All right, let's go ahead and
turn over in our Gatsby hymn books over to hymn number 18. Hymn number 18. Hymn number 18, Glory and Grace in
the Person of Christ. We are gonna be Continuing in
our study of the doctrines of grace, but we move through the
five points. We concluded on our study on
preservation last week, but there's still some other things that
we need to talk about as far as the doctrine of grace is concerned. And one of that is that salvation
If what we looked at over the last month, few months in this
study is true, according to the scriptures, we believe that to
be true. If that's true, then salvation
has nothing to do with words. has everything to do with grace. And so we're going to be kind
of looking at that for the next couple of weeks. Salvation is
not by works, by grace. We're going to look at the relation
of the law and grace in the believer. And so we'll be looking at those
few things. So I thought we might sing a few hymns that reflect
those truths from the scriptures. And hymn number 18, And let's
sing this. There's a few different tunes
we could sing this to, but I thought we might start off today. I don't
know about you guys, but the doxology just always seems good
to come in and start the day with. So let's sing that to the
tune of the doxology. Hymn number 18. Now to the Lord a noble song
Awake my soul, awake my tongue. Hosanna to the Eternal Name. And all His boundless love proclaim. See where it shines in Jesus'
face. The brightest image of His grace. God in the person of His Son
has all His mightiest works have done. The spacious earth and
spreading flood proclaim the wise and powerful God. And Thy rich glories from afar
Sparkle in every rolling star. But in His looks of glory stands
The noblest labor of Thy hands. The pleasing luster of His eyes
outshines the wonders of the skies. Grace is a sweet, a charming
theme. My thoughts rejoice at Jesus'
name. The angels dwell upon the sound,
ye heavens reflected to the ground. Oh may I live to reach the place
where he unveils his lovely face. where all His beauties do behold,
and sing His name to hearts of gold. Amen. I don't think of anybody better
to sing about than the Lord Jesus. How about we turn further back
in the hymn book to hymn number 74. In number 74, as we've mentioned here before,
the doctrine of election, uh, lays the acts at the root of
free will, but it also lays the acts at the root of boasting. No man can boast before the Lord
whenever we see that the truth of election is how salvation
takes place. Him number 74. We'll sing this
to the tune of Amazing Grace. But few among the carnal wise,
but few of noble race, Obtain the favor of Thy eyes,
Almighty King of Grace. He takes the men of meanest name
for sons and heirs of God. And thus he pours abundant shame
on honorable blood. He calls the fool and makes him
know the mysteries of His grace, to bring aspiring wisdom low,
and all his pride abates. Nature has all its glories lost
when brought before His throne. No flesh shall in His presence
boast but in the Lord alone. Good morning. How are you? Good to see you. Glad you made it safely. If the fan is too much for you
guys down there on the end, we can turn that off. It doesn't
seem to be too hot in here. You all right? So far? All right. If you need to turn
that off, Mark, you're free to turn that off. Anybody? All right. Kind of makes your hair do it. Boy, man, it's hot. That's good. All right, how about we turn
over to hymn number 112. We'll sing that, and if anyone
has a request for a hymn, we'll take that after we sing this
one. Hymn number 112 in the Gatsby
hymn book that is. We'll sing this to the tune of
Just As I Am. No more, my God, I boast no more
of all the duties I've done. Quit the hopes I held before
to trust the merits of thy son. Okay, now we'll sing it to the
tune of Just As I Am. I don't know why I have such
a problem with this, brother. I get these tunes in my head
mixed up because the meters are so close to the same. I sing
these during my, before all y'all get here, I try to sing through
these things and get them in my head. But once I get up here,
then just kind of. Now for the love I bear his name. What was my gain? I count my loss. My former pride I call. my shame and nail, my glory to
His cross. Yes, and I must and will esteem
all things but lust for Jesus' sake. Oh, may my soul be found
In Him and of His righteousness partake. The best obedience of my hands
dares not appear, All right, does anybody have one that you'd
like to sing from one of the other hymn books or this hymn
book? 178? 178? 178 in the old school. I probably
don't know it to this tune. I know it to the tune of Seven
Gospel tune, but it's probably not the same as this.
