Well, it's a delight to be with
you again this morning, and for those of you that have been following
right along, we're taking a look at the history of redemption,
his story of redemption. We started on Monday looking
at the story of redemption of Christ from the perspective of
eternity and God's purpose to save sinners through the one
exclusive sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yesterday,
we considered how this was unfolded from creation to the cross. We
weren't able to touch on every case in the Old Testament. That would have taken a lifetime.
But we did go over a few examples of men that the Lord was pleased
to save in the Old Testament. But we saw that their salvation,
their redemption, was exactly the same as ours. still the one
exclusive sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. So today we're
going to take a look at the story of redemption at the cross and
talk about what really happened at the cross. If we're confused
here, it's the greatest delusion that you could ever imagine,
and sadly there is much confusion. A lot of people talk about Christ
dying, but what happened? Who is he? What did he accomplish
through his death at the cross? I can't think of a more vital
subject than what we have before us today. Now, I believe that
when the Bible speaks of the death of Christ, that we see
there a one-time, once-for-all, exclusive justification. of every sinner for whom Christ
died. A couple of years ago, I became
concerned with what some of you may have heard and what I was
hearing talking about a fourfold justification. And as I went
back to look at the scriptures, I began to see that that's a
confusion of terms. Now, when we talk about a fourfold
justification, what What some men mean by that is that, well,
we were justified in eternity, and then, as they say, we were
justified at the cross, and then we're justified again when we
believe, and then we're justified by works. And you can find different
scripture references that seem to imply that that's so, but
you and I know that, just like anything, Someone can quote you
John 3.16 and tell you, see, it says that God loves every
sinner in the world just because it says God so loved the world.
And if you just deal with men's interpretations, you're going
to come away with a very confusing view of salvation. We already looked at, on Monday,
what some use as a reference to defend justification in eternity. Remember, we looked at Romans
chapter 8, because it says, Whom he predestined, then he also
called, and whom he called, then he also justified, and whom he
justified, then he also glorified. And they say, see, it's speaking
as if it was done even before it was done. But remember, we
went down through that and looked at it. There's an order. Whom
he predestined, that certainly was what was done in eternity,
then he also called, And we saw that that word called is different
than the one up in Romans 8, 28, where it says that speaks
of those that are decalled according to his purpose. That word means
those that are summoned in regeneration. How do we know that we're objects
of God's love? How do we know that Christ died
for us? How do we know that he purposed
to save us when he calls us? There's that calling by his spirit. But that didn't take place in
eternity, you see. So, when you come down to Romans
8 and verse 30, where it says, Whom he predestined, them he
also called, we go back to the original, you find out that word
means named. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. And so, it makes
sense. Those he predestined, he named.
There is a name of every one that God has purposed to save
already. written in the Lamb's Book of
Life. You know that old song, there's a new name written down
in heaven, and it's mine, oh yes, it's mine. I mean, you can't
sing that. This thing, this was, I was,
if I'm the Lord's, I was named in that Lamb's Book of Life from
eternity past. But just my name in his book
does not mean that I was justified back there. Whom he named, he
justified. How? Well, look in Romans, chapter
5. Romans, chapter 5. And we're going to be looking at
another one of these where people say, well, the scriptures say
justified by faith. So there you go. Well, what does
that mean? Does it mean I'm justified by
my believing? Is that what justifies me? One
scripture is not going to contradict another. And I believe here is
a rock solid scripture on which you need to just put your anchor
down in this matter of justification before God. And it's right here
in Romans chapter 5. And verse 9. You know, it says
in verse 8, but God commended his love toward us and that while
we were yet sinners. Now you stop and think about
it a bit. If I was justified back there in eternity. And those
that preach that are saying that God has never, ever seen any
one of those that are in Christ as a sinner. But here was the
scripture say, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. If this thing of my justification
could have been settled back there by decree, Christ died
in vain. Christ died in vain. I know we're
talking about eternal matters, but I've got to deal with what's
revealed right here in this book. And I'm reading what God says.
