and sing hymn number 112. 112.
Hymn number 112. Up Calvary's mountain, one dreadful
morn, Walked Christ my Savior, weary and worn, Facing for sinners,
death on the cross. that he might save him from endless
loss. Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer,
seems now I see him On Calvary's tree Wounded and bleeding For
sinners pleading Blind and unheeding Dying for me Father forgive him,
thus did he pray, Meanwhile his lifeblood doth last away. Praying for sinners while in
such woe, No one but Jesus ever loved so. Blessed, redeemed,
Precious Redeemer Seems now I see Him On Calvary's tree Wounded
and bleeding Poor sinners pleading Blind and unheeding Dying for
me Oh, how I love Him, Savior and
Friend How can my praises ever find Him? Through years unnumbered
on heaven's shore My tongue shall praise Him forevermore Blessed
Redeemer Precious Redeemer Seems now I see Him On Calvary's tree
Burdened and bleeding For sinners pleading Blind and unheeding Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
509. The sands of time are sinking,
the dawn of heaven breaks, I've sighed for the fair sweet
morn of ways. Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
but day spring is at hand. And glory, glory, in Emmanuel's land. O Christ, He is the fountain,
the deep, sweet well of life. I've tasted forty-pile drink
of love. There to an ocean fullness His
mercy doth expand. Oh, I am thy beloved, and thy beloved's mine. He brings a poor, vile sinner
Into his house of harm I stand upon his merit, I know No other
stand, Not even where glory dwelleth, In Emmanuel's hand. The brightest of her garment
But her dear bridegroom's face I will not gaze at glory But
on my King of Grace ? The crown He giveth ? ? But on
His pierced hand ? ? The Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's
land ? Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter
3. Start reading at verse 20 down
to verse 26. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference,
for all have sinned. and come short of the glory of
God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a perpetuation
through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for
the payment or remission or passing over of sins that are passed
through the forbearance of God. To declare I say at this time
His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. Our great and blessed God, our
glorious Father, in the name of your blessed,
glorious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we come into your presence. We always come to thank you and
to bless you, that you're God and beside you there is no other,
that you're a just God and a Savior. And oh, we're so thankful that
you taught us what that means. And Lord Jesus, I pray that you
would meet with us here tonight. Oh, we need your presence, desperately
need your presence. Need your presence in what I
have to say, need your presence in what they need to hear and
what they will hear. Lord, we have this flesh to deal
with and it's an awful, awful burden. So Lord, please enable
us to not think of it and put it aside for just a little while
as we listen to the gospel. And Lord, I pray, Lord, for those
who are sick and tried among us. Pray for Luther, Lord, that
you'd bless him and strengthen him. Pray for our dear brother
Marvin, that you'd continue to bless him, strengthen him, restore
him. And Lord, if there's any other
that I haven't mentioned, I pray that you'd be mindful of them,
be gracious toward them. Please meet with us. Bring glory
to yourself through the preaching of your word. For Christ's sake,
amen. Hymn number 337. 337. Teach me thy way, O Lord, teach
me thy way. Thy guiding grace, O Lord, teach
me thy way. Help me to walk the right, more
by faith, less by sight. Lead me with every mind, teach
me thy ways. When I am sad at heart, teach
me thy way. When earthly joys depart, teach
me thy way. In hours of loneliness, in times
of dire distress, in failure or success, teach me thy way. When doubts and fears arise,
teach me thy way. When storms o'erspread the skies,
teach me thy way. Shine through the cloud and rain,
through sorrow, toll, and pain. Make Thou my pathway plain, teach
me Thy way. Long as my life shall last, teach
me thy way. Where'er my lot be cast, teach
me thy way. Until the race is run, until
the journey's done, until the ground is warm, teach me thy
way. Boy, that's it. Pray that way. Oh, God, teach
us, teach us, teach us. I want to talk this evening about
righteousness by faith, righteousness by faith. The apostle started
out with the gospel in Romans chapter 1, the fact that the
righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. He said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation. For therein, in that righteousness,
in the gospel, God reveals His righteous nature, His righteous
character, and a righteousness that men don't have. And it's
the gospel power that bestows it upon sinners, on believing
sinners. He started out in Romans 1, 18,
if you'll look over there with me for a moment. He starts out
and shows how the Gentiles, people like us, need righteousness.
