Let's turn in our Bibles now
to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. I'd like to deal this morning
with verses 26 through 31. The verses that we'll deal with today
or actually a continuance of the verses from our last study.
And in our last study, we saw where the Apostle Paul had written
in verse 25 that God's righteousness... Now, I want you to just get in
your mind what the word righteousness here is setting forth. God's
right, His justification, His right-wiseness to do what He
does. That's what He said. That God's
righteousness was declared in the setting forth of the Lord
Jesus Christ as the propitiation, or that is, the appeasement. Now, here is what we know. Look at verse 25. Whom God, that
is, the Lord Jesus Christ, now think about what is being said
here. Whom God has set forth, the margin
says, foreordained. God Almighty before the foundation
of the world foreordained that Christ would be set forth to
be a propitiation, a satisfaction, an appeasement through faith
in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. Now, what did He just
say? He set forth that Almighty God has truly forgiven the sins
of His people. Now hear me well. Remember, we
are dealing with one, the Lord God Himself, the one God, who
never changes. That is the reason that we sons
of Jacob are not consumed, Neil, because He does not change. But
Almighty God has forgiven the sins of His people. All of the
sins of His elect from the fall till His second return, till
His second coming, were forgiven in one mighty act. one all-inclusive act of mercy
and compassion in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I went
back and read Scripture after Scripture after Scripture. In
Christ, all things are yea and amen. In the Lord Jesus Christ,
all of that everlasting covenant, the sure mercies of the spiritual
David, was absolutely Secured. Done. Almighty God does not change. There was not a time when God
looked at His people one way and then looked at them in another
way in a different time. If He did, then He changed. You say, well, He looked at them
in wrath in one way, that is, answerable for. Then he looked
at them without wrath in another time. No, he didn't. Because
if he did, then he changed. He changed in attitude. He changed
in thought. He changed in purpose. He changed
some way. He said, I don't change. I never
deviate. Never deviate. Therefore, if
Almighty God has forgiven sins. Now, as I said before, we deal
and think in time. We understand it in time. We understand the forgiveness
of sins. We perceive the forgiveness of
sins in time, not God. He is the I Am. Who shall I say
sent me? You tell Him I Am sent you. The
right now sent you. Well, how long has it been right
now? It's always been right down to God. The eternal God. Now, the sins of His people have
been forgiven. And the debt of those sins must
be actually paid for. How were they paid for? Well,
you know this. Paid for by the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here is what verse 25 is saying. God's righteousness. God's fairness. He said, I'm
a just God. He's fair. God's fairness to
remit or to forgive or to not impute or not charge to the sins
of His people. The right, the fairness of that
act, of that truth has got to be fair. If Almighty God just
says, well, I'll just let you off. I mean, you're guilty. Is that fair? Fair is fair. Justice. Justice. Somebody kills
somebody. Court finds that person guilty. Well, I think we shouldn't execute
that person. I took that name in that woman's
life, that little child. I know he abused her. But you
know what? We're a civilized nation. We're
talking about justice. Justice is what we're talking
about. Justice. Somebody said, well, do you believe
in capital punishment? Absolutely. You kill somebody and it's first-degree
murder and it's premeditated and you did it. Well, we've got
laws. Let's execute them. That's justice. You say, that's too hard. No,
it's right. It's right. It's fair. It's just. The justness or the righteousness
that Almighty God has to forgive the sins of His people is set
forth in the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is to say, whom God has
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness, to declare His fairness for the
remission of sins. God says, I forgive My people
in My Son. What right does He have to do
that? Christ is the propitiation. Christ is the satisfaction. Christ is the substitute that
Almighty God might be just in the death of Christ and the justifier
to declare righteous those that believe in Him. God does what
He does and He's right in what He does. What right does He have? His Son paid the debt. He's right. Does Almighty God, is He fair,
Kevin, in forgiving me? Yes, sir, He's fair in forgiving
me. How? Christ was made sin. For me, if I'm one of His own,
He's right. I'll tell you, Almighty God has
always been just in forgiving the sin of His people. It's just
now that the manifestation, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ has
been set forth. The Lord Jesus Himself vindicated. Let me say it like that. The
righteousness of God, He vindicated. God's justice in forgiving His
people. God says, I forgive you. What
right do you have? Christ said, I paid the debt.