178. 178. on 78. Sometimes when misgivings
darken the day, and face light I cannot see, I ask my dear Lord
to brighten the way. He whispers sweet things to me. Yes, He He whispers peace to me when
I am cast down in spirit and soul. He whispers sweet peace
to me. I could not go on without Him,
I know. The world would overwhelm my
soul. For I could not see the right
way to go. When temptations over me roll. Yes, He whispers to me. He whispers sweet peace to me. When I am cast down in spirit
and soul, he whispers sweet peace to me. I trust him through faith. I faithful his hand. And sometimes
my faith is weak. And then when I ask him to take
command, it seems that I hear him speak. He whispers sweet peace to me
when I am cast down in spirit and soul. He whispers sweet peace
to me. He speaks in a still, small voice
that I don't know, a voice that dispels all fear. And when I'm
in doubt or trouble in soul, that still small voice I can
hear. Yes, he whispers to me. He whispers, speak peace to me. When I am cast down in spirit
and soul, he whispers, All right, anybody else got one
before we go into our study? I don't know. I don't know. Do
you know what page that is? Mark, there is a home beyond
the reach of toil and care. The home of change has never
come. Who would not then be resting
there? Oh, wait, meekly wait and murmur
not. Oh, wait, meekly wait and murmur
not. Oh, wait, oh, wait. Oh, wait and murmur not. Yet when thou down beneath the
loam, my head no outlying earthly log, look up, thou reach the
celestial dome. Wave neatly, wade, and murmur
not. Oh, wade neatly, wade, and murmur
not. Oh, wade neatly, wade, and murmur
not. Oh, wade, oh, wade. Oh, wade, and murmur not. Oh, long, dorning, the sore it
did. Once I have heard, once I have
heard, Lord God, the day of restful love for Thee. Wait meetly, wait
and murmur not. Oh, wait meetly, wait and murmur
not. Oh, wait. That's your favorite
song, isn't it, Mark? Yeah. That's a good hymn. Alright,
we'll sing a few more hymns here in a little bit. Any brothers
got anything that you'd like to share before we get started
at this point? Anything that rolls right on your heart? Any
comments or quick quotes? Funny jokes? We're trying to hold off the
funny jokes. All right. Well, turn with me this morning
if you would over to Romans chapter three. Romans 3. Romans 3. As I mentioned a few minutes ago, While we've went through the
five points in our study on the doctrine of grace, there's still
more that can be said about this thing called grace. Bible teaches
that we are saved by grace. A lot of the modern theology
of most modern churches today skips right over that word and
goes to the next word, which is faith. We are saved by faith
alone. But that's not what the scriptures
say. We're saved by grace alone. And it's received and experienced
through faith alone. But we are saved by grace alone. And so when we look at the doctrine
of grace, we learn that we are saved only by no other reason,
no other grounds, no other foundation, except by the grace of God alone. And it's not of works. works is excluded works is cast
out works is not even considered and so we'll look these today
and probably some next week about this very thing of salvation
being by grace alone but primarily Contrasting that with the fact
that works cannot play any part in God's salvation. Now I think,
as I mentioned a while ago, I think it's pretty clear that whenever
you believe what the Bible teaches about our depravity or our inability
in our Adamic nature, that there isn't anything that we can offer
up to God that's worth anything. nor is there any desire in us
to seek after God, to love God, to obey God. We do not possess
the faith of Christ until we have been born from above. So
we have no faith that actually reaches and trust in Christ alone
for salvation. So when you believe what the
Bible teaches about depravity, Then you'll understand that salvation
can't be based upon anything that you do. Whenever you know
that the Bible teaches that God elects his people to salvation.
uh... that he elects them unconditionally
as we spent several weeks looking at election that it's unconditional
is not based upon any foreseen faith is not based upon any righteousness
upon any works upon anything that we do whenever you see them
the bible teaches that we are elected before the foundation
of the world then the notion of doing anything for or to get
salvation needs to be thrown out the window. We can see that
it is not by anything that we do no works. If you believe and
see that the scriptures teach that the atonement is in a particular
atonement was designed for a particular people and it effected a particular
people, then you will throw out any notion that salvation is
by works because then the blood of Jesus Christ is irrelevant.