And God says that while we were yet sinners, I fell in Adam. Although my name was written
in that Lamb's Book of Life in God's purpose, I fell in Adam
just like any reprobate. And until Christ came and actually
put away my sins, As far as God is concerned, I was an unjustified
sinner because his law had not yet been satisfied. Now, you
can argue all you want to about that. Well, how does that make
God change? People say, well, that makes
God change. Did Christ have an eternal body? A body thou hast
prepared for me. Now, there's things about this
that I don't even dare delve into. But what I've got to do
is deal with scriptural terms. And whenever we get away from
scriptural terms, we get in trouble. We get in trouble. We've got
to come back and just just state it like the Bible states it and
move on. Move on. That's what I'm doing
this morning. I'm stating it just like it is
here. And look at it in verse nine. It says we were while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now, I wasn't there when
he died, but that's talking about being an Adam. How did I become
a sinner? Well, I was a sinner in Adam. When he fell, I fell. And that makes this message of
justification just so glorious, because if I fell an Adam, that
means that my salvation depends on another, which the scriptures
call not the second Adam. Sometimes that slips out. He's
the last Adam. I like that term, the last Adam. There's not going
to be another one coming along. The last Adam, what did he do? When he died, I died. When he
rose again, I rose again. And that's why it says here in
verse 9, much more than being now. You suppose the Spirit of
God just slipped that in there just as a pause or a breather?
No. Being now justified. what had now taken place when
Paul wrote this to the Romans that had not been, to that point,
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation. On what ground? Well, the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the change. That's what
the now is all about. OK? And the rest of the verse
explains it. Therefore, much more than being
now now justified by his blood. I pointed out to you yesterday,
people again quote that verse in Revelation 13.8. They say,
well, he's the Lamb slain before the foundational world. That's
not what the verse says. It says from or since the foundational
world. That book was there before the
foundational world, but he was slain since the foundational
world. There's a difference. There's
a difference. And it says, We shall be saved from wrath through
him for if when we were enemies. Now, you can't stop and figure
that out. If I was justified back there in eternity, how could
I be described as an enemy? But when we when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. So you
can see this reconciliation here is not talking about Me in my
spirit being reconciled to him is talking about God himself
being reconciled through the death of his son with that people
that he chose. I wasn't even around then. So this reconciliation took place
outside myself. And it says much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life, by his resurrection, by his intercession,
by his ascension on high. Well, he sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high. And it says here, not only so,
but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement. Now, I don't know why the translator,
this is the only place in all of the New Testament where the
word atonement is found. Have you ever noticed that? Go
back and take your concordance and look at it. The word, actually,
that they translate here, atonement, is the same word that's used
above there in verse 10, reconciliation. So that's the atonement. The word atonement means a covering.
You can go back in the original and look at it. It means a covering.
All those animal sacrifices of the Old Testament, they couldn't
take away sin. They were covering until Christ
should come. But Christ's death was not a
covering. My sins are not covered. They're
taken away. We've seen that in that course.
They're all taken away, away. They're all taken away. When
were they put away? When I believe? No, when he died. When he died. And that's why
it says, now, therefore, now we have now received that reconciliation. All right. And then it goes on
to explain the two heads there in verses 12 through 21. That's
not going to be my text today, because I want to back up from
here to Romans chapter 3 in just a little bit. So if you want
to turn there, that's fine. We're going to start back here
in Romans 3 and verse 19 in just one second, because I want to
deal with another one of these that we're going to see here
where people say, yes, but the Scripture says we're justified
by faith, and that's often And when you ask them, what do you
mean by that? You mean we're justified by believing? And until
we believe, we're still under the wrath of God? Well, that
does everything. That does away with everything
we just read in Romans chapter 5. If when we were enemies, we
were what? Reconciled. How? By His death. There was a reconciliation that
took place long before I believed. In fact, if the Lord by His Spirit
causes you to believe, and look to Christ alone as your only
righteousness. It was because that reconciliation
was already done, and what he's done is by his spirit now, apology
to himself. That's the good news of the gospel.
So we'll look at that here in a little bit, but hold your finger
here in Romans chapter three. Let me just have you look at
one other scripture reference, because what I'm telling you,
I've got a friend, dear lady in the Lord, lover to death.
She was in confusion for years on this. And one day when I was
preaching, she came up after the word and she said, you have
given me more light. I thought I didn't give you the
light. The spirit did. That's what I desired. In fact,
she told me, when you go up there to preach, you're going to preach
this. And she said, I hope you do. She said, just tell them,
just plainly give them the bottom line of what this matter of justification
is. And so I'm going to do that.