I put away their sins. Almighty God was the one that
first trusted in Christ. I realize that the Lord Jesus
Christ did not come until thousands of years after. Adam was born
and in the garden, and then there was Abraham and Moses, all through
the forbearance of God. When it pleased God, God Almighty
set forth His Son, born of a woman, made of a woman, made under the
flesh, to redeem them that He's everlastingly loved. And He did
what He did, and He did it right. God said, I forgive My people.
And He first trusted in His Son. Your son is going to pay the
debt. God Almighty forgave them by Christ in God's purpose and
knowledge. Before the foundation of the
world, Christ was slain. It's done. It's a done deal.
You and I are just seeing it manifested now. Now, through
the gospel, it was preached. Paul says, I declare unto you
the forgiveness of sins. This is how Almighty God has
done it. He made an everlasting covenant.
What's He going to do? I'm going to adopt them. I'm
going to call them. I'm going to forgive them. They're My people.
I'll grant them a righteousness. I'll bring them to Myself. I'll
call them out of darkness. I'll keep them. They'll be with
Me forevermore. The Lord Jesus Christ says, Father,
I pray that where they are, I mean, where I am, that that's where
they may be, that they may behold My glory. God says, it's a done
deal. You just see it manifesting now.
That's what's happening. You're just seeing it. come out
right now. There's no injustice. There's
no disregard for justice in the justification of a sinner. There's
no disregard for justice. God does nothing unfair. He said, I'm a just God. He just
doesn't dispense with the demands of the law. There's got to be
a complete satisfaction of His law. Christ is the propitiation. He is the appeasement. God made Christ sin. We've looked at that Scripture
so many times. Christ, His soul, was made an
offering for sin. That soul right there means the
breathing creature. That's what it means, the soul,
the breathing Himself. When He says, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? You know why? He was made sin. He was made sin. And Almighty
God, who is of pure eyes, then to behold iniquity, forsook Him,
left Him to Himself. That is what he said. He left
to himself that he would not leave us to ourselves. And I
am telling you, if Almighty God did not deal with him as sin,
my sin, what I am by nature, If He didn't put away what I
am and deal with me in absolute justice, no holes barred, no
loose sins, no skeletons in the car. I'm talking about every
bit of it. It's all open right there. If He didn't deal with
me right there, then I don't have any hope. There's something that's
going to be brought up. And I just don't want that. He
has put away His sins. Now, verse 27. It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law
of faith. The apostle here states that
the gospel, the setting forth of the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's Messiah, God's Lamb, that the gospel itself
prevents all boasting or self-exalting before God. It's excluded. That is to say, all grounds for
self-established righteousness is non-admissible. Non-admissible. You know what that means? You're
going to bring something up in court and it's something that
wasn't, I don't know, you know, somehow they didn't share it
with the defense attorney. That's non-admissible. Non-admissible. This guy admitted, he admitted
that he was guilty. That's not admissible. It's not
admissible. I mean, he's guilty. There is no boasting. Nothing that man can do, would
do, which you can't do anything. Nothing pertaining to your ability
Nothing pertaining to your ability. You say, well, I sought the Lord. Or, I've always wanted to be
a Christian. I've always had a hunger after
God's Word. I've always been interested. Nothing that a man
can do is admissible before Almighty God. All boasting is excluded. Now, Paul is asking something.
He said, by what law or rule of acceptance before Almighty
God. Which law manifests or reveals
that there's no boasting? Which law? That's what he's saying. Which message? Which law? Which gospel? Paul says there's
men preaching a false gospel. He said, which is not the gospel.
It's a false. What law? Is it the law of works? Is that the law? Does the law of works establish
that there's no boasting? No. Here's what he's saying. Which message? Now, I'm going
to say something here and you'll understand exactly what Paul
is asking right here. Which message promotes boasting
in self? Is it the message of free willism? Or is it the message of free
and sovereign grace? Which message? Now, a man stands
up and he says, the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and
He wants to make salvation possible to all of you. Now, all you have
to do is accept it. All you have to do is just, by
your faith, All you have to do is exercise your faith. He wants
to save you if you'll let Him. If you'll let Him, He'll save
you. He's done everything He can.
