Those verses that I read a few
minutes ago, we all read it from God's Word. We're very familiar
with those verses. We knew they were there before
we read them. We knew what they said before
we read them, and we believed them. But yet, there's a sense
in which we don't believe them. And may God help our unbelief.
If he ever does, we'll see him fulfilled. We'll see them fulfilled,
because God doesn't speak in vain. God says, ask and seek
and knock with importunity, and he'll give you the Holy Spirit.
That's all I want, I think, but I don't ask and seek and knock
like I ought to. May God somehow, in his sovereign
free grace, pour out His Spirit upon us as individuals and as
a church that we may ask and seek and love. Now open your Bibles this morning
to Romans chapter 3. A lot of what I say today That's
going to be what David has already said previously, the last few
Sundays. But I want to talk to you on
these, in this manner, through these scriptures, in a manner of bringing out true
religion, God's religion. That's the title of my message,
God's religion. Put that down right, God's religion.
The Apostle Paul went to Mars Hill, Athens. And boy, they were
worshiping. He said, you fellas sure are
too religious. You worship everything, but you
don't know God. And we have a lot of people today,
sad to say, who sure do worship a lot, talk a lot, but they don't
know God. Christ told that dear lady at
the well in John chapter 4, he said, you worship, I know you
do, but you don't know what you worship. It's just all vain and
foolish. You don't know what you worship. Just jumping from those two passages
to Matthew 7, every generation that's ever lived upon the face
of this earth since the days of the Lord Jesus and the universal
spread of the gospel. Every generation there have been
so many in religion and very few that ever entered in at the
straight gate that leads to life eternal. Very few. Consequently,
when the roll is called on the last day, We all stand before
God. He said, many, many, many, many
will stand before me and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in your name? In your name cast out devils.
And in your name done many wonderful works. And that word truly means
works to cause men to wonder. These people are so religious,
they cause men to wonder. This must be the good thing.
Then will I say unto them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Workers of iniquity, I never
knew you. That describes most of the people
in every generation since Christ. Those who worship in the name
of Christ, most of them are walking that broad way which leads to
destruction. And very few find that straight
and narrow way which leads unto life everlasting. I am interested in true religion. Christ told the woman at the
well, said that you worship but you don't know what you worship.
The hour is coming and now is when they that worship God must
worship him in spirit and in truth. For he is a spirit and
he requires such. worship God in spirit and in
truth. Paul said in Philippians 3, 3,
we're the circumcision, not like the old Jew, the circumcision
of the flesh, but the circumcision of the heart. And we worship
God in the spirit. And all of our rejoicing is in
his Son. And we have no confidence in
this flesh. With those things on your minds,
let's talk about true religion this morning from Romans, beginning
with verse 19. Romans, the first two chapters
and most of the third, talk about the depravity of human nature. Jews and Gentiles alike are fallen
away from God. They're dead in trespasses and
sins. There's no difference. All sin.
But look at verse 19. Now we know that what things
whoever the law says, it says to them who are under the law
that what? Every mouth may be stopped and
all the world, Jew, Gentile, may become guilty before God. Therefore, By the deeds of the
law, or trying to keep the law, there shall no flesh be justified
in God's sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Sin has come to, I mean the law
has come to show us what we are. Paul was in good shape once,
but he said when the law came, sin stirred up in me and I saw
it and I died. I died. The law condemns. The law shows
us our needs. The law shows us our deficiencies. The law shows us how far we are
from God. The law shows us that it's impossible
for us to please God. And a schoolmaster to teach us
Christ shows Christ. Now in verse 21, all the world
guilty before God. Nobody can help himself for trying
to keep the law. He's a lawbreaker. He's under
the penalty and curse of the law. But now, the righteousness
of God, without the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. But there's no difference. Once
again, Jew or Gentile, no difference. For all have sinned, come short
of the glory of God. All stand guilty and condemned
before God according to the law. Then we have this verse, being
justified free, that I've often expressed it as something that
just jumps out at you. Being justified all guilty, all
guilty, every mouth stopped. Oh, well guilty! being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set 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, and to
declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might
be just in justifying law-breaking, guilty, hell-deserving sinners, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Works? No, but by
the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law, justifies
