Alright brethren, let's turn
to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. I want to read from verse 20 down
to verse 31. Therefore by the deeds of the
law, There shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. 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, for there
is no difference. 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 hath
set forth 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. 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. 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 which shall
justify the Jew by faith and the Gentile through faith. Do
we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. Our subject is justification
through faith. Let's go to the Lord before we
begin. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
our holy God, perfectly holy, perfectly sovereign,
demanding perfection. How we do thank you. In your wisdom, you have provided
a righteousness for your people. Lord, we ask you this day to
help us to see Him, help us to believe Him, help us to rest
in Him. Thank You for bringing us here
this morning. And pray today that Your Son would be exalted
in Your name, glorified in Him. It's in His name we pray. Amen. Alright, justification
through faith. That's our subject. So, whenever
God makes us to know what a sinner we are, when He makes us to know
that we are entirely ruined in sin, The gospel, the good news,
the good news is that His Son, the Lord Jesus, has justified
all His people. And that God imputes His righteousness
to His people through faith apart from our works. That is such
good news when you come to find out that there is no works you
can do to justify yourself. And God makes you to know, believing
on His Son. God imputes the righteousness
of Christ to His people. And that's the only way God will
accept a sinner. He will only accept a sinner
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only
way He will accept a sinner. And the fact is, the only way
any sinner establishes the law, the only way, is through faith
in the Lord Jesus. We don't establish it. We don't
work the works to establish it. We trust Christ who has established
it. That's the righteousness imputed
to us. His righteousness in establishing
the law in perfection. That's the good news. That is
the good news. Our text begins in verse 20 with
the word therefore. Therefore. Now the Holy Spirit
is using Paul here to declare that there's none righteous,
no not one. And the way he does this, it's
the wisdom of God. If you go back to Romans 1, he
speaks there about the Gentiles, that would be you and me, everyone
here, He speaks to the Gentiles and he said in verse 21, when
they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were
thankful, but became vain in their imagination and their foolish
heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like a corruptible man, into birds and four-footed
beasts and creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave them
up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth
of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more
than the Creator, who's blessed forever. For this cause God gave
them up to vile affections. Even their women did change the
natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their
lust one toward another, men with men, working that which
is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of
their error which was meat. They didn't like to retain God
in their knowledge and God gave them over to a reprobate mind
to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things. disobedient to parents, without
understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit
such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have
pleasure in them that do them." So he's just declared this awful,
awful sin of Gentiles. And then the Spirit of God turns
to the Jew. who had the law of God and they
were trying to come to God by the works of the law. And he
turns to them, and you can just hear self-righteous men and what
they're thinking when they hear this letter read. They're thinking,
we're not like that. They're thinking, we are nothing
like those Gentiles. And he turns to the religious
Jew and he says to him in Romans 2 verse 1, Therefore thou art
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges. For wherein
thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judges
doest the same things. Brethren, this is just flat out
the case all the time. If you and me judge another,
we're judging ourselves and condemning ourselves because we do the same
thing. He's not talking about outwardly.
These religious Pharisees, they weren't homosexuals. They weren't
sodomites. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about if you're laying in your bed asleep,
you're sinning because your nature's sin. He's talking about the heart. He's talking about the very nature
we're born with. The Lord looked to the Pharisees
and he said, you Pharisees may clean the outside of the cup.
And he said, and the platter, but your inward part is full
of ravening and wickedness. He said, out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, theft, false witness,
blasphemies. So does that mean if I just don't
think bad thoughts, then I'm keeping the law? No, he's saying
the nature is sin. The nature is sin. All it will
produce is sin. So that is all we are, is sinners. That's what he's saying. That's
exactly what he's saying. These are the things which defile
a man. They come out of the heart. A
sinner has got to be born again of the Spirit of God. We have
to have a new heart created within us by the Spirit of God in the
holiness of Christ when Christ is formed within us. When Christ
enters in and gives us a new spirit, enabling us to look out
of ourselves for what we need, away from ourselves for what
we need, enabling us to see that we cannot produce what we need
because we're sinners. This is what he's talking about
down there at the end of Romans 2 in verse 28. He said, he's
not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh, but he's a Jew which is one inwardly.
Circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit and not in the
letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. It's God that
circumcises the heart. That's what the outward token
of circumcision pictured. God gave that to Abraham many
years after he had circumcised Abraham in the heart. And he
gave it to be a token, a reminder of what God had done in his heart.
That he had cut away the filth of his sinful nature and given
him a new heart so he could believe the gospel and believe the word
of God. That's what we have to have happen.
Until then, we will clean up the outside, we'll get religion,
we'll do all these outward things and go through the form of religion.