Please let Him be God in your life. Now, which message promotes
boasting? This is what Paul is asking.
By which law? Wherein is boasting? Where is
boasting then? It's excluded. By which law? By which message? Is it excluded
by a message of works? Oh, no. No, no, no. Whenever
a man stands up and preaches a message like that freewillism,
I'm going to tell you something. Boasting is not excluded in that
because what's going to happen is a man is going to walk down
the aisle. He's going to shake a preacher's hand. He's going
to pray the sinner's prayer. He's going to go through the
Roman road. Then he's going to turn around
and he's going to say this, at least not outwardly, but inwardly,
he's going to say, At least I believed. I don't deserve a lot of credit,
but I do deserve some. At least I've been faithful.
At least I've kept the ten commandments. Like that rich young ruler that
came to the Lord and he asked Him, he said, you know, what
does the commandments say? How about the ten commandments?
And that rich young ruler says, oh, I've kept all those from
my youth up. Which law promotes boasting? That's what Paul is
asking. By what law? Boasting? Where is boasting?
He said it's excluded. There's no boasting here. But
which law or which message? Is it the law of works? No. He said, I'll tell you the law
that excludes boasting. The law of faith. The law of
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach a message that excludes
boasting. We preach a message that says
that Almighty God by His mercy and compassion and grace, chose
a man before the foundation of the world, an almighty God who
would not leave His own to themselves, caused their path to cross with
the gospel. Maybe they were in the Czech
Republic and maybe they pushed a button and they heard a man
preach a message that he preached thirty years ago. And it was
so then, and it's so today. And God crossed His path with
the Gospel. And that man heard. And the Spirit
of God took it and gave that man understanding. Ears to hear
and eyes to see. And that man realized, I am a
hopeless, without Him, I am a hopeless and desperately lost sinner. I have no hope in myself. Almighty
God, by His infinite mercy and grace, gave me power to believe. He gave me faith. He gave me
life. And I didn't do anything for
it. I just believed it. And He gave me the faith to believe.
All boasting. If we're going to boast, Paul
says, boast in this. Boast in Jesus Christ. Him crucified. That's all the
boasting. We don't have any boasting in
our society. Where is boasting? It's excluded. By what law? By
the law of works? No, the law of works promotes
boasting. But by the law of faith, there's no boasting. No boasting
in that. Verse 28, Therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Here's the conclusion, Paul says. Here is the message that reiterates
what we've just been looking at. Boasting in self, boasting
in man's ability, boasting in man's pride is completely excluded
for our justification or that God Almighty would declare us
to be righteous. that God Almighty declares His
people righteous. There's no boasting for us in
that. All boasting is excluded. Here's what He did. He made His
Son sin and put away our guilt, our debt that we owed to the
law of God. It had been broken and I couldn't
put it away and have life. He made him sin and charged me
with his righteousness. How could I do that? How could
I get to myself a righteousness except if it was by works that
I would boast in it? But there wouldn't be any boasting
because I wouldn't have got it. But by the law of faith in saying,
Lord, what You say You've done. I believe that. No boasting in
me. I don't have any boasting. Boasting
has to do with personal merit. I've done something. I built that. I painted that.
I did this. I did that. Boasting cannot be
disassociated with something that I can do except my boasting
be in Him. who Almighty God has set forth.
That is the law of faith in Christ. We are justified without anything
in ourselves to merit that justification. Justified. Justification without
the deeds of the law. It means that we are justified
apart from any work that the law demands being performed by
me. Verse 29 and 30. Is he the God
of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing
it is one God who shall justify the circumcision by faith and
the uncircumcision through faith. Paul is talking to a group of
Jews. A group of Jews that had looked
upon the Gentiles, the heathens, as being not only unable to be
saved, unworthy of being saved. Paul told them, he said, there's
no difference. They've got the law of nature.
We've got the written law. But he says we're all guilty.
