Now we know that whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law. that
every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty
before God. 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 that law that no flesh is justified by is manifested. Where was it manifested? Witnessed
by the law itself and the prophets. The law meaning God's word. 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. 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 propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness
for the remission, the payment, 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. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law of works? No, but
by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he a
God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing it as one God, which shall
justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith,
do we make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. Christ is all. So good. So good. I want you to look back
with me in Romans chapter 3 and I'm going to get my subject from
verse 27. Get my subject from verse 27. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. I want to talk about boasting
being excluded. Now these scriptures that I read
to you today, most of you, you're very familiar with them. Very
familiar with them. But let's go back here and start
where I started reading in verse 19. We're talking about boasting
being excluded. We already have guilt established. Guilt established. He says, now
we know that whatsoever things the law says, it says to them
that they are under the law. What for? That every mouth, every
mouth may be stopped. And every soul is guilty. Where? Before God. So guilt is
established. That's established plainly right
there. And then you see man's inability.
It's established too. In verse 20, man's inability. It says, Therefore by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. The only
thing the law can do It has no power to save. The only thing
the law can do is reveal sin. To make sin to be known. The
Apostle said it becomes exceeding sinful. And that's what sin becomes. It becomes exceeding sinful. And I tell you what, this inability,
guilt's established, inability's established. No flesh. The law
just, no power to save, just reveals sin. then look here we
got a righteousness there's a righteousness established here and there's
a righteousness that was made known long long long before the
law before the New Testament was ever written and that's what
he says here in verse 21 now the righteousness of God Without
that law, without that law that has the power to say, without
that law that no flesh can be justified, without that law is
manifested. Without the Ten Commandments,
without the ceremonies, without the rituals. How was it witnessed? By the
prophets. By the prophets. And the law itself, by the Word
of God itself. Look in Romans chapter 1, look
what Paul said over here. talking about this righteousness
that's revealed, this righteousness that we have without the law. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God. Now
listen, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the
Holy Scriptures. This is long. I mean, Genesis
dealt with these things. Genesis showed that we had a
righteousness without the law. By the very fact that Abel was
saved by blood. And Cain wasn't saved because
of his works. But look what he said. It is
gospel that he had promised concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord. So we have a righteousness. And
that's the message. That's the message of the Bible.
The message of the scriptures. Well, how in the world we get
this righteousness? Who established this righteousness?
How did this righteousness come? Oh, there in verse 22. Even the very righteousness of
God. How in the world was it established? By the faith of
Jesus Christ. Oh my! Huh? And listen to what
he says. This righteousness of God which
is by faith of Christ is unto all and upon all them that who
believe. Believe. There is no difference between
Jew or Gentile. There is no difference between
male or female. Old or young. That's why Paul
says, you know, I bear witness to Israel that they have a zeal
of God. But it's not according to righteousness.
It's not according to the righteousness revealed in the scriptures. They
go about to establish their own righteousness. They don't bow
down to the righteousness of God. Where is that righteousness
at? In the Lord Jesus Christ. How
did it come? He's the end of it. He's the
fulfillment of it. He's the goal of it. That's why,
and then look what he says in verse 23, now listen to what
he says here. And here's where we all sinned
at. For all have sinned. Where did we sin at? In Adam.
In our father Adam. Everybody sinned in our father
Adam. And all of them come short of
the glory of God. For all have sinned, all are
fallen, all are depraved, all are under the curse. Every single
soul. But look what he says now. But
believers are justified. Being justified. Not guilty. Not guilty. Believers are justified. They're not only justified, they're
justified freely. Freely. How? By grace. Free grace. How? Through Christ's precious blood. His blood being shed. His blood
being the payment price of our justification. And then He comes
and freely gives it to us by His blessed grace through the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ. This righteousness, this justification,
everything's freely by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look down here,
down in verse 25. Excuse me, verse Yeah, verse
25. And they're talking about Christ,
justified in Christ, whom God hath set forth. God set Him forth. And you know, look in the Mark,
it says He's foreordained. foreordained Christ, foreordained
the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? Foreordained Him. Where
at? In a covenant of grace before
the world ever began. Christ was the Lamb slain before
the world ever began. God from the very beginning placed
Him in public view. First He placed Him in public
view in the creation. Placed Him in public view in
all the types that He is in the Old Testament. Abel's lamb, the
Passover lamb, the ark in which Noah got in, everything about
Christ was placed in tithes and shadows. And I tell you what,
God placed him here in public view and revealed him. When He says here He placed him,
foreordained him and revealed him in a public view in a conspicuous
manner. First He did it when He came
into this world when He was born. You know, I, Lord Jesus Christ,
the Scripture says when He was born, that night in Bethlehem,
the angels appeared and they began to sing a song. Glory to
God in the highest! Unto us this day is born in the
city of David. Who? A Savior. Who is He? Christ the Lord. So God set him
forth in his birth. And then when he came of age
and entered into the ministry, when he went to be baptized of
John, God said this, this is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. And the
Holy Spirit come down in the form of a dove. Who you see that
dove coming on? That's him. That's him. That's
him. And I tell you what, his works
set him forth. Oh, he said, Lazarus come forth
and the dead come forth. Can I receive my sight? See. My daughter's laying sick, she's
dying. Boy, listen, send your word only
and she'll be healed. Go, she's alive. It's in His
Word. Oh, God set Him forth. And He
really, really set Him forth on the cross. He set Him forth
there on that cross. Oh, how He set Him forth. Set
Him forth there so for the world to see. For everybody to see. This is what man thanks of God.
