prophets testified, even so did the Son of God condescend
to be a man. God condescended, Christ condescended
to be a man. so that he as our high priest
should take upon himself our nature, sin excluded, and being
born not of Adam's seed, but of the woman's seed." Now why
did he do that? Why was it necessary for the
Son of God to come down to be a man? Because God had before
purpose, you needed to be righteous. He was going to make you righteous.
But there was only one way to do it. by Jesus Christ. So, at the appointed time, Christ
condescended and was made a man. Consider that. I don't think
we consider it. We may consider it, but wrapping
your mind around it is kind of hard. He who made the world the king
of heaven and glory, the almighty son of God, was made flesh. You shall call his name Emmanuel,
which means what? God with us. God with us. And when Christ was made a man,
the scripture says, and being found in the nature of a man. What did he do? He humbled himself. He humbled himself and became
obedient. Why? Because that's how righteousness
is made. Righteousness is made by perfect
obedience. So Christ came into the world
and by his own faithfulness to the law of God, he made our righteous. He made it by being subject. In the election of grace, we
say, oh, the love that drew salvation's plan. But in beholding the condescension
of Christ, we sing, oh, the grace that brought it down to man.
The mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary. Behold the love of Christ, who
took on flesh to be our Savior. and being found as a man under
the law, he by his own faith and faithful obedience to that
law, he by himself established the righteousness of God for
us. For us. This is vitally important to
understand that we are made righteous the same way we were made sinners. How were you made a sinner? You were made a sinner by Adam.
That's how you were made a sinner. In chapter 5 of this book, he's
going to say, verse 12, Wherefore, as by one man sinned in the world,
result death by sin. What does that have to do with
us? Death passed upon all men. Why? For all have sinned. You sinned
when he sinned. Well, seeing that we are all
under sin and have no hope of obtaining righteousness by our
obedience, God purposed that by the obedience of another representative,
by the obedience of the second Adam, the second representative,
who was really the first. I want you to know that he was
really the first. Just in order of time, he was second. Look
at that in chapter 5. Look at Romans chapter 5. Look
at that. Look at verse 19. For as by one
man's disobedience many were made what? Sinners. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Be made righteous. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world as a representative man for his elect people in order
that we might be made righteous. Listen what the Old Testament
prophet Isaiah says about that in Isaiah 42. He says, by his
obedience, he magnified the law and made it honorable. He magnified the law. We don't even know what's in
the law. We can't name anything in the law. Christ knew all of
the law because He made the law. It's His law. And what He did is magnified
it. In other words, every jot and
tittle was obeyed by Jesus Christ for His elect. So we who are
saved without the law by our federal head, Listen, you've
got to understand this. We're not saved around the law.
The law is not set aside so that we can be saved. God didn't set
aside His law. Remember, His justice is very
strict. But in Christ, we were saved
through the law. Through the law. Not skirting
it, not going around it. Why? Because Jesus Christ by
his faith obeyed the law, so did his people. So did you. Eric, you know you obeyed that
law? Perfectly. When did you do that? When he
did it. He did it. My representative
obeyed the law. Therefore, everyone who is represented
by him has obeyed that law in the sight of God perfectly. Perfectly. Go to Galatians chapter, the
Apostle Paul makes this point, Galatians chapter 2. Look what he says in verse 16, he
says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, and that's something we know. How is a man justified? By the faith of Jesus Christ. Same words. How do you justify? How are you
made righteous? By the faith of Jesus Christ. And what we do, even we have
believed in Jesus Christ. We heard that. And what we do? We believed. For what purpose? that we might
be justified by the faith of Christ. I didn't believe in Christ
to be justified by my faith. I believed in Christ to be justified
by his faith. That's why he says it twice.
So you get the picture of this, that that righteousness, that
justification had to be earned and merited by Christ alone. And that's the righteousness
I believe in. That's the righteousness I'm trusting in. is the righteousness
by the faith of Jesus Christ. And so where did our righteousness
come from? By the faith of Christ. So, you who now believe on Christ,
we know this, that He is all our righteousness. All of it. If there is such a thing as 100%
of 100%, I don't know where people get
110% of something. I thought he got 100% of it.
That's all of it. But obviously, there's more. But I'll tell you this. We know
this, that he is all my righteousness. All of it. And I am accepted
of God based on his work alone. That's it. that it was completely by the
work of Christ's obedience to the law as my high priest, my
federal head, my representative. Now, seeing that the righteousness
of God is merited by the faith of Jesus Christ, another question
must be asked. How, then, is this righteousness
given to me? That's fine. Yeah, preacher,
I see it. OK, you just told me I'm worthless. I get it. I have no righteousness
of my own. You're telling me that he made
righteousness for all of his elect. That's exactly what I
said. The question is, how may I know I have this righteousness?
How can that righteousness really be mine? That's what the sinner
will ask. Anyone convicted by the Holy
Spirit, they're not going to rest until they get that answer. Why? Because I am really unrighteous. That's the truth. That's true.
