All right, brethren, let's turn in our Bibles to Romans, Romans chapter three. I just wanna read two verses, Romans three. I'm gonna read verse 27 and 28. Romans 3.27, where is boasting then? It is excluded 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.

Boasting excluded. Boasting excluded. True faith that's given by God does not boast in ourselves. We boast, but we boast in the Lord. We don't boast in ourselves. True faith doesn't glory in self. True faith doesn't praise self. True faith praises the Lord.

When you hear a man speak of his faith, and you know, when you hear men say, well, I have my faith, They exalt faith in some way. Usually what it is is a man boasting in his will that he made a decision for Christ, boasting in his works in some way, making faith into a work that he produced. But that's not true faith. True faith by its very nature, by exactly what it what God's purpose is in it. True faith does not boast in self. True faith gives God all the glory. That's what I want us to see this morning.

Now, the first thing, the first point I want to make is this simple truth. The very reason, God's purpose in saving a people is to bring praise and glory to his name. is to bring all the praise and all the glory to his son. That's the very purpose of salvation. So he's not going to permit any sinner to glory in ourselves. He's just not gonna permit us to say, that little part right there, I did that. No, that's not gonna be.

I'll give you a few scriptures we've seen in Isaiah, in Isaiah 42, 8. I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. He's not gonna let us praise a vain idol that we created in our mind that we call God. He's not gonna let that happen in his people. He said in Isaiah 43, seven, everyone that's called by my name, I have created him. That's why we don't have reason to boast, he created us. He said, and I created him for my glory, for my praise, for us to praise and glory in him. I formed him, yea, I've made him.

It's evidence of a sinner's total ruin in sin. This is evident, men want to talk about evidences all the time. Well, here's the evidence of a completely, totally ruined sinner that he would even attempt to rob God of the glory and the praise that belongs to him only. Only when the Spirit of God's given us a heart, a new heart, and made us see what we are and humbled us in spirit will we give the Lord all the glory and all the praise David said, I'll bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. I'm gonna boast in the Lord, he said. And everybody that hears this gospel and rejoices, what are they gonna do? The humble shall hear and be glad.

When they hear me giving God all the glory and all the praise, David said, the humble shall hear and be glad. And that's so, brethren. Doesn't it make you glad when you hear a minister preach the gospel and give Christ all the glory? That makes me glad. And it does just the opposite when I hear preachers giving a sinner glory. Makes me sad. Sad for the preacher, sad for the ones he's preaching to.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. That's God's glory, you know. We're gonna get to our text here in just a minute, but I just wanna establish this first of all. Election starts with God, and that's God's glory to choose whom he will. When Moses asked to see his glory, God said, I'm gonna make all my goodness pass before you. And God said, and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll show compassion to whom I will show compassion. That's his glory to do that. and we praise him for that.

That's where salvation began, in the grace of God, in eternity, choosing whom he would. And when you hear men say that God foresaw they would believe, that's why he chose them, well then that's glorifying the flesh, that's glorifying the sinner. The Lord predestinated his people to hear the gospel and be regenerated in the hour he'd give them faith to believe him. And he wouldn't have done that if he foresaw we'd believe. Scripture says the Lord looked down from heaven and said, they're altogether unprofitable. All of them. That's what he saw when he looked down from heaven. He predestinated the time when we would believe and be given the adoption of children. And he brings that to pass. and we give him the glory for that. Nothing is of us, nothing. Nothing is of us.

All doctrine goes together now, brethren. Listen, if all true doctrine's just one doctrine, and every point of doctrine is gonna give him all the glory, and if we're wrong on any point, we're gonna be wrong on everything, because it's one doctrine. I've probably told you this, You know, in scriptures, when it speaks of a false gospel, it always refers to it as doctrines, plural. But when it's speaking of the gospel, it speaks of it singular, the doctrine. Because it's just one doctrine, it's just one teaching. It's all so cohesive and all so bound up in the grace and mercy of God in Christ. It's one doctrine.