This is what man thanks of his Savior. This is what man thanks
of the One who comes and was on that cross. Crucified, crucified. But you know what He thought
of us? Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And I tell you what, when He
has said conspicuously there on that cross, and that blood
all over Him nailed on that cross, He said the last word that He
said was, Toledo, it is finished, it's accomplished, it's done. and he died he gave up the ghost
but I tell you what early one Sunday morning couple women went to the tomb
he wasn't there where is he at? You go tell Peter. Why? He's going to deny me. But you go tell him. I'm going
to go and I'll see him over in Galilee. God, He raised Himself from the
dead. God set Him forth conspicuously
in His resurrection. And all these declare that He's
the true God. Even Jesus Christ whom God sent. And then it says here that He
sent Him. Sent Him through faith in His blood. To be a perpetuation for us through
faith in His blood. A perpetuation means a mercy
seat. And I tell you what, that mercy
seat, that's where they say that. Mercy. Christ is all. Christ
is all. And His blood can cleanse every
stain. For the payment price, the passing
over of sins that are past. Let me tell you something, a
covering, a second of glory. That's what He's talking about
here. And I tell you what, and he says for the remission of
sins that are past. And I tell you not only the sins
that are past, but the sins that are present and the sins that
are yet future. That's what he's talking about.
I tell you what, you know, I know this without a shadow of a doubt.
I know this in my very being. that if God don't save me and
if Christ didn't die for me Christ's blood wasn't shed for me I absolutely
have no hope at all I've got enough sin in this flesh to damn
everybody in this building ten times over so that's why God
sent him forth for me, for you, for blessed sinners through faith
in his blood for sins that are past Thank God my sin in Adam
is gone. My sins of today is gone. And my sins till I draw my last
breath has been taken care of. Through that precious blood. That's how powerful it is. That's
how cleansing it is. And I tell you what, and this
was done. This was done there in verse 26. To declare, it's
a declaration. A declaration of what? Righteousness. Whose righteousness? God's righteousness. God's righteousness. Oh, God
is love. Oh, He indeed is love. But God's love is holy love.
Holy love. It's not just a sentiment that
He has towards poor people. No, no, it's a holy love. God,
everything about God is holy. And God is mercy and merciful. But God is also just. Just. And God is gracious. Oh, thank
God He's gracious. But God is also righteous. And
everything that Christ does, and everything that Christ is,
and everything the Lord Jesus will do, is that God may be just. And then he's a justifier. Of
who? Them that believe. Huh? Oh my. And that's why we ask this question.
Where's boasting then? Where's boasting then? Where's
pride? Where's pride? Huh? Where is there any room
for a spirit full of pride, full of haughtiness? Huh? Oh my, and either a Jew or a
Gentile, where's the reason for his boasting? And it's excluded. Boasting's excluded. It's destroyed. By what law? He asked this question. By works? No, no, no. Works couldn't possibly, possibly
exclude boasting. In fact, that's because of works
is what makes men boast. His works is what makes him boast. Works will not destroy pride,
it feeds pride. Works won't destroy self-righteousness,
it feeds self-righteousness. Works comes along and it promotes
pride, it promotes self-righteousness, it promotes person, people to
stand. It's like that Pharisee. He said,
oh, when he prayed thus with himself, I thank Thee, O Father,
I'm not like this man and that man and that other man. I fast
twice in the week, I pay tithes of everything that I've got.
I don't steal, I don't lie, I don't kill, I don't do anything. I've
kept the law, I'm a good man, I'm a wonderful man. And that's the way people are.
I saw a man the other day and he'd been very sick and I said,
God had mercy on you. He didn't understand the language.