The reason He needs it is because He doesn't have any. He said
in verse 18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the TRUTH of
unrighteousness. because that which may be known
of God's messed unto them, and yet they don't believe. And oh
my, so he looks and shows them that the Gentiles, they don't
have a righteousness. I don't, you know, I didn't know
anything about the righteousness of God till in the late 70s. And I thought I could produce
my own righteousness, but I found out quickly that I couldn't.
And then there he deals with the moral self-righteous man
in chapter 2 and verse 1. He said, Thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. You set in judgment
on other people, set in judgment on who they are, what they do,
how they act, how they work, and all the things. When you
judge another, you're just condemning yourself. Why? Because you're
judging, you're doing exactly what you're telling other folks
you're judging them by. you're judging them by. And then
he comes to the Jew, who he says, you know, that they asked, what
advantage then has a Jew? He said, in every way, every
way, and shows that the very law and the prophets in which
they trusted, the law and the prophets proved, proved that
the Jew had no righteousness. No, no, he trusted you know,
that he was a Jew. He trusted that he was circumcised,
and yet Paul says, But you, we've proved before, both Jew and Gentile,
all is under sin. And then he paints this awful,
awful dark picture. We did it last week. He says,
you know it in verse 10, none righteous, no, not one, none
that understands us, none seeks after God, everybody's going
out of the way. So he paints this horrible mouth
full of cursing and bitter, their nature's wrong, their body's
wrong, their works are wrong, everything about them's wrong.
And then he comes down and use one of his favorite expressions,
and I may preach on this one of these days because he uses
this so many times. He says, but now, therefore by
the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
And he tells about all these awful things about the human
race. And then he says, but now, I'm gonna change the subject,
but now, but now, oh, what are we gonna
talk about? What is but now? Oh my, he proves
from scripture that without a doubt, Man is without excuse, he s without
merit, he s without righteousness before God. So how in the world
is a man going to be saved? How s he going to be saved? Where
s he going to get a righteousness that s acceptable to God? Where
s he going to get a righteousness that corresponds with God Himself
and God s character? He can t get it in the law because
He just said, No flesh shall be justified by the law. Is he
going to get it by his goodness, by his works? No, no, we have
salvation described here as the righteousness of God. He said
in verse 21, but now, but now, the righteousness of God. You
know why it's called the righteousness of God? You know, and everybody
needs righteousness. Man don't have it. None have
it. That's why he says there's none
righteous, no, not one. And what this meaning is when
he talks about the righteousness of God, it's called the STATE
OF BEING RIGHT. It's the state of being right,
and everything you do, you think right, you talk right, you act
right, you go the right, everything you do has to be right, and that's
what righteousness is, the state of being right. Righteousness
here is called CONFORMITY TO EVERYTHING IN THE LAW THAT'S
THERE, CONFORMITY TO IT. And righteousness here includes
all that, here's all that includes salvation when you talk about
the righteousness of God. It's all, everything that includes
salvation is in this Word. And then it's the remission of
sins, the payment of sins. And it was brought into time,
how? By God's righteousness and having
a right standing with God. And then here s another thing
you know, being REGENERATED, when God gives us the new birth,
our character not only is our STANDING right, and WERE right,
we re CONFORMED to the law and this righteousness of God, but
I tell you what, being REGENERATED, our character INWARDLY is changed
even, INWARDLY is changed, and when your character INWARDLY
is changed in the new birth, your OUTWARD is going to be changed
It's gonna be changed. And why does it include all this?
This right state of mind, being right in the sight of God. Righteousness
including salvation, sin's being put away. Having a right standing
with God, being regenerated. Why does it include all this?
Because sin, we've proved before, Jew and Gentiles all under sin.
He said down there in verse 23, for all have sinned, all have
sinned. And why does it include? That's
because of sin. Sin is a debt that has to be
paid. It's requiring a payment, a debt
that requires payment. I know most of us here just despise
being in debt, don't wanna be in debt. Well, I tell you what,
you know, sin puts man in debt and it requires payment. And
it also is talking about sin is death, and that requires new
life. You know, sin is also a disease
that requires healing. And I tell you, it s also a departure
from God, and all that is true, and all that is righteous. And
I tell you, you got to have to, you know, to being restored to
the truth and righteousness, that s all the hope we have. So this righteousness of God
that he s talking about involves ALL of our salvation, and the
WHOLE of a man, and all that s required, God declares him
just, sanctified, and consecrated to Him, Himself. And oh, he says,
you know, the righteousness of God. You know why it says the
meaning of the righteousness of God? It's God's righteousness,
meaning God. It's the source of righteousness
is God Himself, the righteousness of God. God's the source of righteousness.