freely. Is he the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, Gentiles also. Seeing it
is one God which shall justify the uncircumcision by faith and
the uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid! Justification by
faith establishes the law. Establishes the law. Now true
religion. You think about these things
with me this morning. I'll try to hurry. And I want
to be as simply. Not simple and plain as it can. I heard a man say recently on
a tape that I passed out to some of you here in the church, Dr. Ian Burnett Magruder, at a national
conference out west of Kansas City or someplace out west. He
asked this question. He said, What is there going
on in religion in the churches around us today that needs God
for an explanation? And I'll tell you that hit me
right here in my heart. Because most of what we see is done in the power and the energy
and the wisdom of the flesh. They don't need God, a supernatural
and almighty God for an explanation of what they do. Anybody can
go to a seminary and get some training and do what they do. So my friends, true religion in one sense is
different. from all other religions. It's
different, radically different. And yet, in the externals of
religion, many religions look just like it. They get up and
they wash your face and put on clean clothes and maybe put on
a tie and a pretty dress or whatever, and they go to church on Sunday
morning, sit through the preaching, maybe say amen, sing a few songs,
go back home. That's what we do here. That's what we do here. And so
it's similar, very similar. And the world, by looking, would
know the difference. David, that's awful. That's the
truth. The world looks at this congregation, that congregation,
and they go, they choose the one that's appealing to the flesh.
Has more things, activities for the children. More entertainment,
longer invitations. A lot of religious cheerleading
going on. That's what they want. And they
miss true religion altogether, God's religion. Radical is the difference between
the thoughts and the intents of the heart, the hearts of the
worshipers. True and false religion, radical
difference. The truth men receive by the
grace of God, being taught of God by the Spirit of God. The
truths that men receive makes them different in the worship
they render unto their God. Makes them different. Makes them
different. The Gospel. That Gospel. which God has given, that gospel
of salvation, Christ the gospel, is good news only to those who,
by the Holy Spirit, are shut up to the free grace
of God. They're guilty. They've been
brought to see their guilt before God. Their mouths are shut. They
have no arguments. And when the gospel came, boy,
it's good news. They were shut up in helplessness
and hopelessness, shut up under the law of God. And God gave
my eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ and His glorious salvation. But this gospel, these men who have stood before the law,
those men who have learned their sinfulness Those who have seen
God's unchangeableness, seen their own helplessness and hopelessness
in themselves. Well, they have seen that the
law never changes because God never changes. And the soul that
sinneth shall surely die. The wages of sin is eternal death. Eternal death. And God, listen
to this old preacher, God can by no means clear a guilty man. His guilt must be dealt with.
His sins must be put away. must be put away. Now, the gospel
is offensive to the proud. It's offensive to the religious.
It's offensive to the self-righteous, whether religious or not. I can't
believe that such a thing could be. That salvation is free, full
and free, full and free, in and through Christ. But the really
lost, those who are actually lost, those who are sinners by
the Holy Ghost, they rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. They've seen the good news. They've
seen Christ. These people have looked to the
law. No hope. Damn! They've looked to themselves. No hope. Damn! And they've looked at religion.
No hope. And God showed them Christ. Now
they rejoice in Christ. They have no confidence in the
flesh. Their thoughts of satisfying and appeasing God only lead them
into further despair. But when they see Christ, the
despair vanishes away. Thine eye thunders at their heels. Guilty! Guilty! But when they
see Christ, that guilt falls off and fades away. Because He
bore it. He carried it away. Look at this glorious gospel. Look at a couple of these verses,
two or three verses. The preceding chapters in verses
19 and 20, if they're received and if they're believed, they
force us to look outside of ourselves for help. They cause us to look
away from ourselves for righteousness and acceptance with God. We can't
keep the law. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Then verse 21. Verse 21 here. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. The righteousness of God without
the law. That righteousness the prophets
preached. The righteousness which sinners need to be accepted of
God. Without the law, apart from the law. Look, let me show you
something. I want you to see this and keep
it in your mind. because some deny it and it will
probably get worse as time goes on unless God intervenes. Acts
chapter 10 and verse 43, talking about Jesus Christ, that's the
subject, His life and His death, His suffering on the cross, His
resurrection. To Him, to the Lord Jesus Christ, Give all the prophets witness.