God had mercy on you. You know what he said? No, no,
God saved me. But he didn't understand the
word mercy. God raised him up and had mercy on him. Every one
of us here today can say, God had mercy on me today. And I want him to have mercy
on me the rest of the day and the rest of my life. Oh my. But I tell you, works is
certainly not going to exclude boasting. Oh, it's not going
to do that. But what in the world is going
to destroy boasting then? How are you going to get rid
of this word of boasting and bragging on yourself and trusting
in yourself and looking to yourself and having confidence in your
flesh? How are you going to get rid
of that? How are you going to get rid of that? What law? Faith. The principle of faith. Faith destroys boasting. You know why? Because faith gets
everything from God and acknowledges that everything comes from God. Ain't that right? The only thing
that this flesh can lay claim to is sin and death. And sin works death. But oh my! All in the world faith can do
is receive from God. That's all faith can ever do.
Shirley and I talked about on the way to service this morning.
We have to look outside ourselves. Our salvation has to be done
outside us. Completely and entirely. Every moment of every days of
our life has to be done outside us. Ain't that right? Let me give you four things if
I can. The very nature, the very nature
and essence of faith is to receive, not to give, is to receive. As many as received Him, Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God. Oh my! And as ye have received Christ
Jesus, so walk ye in Him. Our Lord said, Come unto Me.
Come unto Me. All ye that are labored, that
labored, I don't want to labor. I want to rest. And He said, You come to Me and
I'll tell you what I'll do for you. I'll give you rest. I'll
give it to you. That's what faith does. It can
only take what Christ gives. I'll give it to you. You ain't
gonna get it if Christ don't give it to you. You can't rest
in works, but you can sure rest in Christ. Huh? Faith, you know
what it is? It's a beggar who holds out his
hands. A bad priest, a messy joint. mercy beggars or beggars
or something. I saw it the other day. I'll
tell you what. Even the faith that we have,
God even gave us that faith. For by grace are you saved through
faith. It's not of yourselves. What
is it? Why, it's the gift of God. Why
is it the gift of God? Not of works. Why? Because if
it was worse, man would boast. That's why grace is a gift. That's why Paul said it's given
unto you not only to believe on Christ, and that's what it
is. It's given you to believe on Him. And I'll tell you what,
listen to what I'm going to tell you now. Faith. Faith receives. And it can only receive nothing
except that which comes from the hand of free grace. Justified
freely by His grace. You know, I know we talk about
sovereign grace. But I love the term free. A lot
of people use the word grace. But they make a condition on
grace. That's why we love to say free
grace. Free grace, no conditions on
it. God didn't say I'll give it to you if you do such and
such a things. He gives it freely. He said I'm
going to love them freely and I'm going to give them grace
freely. And I tell you faith can receive nothing except that
which is from the hand of free grace. You offer anything to
a person who has faith and has received faith. Here, trade. Trade. Trade your faith. Why? He ain't
got nothing to pay with. He can't trade. He ain't got
nothing to pay with. What is he going to trade with
to get faith? You say, well, listen, I'll give
you a great, great reward. He has nothing to plead to get
a reward. Look what he said over here in
Romans 11. I love these verses right here. Romans 11, 33. Oh, look at this. Look at this. Oh, my. Oh, the depths of the
riches both of the wisdom, wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable
are His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord? Who hath been His counselor?
Who has first given to Him that He has to turn around and pay
Him back? For of Him, through Him, and to Him are all things,
both now and forever. Amen. Oh listen, what can a man
plead who is wretched, poor, miserable, and naked? What can
he plead? What can he plead? And I tell
you, faith Faith, talk about excluding, boasting. Faith will
stand, we're talking about faith excluding, boasting. Faith will
stand before nothing but a throne of grace. Nothing but a throne
of grace. You bring a sinner who has faith
before a throne of holiness, you know why he'll cry out? I'm
undone! I'm cut off! You bring a sinner before a throne
of justice, and he'll cry out, O Lord, if
Thou shouldst mark the neck with His hood, be able to stand. But bring him before a throne
of grace, where righteousness has been established, where God
Christ sits on the right hand of God. where he sits there righteousness
fulfilled justice satisfied and then you know what he'll say
let us come boldly to a throne of grace to obtain mercy and
find help in a time of need bless his name bless his name I tell you faith will never have any praise and
glory and praise itself but He gives all the glory all the praise
and all the honor to God and His blessed Son and Him alone
not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name be glory be
glory oh my Paul said by the grace of God By the grace of
God I am what I am. And he asked this question, who
made you to differ? Who made you to differ? Faith
didn't even make you to differ. God had to give that to you and
made you to differ. Oh my. My, my, my. It's true. It's true. That we
have a righteousness. But it's His. It's true, it's true that we
have forgiveness of sins. But it's by His blessed blood.