What it means is what we're talking about here. is the once-for-all,
one-time justification of sinners before God through the death
of his Son. Now, if you can just think about
that as we go through the scriptures, I believe the Lord will show
you the truth here. The reason why I say that, over
here in Galatians chapter 3, look at Galatians chapter 3. And verse 21, it says, Is the law then against
the promises of God? Now, let's talk about the promises. You can go back up there and
read further on up. It's talking about God's promise
to Abraham to save him, to redeem him in the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This was something that was going
to take place for Abraham several thousand years later. So that's
why to him it was a gospel of promise. Ours is now a gospel
of fulfillment. It's the same gospel. Like I
told you yesterday, the same focal point. Abraham was just,
he was accorded that faith. That faith was reckoned to him
unto that righteousness that was yet to be established. Ours
is granted, accounted to us under that righteousness. We look back,
but it's the same focal point, you see. And that's what Paul
is writing here to the Galatians because there was some Judaizers
coming through and saying, look, the law is still important. It's
fine to say Christ died, but there's still these circumcisions. They were trying to still go
back there and pull up something that somebody had to do in order
to have that justification of the fourth law. Dear friends,
again, here's the message. We believe in a gospel that conditions
all of salvation on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ
exclusively alone. That's the word that a lot of
people don't like. Alone. All right, and this is
why we say it right here in verse 21. Is the law then against the
promises of God? No, we're not setting aside the
law. Christ fulfilled the law. And
thereby the promise was fulfilled. And that's what he said, for
if there had been a law given which could have given life. Now you stop and think about
the implications of this in terms of even eternal justification.
Let's say it's the law of God's eternal decree. If there had
been a law of eternal decree that could have given life simply
by God decreeing it, you see. should have been by that law
exclusively. But there wasn't. Put faith in
it. If there had been a law of faith,
or of believing, or of free will, put anything in there that you
want to, that could have given life. In other words, I have
life because I believe. God's wrath is removed because
I now believe. then very righteousness should
have been by that law. But what does the Scripture say?
Look at verse 22. The Scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by faith... Now here again, we're
setting this up for what we're about to see. Does it say by
faith in Jesus Christ in your Bible? By faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe. You know, I have to be given
something before I can believe. And faith, I'm going to show
you this right now, and then we'll go back and look at this.
You that are English teachers, you know the difference between
a verb and a noun, don't you? What does a noun describe the
person, place, or thing? A verb describes action. What's
faith? What's a noun? Well, let's talk
about the faith of Jesus Christ. you can put in there the revelation
of Jesus Christ or the gospel of Jesus Christ, because faith
is the substance. See, when it says back there,
Abraham believed God and faith was accounted to him for righteousness,
there was a revelation, there was a teaching, there was a doctrine,
there was a substance with regard to Christ that was revealed to
him that he believed. unto that righteousness that
should yet be revealed and established and imputed, you see. That's
what it's talking about here. You know, the Jew talks about
the faith once delivered unto the saints. Is he talking about
a one-time belief that was delivered unto the saints whereby everybody
believed at the same time? No. The faith once delivered
unto the saints I'll tell you what it is. It's the record that
God has given of His Son. It's concrete. When you doubt
in your soul concerning some of these things, where do you
turn? Right here, this word. What has God revealed to our
souls by His Spirit concerning Christ, His Word? That's what's
revealed here. You stop and think about it when
you're in distress. Where does your mind turn? Back
to the Word. You say, how's that? That's the
Spirit of God remind you of the things of Christ and causing
you to look to him once again. That's why this word so vital.
This is the seed that's sown in the heart. Let's come back
here to Romans chapter three, and I'm going to spend the rest
of my time right here in Romans chapter three, because what I
want you to see with regard to the redemption of sinners is
that you cannot separate redemption and justification. Scripture
doesn't do it. You can't logically do it. If
you were redeemed at the cost, you were justified at the cost. It's just as simple as that.