There's two meanings here in this, God being now the righteous,
there's two meanings. One is God Himself is righteous. That s His character, that s
His nature. It s the righteousness of God, it s the source of all
righteousness. But God Himself is righteous, that s His character,
that s His nature. He cannot be anything BUT that,
and He cannot require anything LESS than that. God is always CONSISTENT with
Himself! He never varies, never varies
in any way, shape, or form. And then the second meaning is
this, the righteousness of God. And that also means the righteousness
He provides for sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. It says He
provides this righteousness. He Himself is righteous, and
then He turns around and provides us a righteousness, gives us
a righteousness. It's a righteousness that Christ
Himself brought out. and this righteousness stands
up to the NATURE and CHARACTER of God Himself! Oh, my! And it s a gift! It s a gift!
Oh, it s a gift! And then look what else it says
there in verse 21, Oh, the righteousness of God. Oh, my, righteousness
is a right standing, conformity with God Almighty. And then look
what it says, By faith of Jesus Christ unto them, excuse me,
but now without the law is manifested. I want to deal with that manifested.
Righteousness manifested. Now when it says righteousness
is manifested, that means it's a revelation. That means it's
a revelation. Man cannot discover righteousness. He can't do it. man has been
working, you know, the Jews, that s what they did. They had
a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, going about to
establish their own righteousness. You know, righteousness manifested,
that means it s a revelation. Remember when you didn t know
anything about it, Huh? And man can't find it, man can't
discover it. And what this manifestation of
it is, it's an unveiling of God Himself. It's an action by God
Himself. And when He reveals this to a
person, it has permanent results. Oh, without controversy, God
was manifest in the flesh. Manifest, come out, unveiled,
revealed. Oh my, look over in 2 Timothy
1 with me. You all have seen this. And that's
what John said. He said that we tasted and handled the
word of life, the word of life, which was manifested, which was
manifested. 2 Timothy 1.9. Look what it says
here now. Our Lord was manifested. God
was manifested in the flesh, unveiled, come down to this world
to be seen. And look what he says here, God
who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our own works, but according to His own purpose and grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. But how in the world did we know
this was happening? How did we know that God was
going to do this? But it s now made manifest! The grace of God
s made manifest! Holy Call is made manifest! Salvation
is made manifest by the appearing of Jesus Christ our Lord! That
s how it starts. Christ come here and He unveiled
God, He revealed God, He manifested God, and whenever He done that,
it always produces permanent results. You know, you don t
get righteousness and God don t give it to you and then you
lose it again. And when God unveils Himself and God reveals Himself
and God makes Himself known, I mean, something s gotta happen,
and it has to be a revelation, it has to be an unveiling. And
not only an unveiling of Himself, but He got unveiled, He got to
take the scales off our eyes so we can see. And all this righteousness,
manifestation of it, it comes from God, with the righteousness
of God without the law, manifested, manifested. It comes from God. One thing a man can't do, he
can't manifest the righteousness of God. He can't. I'll tell you
what, as much as we want to be righteous, as much as we'd love
to act righteous, as much as we'd love to love God with all
our heart, but I'll tell you what, man can't manifest the
righteousness of God. I know that Pharisee stood and
thanked God that he wasn't like that other fella. Oh, I'm this
way and I'm that way. And then that rich young ruler
said, I've kept all these things from my youth up. But man can
t manifest the righteousness of God. It has to be a revelation,
it has to be unveiled, and I tell you what, a lot of folks don
t have a CLUE about the righteousness of God. Oh, there are a couple
of churches we go by at home, one of them is called Simple
Life and the other is called I don t know what it s called,
but anyway, They said, Our mission is what they got on their sign,
one of them flashing signs. Our mission is first to love
God! How do you do that if you don
t even know Him? He s not been revealed, He s
not been unveiled. And that's why Paul said, the
will, the will is present with me. I've got the will, but how
to perform it? I don't have any idea. I don't
know how to do it. And oh my, people go about to
talk about their righteousness. Fellow had him a big T-shirt
on today and said, Team Jesus, John 3, 16, great old big T-shirt
and all something else underneath it. And I said, boy, what a T-shirt
there. And he said, yes, and I hope
it gives me an opportunity to witness. I said, it probably
will. Team Jesus. Now you reckon they know anything
about God? That's what I'm telling you. You don't know it unless
God lets you know it. You don't even know you need
it until God reveals it to you that you don't have it. And when
you don't have it, you can't get it, you can't work for it,
and you can't manifest it. The only way you're going to
get it is for it to be manifested, unveiled, revealed. Huh? And it comes from God. And oh
listen, Look when it's done, look when it's done. He says,
but now, but now, that Barren Romans back over in our text,
but now, but now, oh my, after all that dark sin, all that things
about man being lost and all the things of his mind and all
the things of his flesh. Oh my, but now, and what He's
showing us when He says, but now, He's showing us the difference
between law and grace. Look what it says in verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds, the
doing of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight. But
then He turns around and says, but now, there is a righteousness. That s what He said. Oh my! Oh,
by law is not, but NOW there is a righteousness. He said up
there there s none righteous, but now He said, but now there
IS a righteousness. Right now there is a righteousness.