Do you hear what that says? Abraham, David, all the prophets,
Elijah, Elisha, all the prophets, Samuel, all the prophets, Moses. To him, give all the prophets
witness. What did they preach? What did
those symbols mean? that through his name, whosoever
believeth in him shall receive the forgiveness of sins." That's
what they preach from the first part of Genesis to the end of
Revelation. That's what the Bible's about.
Luke chapter 24 and two places in that chapter are very clear.
All the prophets and the Psalms and the law and the prophets
and the Psalms, they give witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, of
his sufferings, and the glory that should follow. Acts 10,
verse 41. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter
4, it says the gospel was preached unto them as well as unto us.
Them being those whose carcasses fell back in the wilderness.
The same gospel was preached unto them. That is preached to
us. But it profited them nothing, not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it. Same thing said in Galatians
chapter 3. The gospel is what God's been
preaching from the beginning. Before there was ever a sinner,
He prepared a Savior. That's what this book is all
about. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, verse 22,
this righteousness is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. There is no gospel that looks
to our faithfulness. But the gospel looks to the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. We trust Him, who He is, what
He accomplished, and where He is and what He is doing now.
We trust Him. Let me turn back here to Romans chapter 3. even the righteousness of God
which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. That's what
that means. It's unto all and upon all then
that believe, and there's no difference. The gospel is for
the Jew and the Gentile alike, and the gospel is for those who
believe they shall be saved. Through the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. Through the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ. He said, I didn't come to destroy
the law, but to fulfill it every jot and tittle. And He did it. Do you know why He did it? He
did it for me. He did it for you who believe.
He fulfilled the law. He satisfied the law. Satisfied
God. There is no difference. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Then in verse 24,
here's how it works. And this is what I want to emphasize
this morning as clearly as I possibly can. This is how it works. This
is how sinners are saved. This is how God can be just and
justify the ungodly. This is how the thrice holy God
can look upon a guilty He held his serving sinner and let him
walk away free. This is how. This is how. Being justified freely. Turn with me to John 15, please. Gospel of John, chapter 15, verse
25. But this cometh to pass, part of the sufferings of our
Lord, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in
thy law, they hated me without a cause. You see those last three
words, without a cause? That's the same Greek word that's
translated freely in Romans 3. Same Greek word. Identical. Same
thing. Being justified freely. Being
justified without a cause. They hated Christ without a cause.
There was no cause. No cause in Him that men should
hate Him. The problem was with them. And
there is no cause in me, any man, that God should save him. They are justified without a
cause. No cause in me at all. Justified freely, it seems like
a redundance by His grace. Justified freely, by His grace,
justified without a cause, through the grace of God, the sovereign
grace of God, through the redemption. Oh, somebody did something. We've
been redeemed. Christ gave Himself a ransom.
He redeemed us under God by His own blood, being justified freely,
without a cause, by grace of God, through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. That's what it is. That's the
Gospel. That's how it works. And this is the heart of it right
here. Whom God hath set forth his Son,
God set him forth a father. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem us from the curse of the law. Galatians 4. Whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. propitiation. Through faith in his blood. Believing sinners were justified.
freely, without a cause, through the redemption that's in Christ,
because God sent Christ to be the propitiation of our sins,
to satisfy God for our sins, to appease God for all the wrong
that we've done. That's what that big word means.
To appease God, to satisfy God for all of our sins. no cause in us, no cause in the
sinner whatsoever. We have no merit. We have no
goodness. All we can cry out unto God is
what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man, that
thou visitest him. It had to come from His own great
heart, His infinite heart of love to His people. We don't,
we're not saved because of our repentance and our faith. That's
a gift of God too. That's a gift of God too. Not something we work of. Centered
or justified by Christ's faithfulness, by Christ's righteousness, by
Christ's redemption. Christ's redemption. Christ's
redemption He gave Himself for us. Romans 8.32, For God spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us. Sinners look to
him in faith. They don't look to their repentance,
which is never what it ought to be. They don't look to their
faith, which is never what it ought to be. And even their looking
is a gift of God's grace. For grace gives us faith. Faith is the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. Faith is the gift of God. Salvation, then, is through the
faithfulness and the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
was given of the Father, set forth as our propitiation. 1 John 2.2, 1 John 4.10, both use
that word, propitiation. But you know, it might be better
seen, more clearly seen, Romans chapter 5 and verse 19. By one man's disobedience, that's
our Father Adam, By one man's disobedience, many were made
sinners. That's so. Death came upon all
of us, sin and death. But here's the wonderful side
of that coin, the good news. So, by the obedience of one man,
the last Adam, the Lord Jesus, shall many be made righteous.