He says neither they nor us have fulfilled that law. We didn't come up to the demands
of that law. Almighty God is the God of the
Jew and the Gentile in mercy and grace. If He has looked upon
a man, whether he is a Jew or a Gentile, out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue, if God has looked upon a man in
mercy and grace, He is the God of the Jew and the Gentile. There
is not one way for a Jew to be found guiltless before Almighty
God, and another way for a Gentile. Like I said, though the Gentile
had the law of nature, the Jew had the written law, one God,
the one God, He justifies both the same way. He must. He must take the Gentile and
the Jew He must take his son. His son must be made sin for
both of them because both of them are guilty. The same guiltiness. And make both of them to have
died under God's penalty and judgment and wrath in a substitute. And God Almighty must grant both
of them a righteousness that they didn't merit in themselves
or earn in themselves. Almighty God justifies both. Now, I just want to make mention
of something in wording. Verse 30, seeing as it is one
God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision
through faith, I looked at both those words to find out why does
it say, use different words. There could be, as far as I could
tell, no difference whatsoever. Paul was not distinguishing anything. Both those words seem to have
the same interpretation, as far as I could tell. So, verse 31,
do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law. Now, here in conclusion, the
apostle answers a question that glorifies and magnifies the righteousness
of God. What he's saying is this. Now,
just keep it in mind when we talk about the righteousness
of God. And it's always got to be looked
at in the context in which it's stated, but it actually means
the right, the right wiseness, the right to do. So just realize
when you're talking about the righteousness of God, It means
the right that God has to do what He does. So here the Apostle
Paul is answering a question that magnifies and glorifies
the righteousness of God. Paul asks this question, Do we
make void the law through faith? Now this, I can understand how
when we read in Scriptures like this, sometimes when you first
read them, it's kind of hard to perceive exactly what he's
asking or what he's saying. But here's what he's saying. Do we count useless the law through
faith? Now, we don't work to establish
a righteousness ourselves by keeping the law. You know that.
We don't even know the depth of the demands of the law, much
less be able to keep it. Paul is saying because we don't
have a salvation by the works of the law. We believe by faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ that what He did in the keeping of
the law, we believe that He did that for us. So Paul says, do
we make void or do we count useless the law through faith? Do we
who believe say that the law has been proven because we believe
by faith? Do we believe that the law has
been proven now to have really no value whatsoever because there's
no demand upon us to keep that law and to personally fulfill
it? Do we make void the law through
faith? Are we saying that you don't?
God forbid. That's what God forbid. He said
we establish the law. Christ came to fulfill the law
of God. That is, to set forth God's will
that it was done. The law of God is good. There's
nothing wrong with the law of God. It's holy. This is God's
Word. This is God's demand. Sometimes
we think and we look at the law and we think, you know, the law. The law of God is right, straight. We believe by faith that God's
law is holy, just, and it's unchanging. All of its demands must be obeyed
and its penalty must be absolutely satisfied. You know that. I mean,
the works of the law, as I said last week, the works of the law
is twofold. Number one, it's to be obeyed. But because it's been broken,
the law also demands punishment. So to work the works of the law
means that we would have to obey it and suffer its penalty too. Well, what kind of a hope is
that? Christ did. He did. He Himself obeyed it perfectly. And that obedience is our obedience. And He suffered under its penalty
also. Because that's God's Word, God's
law, God's standard, God's will. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I
came to do Your will, O Lord. My meat, my food, my sustenance
is to do the will of Him that sent me. God's law is satisfied
for obedience and justice in the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul
says, Are we saying that the law is useless because we by
faith believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? God forbid. By faith,
we establish the law. What does that mean? By believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our representative and our
federal head, by believing and trusting in Him, who has perfectly
fulfilled all the law for us in obedience and in justice,
all of it. Paul says we establish the law. We establish it. We set forth. We believe that Christ has absolutely
fulfilled the law of God. We say, by believing in Him,
when it says we establish the law, This is what we're saying,
Paul says. This is the interpretation of
the word establish. It stands. That's what it means. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul says, we say concerning God's law and obedience to it
and the death that He suffered under its penalty for us, we
say it stands. God's law stands. His Word. Heaven and earth is going to
pass away, but My Word will never pass away. And we saw that in
the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. His life
is our obedience. His death is our payment. The payment of our guilt and
sin. We establish the law. We say God's Word stands. We
establish it. It stands. It's good. It's good. I hope that was a
help to you. Alright, well Gary you come,
we're going to