And we'll condemn others that appear to sin and that makes
us feel better. That makes us feel better, makes
us feel more righteous. But God says here, when we do
that, the only thing we're doing is condemning ourselves. And
he's very broad, he says, wherein thou judges another. Anything
wherein we condemn another, we're just simply looking at ourselves
and turning it right back on ourselves because we do, we are
the very same as they are in our nature. So the Spirit moved
Paul to conclude in verse 9, Romans 3 verse 9, What then? Are we Jews better than those
Gentiles? No, and no wives. For we've before
proved, both Jew and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it's written, there's none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They're together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. And he says in verse
19, now we know what things soever thou sayeth, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty before God. Therefore, now here's where
our text starts. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. There is no sinner No child born
of Adam that can justify ourselves by good works. We can't justify
ourselves by our law keeping because in fact and truth we
never are keeping the law and the righteousness God requires. We just can't do it. We can't
do it because our sin, our sin, and because we've already fallen,
we've already broken the law in Adam, we're already guilty
in Adam. So we cannot justify ourselves
by the law, and the law wasn't given to be the means by which
we're justified. The law was given to give us
a knowledge of sin. That's what it was given for.
The law entered that the offense might abound. The law entered
that we might see that we're sinners, fallen in Adam, ruined,
and our mouths be stopped, and we become guilty before God.
Look over at Galatians 3. Galatians chapter 3. The fact is there was no law
that could be given whereby we could have life by our doing
of the law because we were fallen guilty creatures. Look here in
Galatians 3.21. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe." Wherever you look in this book,
you're going to have to mightily twist the Scriptures. to in any
way gather that you can be made righteous, justified by keeping
the law. You just have to be dishonest
with the Word of God to believe that. Now secondly, what then
is the righteousness of God and how can I obtain it? Well, the
righteousness of God is a person. The righteousness of God is the
Lord Jesus Christ. I've heard men speak about the
righteousness of God in such a doctrinal way that it just
diminishes the glory of Christ. The righteousness of God is not
a doctrine. It's not really a teaching. Now,
I'm teaching you right now, and that's how we hear and understand. But the righteousness of God
is a person. It is the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look here in Romans 3, verse
21. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ. The righteousness of the law
is manifested. The righteousness of God without
the law. It's witnessed by the law and
the prophets. All the law and the prophets
spoke about this righteousness of God. The whole book of God
has been talking about this righteousness of God. That's what the whole
book declares. And you know Moses, he was a
prophet and he represents the law because the law was given
through Moses. He's a prophet and he represents
the law. And the law and the prophets
bear witness to Christ. We have a beautiful picture of
that in the fact that Moses could not take the children of Israel
into the promised land. And in that is a very instructive,
the law can't take us into heaven with God. The law can't take
us into heaven with God. We can't be brought to glory
by our doing. It won't happen. But what did
Moses do? When Moses was turning, God had
raised up Joshua. His name means Savior. It's another
form of the word Jesus. And he's the name Jesus. And he's going to take them in. Because only Christ can deliver
us into glory. And what Moses did is he laid
his hands on Joshua. Here's the law and the prophets,
laying his hand on Joshua, bearing witness, this is the one that's
taken you into the promised land. And that's what all the law and
the prophets do. They all lay their hands on the
Lord Jesus Christ and point to Him and say, He is the way into
God's presence and God's acceptance, only by His righteousness alone.
On the road to Emmaus, Christ declared, that's what all the
scriptures bear witness of. He preached to those men on the
road to Emmaus, and this is what he said, Beginning at Moses and
all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself. This whole Old Testament Scripture
is about Christ. Every verse in it leads to Christ. If we don't see Christ, it's
not because He's not there. He's there. Every verse leads
you to Christ in some way or another, because He is the message
of the whole book. Look back at Romans 1 and look
at verse 1 and 2. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, and he's
going to tell us what it is. which God had promised of four
by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's the Gospel. Christ Jesus
the Lord. The Lord Jesus is the seed of
woman. Moses wrote the first five books
of the Bible. And that's what he's called in
the law. And it includes all the law given
from Mount Sinai. But in Genesis 3.16, when God
declared the seed of woman is who was going to crush the serpent's
head and bruise the devil's head by going to the cross and having
his heel bruised, that's who he was speaking about is the
Lord Jesus Christ. whenever the Lord killed the
lamb in the garden in the place of Adam and Eve, after they had
fallen, after they had sinned, and He made coats out of those
skins, and He covered them in the coats of those skins to cover
their nakedness. It pictured the Lord Jesus Christ
who laid down His life in place of His people, and when God gives
faith, through faith God robes us in the righteousness of Christ.