He went from that darkness to this light. Oh my, the difference
between law and grace. And I tell you, and also it tells
us two periods, before Christ s coming and after He s coming.
But now, after thousands and thousands of years of failure
and sinfulness of man, but now the righteousness of God's made
manifest. But now He's shown the need and
God comes along and reveals His provision for man's greatest
need, which is what? The righteousness that we don't
have and can't produce. Oh my, now watch this. Now in
verse 21 again, you know, but now the righteousness of God
in relation to the law, look this
righteousness God has provided. He says here, without the law,
apart from the law. Law had nothing to do with this. Law didn't have nothing, it's
apart from law. It's not a CONDITION of man becoming righteous. He CLEARLY, CLEARLY failed in
that. And when he says, Without law
or apart from law, it means any effort, any effort by self to
work for, to merit, oh, it's a righteousness apart
from law. It means apart from any human effort, human effort,
any condition that a man thinks he can attain to. The law forbids
disobedience, and it demands obedience, and it can't provide
either one. It can't do nothing for you.
Can't do either. Can't do either. I was looking
today in Deuteronomy. Tell you where to look at it.
Deuteronomy 28 through 30. Curse it, curse it, curse it,
curse it, curse it. The next one is blessing, blessing,
blessing. If you do this, blessing, blessing.
You know a whole chapter, nothing but blessings, but every one
of those blessings was conditioned on you doing something. And if
you didn't do it, curse it, curse it, curse it, curse it, curse
it. Blessings and curses. I preached that out in Oregon
one time. God's blessings and God's curses.
People say, no, God won't curse a man. He cursed a whole human race
and only saved their souls. What are you talking about He
won't curse a man? And He Himself told people, He
said, curse it is everyone that don't continue in everything
in that law to do. And that's from Moses to the
end of numbers. I mean, that's all of it. And
oh my, but I tell you what we was talking about apart from
law, and that's you know, it says by the knowledge of sin.
Now a mirror, a mirror can show us what's wrong with us. A mirror can show us where our
dirt's at, a mirror can show us our hair's all out of whack,
but the mirror can't wash us! The mirror can't comb our hair!
You gotta go someplace else to come here, someplace else to
get washed, someplace else to get cleansed. And that's what
the law does, it shows you all the dirt. Shows you how dirty you are,
and then the law, then it comes apart from that law. We got to
have righteousness, oh my, oh my. In order to be cleansed,
we gotta go someplace else. And oh, my, look at this now,
here again in verse 21. I tell you, I don't know if I'm,
I was looking at this today, I said, I hope I can get through
the whole thing, but I don't know. Being witnessed without,
apart from the law, but is witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Now, what does that mean? That means that you can go to
the Old Testament, You can go through the law, go to five books
of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, you can go through
all the prophets, and you can find that they all witnessed
of Jesus Christ coming and the righteousness that God would
provide. All down through time. You know,
the first time that you have righteousness mentioned, you
know where it's mentioned at? Abraham believed God. God said,
you're righteous. That s all the way it was made
righteous, God made Him righteous. And oh, you know, God clothed
Adam and Eve, that witnessed, that witnessed the righteousness
of God. God s righteous to clothe them. And oh my, look in Isaiah, keep
Romans, and look in Isaiah 53. You know, He s called Jehovah
Sekidnu, the Lord our righteousness. That s where Jeremiah witnessed
to it. But Jeremiah witnessed to it. Look in Isaiah 53 and
verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. And listen
to this now, he shall see the travail of his soul and shall
be satisfied and by his knowledge, my righteous servant. Listen
to this now, my righteous servant, that's a witness to the Christ
and this righteousness of God. What's he gonna do by this righteousness? Justify many, how come? Because he gonna bear their iniquities.