I'm really unrighteous. Remember, God is no respecter
of persons. If you are righteous, He will reward the righteous.
If you are a sinner, He will condemn your sins. In other words, God's not going
to pretend I'm righteous. It's not going to be make-believe. I really need to be righteous.
Listen to what God says about righteousness. He said, He that
justifieth the wicked and condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination
to the Lord. You take a guilty man and you
just say, okay, I charge you with righteousness. Everybody knows that's wrong.
Everybody knows that's not just. And if you take a righteous man
and you condemn him, then you know that's not just. So then how can God take someone
who is really guilty and make him really righteous? Notice these words back in your
text. Go back to your text. These words. Even the righteousness of God
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, who's it given to? unto
all and upon all them that believe. How can God make a man who is
truly wicked, guilty under sin, truly righteous? Well, first
of all, he does this by imputation. Imputation. People got an idea of imputation
as nothing more than scribbling on a piece of paper that giving
someone righteousness that really don't have it. It's just accounting.
I just want to account that righteous. It's not really righteous. I'm
just going to account it righteous. And they call that imputed. That's
not imputed. You cannot impute righteousness to someone who's
not righteous. You can't do it. Yet listen to
this. God charges us with righteousness
because of this. From eternity we were in union
with His Son. That's the only way God could
ever charge me with righteousness. It's because I was in Christ
before the foundation of the world. He was my representative
before there was ever sin. And God in His justice charges
all of His people with that righteousness of Christ. Imputed righteousness. That's
what the word unto means. It means imputed. The second
way that He can really do that is because He imparts this righteousness. He imparts this righteousness.
God can call His people righteous, even the righteousness of God
which was merited by Christ, imputed to us by our union with
Him, because one day He has appointed, He will impart this righteousness
to us. What does that mean? It means
this, when God gives us in the new birth, when we are born again
of the Spirit, You have to know this to be true because this
is, I'm going to give you plenty of scriptures for this. God creates in us a holy nature,
a holy nature. Scripture calls it a new man.
The scripture calls it a new heart, a new mind. Well, what is that but a nature?
You have a mind, you have a heart, you have a will, it makes up
a nature. So that's what I use. I use the term nature to sum
up all three of those things. And so in the Holy Spirit, by
an act of divine power, He creates in us. Ephesians chapter 4 tells
it plainly. Verse 24, He exhorts us to put
on the new man by faith. By faith we put on this new man.
By faith we recognize this to be true. Put on the new man.
Who is He? Which is after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. Not pretend, not make believe,
not just accredited, but He is created in the very nature of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't this exactly what the Lord
promised that He would do? He says in Romans 8, listen to
this, we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.
For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. So what does He do in the new
birth? He conforms us to the image of His Son. He makes us
in the image of Christ, His Son, holy. Now wait a second. That just
don't sound right, does it? According to your experience,
does that sound right? That you're holy? Can anybody follow you around
for a day and say, wow, Kathy, you are just holy. I just can't
believe it, you're so holy. It's not gonna happen, it's not
gonna happen. John says this in 1 John chapter
5 and verse 18. He says, We know that whatsoever
whosoever is born of God sinneth not. Wait a second. I'm born again
of God? I sin all the time. Every believer confesses that
in me, like Paul, Romans 7, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not, O wretched
man, that I am. How it grieves me that this generation
of people who profess to believe on Jesus Christ They take that
scripture and say, well, that was me before I believed, and
after I believed, I have now come, I've risen out of that,
I'm not a wretched man anymore. It grieves me to hear people
say something like that. I was a bad sinner, but now I've
stopped doing those bad things. They use that in 1 Corinthians
chapter 6, they said, you know, Paul said, Neither adulterers,
nor fornicators, nor effeminate, nor abusers themselves of mankind,
nor covetous, nor thieves, nor revilers, they shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven, and such were some of you." And they
stopped right there. They said, yep, that's me. I
was like that, but now I'm not. Now I've risen to a status above
those petty sins. Stand by thyself, for I am holier
than thou. They don't read the second part
of that. But you are washed. But you are sanctified. But you
are justified. You see, my hope is that I'm
washed, not that I've turned my life around. My hope is that
I've been justified by God and the righteousness of Christ,
not that I've done anything to add. That I've been sanctified
by Him, not sanctified by myself. So how can we settle this conflict?
This seeming contradiction, isn't it? Doesn't it seem like a contradiction?
Well, you know what? John said even before he said
that in John 5, 1 John 5, he said it in the very first chapter,
he said, if we say we're out without sin, we've made God a
liar and the truth is not in us. How can you reconcile those
two things? We confess our sins. We are faithful
and just to forgive. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. And at the same time, in the other verse, he
said, we don't sin at all. How can you reconcile that? The
only way you can reconcile that is this. What Jesus said, that
which is born of flesh is what? Flesh. The old man is the old
man. He'll never be anything else
but the old man. But that which is born of spirit is what? Spirit. That which is created of God
in true holiness will only be created of God, it will only
maintain holiness. So then we know as believers
in Christ the struggle we face daily, don't we? You struggle,
Paul said, the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against
the flesh, and these two are contrary one to another so that
you can't do what you want to do. Do you have that? Do you struggle with that as
a believer? We do. We struggle with these
things. We have conflicts within ourselves. But what then is our hope? It's
not my experience. I don't hope in my experience.