So let's look at that here together in our text. And I wanted to
start back up in verse 19 just to help us have the context here. OK, now we know And knowing implies
what? Knowledge. It's something revealed. Now, how do we know? Well, the
Spirit of God has taken this word and shown it unto us. We know that what things whoever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. You see, as I read And as the
Lord by His Spirit teaches me, I have to write one thing across
myself, guilty. I'm the guilty one. I stand, if there's not God Himself
justifying me and devising a means whereby He can be just and justify
sinners such as myself, there's no hope. There's no hope. And
it says here, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. Now, let's talk about
the deeds of the law. You know, we talk about being great sinners,
but we're great sinners even in our attempts to obey the law. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, it's talking about man's personal obedience. Now, people
say, well, it's true, Christ had to do his part, but we still
have to do ours. Our part, dear friends, is only
sin. That's all we can contribute
to this thing, is sin. By the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh be justified. That's pretty exclusive, isn't
it? That's just why, for everything else and any attempts of myself
at taking a shot at this, for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. Do you realize the law was never given as a means of salvation? The majority of this religious
world thinks it is. They think that while that law
is still there, we still ought to try to find God's acceptance
by keeping it. It was never given for that.
It was given for the knowledge of sin, for by the law is the
knowledge of sin. But it is like a light. You start
feeling good about yourself, you might have a little bump
on your skin you think nothing of, and you know, in poor light,
you think, oh well, it's okay. And then your wife comes along
and looks at it and says, you know, let's get that thing over
here under the light, and you start getting a little scared.
Uh-oh. What's the light going to show?
All right? And then she looks at it under
that light and she says, I'll tell you what, you better get
a doctor's appointment. And when you go into the doctor's office,
what does he do? He really puts it under the light. What does
all that do? It exposes what's there. And
that's what the law, why God gave the law. It's for the knowledge
of sin. But now, here's what I want you
to see. Verse 21. These are not different
times of justification. It says here, but now the righteousness
of God. Here again, now. When was Paul
writing this to the Romans? After the cross. And we're going
to see this develop. Now, the righteousness of God. Do you know that in Scripture,
the term righteousness of Christ, you won't find. I found that
interesting when I was looking this up. It's always called the
righteousness of God. Why is that? Does that exclude
Christ? No. But when he came and established
it, God accepted it. God owned it as his own on behalf
of that people for whom he established it, and therefore he calls it
the righteousness of God. Well, that's the righteousness
I want. Not one that I'm endeavoring
to work out myself, but that Christ has already done and God
has already owned it and already put it to the account. of those
for whom Christ died. That's what it's talking about
here. The righteousness of God. Now, it says without the law. But keep it in the context. It's
without you keeping the law. That's what it's talking about.
Without you endeavoring to work it out. Is manifested. And look
at here. Being witnessed by the law and
the prophet. This is not something new. This was witnessed by the in
the Old Testament. Abraham was not saved on another
basis than myself. This is what was revealed to
Abraham that Christ should come and accomplish. And it says here,
even the righteousness of God. Now, listen, rich is an italics,
so you can just read it this way. Even the righteousness of
God. Here's where people get confused
again. It doesn't say by faith in Jesus
Christ. by the faith of Jesus Christ. That faith which declares Him
and what He's accomplished. The very gospel that we rejoice
in. That's the righteousness of God
which is unto all. Now this is interesting as well.
It says unto all and upon all them that believe. It doesn't
say, shall be unto all and upon all them that believe, but is
unto all and upon all them that believe. That means if you've
been caused to believe, it was already unto you. It was already
upon you. It was already imputed. That's
why you believed. That's just about as simple as
I know how to go through this. All right? And there is no difference. For all have sinned. Actually,
in the original, that says, for all did sin. It implies a one-time
sinning. Now, when is it that all did
sin at one time in Adam when he fell and come short of the
glory of God? You say, well, where's the remedy
in my believing? Look at verse 24. Being justified
freely when? When I believe? being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Remember, I told you a little earlier you can't separate redemption
and justification. There's no span in Scripture
between my being redeemed and my being justified. Not in Scripture. Men put it there. Men drive the
wedge, but that's where conditions come in. Well, it's when you
believe and you were justified. Well, is it when I believe that
I was redeemed? No. I was redeemed here, therefore
I believed. I was justified, therefore I
believed, because God has done the work. That's what this is
saying, being justified how? Not conditionally. Freely. That means I didn't have a thing
to do with it. It's not based upon my doing. It's not based
upon my merits. It's not even based upon my understanding. Someone tried to throw that at
me. They said, well, this is something that you seem to be
clarifying recently. And so does that mean, then,
that you were lost until this became clear? No. You know, this
took place outside myself. All I know is, you know, it's
like Lazarus. When Christ called him forth
from the grave, he had life, didn't he? but he also had an
awful lot of grave clothes. Those things were still around.