And so, if a man's saying, you know, God foresaw who would believe, that's why he chose them, well then he's gonna be wrong on predestination. He missed the fact that God predestinated the time when he would make you believe. And if he's missed the beginning, missed election, missed predestination, he's gonna give himself glory for believing. He's gonna say it was by his will that he believed. No, we're born of God, it's only by the Lord's grace that we believe. Grace are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourself. It's the gift of God why? Blessed in him and out of works lest any man should boast or his workmanship

Now let's get to the context here And this is what is so so So important It's all important, but this is so important because this is the purpose of the cross right here The context of this text is concerning how a sinner's made righteous with God, how he's justified, how he's made righteous with God. And true God-given faith, the faith God's given, is gonna give God all the glory for justifying his people. True faith's gonna give God all the glory for making us righteous. We're gonna say it's not of our works.

Now let me say this before I begin. Everybody that's born of God loves good works. He makes you rich in good works. He foreordained the good works, and He brings you to do the good works. And the Lord's people want to do good works, but we're not looking to our works. We're not giving ourselves any credit for any works. We glory in Him. If we do any good work, we give Him the glory. That's so now, because righteousness is of Him. Righteousness is of him.

Now let's go back a little bit to Romans 2. Paul began talking about this. Our text says boasting is excluded. Now here's where he starts making this point, right here, Romans 2, 17. He said, Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thou boast of God.

This is, and it's sad, and I'm not saying this any spirit of superiority or anything like that, but it's sad that this is the majority of religion. This is what the majority in religion are declaring this very moment, just what the Pharisees did. They called themselves a Jew. Now, they boasted they were of God because they were Jews, because they were born in that nation, that political nation. You see, that's not what made us God's elect, being born in a nation. Nothing about us did. You see how this doctrine stands and falls together? They thought they were elect because they were born in Israel. They boasted of God because they were Jews.

What's that? That's stealing the glory that belongs to God for choosing his people, for giving grace to his people, making you his child. And here's the second thing, they rested in the law. They rested in the law. They were boasting they made themselves righteous and holy by keeping the law. Anybody who rests in the law, anybody who's making their boasts that they've kept the law and they're resting their hope in the law and in their works, confident they've kept the law, resting in their works to justify themselves. resting in their works of the law, boasting that they sanctified themselves. That's robbing Christ of the glory that belongs to him only. That glory is the Lord's. Christ is the righteousness, and Christ is the holiness God's provided for his people.

And in verse 18, he says, and they boasted that they know God's will. What is God's will? What's the will of God? You hear people, I've heard people, religious folks say, I'm just looking for, waiting to learn, find out what God's will is for me. I'll tell you what it is. Believe on his son. Confess yourself to be rotten, ruined, hell-deserving, and trust his son. That's his will for you. That's God's will. God the Father's will is that his Son have all preeminence, that his Son get all the glory and the salvation of his people. It please the Father that all fullness dwell in him. That means he's the fullness of everything we need to be saved.

And in verse 18 he said, and you approve us the things that are more excellent be instructed by the law. Now, let's read that again. Behold, thou art called a Jew, Romans 2.17. Behold, thou art called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law. So you're confident that thou thyself are a guide of the blind and the light of them which are in darkness, instructor of the foolish, so on.

You approve, that word approve is very important. Very important, you approve the things that are more excellent. It means to examine, to scrutinize, to test, to prove. In this case, they were using the law to examine themselves and prove themselves as being righteous before God. That's what the Pharisees did. They used the law and examined their self by the law and approved of their work saying, I, I'm pleasing to God, I'm righteous before God. And they examine others with the same law and disapprove. Isn't that, isn't that works religion in a nutshell?

This, now listen, I'll show you why that word approves important. Second Corinthians 10 verse 17 says this. He that glorieth Let him glory in the Lord, for not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. Look down now at verse 28. Go ahead and jump down there, because I want you to see it there. He's not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the letter, I mean, heart in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise, whose approval, whose commendation is not of men, it's of God.

God approves his people. God commends his people. And he does it in perfect righteousness. He does it in perfection, in perfection. He that glorieth him, glory in the Lord, for not he that commendeth himself is approved. Not a man approving himself and commending himself, nor other men approving you or commending you. It's not of men at all. And we're not looking for the approval of men.

You know, I said to somebody the other day, I don't want to get off my point here, but I said this the other day, and I was thinking a lot about this lately. There has not been a time since I first came to New Jersey and started preaching, there's not been a time that somebody has not found fault with me. Not a time. That's so. That's so. I think that's so with everybody that preaches the gospel. There's not been one time. And my point is this. If you're seeking the approval of men, you're never gonna get it. You're not going to. You're gonna be miserable all your days.