My experiences vary, don't they? Your experience. We don't all
have the same experience. They vary. Just wait a minute
and the weather changes. Wait a minute and our circumstance
changes. Wait a minute, our health's changing.
Wait a minute, we're doing well, we're doing good, and then next
minute we're all lost over in sin. What happened? Well, I don't have any confidence
in the experience of this life. What I do have confidence in
is that my righteousness is by the faith of Jesus Christ, that
God has imputed it to me through the election of grace, and God
has imparted it to me in the new nature What's the evidence
of that? What's the evidence He's imputed
that righteousness to you and imparted it to you? Joanne, how
do you know you have that holy nature? You can't see it. You
don't see it in the mirror. You don't see it by your actions.
How do you know? Listen to this. Unto all and upon all them that
what? Believe. This is how the means by which
this righteousness is really transferred to me through faith. Faith is the conduit by which
God gives us righteousness. It's the means of this righteous
transference. Now faith in Jesus Christ is
the only means and evidence of having this righteousness imputed
and imparted to me. But let me make it very clear,
faith in Jesus Christ in no way contributes to that righteousness. Faith in no way contributes to
that righteousness. Now some believe faith makes
the obedience of Christ perfect. It says, again, like Christ did
all of this, and He comes so close to making you righteous,
all you have to do is make an act of volition and will. You interject your faith into
that, and it completes the salvation of God. And without your faith,
the salvation of Christ is incomplete. Now listen, I do know this, nobody's
saved without faith. Faith is necessary. You know why it's not a work?
Because men can't do it. Nobody has faith by nature. as many as received Him, John
1, 12, as many as received Him, to them gave you the right to
become the sons of God, which were born. How were they born?
Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. Where did your faith come from?
Was it an act of volition, or will, or determination, or sincerity
from yourself? No. Faith is a gift of Almighty
God to the sinner. And look at Romans 4. Look at
Romans 4. Why faith? Why faith? Why this necessity to believe? What is this? Look at Romans 4, verse 16. Therefore, it is of faith. What is he talking
about here? He's still, in chapter 4, talking
about righteousness. He's still. Still going to be
talking about the righteousness of Christ. And he's talking about
how Abraham got it and how we get it. You notice he said, it
is of faith that by grace. Exclude those words, it might
be. Those are in italics. They don't need to be there. Therefore, of faith. How's righteousness? It's of faith, isn't it? It's
merited by the faith of Christ. It is received by our faith in
Christ. But listen, and that faith, how's
it come to you? By grace. And that faith, by
grace. Why? To the end that the promise
might be sure to all the seed. You see, if faith was left up
to you, it wouldn't be sure. It wouldn't be sure. It would
always be a question, would you maintain your faith? Would you
keep it? You couldn't. It wouldn't be
sure. This is why false religion is, man, they're so distressed. They don't have any real sure
answers about anything. They're just guessing. We're
not guessing. And the salvation is sure to
all to see. Well, how do they receive it?
They receive it by faith, and that faith is a gift of the grace
of God. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you see that in yourself you
have no righteousness at all? Is that true? Is that an honest
assessment of yourself? Is that who you are without righteousness? Do you need righteousness? I
can show you one person that's obtained righteousness, and Jesus
Christ is the one. He did it. He did it for all
his people. And he swears he's going to impute
that righteousness to them and impart it to them. And the only
way they know it's really theirs is not by their conduct and how
they look and how they act. They know this righteousness
is theirs because they have received it by the faith, which is a gift
of God. Isn't that what he says, right?
For therein the gospel is preached, the righteousness of God, which
is from faith, the faith of Christ. To what? To faith, your faith
in Christ. That's how righteousness is made.
That's how righteousness is merited. by Jesus Christ. How is it received? Simply by believing. And even that is a gift of God. Every time I preach, can you
not get the sense that God receives all the glory for this thing?
I pray you do get a sense that God is going to be glorified.
And if you rob God, if you take one thing to yourself, you're
robbing God of His glory. We don't want to do that. I don't
have any interest in that. My hope is only Christ, always Christ. He is all my righteousness before
God. I praise yours. Let's stand and
be dismissed in prayer. You see why I only took two verses? Well, I know it's no laughing
matter, you're sitting there, but I pray God did bless it to
you. Let's give him thanks. Father,
thank you for this time and the blessings you've bestowed upon
us. Thank you for this word. Father, thank you for telling
us the truth about ourselves. Thank you for revealing it to
us, and thank you for showing us Christ. Thank you for testifying
of his perfect work. And then, Father, you've given
us this faith to trust him. And we know this, that it's sure
to everyone that believes. I pray, Father, you bless this
congregation, bless others, other churches, wherever their gospel
is preached. Bring us back again together. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.