They had to say, take them off of me. And do you realize we
spend our lives learning? I hope you're a student of the
cross. That's what I prayed that God would make me a student of
the cross. I had someone tell me, anybody looking for new lights
of opening darkness, you know what? I'm looking for the light. I want to understand everything
with regard to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
just as it's revealed right here in this word. And that's why
I keep coming back to it. That every thought and imagination
might be in subjection to his obedience, to the obedience of
Christ. That doesn't mean me, my obedience,
but that obedience of Christ, which he established and God
imputed on account of a sinner just like me. Let's be eager
in studying these matters. This isn't something new. This
is just what has always been there, always been revealed.
We just get in a hurry reading the scriptures. And like I said
yesterday, the biggest danger is running to a commentary. Someone
challenged me and said, well, who in history can you point
to that believes like this, where you were justified exclusively
there at the cross? And I hadn't done a lot of studying
and reading. You know, lo and behold, I came across, and if
you've never seen it, read, I'd recommend reading Samuel Richardson.
He wrote a whole treatise on this back in 1646. He was one of the original signers
of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1644. And he wrote
a, it's a 90-page, you can print it off the Internet, but it's
a 90-page document off the Internet. called The Justification by Christ
Alone. Here's a man back there that
the Lord taught this. I've found others. If you go
through and read, it just depends on who you're reading. And that's
where you have to be careful. Let our primary source be this
word, what we have right here. Then let everything else fall
in line with that. So let's read on here. Here we go. So it's through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Now, coming over here to verse
25, again we have to be careful to read what it says because
it says, "...whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation."
Now, some will quickly read and say, well, see there it says
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Well, does propitiation come
through faith? Or does propitiation come through
death? The mercy seat, back there in
the Old Testament, because that's what the word propitiation refers
to, the mercy seat. Did the priest just have to go
in there and stand before that mercy seat and say, OK, I believe
that my sins have been put away, and therefore they're put away,
and turn around and walk back out? What was required? You know, there may have been
times when that The high priest was walking in there and he had
no faith at all. He didn't see what this was all
about. He was just doing his duty. But what was it that brought
God's favor back there in the Old Testament from that mercy?
He said, when I see the blood. Propitiation, dear friends, is
always through blood, not through faith. Not through faith. So that means we need to put
a little comma here. Now again, in the original, there
were no commas. And these editors that you read
in Scripture, sometimes they put commas where you have to
go back and say, well, it'd be better here than here. Here's
an example. We're not undermining Scripture
by doing this. I'm just telling you how the
Word is read. Whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation, tied back in with verse 24, through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. God hath set forth to be a propitiation."
Now, put a comma and then read the rest. Through faith in his
blood to declare. Faith is a declaration, not a
propitiation. So, faith is tied in with the
declaration. Through the faith in his blood. That faith which is by his blood. The substance, faith is a substance. It's the gospel. Through the
gospel of this righteousness, that righteousness to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. Now, I don't know in your Bibles
whether you see that word remission, whether it gives you a little
marginal reading or not, but that's an interesting word as
well. It's actually the word to pass over. It doesn't mean
to put away. It says here through faith in
his blood was declared his righteousness for the passing over of sins
that are passed. What is he talking about? He's
talking about the Old Testament. Their sins have not yet been
put away. And yet that faith in his blood,
that faith to which by which Abraham looked to Christ's death
yet to be accomplished, he could understand how it would be that
God could pass over his sins. He was brought to understand
how God could pass over it, because he looked at the blood of animals
and he understood there's no way in this world that this blood
is taking away my sin, but through the declaration of faith In his
blood, he understood God was passing over his sin and what? Forbearing. You see, through
the forbearance of God. You know what the word forbearance
means? Look it up. It means God withholding
what you rightly deserve. And that's what God was doing
this whole time until his son actually came and made the payment.
He wasn't just looking the other way. All those animal sacrifices
were but types of this one who would come. That's what the faith
declared. And that's what Abraham looked
to that time when it would actually be put away. And here it is again,
verse 26, to declare. Make that important distinction.