When you see that the atonement is the basis for God's acceptance
of His people who sin because of their sin nature, but yet
are accounted as righteous because of Christ and their union with
Christ, then there is no room for salvation by works. And then
whenever you learn, as we have a few weeks ago, that grace is
irresistible, We learn that thy people will be willing in the
day of thy power, that grace is something that we can't earn
and we can't ask for, we can't seek after, that it's only whenever
God bestows that grace upon us in changing that heart, taking
out the heart of stone, putting in the heart of flesh, whenever
he Bores us from above whenever we become a new creation all
those terms being born again entails being quickened whenever
we Whenever we experience that that isn't something that we
asked for I mean even Jesus told Nicodemus the wind blows where
it listed You know, you can't ask for that. He didn't he didn't
tell Nicodemus. Let me tell you how to get born
again He just said you must be born again And that's not something
that we can do. We have no more power over the
new birth as we did over our first birth. Okay? We didn't
ask to be born. We didn't ask to be conceived
and born. That was out of our hands, out
of our control. And so we don't have any play
in that. So if you believe about irresistible
grace that the Bible teaches about that, we have to throw
out the notion of salvation by works. And then these last few
weeks, we've been looking at preservation. If you see that
salvation is of God, not just the initial part of it, not just
the legal aspect of it, but even the continual, ongoing, practical,
experiential part of salvation in our walk, our daily lives,
our being conformed to the image of Christ, our growing in the
grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. You see that it is He
who is preserving us. It's not our works that's keeping
us saved. It's not our works that's continuing
to keep us right before Him. You know, I hear people say all
the time, you know, you know, you're just not right with God.
You need to get right with God. walk right with God and you need
to get back in good standing with Him. Well, brethren, the
Bible teaches that we're always in good standing with Him despite
our sin. Now, that's not saying go sin,
go sin, okay? That's people who are going to
claim that we believe just sin that grace may abound. That's
not what we believe. We believe that God is constraining
our sin or giving us over to our sin, that He controls all
that. But we also believe that our mind is this. We want to
always do what God wants us to do. And so we admonish each other
to do right. We admonish each other to do
right. But that doesn't mean that those actions are keeping
us in a right standing with God. Our right standing on God is
predicated always, always, always upon Christ and Him alone. Nothing
that I can do can make me more right with God or less right
with God. Because my rightness with God
is not based upon what I do in this flesh. My rightness with
God is based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ alone. How
can a man be just with God is what Job asked. The only way
that a man can be just before God is have the imputed righteousness
of Jesus Christ applied to their account, accounted to them. That's the
only way that we can be right before God. That's out of our
hands. We don't do anything to do the
imputation. To get it, and we can't make
it go away. If God imputes it, that's why
we see in that verse, you know, who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God who justifies. It is Christ who died. That's what brought the imputation
and caused the basis of imputation. God could impute Christ's righteousness
to us because Christ would come, He would live in obedience to
the Father, He would fulfill the law of God for us, and then
He would die the death that we deserve because of our sinfulness
in the flesh. And so he purchased that for
us, and that way God could impute that righteousness. And so our
lives, as we live, being preserved by God, it doesn't make us any
more right. So our works doesn't have anything
to do with our continuing in salvation. A lot of the primitive
Baptists, they want to teach this time salvation that it has
nothing to do with predestination. and God's sovereignty and things
like that. And I don't want to misrepresent
them. I don't know how they feel about
that as far as the sovereignty. But I know that they teach that
our walk and our obedience here is not predestinated. Only eternal
election was predestinated. But we have to obey in time for
this sanctification or for this keeping and not being apostate,
okay? And so we learned the last few
weeks that we're preserved by the sovereignty of God as well.