That's the only way they can be righteous. Huh? Oh my. Witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Our Lord told the Jews one time,
He said, if you'd believe Moses, and they said, we have Moses,
we believe Moses. If you believe Moses, if you
believe what Moses had to say, you'd believe me. You know why?
Moses wrote about me. Moses wrote about me. My gospel
was no afterthought no afterthought. Oh It was foreshadowed and foretold
foretold and you know that Moses Representing the law Moses didn't
get to go into the promised land He got to get up go up there
and look at it. That's all the law can do you show you what?
out here, you know what you can't get and Moses didn't get to go
into the promised land. You know why I because that showed
us that the law cannot take you out of bondage and bring you
into freedom. It's bondage, and that's why
he didn't get to go over. The law can't take you nowhere,
but to hell, and oh, my, and oh, listen, I've got to go on,
and I'll tell you what time it is. But look what he says now. Down here in verse 22. This is
how you get this righteousness of God. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no difference. How in the
world do we get this righteousness? Through faith. Through faith. Men receive it by faith. And
I tell you, receive it as a gift. It doesn't come as somebody awards
it to you, or reward for your works done, or worth, or person.
And I'll tell you, now listen to what I'm gonna say here. If
you don't get anything else, what I'm gonna say, get this
right here. There is no merit, there is no virtue in faith. You know where faith finds its
value? Faith gets its value in what
it's looking at. You know, if a person's looking
at their faith, then they'll never be satisfied with their
faith. If they're looking at what they're doing, they'll never
be satisfied with what they're doing. But if your faith has
Christ and His righteousness as your object, then your faith,
the virtue that it finds and the worth it finds ONLY is in
what it's looking at. Faith has nothing for anybody
apart from looking at the Lord Jesus Christ and the righteousness
He provided. Oh, my. Oh, that's why Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. Boy, that sounds good, don't
it? I'm glad to hear that. Oh, that sounds good. That sounds
better than I knew. Oh, that sounds good. Oh, ain't
you glad to hear that? But oh, my. But there's no merit,
no virtue in faith. It finds all its value in its
object, the one whom we believe. I know whom I have believed.
Faith is acceptance of God's truth. It's reliance upon God,
reliance upon Christ, dependence upon Christ, confidence only
in Christ, as opposed to self-effort, self-reliance and self-confidence. And who gets this righteousness?
Where does it come from? It says there in verse 22, upon
all, unto all and upon all, them that believe. Everybody, I mean
unto all and upon all that believe. I think the all here is the same
person. I think the all here is the same person. And all mine,
you know why? You know why it's upon all them
that believe, and upon all them that believe? You know why it's
that way? Because there's no difference.
There's no difference in men. I've said it all now many times,
you can't turn your hand for the difference in men. You can't
do it. And oh, there's no difference.
And that's why, no difference what? What are you talking about?
Well, there's no difference in how God justifies a man by faith. And there's no difference in
men for all have sinned. All have come short of the glory
of God. Everybody sinned. The standard
God set up, and oh my, and I tell you what, what time, let me give you just another thing
or two, and I won't be long. and then all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. But now watch this, how God bestows
this righteousness. God personally bestows it upon
man. Look what he says, being justified,
being justified. That's an act that God himself
does, and he does it in the courts of heaven. He does it up there,
and you know what it is? It's a declaration that God Almighty
says, I declare that man righteous, I justify that man. It s not
a human attainment justified to declare or pronounce righteous,
to REGARD as righteous. As though the sinner, you know,
said all of sin, but God says, Here, I m going to justify you. I m going to clear you. Though
you sin, I m going to justify you. Oh, and when God justifies
a man, let me tell you The removal, when God justifies,
He removes the guilt as well as the condemnation that we feel.
When you re justified, God takes away the guilt and the condemnation.
You know, a president can pardon people, but he can t clear the
record. You know, their crime, whatever,
I'm gonna pardon them and let them out of jail. You know, a
king can do that, but he cannot clear the record. God can pardon
us and clear the record. As if nothing ever happened. Wipe the slate clean. Oh my, God deals with both in
our past, in our future. Oh, my. And then look at the
CAUSE of this here, being justified. Look what it says, by His grace. By grace, justified by grace. That sure enough means that you
ain't got nothing to do with it. Oh, my. And then not only by His grace,
but look what it says, Justified freely, freely. Here it is, I'm giving it to
you. What I got to do to get it? Nothing,
I'm giving it to you. And you know he gives it to those
that he also gives the faith to believe. And oh my, being
justified through, and then look how it's accomplished. Verse
24, through the redemption, through the payment price, through the
blood that's in Christ Jesus. Oh, God's righteousness has been
wrought out by the means of Christ dying, Christ's blood being shed.