That's it. Propitiation. God sent him forth,
set him forth, be a propitiation through faith in his blood. This
little word, propitiation, was a common word among the Greeks
and the heathen in their false worship because of the way they
used it. To them it meant to do something,
that they must do something to appease or propitiate God. Something to satisfy God, something
to appease God. Do something for God that He
might do something for them. Have mercy on them, bless them,
spare them from judgments. They propitiated God, they tried
to. But that's not how it works. To them it meant to do something,
to appease or propitiate the gods, to make the gods favorable
toward them. The meaning is appeasement, atonement,
and expiation. God sent his Son to be the propitiation, our Savior. The gospel of free grace totally
rejects the heathen religious usage of that word. We do not propitiate our God. We do not try to. Christ did. We seek to please him, but not
to appease him. Christ did. By one offering he hath obtained
for us eternal redemption." Hebrews 11. God set him forth. The old priest, he made the atonement,
he killed the sacrifice, sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat, The result was, typically, symbolically,
when the Old Testament priest did that, the place of judgment
became a place of grace and communion with God. The priest offered
a sacrifice and came out and blessed the people. All because
of that sacrifice. Came out and blessed the people.
That's what we have in Christ. In Christ we stand before God
and there's no more judgment upon us because He appeased,
He satisfied God for us. Satisfied the law of God to perfection
from His heart. He satisfied the justice of God
to perfection from His heart. through the work of Christ, through
the redemption of Christ, the life and death of Christ, has
been propitiated. Now we may be accepted. We shall be accepted through
the propitiation of Christ. And we stand before God with
no fear of the law. That's what Christ satisfied
for us. No fear of the justice of God falling upon us from day
to day. Christ already endured it. Christ is all. We are complete
in Him. He's all we need for time and
eternity. And God sent Him for us to be
just exactly that. All that we need. An old man
wrote years ago, all that God requires of me is in His Son
to provide for me. Now that's good news. If you
can just lay hold of it, if you can just believe it. All that
God requires of you, Christ did it for you. Christ is all. He's our prophet,
our priest, our sacrifice, our king, our shepherd, our friend. The gospel is, don't try to propitiate
God. Christ is already attended. The gospel is believe and accept
the propitiation of Christ, the work of Christ. Believe and accept
and glory in the work of Christ. I'll show you one other place.
I've been here many times, and if I live another week or two,
I'll probably go here again. Hebrews chapter 10. He is infinitely holy, inflexibly
just, and yet He can look at somebody like me and just set
me free. Yet He cannot by any means clear
the guilty. What happened? He gave my guilty
son. And His Son gives His obedience
to man. His Son satisfied the law and the justice of God for
man. He propitiated God for man. He is my propitiation before
God. That's the one I trust in. Now
look at these verses. This man, these Old Testament
priests, verse 12, Hebrews 10, these Old Testament priests offering
oftentimes the same gifts that never put away sin. except symbolically. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever the
elect of God." Those who are set apart by one offering. He made propitiation to God.
He appeased God. He satisfied God. And he perfected
them forever. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. For after that he had said before,
this is the covenant I make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. Put my laws into their hearts
and their minds, will I write them, and what else? And their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Because I took all of their sins
and all of their iniquities and charged them to my Son, made
Him to be what they were. He suffered the judgment, the
punishment, the curse, the desertion of the Father, and made propitiation
unto God. And all of our trust must be
in Him. Now the Bible says that God is
faithful and just to forgive us. Faithful and just to forgive
us. Just and justifier. Isaiah 45, a just God and a Savior. And a Savior. How can he be a
just God and a savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, the glorious
Redeemer, that One whom God set forth to be a propitiation for
us? May God bless these words to
every heart. To your comfort is glory.