We're kept by Him. So if you believe that, then
salvation by works has to be thrown out. So the five points
in the doctrines of grace exclude any boasting, exclude any kinds
of works for salvation. So we want to look and see does
the Bible, you know, because people are going to say, well,
yeah, you're laying these points out, you've gathered a group
of text and a group of subjects together and you're just trying
to prove your theology that come from John Calvin. Well, for one,
most people don't understand history for one. These things
didn't come from John Calvin. Matter of fact, if you want to
talk about the five points of Calvinism, that didn't even come
from John Calvin. That actually came from his detractors
that didn't believe what he believed, and they came up with the five
points of Arminianism, basically to just kind of paraphrase the
history, but they came up with five points. They disagreed with
what John Calvin taught in the remonstrance, and then that in
turn was answered by the five points of Calvinism, or what
come to be known as the five points of Calvinism. Now we don't
believe that we're Calvinist here. We don't hold the Calvinistic
teaching. We do hold the sovereign grace.
We hold what the Bible teaches, and this was being taught way
before John Calvin was even a speck in somebody's eye. This was taught
by Jesus, taught by Paul, taught by Isaiah, taught by Ezekiel,
taught by all the prophets. The doctrines of grace is as
old as Adam. Matter of fact, it was in the
Garden of Eden that we learned the doctrines of grace began.
And so the Bible is thorough in this teaching. It isn't us
just following some five-point system that we like to, you know,
tout. You know, I'm not against, you
know, saying we're five-point this or five-point that. I'm
a preacher. I like to preach in points, and
five points is just as good as three. Anyway, the Bible has
an overall teaching of these things and they are very cohesive. They all work together, fit together
and you see this flow. If your mind has been given by
God to put away our presuppositions and our traditions of man and
let the Bible say what it is and receive what it says, accept
what it says, about who God is, about who we are, and about how
salvation works. And again, only that is given
by God as well. Revelation and illumination of
the Word of God comes by the Holy Spirit of God. And so, unless
He teaches us, we won't know those things. So, But does the
Bible have more than just these five points grouped in little
segments, or does it say more about works and salvation? And
I think it does. As a matter of fact, I think
Paul was in the writings that the Holy Spirit gave for him
to pen. I think that Paul thoroughly, thoroughly, and almost everything
he wrote dealt with salvation by grace alone. In some part
or another, even if it's in a small epistle, somewhere in there,
he holds out the fact that salvation is by grace alone. And so, here
in Romans chapter 3, I want us to look at verses 20 down through
28, and I want to read that and see what the scriptures say about
the law and about works and about salvation. Now, maybe I should
define what I mean by works. Whenever I talk about works,
salvation by works, I'm not talking about going out to the hospital
and visiting the sick. I'm not talking about feeding
the poor. I'm not talking about the widows, although all that can
be included in there. I'm talking about salvation by
works, by thinking we have to keep these laws in all the Old
Testament, that we have to keep these laws, and by keeping these
laws, then God will give us salvation. following all these commands,
we will be saved. The notion that even following
the commands to repent and believe will save us. Okay? I'm going to throw it all in
here. I'm going to throw the whole bag in there, including
the religious New Testament commands of repenting and believing. because
our salvation does not hinge on anything inside or by ourselves. It hinges on an external work
that was done, that was proclaimed before the foundation of the
world, was made manifest later in time as God chose to send
Christ to show forth that in the crucifixion and His death,
burial, and resurrection. He brought that forth in time
to show us the righteousness of Christ. That's what this was
all about, was the righteousness of Christ. And so He brought
that forth for us. That is the ground of our salvation. Everybody before the cross, everybody
after the cross, it was all based upon that work. So before the
foundation of the world, God had declared that the work of
Christ, even though it had not yet been done, declared that
the work of Christ was the grounds in which He would justify all
of His people and to not impute sin to them. And what a glorious
thing that is. Those Old Testament saints, they
didn't get left out because Christ hadn't come yet. The merit of
Christ's work, the merit of His blood, His obedience was laid
to their account even though He had not yet died. And for
all of us that's come after that time, the merit of Jesus Christ
is still. And see, we have these different
dispensations. I don't mean to get off on too
many tangents here, but I kind of want to clear the air about
this works thing. There's a lot of people, and
I grew up being under a teaching system in the Southern Baptist
of a different dispensation that people in the Old Testament were
saved by law keeping. and by the sacrifices. That they
were sacrifices that were there to cover their sins and that
by keeping the law then they would be saved. Okay? And then
here in the New Testament now we're taught that it is our faith
or our acceptance or our receiving of Jesus Christ or believing
in Jesus Christ that makes us saved. So, either way you look
at those different belief systems, it's teaching a salvation by
works. The work of law-keeping and sacrifice
in which, by the way, the Bible says God had no pleasure in the
sacrifice of bulls and goats, okay? Or if it's in faith, and
they say, well, faith's not a work. Faith is a gift of God. Absolutely,
faith is a gift of God, but the Bible does say it is a work.