And it's true, oh it's so true that
we love the Lord Jesus Christ. But He first loved us. It's true, it's true that we
are an heir of God. We're an heir of God himself. But since Christ is the only
begotten Son of God, He's the heir. And because we are joined
to Him, we are heirs with Him. Oh my. And it's true, it's true
beloved, we have a title to glory. We do, we have a title to glory. But how did we get it? He suffered
the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. To Him be all the glory. To Him
be all the glory. If God has been pleased, if God
has been pleased to bring you and me from Mount Sinai where
that thunder and lightning flash that that law was given takes
us from Mount Sinai and brings us to Mount Calvary oh my what a blessing if God is pleased
to bring you from that law bring you from that law and take you
to that cross where Christ himself bore your sins in his own body. Oh, if God's pleased to do that. If God's pleased to bring you
from your old deeds, oh, thank God for this. If God's been pleased
to bring you from your old deeds of religion, And all it produced
was death. And to bring you from your traditions,
your deeds of religion, to death, to His blessed Son. Oh, thank God. Both things excluded,
I'm telling you. If God is pleased to bring you
out of your righteousness, and to His righteousness, those things excluded. If God is pleased to bring you
from your works and your labors into His rest, those things excluded. We can say like the Apostle did,
what things were gained to me I counted the loss. I counted
what? Dumb. Garbage. Rubbish. That's what I counted. Why? That I may win Christ. That I
may be found in Christ. That I may know Christ. And when you hear men that preach
for 60 and 70 years, 50, 55, 60 years, tell you that they don't want
to miss Christ. I said with them, I don't want
to miss Christ. Let me miss anything in this
world, but don't let me, oh God, don't let me miss Christ. I want
to be found in Him. God, when you come looking for
me, when you come looking for me, to take me home, find me
in your Son. Find me in your son. Take me where he is. Where I can rest in him for eternity. And enjoy him like I want to
on this earth. Oh my. Self-righteous souls on
works rely. Boast their moral dignity. But
if I list the song of praise, each note will be grace, free
grace. T'was grace that quickened me
from dead. T'was grace that left my soul
to Jesus led. Grace taught my sinful soul to
pray. T'was grace that kept me to this
day. Grace reconciles to every loss
and sweetens every painful cross. Grace helps my soul when danger
is near. By grace alone I persevere. When from this world my soul
removes to mansions bright of light and love, I'll cast all
my crowns before His throne. and shout free grace, free grace
oh my let me tell you something about the gospel you know every
scripture every scripture and the whole of the gospel we level
our gospel gun if I can say it that way and shooting down self
and exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. Self, kill self, exalt Christ. And I tell you what, the gospel
and the whole of it and every scripture is given and we preach
to bring the sinner outside of himself where he can glory in
Christ, in Christ alone. I tell you the gospel is aimed
at breaking off the confidence of this flesh and bringing men
to feet of Christ, Christ alone. And who wouldn't want to be there?
Have you ever found a safer place to be? Is there a safer place
in this world than to be in Christ? Everybody's scared to death of
this virus. I'll tell you who I fear more than anybody else.
It's God. I fear not trusting God. I fear
not looking to God. I fear not looking to Christ. Oh my, and I tell you what, this
covenant, this covenant I'm talking about, that we talked about that
excludes boasting, were God's righteousness revealed. Christ
was set forth in that covenant. This everlasting covenant, it's
a covenant of grace. Has to be of grace. It's not
of our making, we didn't have anything to do with it. It's God's doing. That's why
He said, I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will
be merciful to whom I'll be merciful. God said, this is the covenant
that I'm going to make with them after those days. What days? The days of the law. The days
of looking to Christ in the future. I'm going to write my law on
their hearts and you know what else I'm going to do? I'm not
going to remember their sins and iniquities anymore. I'm not going to remember them.
We remember them sometimes. They became so self-righteous
that one of them said, I thank you that I'm not as other men
are. I'm not as other men are. And that's what they said. And
I'll tell you one of the awfulest things that the human race has
ever done. And we are all guilty of it.