That's how come Abel was accepted. that him coming with the lamb,
through the blood of a lamb, is coming to God through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Hebrews 11 says,
by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice. He
believed God, he believed that the Lord Jesus Christ was his
righteousness. All through the law and the prophets,
the Passover lamb is Christ. The prophets, Isaiah 53 is the
most well-known, and the whole chapter is telling us that the
Lord Jesus Christ bore the sin of His people, put away our sin,
justified His people, and He is the righteousness we must
have. The whole law and the prophets bear witness of Him. The righteousness
of God is manifest by the obedience of Christ unto the death of the
cross. That's what he means here when
he says verse 22, the righteousness of God is manifest, verse 22,
by faith of Jesus Christ. You know, most newer translations
change that to faith in Jesus Christ. But if that's the translation
you have, get you a King James translation because It's very
important and there is a difference in the King James Translation
between faith in Jesus Christ and the faith of Jesus Christ. The faith of Jesus Christ is
His righteousness, His obedience. Faith in Christ is you believing
in Christ. Let me show you that over in
Galatians 2. And I hope you have a King James
Translation. I think all of you do. Galatians
2.16 This is where it's so clearly,
one verse where it's so clear. Galatians 2.16, knowing that
a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified." You see, justification through faith doesn't
mean that your act of believing is what justifies you. Faith
is like a water hose. You know, water hose takes water
from the pipe to the garden. And it's just what the water
runs through. And that's what faith is. Faith
is just bringing the righteousness of Christ to you and to me. But it's Christ, by His obedience,
by His righteousness, that He made His people just, that He
justified His people. Verse 26, that's why He came
forth, to manifest the righteousness of God. He said in Romans 3,
verse 26, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He might be just, and the justifier of Him which believeth
in Jesus. The only way God could show you
and me mercy, God chose a people that he would save, but the only
way he could call us to himself and save us and bring us to glory
is if he honored his law, because God's holy. So he would by no
means clear the guilty, and we're guilty. All of this was in the
purpose of God, so that He sent forth His Son to show His righteousness
to us. This is how He purposed the whole
thing. When you think about that, isn't
that amazing? That God purposed for Adam to
fall and let him fall, that He might send His Son forth into
this world and justify His people by the obedience of Christ to
manifest to you and me His righteousness. That is wisdom. That's the highest,
most perfect wisdom there is. The Lord is well pleased for
Christ's righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. Isaiah said that way back there
in his day. Isaiah 42, 21. He knew that. God taught him that. Look over
at 2 Corinthians 5, 18. So by Christ laying down His
life in place of His people, God's just. His law has been
honored. by the obedience of Christ. And then by the fact that Christ
put away the sin of His people, God's the justifier. God is the
justifier. Look here in 2 Corinthians 5
and look at verse 18. all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us
the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation."
If God If God's the just, Christ upheld His law, and God's the
justifier, Christ is God. God was in Christ reconciling
His people to Himself. Now, if God will not impute sin
to His people, what's He going to do about our sin? Something
has got to be done about our sin. So what did God do? Look
down at 2 Corinthians 5.21. This is why He will not impute
sin to His people, for He hath made Him sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
By Christ bearing the sins of His people, God was just to impute
sin to His Son and pour out wrath upon His Son and judge His Son
in our place. And because Christ justified
His people, now God is just through faith in Christ to impute the
righteousness of Christ to you and me. This is all about His
righteousness. It's all about Christ's righteousness. And Christ is that righteousness. That's why Paul said in Romans
10, if you want to look there, Romans 10, He said, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. I bear them record, they have
a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge. Now look at this,
they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. And look what the next word says,
for Christ, Christ, He is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. The righteousness of God is Christ. Now, go back to Romans 3 and
let's get to the last point here. The way sinners obtain the righteousness
of God, the way we establish the whole law of God, that's
what it is for God to count you righteous. is for God to count
you as having established the whole law of God in perfection,
being perfectly righteous with no sin. Now, the only way you
and me do that, the only way any sinner does that is believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe Christ did it for
us. We believe Christ accomplished
it for us. That's what faith believes. Look
at Romans 3.22. The righteousness of God by the
faith of Jesus Christ is unto all and upon all them that believe. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God." There's no difference. It has to be this
way, brethren. Everybody God saves has to be
saved this one way through faith in Christ because we're no different. Jew or Gentile, we've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God. There's no exception. But we're saved through His righteousness. Romans 3.24, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus,
whom God set forth a propitiation, a mercy seat, through faith in
His blood. You remember in the Holiest of
Holies, that word propitiation means mercy seat. He's the sacrifice, and he's the seed of mercy. He's the propitiation. In that
Holy of Holies, God had told them to make a little box called
the Ark of the Covenant about this big, about this tall. It was just a small little box
and it had the law of God in it. And over the top was a seat,
and he called it the mercy seat. And the cherubim faced in, looking
at that mercy seat. All eyes are on Christ. And the
children of Israel had to come every year on the Day of Atonement. because we have to have atonement
made at one moment. We have to be made at one with
God because we sinned against Him. That's what he was talking
about when he said God was in Christ reconciling us to Himself. So on the day of atonement they
came, but they came with a lamb. And it had to be a spotless lamb.