They said, what must we do to do the works of God? And Jesus
said, this is the work of God that you believe. So believing
on Jesus Christ is a work, but it's not a work that we can do.
It's a work that only He can do. It's a work of Christ in
us. And so yes, faith is a work.
And if you believe that your faith can enact His salvation,
then that's a work on your part, not His part. and that work will
not stand. And we'll see that as we go through.
So no matter what dispensation you want to lay to it, if you
hold the dispensations, it ain't by works. It can't be by works. Romans 3 verse 20, it says, Therefore,
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. Now let's just stop there before
we go any further. That's a declaration of God about
justification. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in His sight. Now, someone may come,
maybe somebody from Larry's past that he was under in the Unitarian
Perfection Movement, may come and say, well, what about those
who keep the law completely? What about those who keep the
law completely? Well, the Bible says, for all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Is that what it says? Now, I'm
going to take God's assessment of everybody over somebody else. Even the greatest scholar of
the world put anybody up you want to put
for a scholar and I'm gonna disagree with that if they say that anybody
can be without breaking the law. This says, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified. So we already know that nobody's
going to be in that category but let's just play pretend today.
Okay? Let's play pretend like a lot
of other churches like to do. They like to play pretend. Even if somebody keeps the deeds
of the law, God is telling us right here, by the deeds of the
law, no man is going to be justified. Meaning that God is not going
to justify anybody on the account of law keeping. So the law was
never designed, never given, never put in place, never revealed,
never manifested, never written on tables of stone for the purpose
of man to keep so that he might be justified. It never was in
God's plan, never was in God's mind, never in God's purpose. It could never have ever, ever
justified one person, ever. ever because God had determined
that by the law no one would be justified. The only way that
one would be justified was by the faith of one man and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way that God
determined that his people would be justified and that is by the
obedience the blood, the righteousness, the obedience, all that, the
work of Jesus Christ alone. That's what our justification
is based on. So anybody that has this notion
that they can keep any kind of laws, Even if it's this, you
know, pagan, secular, quasi-religious viewpoint of, well, when I get
to heaven, I just hope my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds.
You know, God's got this scale up there in heaven and he's putting
all my good deeds on one side and my bad deeds on the other. If you want to know If you want
to know, let's play pretend again, that there is a big scale up
in heaven and God is putting things on one side, that's your
good works. On the other side stands Jesus
Christ and all of his righteousness. So your side has to equal this
side for it to be counted for anything. And I can tell you,
it's not happening. So play pretend all you want
to play pretend, because in reality and in play pretend, it doesn't
work. It's not going to work. In bad theology, it's not going
to work. And in good theology, it teaches
you it never was meant to be. By the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh be justified in His sight. For by the law is
the knowledge of sin." So God told you what the law was not
intended to do, but now He's telling you what the law is intended
to do. The law is intended to give us
the knowledge of our sin. The law is there to show us that
we are incapable of keeping God's law. that we are incapable of
attaining a perfect righteousness. The law was meant to show us
who we are created by nature. Now, for those who have been
coming here for a while and have heard me teach about this and
my thoughts and beliefs and convictions of what the Scripture teaches
about how God created Adam of the earth earthy with the nature
that will sin. His nature didn't change because
he ate some fruit. It was the nature that God created
him with. But the law came in, don't eat
of that tree, to show the nature of Adam that
he was incapable of keeping God's law. That was the purpose of
the law. If it says right here that the
law is for the knowledge of sin, God give Adam the law, don't
eat of this tree, so that he would gain the knowledge of good
and evil. so that he would know I'm not
good, I'm evil. Because I can't keep God's law.