Oh, the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, the redeeming word of
infinite merit, but it's free to us, free to us. That means
deliverance by price paid. by a price paid. Look in verse 25. And when he talks about through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, then he says how this
redemption was, God set him forth. God set him forth, foreordained
him to be this justification to be given to us freely by his
grace through his, God set him out to do this. And that word
ordained him to do it, to be a pitiation through his blood.
A propitiation is a sacrifice that takes away the anger that
someone has to somebody else. And Christ was God's propitiation
and God removed His anger through the blood of Christ, removed
His anger and His reason for anger because He set forth Christ,
set Him forth on the cross, set Him forth in His birth, set Him
forth in every way He could be set forth. And God done this,
set Him forth through faith in His blood, God's declaring declaring
when he set forth Christ, declaring when Christ died, declaring through
faith in his blood. I'm a righteous God, I'm righteous. And not only am I righteous,
I'm righteous to take care of the sins of all the Old Testament
saints. The blood of bulls and goats
never put away one sin. No sin was put away until Christ
put them all away. And how come they put away then?
God forbade them. put up with them until Christ
came. Christ came. And oh my, God said,
I'm gonna show you how righteous I am. I'm so righteous that I
never let anybody get by with sin, from Abel, Abraham, and
all of them. I didn't let anybody. Oh my. Oh, you're talking about God's
glory. Enables Him now to act mercifully and gracious towards
people. And all His grace provided us
a propitiation. And then this propitiation through
faith in His blood. Oh, His blood actually, actually
redeems sinners, because it is the blood of God's Son. And it's
an effectual gift that makes men righteous by the blood of
Christ who died at Calvary. Oh, His life, life's blood was
laid down and then God's declaration. Oh, I love this! This is it right
here, and again He says to DECLARE, DECLARE. God says, I DECLARE
at this time I'm showing you My righteousness, and I'm going
to show you how I can be just, the righteousness of God without
the law, apart from the law. justified freely by His grace
through Christ, through faith in His blood, whom God set forth.
God is righteous, and He's just. He could be just now, because
He had a propitiation. He had His Son to die, shed His
blood. And God says, and I can be just
now, and I'll justify that man who believes on my Son. Huh? Oh, my. Oh, ain't you grateful, grateful,
grateful? Oh, God's never been indifferent
to sin. Never has. I hope I made some
sense out of that tonight. I certainly hope so. I certainly
hope so. I tell you, if you ever find
out, I never forget. I need to quit, but I remember
Years and years and years and years ago, when we was over in
that little old building over there, and remember we built
a wall up on one side because it was so hard to heat, and we
built us a little room, and you know, we had three or four pews
in there, just a handful of us, but I remember coming and started
preaching how in the world, this just astounded me, how could
God be just just and justify a bunch of sinners like us. And
I preached on that for two solid years, just over and over. I didn't know what else to say.
And I remember everybody when they learned that, oh, how could
God have any dealings with me, the sinner that I am? How sorry
I am. All the things I've done, how
could he have any pot dealings with me? It stayed just. Only one way, through the shedding
of his son's blood, God said, I'm righteous, now I'll justify
you. You believe my son, you're a
justified man. Who's he that condemneth? It's God that justified
him. Our Father, in the blessed name
of your Son, the Lord Jesus, thank you for allowing us to
be here tonight. Thank you for allowing us to,
once again, preach our Lord Jesus and his righteousness, his righteousness. And, oh, it's been revealed to
us. It's been manifest to us. It's been made known, made known
to us. And we're so free, so free because
of your grace, because of your son's blood shedding. And, oh,
God, thank you for this justification we have through our Lord Jesus
Christ. God bless these dear saints as
they go their way. I'm thankful that they are willing
to come after working all day and being out and dealing with
the world and willing to come in here and sit and listen to
the gospel. Listen to one man, tell another
man how we all become righteous. Lord, I thank you for them. Pray
your blessings upon them for Christ's sake. Amen and amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. See you Sunday, God willing. I'll do what you're going to
do.