Look, when I didn't know the Lord, and I was running wild with my buddies, I wasn't wild enough to them. I was square, I was too square, I wasn't wild enough to them. And then, since the Lord saved me, there's some, I'm not believing enough, and I'm not holy enough. If you're looking for the approval of Him, you're not gonna get it. but thank the Lord. He makes his people know. It's God who approves his people, and he does it in Christ, and he commends. He does all the work. That's why it's all how he commends you. He did it all. He did it all, and you give him the glory. You don't say, oh, look, I'm approved. You give him the glory. You give him the glory.

Every saint born of him, And this is so too. I know there's scripture that said, prove that which is more excellent. Prove, prove. The Lord tells us to do that in the New Testament. To the believer, prove things. Prove things that are excellent. Hold to that which is good, abhor that which is evil. You're gonna do that as a believer, but it's gonna be the Lord that does it. And I'll give you an example. how he proves his people, a saint, how he continues to prove you. And here's what he's approving, here's what he's proving to you and how he's proving you. He's making you see continually you're the sinner and he's making you see he's your savior. And he's gonna operate, he's ruling all providence to put you in situations where he's gonna prove that to you over and over and make you know your approval and your commendation of God is in Christ.

What he's done, and he's gonna, I'll give you an example in the scripture. The Lord had his apostles and he preached the gospel in that multitudes there. 5,000, there's a lot more than 5,000, that's just the men. And there's a bunch more there. He preached the gospel to them. And those folks got hungry. And you know, you get that many people hungry and they, I could get pretty rowdy pretty fast. And the Lord said to Philip, when shall we buy bread that these may eat? The Lord was in control of everything. The Lord brought all those people there, and the Lord had ruled the whole thing to prove his people. Look, he said, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said, to prove him, to prove him. For he himself knew what he would do. That's what the scripture says about the Lord. He brings Philip and all his apostles there. And he asked Philip, how are we gonna feed these folk? He did it to prove him.

What's he proven to him? Well, here was Philip's answer. He said, 200 penny worth of bread's not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. And one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, he said to him, here's a lad here, he has five barley loaves and two small fishes, what are they among so many? None of, neither of them looked to the Lord. What did he prove to them? We're so full of unbelief and sin and ignorance. That's what he's proven to us over and over and over. And he's proven to us he's the Lord.

You know what the Lord said when they said that? He said, tell the people to sit down. And then he created something that wasn't there out of these two fishes and a few loaves and fed the whole multitude. See, he's doing that all the time to keep us knowing If you're the sinner, he's the savior. That's how he approves his people, keeping you looking to Christ only.

All right, now, they said they were instructed out of the law. Brethren, if you're instructed out of the law, here's what you're gonna learn. Number one, the moral law is gonna teach you you're the sinner. Number two, the ceremonial law, if you're instructed by the Lord, it's gonna show you Christ, our high priest, our lamb, our mercy seat, everything. And number three, the civil law is going to show you Christ is the king and the government's on his shoulder and he's ruling his kingdom and his nation. The law is going to show you, and you're the sinner, Christ is the king and the savior.

Look here at Romans 3, 9, here's the point. What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise we before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. It's written there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that understandeth, no, not one. None that seeks God. We quit boasting we brought ourselves to God and we sought Him and we understood of ourselves. None understands, none seeks Him. We can't boast in our works, there's none righteous, not one. They are all gone out of the way, they together become unprofitable. That's what the Lord said when His scripture said He looked down from heaven. Men say, he looked down and saw who would believe. That's why he chose. Nope, this is right here is what God said when he said he looked down from heaven. They're all unprofitable. There's none that even doeth good. Not one, not one.

Here's what the law's gonna teach you. Verse 19, what things whoever the law saith, it said to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in its sight. The law gives you the knowledge of sin. It can't give you life. All right? Every man boasting, he's kept the law. Most people today don't say they make themselves righteous by the law, but a lot of people say they make themselves holy by the law. Anybody that's doing that is boasting in themselves, and they don't hear it. They do not hear the law. They don't hear it. All right? Here's my next point. When the Spirit, when the Spirit convinces us of sin, the true faith that God gives makes you hear the law and it makes you hear the prophets bear witness of Christ, that He is the righteousness of all His people.