And what happened? He ate and he immediately felt
ashamed. He knew he was naked and evil before God. So, the
law was never designed to make us holy, to make us righteous,
to make us acceptable. It was there to condemn us. It
was there to show us that we are, by nature, children of wrath,
quick to shed blood, evildoers, haters of God, always rejecting
the Holy Spirit, always grieving the Holy Spirit, always doing
these things. That's what the law was intended
to do and did from the Garden of Eden. It did that. And from
that time until Moses and when God gave the law in a fuller
aspect there, it showed men sinned against
God. Job, what did he do? He made sacrifices for his children.
Why? Because he thought in case in
their heart they have sinned against God. Well, how does he
know about sin? There was no law given at that
time. Moses wrote about Job. But obviously, Job was living
before Moses because Moses was given the account of Job whenever
he wrote Job. See, the law is given to us to
give us the knowledge of sin. Let's look at verse 21. But now,
the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed
by the Law and Prophets. So the Law and Prophets, the
Old Testament, taught that there is a righteousness, not by law
keeping, in a Bible that was full of law. The Law and the
Prophets who proclaimed that law all proclaim that while,
yes, there is this law, it is not upon the ground, this is
not the grounds upon which righteousness comes. That's why Jesus told
those religious leaders whenever he was here that they were blind
guides. They were guiding them to Sinai instead of to the other mountain. They were the ones who was drawing
people to keep looking to the law. He said, you search the
scriptures for anything you think that you have eternal life by
keeping them scriptures, by keeping them laws, by doing those things. But he said, those things speak
of me. Those things are talking about me. It's pointing to me
because I'm where life is found. I'm where eternal life is found.
And so whether you look at it from the Old Testament perspective
or the New Testament perspective, either way, you can't go back
and say, well, in the law period, you had to keep the law or you
wouldn't. No, because Jesus, through Paul right here, is saying
that the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.
So there is a righteousness that God gives that is outside of
law keeping. And the law and the prophets
bore witness of that. And now we have this New Testament
that clearly bears witness of that. Even the righteousness of God,
which is, and here it is, I want you to pay close attention to
this phrase, by faith of Jesus Christ. You see, the righteousness
that was without the law is the righteousness that came and was
shown and was manifested to us by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now a lot of people want to turn
that around and say by faith in Jesus Christ. They want to
say that it's manifested by our faith in Jesus Christ, that this
righteousness of God is manifested and some even say received and
accounted But brethren, it says right here that is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. So what does that tell us? That
tells us that the work of Jesus Christ, whenever He came, He
said, I come to do your will, O God. He said, everything that
the Father has given me to do, I've done it. I've kept everything
that you've kept me to do. I've told everything that you've
told me to tell. I've kept every bit of the law.
I've not broken it in any part. No one can lay any accusation
against me. They can find no guile in me.
I've done everything perfectly. I have lived perfectly as man
here. I've done everything. And then
whenever he went to the cross and died, The faith of Jesus
Christ was that God would uphold His promise in the covenant that
if Christ would do all these things that His people, that
He was given, that He loves with an everlasting love, would be
free from any guilt, would be free from any condemnation, would
be free from any wrath. And so He went to the cross. with joy in his heart, despising
the shame of it, but he was glad to go. It pleased the Father to do so,
to bruise him. Why? Because in that bruising
that he would justify many, according to Isaiah 53. And so we see that
it is the righteousness of Jesus Christ and that is manifested
in the faith of Jesus Christ. His righteousness is manifested
in His faith, and that is the faith alone that we are justified
by. The Reformers, many sovereign
grace people, You hear it. You see it. Their slogans. Their
tattoos. Their cups. Their hats. Their shirts. All saying these
five solas. By grace alone. Through faith
alone. In Christ alone. Scripture alone. All these alones. How can you
be alone when all that's there? It's by grace alone that we are
saved. On the work of Christ alone. by his faith alone, and it's
revealed in the scriptures alone, for the glory of God alone. But
see, they want to say salvation by faith. They want to say that
we are saved by grace through faith alone. And they interpret
that to be our faith. They interpret that to be the
time when we believe, then that's when God will justify us. But
right here, God says that He will not justify anybody by works,
by the keeping of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
So there is a difference in what we believe and what even sovereign
grace reform people teach. There's very close similarities
And for the most part, we kind of all agree on sovereign grace. We believe in unconditional election.