That's what faith is. It's the declaration. For Abraham,
it was a declaration of what Christ would accomplish. I stand
here today and declare to you the faith in the blood to tell
you that Christ has already accomplished it. Already accomplished. To declare, I say, at this time,
his righteousness. Somebody might accuse God and
say, well, he's unrighteous in passing over Abraham's sin. He's
unrighteous in passing over David. No. God was looking to that sacrifice
that Christ would accomplish. Therefore, he passed over their
sin. He was forbearing. Paul says to declare, I say,
at this time his righteousness, established and accepted and
imputed there at the cross, that he might be just and the justifier
of him which believes in Jesus. You know, if this is a work yet
to be accomplished, what is there to believe in? Does it mean I've
got to believe? I've just got to keep believing
here and make sure I keep believing? Open? No. Believe is to rest,
isn't it? What do you do? You rest when
the work's finished. You rest when the work's finished. Well,
that's the gospel call. That's the gospel declaration.
The work has been finished. It's finished! You mean when
Christ died, my sin was put away there? I've had people say, yeah,
you know, but when the Lord first began to deal in my heart, I
just, I struggled with myself. That's what it was. You were
wrecking yourself. But when the Spirit pointed you to Christ
and you heard that that work was finished, you rested. You rested. That's what the faith
will do. And it says here, where then
is boasting? It's excluded. It's excluded. You know, people that preach,
if you just believe, then God will say they've got something
to boast of because they believe. There's a condition. You put
a condition out there for somebody and they do it, you've got to
Like a dog, you've got to give him a bone, something, a little
snack. Good doggie. There's room for boasting. But
I'll tell you, in the exclusiveness of the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, no room for boasting. Why? Because it happened outside
my cell. Totally, completely. By what law? Now here's what
I want you to see. So vital here. By what law? Of works? No. Works and only
condemns. But notice here, but by the law
of faith. I want you to underscore that,
because words are important. What's Paul doing here? He's
contrasting a law of works, which is a law of conditions and requirements
that you have to meet in order to be justified, versus the law
of faith. When I was back in school in
science, that just drove me batty, because we had to learn all these
laws. When it was geometry, same thing. All these theorems, these
laws that you could not break. Whenever you had a wrong answer,
the teacher would come back and say, see, here's the law. Go
learn the law. What is the law of faith? Well,
we just read it. We just read it. Righteousness
by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Period. That's the law of faith. All the condition is on him.
That's the law. If you haven't learned that,
go back and learn it. Go back and learn it, because
every other answer you're going to try to get out of that formula
of faith is going to be wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. And that, dear friends, as you
read the scriptures, consider this word faith in its context. Remember I said, faith is a noun.
That's the word of the person, doesn't it? Who's the person?
That's Christ. Has to do with the place. What's
the place? The cross. Has to do with the
thing. I hate to call it a thing, but
what is the thing? Well, it's a substance. It's the revelation
of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was preaching
this out in Texas last year. There's a 90-year-old lady who
came up afterwards and said, You mean to tell me that wherever
I see faith, I can put Christ there? I said, do it. Do it. It's not your believing. That's
not what it is. It's Christ. And that's how I'm
justified by faith. I'm justified according to that
faith that sets him forth. That's what gives me peace, knowing
that he did it. That's revealed. And there I
see my justification. It's revealed by faith. It's
revealed in the content of the gospel. And anybody truly preaching
the gospel, this is what he's going to preach. It says here, is he the God? Oh, I'm sorry, in verse 28 now. And here, again, you English
majors, you're probably teaching a lot on this, but I'm just,
I'm probably getting off more out of my territory so you can
explain this. But I do understand. that in the English grammar,
there is what's called an ellipsis. Well, this is the word of the
day, ellipsis. What is an ellipsis? Well, you've
seen it in contracts before, where at the beginning, it might
state the name of the company, and then it might say heretofore.
Throughout the contract, it will be referred to as such-and-such,
you know, the company or... It doesn't just keep repeating
the name. That's what we have here. Verse 27 is so important
in understanding the meaning of faith for the rest of this
chapter. Because in verse 27, he's already
given the definition. He's talking about the law of
faith. So when it comes down here to verse 28, therefore we
conclude that a man is justified by faith He's not given in a
different sense. Go back to verse 27. He's justified
by this law of faith. What is that law? How God himself
has declared that sinners are justified by the exclusive death
of his Son. That's what it means. It doesn't
mean we're justified by our believing, but we're justified by that law
of faith, because it says, without the deeds, or it says, it goes
on to say, without the deeds law. It's just contrasting law
of works versus law of faith. That's what it is. Does it exclude
believing? No. This is what we believe when
the Spirit of God teaches us the faith of God, that faith
which has to do with His love and righteousness alone.