Look here now, Romans 3.21, pay close attention to this. Now, he just showed the law doesn't give you anything but the knowledge of sin. Law declares you guilty, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. The Lord said in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established. There you got the law and the prophets. There's two witnesses right there declaring to you. And the law is full of witnesses and the prophets are full of more witnesses. Multiple witnesses. Establishing this fact that here's what they're bearing witness to. The righteousness of God is by the faith of Jesus Christ.

That's what the, when he says the law and the prophets, he's talking about all the Old Testament scripture. And the Old Testament Scripture bears witness that Jesus Christ the Lord is the righteousness of God, Him alone, by His faithfulness, by what He did. Paul began this Romans letter and he called it the Gospel of God, which He had promised to afford by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. This book is a hymn book, H-I-M. It's to give Christ all the glory. That's the purpose. And the law and the prophets bear witness of him. He's the high priest. He's the lamb. He's the mercy seat. He's the tabernacle. He's everything. He is what this book's about. He is the righteousness of his people.

Now the boast and the glory and the praise of true faith, the true faith God gives, the boasting we do, the praising we do is all of him. It's all of Him. And here's why. Here's why. Because we're all sinners. Everybody He gives true faith to knows we are sinners. Look, verse 22, this righteousness of Christ is unto all and upon all them that believe. That's the only way you can have this righteousness. Cease working, cease boasting, cease looking to yourself. Believe on Him. It's given through faith in Him. It doesn't matter if you're a natural-born Jew or a natural-born Gentile. It's true of all, there's no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

The only way we can have salvation, be righteous before God, is by the faithfulness of Christ fulfilling the law for us. Listen, I'm gonna try to be as firm on this as I can be. Nobody, not me, not you, not anybody, born of Adam, has ever kept the law. I don't mean, I mean in the least bit you hadn't kept it. We hadn't dotted one I. Not one of us. The Lord Jesus alone is the righteousness. He's the only one that ever kept it. He's the only one.

You remember when the first time the word of the Lord came to you in power and made you know this? It made you know you was a sinner? I tell you, what Paul said, when the commandment came, sin revived. That's the first time your sin really became alive to you, was when the Lord made you hear what the law said, and you began to see, I don't have anything to boast in. I have not obeyed God in the least bit. Like Paul, all that stuff that he thought was good works, he said, I saw it's all done. I'm trying to come to God with chaff. I'm trying to come to God with dung.

But then the Spirit made you to see the Lord Jesus is your righteousness. Those tears were so bitter and then they went to being tears of joy. Look, here's the greatest news you had ever heard and will ever hear right here. The next word, verse 24, being justified. No record, no record. The past, present, or future, no record of sin ever. Freely by His grace, justification is free to all His people. It's by the unmerited favor of God. We did nothing to earn it. It's through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.

You know why it's free to God's people? It came at a tremendous price. God gave his only son, and the Lord Jesus gave his life. We're gonna be eternity learning of this and rejoicing in this, because it's just, I can't begin to even put into words What a glorious thing that is, that God gave his own son and Christ gave his life for us.

You know, and he made him the thing that was killing us. They made that serpent and lifted up on that pole, the thing that was killing them. He said, you make that, lift it up. Christ was made the sin that was killing us, and God poured it out on him. And listen, brethren, that's the only way God could be satisfied. And God knew this was what was going to take place. Christ knew this was what was going to take place because it says here, verse 25, whom God hath set forth. That means he foreordained him. When did he set him forth? Before he created anything. He set him forth when he chose him to be the salvation. And he says, then he set him forth in time. Paul said he was ordained before the foundation of the world and it was manifest in these last times for you. He set him forth to be what? A propitiation.

Every time I speak on this, I don't feel like I ever have the words to express it right. I'm just gonna, a picture's worth a thousand words. I'll give you the picture. That word propitiation means mercy seeking. And that's when the publicans said, Lord, have mercy. It's the same word translated propitiation right here. Have mercy on me, the sinner.