We believe in irresistible grace, limited atonement, perseverance,
depravity. We believe all those things.
But whenever it comes down to justification, that's where we
kind of part ways. We are justified by and on the
grounds of the finished work of Christ alone and His faith.
That's what God declared to be the terms Not our faith. See, I've always thought since
I've come to know the doctrines of grace, whenever I first come
into the doctrines of grace, I was gathering to myself all
these writers. And the majority of these writers
come from a Reformed perspective, mostly Presbyterian. But I gathered
all these writers together and I began reading one of the books,
and as a matter of fact, I got it on my bookshelf back there,
is a book on justification by John Piper. And it is a very
thorough and somewhat academic, very hard to read book about
justification and the legal aspect of justification and all this
stuff. And as I read that thing and
went through, of course, I was, you know, a little overwhelmed
by the academics of it all. At the end of the day, all the
academics there in front of me, it came down to the simple thing.
I just don't seem to jive with scripture. I see that the Bible
teaches that it's justification by the faith of Christ, not by
my faith. And so all these hoops and things
that we got to go through to get to our faith, whenever it's
very simple, If you're preaching that God cannot account for us
righteousness until we, in time, believe, that's not saying anything
different than what I used to preach as a Southern Baptist
preacher. If you'll just believe, as soon as you believe, then
God will give you salvation. He wants to give you salvation.
It's already been purchased for you. Christ already died for
you. But if you'll just receive that and believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, then He'll give it to you. Does that sound any
different than, whenever you believe, you'll be justified?
That don't sound any different to me, brother. It don't sound
any different. It just sounds more theological
terms. But it's no different. See, there's
a veneer of truth there, but it's packed with a lie. It still
has that Arminian lie inside of it. But when we look to the
Scriptures, we find that it's by grace alone and not by our
works. Even the faith is not of ourselves
and is not what's being accounted. Do we have faith? Are we given
faith? Absolutely. And we're given that faith that
Christ shown to the Father in fulfilling all that He did, that
God accounted as righteousness, That faith is given to us. That's what's imparted to us
in the new birth. And it's by that faith that we
live by. It's by that faith that we walk
in. It's by that faith that we trust in Him alone. Yes, that
faith is given to us, but it's not when we exert that faith
that God says, okay, now I can count you justified. Well, wait
a minute, I thought it was based upon what Christ did. If it's
based upon what Christ did, why is it even relevant about when
and how and where I do this? Especially if it was back then. And wait a minute, what about
all those people before the cross? Christ hadn't even done it yet,
but yet it was accounted to them. How can it be accounted to them
if Christ hadn't yet done it? They said, oh, well, they were
trusting and believing about Christ. Well, I know that they
believed the gospel. I knew they were preached the
gospel. Maybe it's not in its fullness like we know it, but
they knew the gospel. But yet again, If you go and
look at Abraham, as a matter of fact, turn with me, keep your
finger there in Romans, we'll turn back, because I want to
show something in Genesis chapter 15, because this is where kind
of the cart goes off track with a lot of these folks. And Paul quotes this later in
Romans, and we have to have, go back to where he's quoting
from to get the gist of it. But in Genesis chapter 15, Start at verse 1, it says, After
these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision,
saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. Now, that's the beginning of
the thought, okay? The Word of the Lord came to
Abraham in a vision." And if you notice that word, Lord, there
is all in capitals. Okay? It's talking about Christ
there. Okay? The Word of the Lord came
unto Abram in a vision saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield. You know that the word propitiation
also has a connotation of a shield? Deflecting, covering, I am thy
shield and thy exceeding great reward. So that's the thought
he starts with. And Abraham said, Lord God, what
wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of
my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abraham said, Behold, to
me Thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine
heir. And behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he..."
He, not they. He that shall come forth out
of thine bow shall be thine heir. and he brought him forth abroad
and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be
able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall
thy seed be. Now he's talking about one person. He's not talking about many people.
He's talking about one person. But this one person is going
to be as great and as vast as the many stars that he sees.