Self-righteousness is the awfulest sin that you can imagine it to
be. Here God sent His blessed Son,
made Him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. And Paul said, if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ died in vain. And to think that
your righteousness That you have a righteousness that should pit
against the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That you
would think yourself righteous enough and good enough and meritorious
enough. Think so highly of yourself that
God would have to look upon you or anybody else because you have
done something righteous or good or acceptable to God without
Christ. That would be like a person standing
in a sewer, standing in a septic tank with his head just above
it and saying, boy, don't I smell good? Don't I look good? Don't
I look wonderful? That's what you are and what
we are outside of Christ. Roll around in something like
that and then jump up and say, boy, I tell you, God's going
to accept me. I smell so good. I've done so much. But I tell
you, that's what, that's what they, God gave these, this blessed
word, gave them a revelation of himself. Instead of making
them fall down and worshiping God. They became self-righteousness. Self-righteous. That's why, you
know, that rich young ruler came to Christ. He said, you know,
what good thing must I do to be saved? And our Lord said,
well, keep the commandments. Oh, I've done that. I've got
no problem with that. But yet thou lackest one thing.
That's all it takes, just one thing. Yet thou lackest one thing. One thing. You lack Christ. If
you lack Him, It will be the awfulest day of
your life when you read this one. And I tell you, when we
look at the Scriptures and study the Scriptures, we have to look
at each passage as a whole. And then its relation to what
comes before it. What comes before when Jesus
therefore knew? When we come to John chapter
4, what came before and what comes after when we deal with
John chapter 4? Then we go into chapter 5. And
so we need to look at each passage as it relates to what precedes
it and what follows. And we'll learn an awful lot
about it. Let me show you what I'm talking about. The contrast
between John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ. In John
chapter 3, we see a series, a whole bunch of contrasts between Nicodemus
and this woman at the well. It says over there in verse 1
of John chapter 3, there was a man of the Pharisees named
Nicodemus. They gave him his name, a man
of the Pharisees. His name was Nicodemus. And here,
you have an unnamed woman, it says, just a certain Samaritan. There cometh a woman of Samaritan.
Don't tell us her name. Just says where she's from. And he was a man of high rank
and position. He called him, our Lord says,
you're a master of Israel. That's what he was. And here's
this woman at the well. She's nobody. She's living in
adultery. She's about as low down as you
can get. Huh? And she came to draw water. Nicodemus
ain't going to draw no water. But she came to draw water. One
was a highly, highly placed and favored Jew. The other a despised
Samaritan. Nicodemus come to seek out Christ. Our Lord Jesus come and seeks
out this woman. Nicodemus came to Christ by night
and every time he's mentioned after that it says he that came
to Jesus by night. He didn't want anybody to see
him. Didn't want anybody to know that he was going to talk to
the Christ. And Nicodemus comes to Christ
by night, and our Lord Jesus Christ comes to deal with this
woman right in the middle of the day. To this self-righteous Pharisee,
you know what he said? You must be born again. You know
what he said to this woman? This Gentile? This Samaritan?
He tells her, if you knew the gift of God. He talks about grace
and gifts. Talks about doing something for
her. So let's go down through these verses and see what the
Lord has to say to us this morning. When therefore the Lord knew,
knew how the Pharisees had heard. Our Lord's public ministry is
very, very early in it. He's just really starting in
his ministries. And the Pharisees were already
starting to oppose our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is when they
knew how the Pharisees had heard. And I'll tell you what, the Pharisees
were starting to oppose him. And you know why? Because our
Lord's teaching and preaching exposed their hypocrisy. Exposed
how wicked they were and how deceitful they were and how hypocritical
they were and they were jealous They call this a movement. They
call this a movement John was baptizing people in John chapter
3 He was baptizing people And here our Lord Jesus comes along
and He said, Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though
Jesus himself baptized not but His disciples. Jesus, our Lord,
never baptized anybody. But His disciples were baptized
and they were coming to Him by the droves. And they were jealous. They were jealous of this new
movement. He's just the son of a carpenter. He's from Nazareth. And how in the world could this
man, this nobody from nowhere, have such a following as this
man has? That's what they're thinking.
Look over here in John 7, verse 52 with me. Look here in John
chapter 7, verse 52. Look what he says. Oh my, this
is what they say about our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what they
said. How could he have such a following?
He's just the son of a carpenter. And then look what they said
about him here in John 7, 52. They answered and said unto him,
Thou also of Galilee, search and look. For out of Galilee,
that's where Christ was from, he went back to Galilee. As there
arises no prophet, he ain't nobody. You look, go through the scriptures
and see if you can find anybody, a prophet that ever come out
of Galilee. And oh, they were upset that they were having more
disciples than John was. And when therefore the Lord knew,
He left Judea. He left Judea. Who told Him that
the Pharisees said? And who told Him what they said?
And they regarded our Lord Jesus Christ with such contempt.