The spotless lamb was brought, looked over, proven to be perfectly innocent. That's our Lord Jesus. And then they took all the sin of Israel, not the sin of the people, Moabites, the sin of Israel. Not the sin of any of the Canaanites, the sin of Israel. And ceremonially only, they laid that sin on that lamb. The priests confessed the sins over the lamb, put them on the head of the lamb. Christ Jesus, he was so much more than that. He made him sin for his people, for Israel, for his people. And then they slew that lamb, they killed that lamb. And then Christ was made a curse for his people for the righteous judgment of God. That wrath had to be appeased. It had to be satisfied. Atonement had to be made for the sins of his people. And that's what Christ bore by his precious blood.

And then the high priest took that blood. He didn't take the lamb that had the sin on it. That is already dealt with. That lamb died. That's taken care of. Now he takes the blood, and he goes into the holiest of holies by himself. No other man could go in there, but he went in there by himself. And he took that blood and he sprinkled it seven times on the mercy seat. And that mercy seat was over that ark, and in that ark was the law of God.

Christ said, Father, your law's in my heart. I came to do thy will. I'm gonna sanctify, make holy. When you talk about the heart and you talk about God's will being in his heart, you're dealing with sanctification. That has to do with the heart. And he said, your law's in my heart. I came to honor your law. And he did it by his one offering, once for all. He took that, he did it, he sanctified us. but that blood is dealing with righteousness. You had to die before the law, and that blood is sprinkled seven times on that mercy seat.

That law and that ark wasn't broken. That law and that ark was intact. The law that was broken, remember Moses threw it down. That's not the law he put in that ark. He put the perfect law in that ark, because the law's got to be honored, and Christ fulfilled the law perfectly in his heart.

And he went to that cross now, not only had he obeyed God in perfect positive righteousness, he had to pay for our sins so we could be justified. So he goes and he laid down his life, and that blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us, having removed that curse from us, he entered in the holiest place with his own blood. Christ entered in the holiest of holies with his own blood.

And when they sprinkled that blood on that mercy seat, above it was the Shekinah glory, the presence of God. And God said, right there, from above that mercy seat, that's where I'll meet with you. And God says to you and me, I set him forth, he's your mercy seat, and I'll meet with you right there through faith in his blood.

So when we come, when we come, God the Father's looking only to his son, and this poor sinner that he's been gracious to come, and he's looking only to his son. And we're both giving his son all the glory. And God said, that satisfies me. I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied with my son, and I'm satisfied when you give my son all the glory he deserves. Because he justified us.

And God, he says there, God did all that to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Every sinner ever saved back there before Christ came, you know why they were saved? Because Christ was their surety, and God was looking to him. So he forbear with them, he justified them, he declared them just. Declared him accepted through faith in the blood of Christ, even though Christ hadn't shed his blood yet. Because he always only looked to his son. And he's righteous to do it. To remit the sin, put him away. He's righteous.

And he says, I say it to declare his righteousness. He's just, he's honored his law, poured out wrath on his son, and gave us the wages of sin that his people earned, and he justified us in his son. He's the justifier. That's why he did it all.

Brethren, that's why when the Lord has given you faith, that's why you don't glory in yourself. See, the nature of faith, we're looking at Christ, we see what sinners we are and we see what a holy and righteous one Christ is on our behalf. And it's written in the word. He's the only one we're gonna glory in.

Listen, in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and they'll all glory in him. That's what it says. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. The nation shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory. See, works don't exclude boasting. If you contribute anything, you'd have a reason to glory, but God won't have it.

Look at Romans 4.2. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. The only way a boasting's excluded is when the Lord brings you to see Christ. and see you're the sinner, Christ is your savior. He justified his people, and he did it from a holy heart, and God's righteous, and God's the justifier.

And when he does that, you say with Paul, God forbid, God forbid that I should glory. You know, before he gives you true faith, your worst sins were just, you know, you stole Pack of BBs when you're seven or something, you know, you went on about what a sinner you were. Now that he's given you faith, you know what sin is to you. God forbid that I should glory. God forbid that I boasted. I did anything save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world's crucified unto me and I unto the world.

I'm not looking for the approval of the world. I'm crucified to it, and the world's crucified to me and I to it. My approval with God is his son, and I'll give him the glory. I'm gonna boast in him. That's our salvation, brethren.

All right, we're gonna observe his table and remember him. Ravi, can you and Brother Adam pass out