Look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to
number them. And he said unto them, So shall
thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord,
and he counted it to him for righteousness." Now, the word
it there, he counted it to him for righteousness. The reformed
men, and I would even say some of the non-reformed men, Sovereign
Grace Baptists, kind of like us, a lot of men think that that
it refers back to believed, the verb believed. He accounted,
or that he counted it the believing. to Him for righteousness. But
the it goes back to the subject right before in the verse right
above that, which is the seed. Abraham and he, Abraham, believed
in the Lord and he, Abraham, counted it, the seed, to Him
for righteousness. So it isn't that God accounted
Abraham's believing for righteousness. It was Abraham accounted the
seed for his righteousness. And so with that is how we should
look when we go back into Romans at the connotation and the usage
and the context in which Paul is speaking. when he talks about
faith. When he talks about the faith
of Christ. And so back in Romans 3, he says, "...but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
prophets, 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." Now, while this is true of every man,
the context of the Scripture right here is those that believe.
So Paul is teaching that those who believe, that there's no
difference, that even the believers, those who have been given the
faith of Christ, have all sinned, and they fall short of the glory
of God. They are not going to go back to that pretend scale.
Jesus is in the other side. all their works is never going
to attain to the glory that is Jesus Christ. Okay? For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely, not by your faith, what does it say? Being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ.
See, Christ's redemption, His redemptive work, His finished
work, is the basis upon which the free grace is given in justifying
you. Again, it's not pointing to our
faith, it's pointing to grace. That's why I say it's salvation
by grace alone, not salvation by faith alone. It's salvation
by grace alone. through the redemption of Jesus
Christ. For all have sinned, come short
of the glory of God." So that means no one among us has attained
to this because of their works. All of us have sinned. So if
we're a child of grace, we didn't get here by law keeping because
every one of us was disqualified because we sinned. No law-keeping
anyway was going to justify us. But he says, "...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 set forth to be a propitiation..." Wait a
minute, there's that word there. It means a shield. Didn't he
tell Abraham, I will be thy shield? "...to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission
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." So again, it isn't
a condition here. He's not the just and the justifier
if you'll believe in Jesus. No, it's the grounds upon which
God is not unrighteous. The reason that God is not unrighteous
is because justification was based upon Christ alone and His
work and that is what allowed God, and I don't like the term
allowed God, but that's the basis that God declared and purposed. to be why he can justify. See, if God would justify a sinner,
that's unrighteousness. Unless there was something of
equal and greater value that God would deem in His justice
to say that is equal to this. The crime and the payment for
crime has to be commensurate. So to justify this person, this
has to be done and it has to be commensurate with each other.
And in God's justice, He deemed the redemption, the work of Jesus
Christ to be commensurate with letting this sinner go free.
And so that's how God is not only just, but He's also the
justifier of those who believe in Jesus. Not if they believe
in Jesus. Those who believe in Him, that's
a category of people. He's not the justifier of the unbelievers. He's not the justifier of those
who are reprobate who will never come to be given faith in Jesus
Christ. whom God has sent forth to be
a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His
righteousness for the remission of sins that have passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He might be the just and the justifier of him which believe
in Jesus." Where is boasting then? See, that's the conclusion
that Paul is bringing to our mind here. If that's all true,
then where is the boasting? He says it's excluded. There
is no boasting that can be done here. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law
of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." And everybody
wants to pull that verse out of its context when we've just
seen that the context that the faith that Paul's talking about
is Christ's faith. He's not talking about our faith.
So we have all these people running around saying, therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by faith alone without the deeds of the
law. Now he's justified by the faith and in its context is the
faith of Christ. So if you want to say therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by the faith of Christ alone
without the deeds of the law, that would fit the context. But
if he says by your faith, that's not the context. So what's our little ditty that
we always say, context, context, context? Let the word of God
speak and say what it says, and not what a theological system
or history, seminaries, you know, traditions of men say.
Let it say what it says. All right. Anybody got any questions?
Brother Larry, you got anything to add to that? Any thoughts
on that? No? Brother Mark? Any of you boys? Alright, well let's stop and
take a break right there and we can get a drink and use the
restroom and we'll come back and look at a few more things.