That lamb pictures Christ. And they came there and the high
priest, the high priest pictures Christ. The high priest put his
head on that lamb, and he confessed the sin of Israel over that lamb,
and in ceremony, and type, and picture, transferred their sin
to the lamb. Now, what took place with our
Lord Jesus wasn't a picture and a type. He made Him sin for us. He bore our sin. He took them
Himself and they became His. And He owned them as His. God's
not playing pretend. God is just and He's strictly
just. And His law's got to be honored.
He wouldn't even pour out wrath on His Son until He made Him
bear the sin of His people. That's how righteous God is. when that Lamb in ceremony bore
the sin of Israel. Now listen, He didn't bear the
sin of all other nations around there. There were a lot of other
nations besides Israel. In Type he bore the sin of Israel. Christ went to the cross and
bore the sin of God's elect Israel alone. The Israel of God from
among Jew and Gentile. And when He bore that sin then,
they killed the Lamb. and his blood was poured out.
And the high priest went into that holiest of holies once a
year. Not without blood. He always
had to go in with blood. Only the high priest could go
in there. And he went in there and he dipped his finger in that
blood and he sprinkled that mercy seed seven times. Seven times he sprinkled that
mercy seat. I forget what it's called now,
but he dipped it in there and he sprinkled that mercy seat
seven times. And God passed over their sin
for another year. But that never put away sin.
It just pictured. That was the law bearing witness
of Christ, the righteousness of God. But Christ came forth,
and it says in Hebrews 9.12, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in one time into the
holy place, not the holy place made with hands, into God's presence.
One time having obtained eternal redemption for us. That's what
He accomplished. It's not our faith that made
Him accomplish it, He accomplished it. It's not our faith that justified
us, He justified us. He comes then and brings us good
news to His child, circumcises us in the heart, gives us eyes
to behold Him, faith to believe Him, and we cast it on Him, and
then God imputes to us that righteousness of our Lord Jesus. That's what
He accomplished. What shall we say then? The Gentiles
which followed not after righteousness. They didn't have the law. They
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of
faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
didn't attain it. Why? Because they didn't seek
it by faith. but as it were by the works of
the law, because they stumbled at the stumbling stone. They
could not bow to all the glory going to God's Son, rather than
to them taking part in that glory. They stumbled at the stumbling
stone, at Christ. But you see, this is why God
saves this way. This excludes all our boasting.
That's what he says there in Romans 3 verses 27, In 28, boasting
is excluded. It's not excluded by the law
of works. It's excluded by the law of faith. We conclude a man's
justified by faith without the deeds of the law. It excludes
all our boasting. God won't let us have a part
of glory. He won't let us glory in it.
And it says there in verses 29 and 30, it's one God and He saves
all His people, Jew and Gentile, this one way, through faith in
Christ. And then he says there at the
end, Romans 3.31, Do we then make void the law through faith?
This is what we're accused of. Because we say that no sinner
can keep the righteousness of the law. They say you're telling
sinners to just make void the law. No. No. The law's got to
be upheld. The law's got to be established
or we can't enter God's presence. We're declaring there's only
one way you can establish the law. That's through faith. Paul said, do we make void the
law? God forbid, yea, we establish the law. We establish it through
faith. Through faith. And he uses Abraham
as the example. Abraham kept every commandment
that God gave him. Mount Sinai. He kept them all. He kept them in perfection. And
he did it 430 years before God ever gave the law at Sinai. You
say, that's impossible. It's impossible if it's by the
works of a man's hands. But he believed Christ. And it
was through faith in Christ that God imputed the righteousness
of Christ to him. If you read on, sometimes the
chapters mess us up. But Paul makes that argument.
The Spirit of God makes that argument. And then you keep reading
Romans 4.1 says, What shall we say then that Abraham, our father,
is pertaining to the flesh is found? If Abraham were justified
by works, he has whereof to glory. If he put his hand to the work,
if he fulfilled one law, then he had something to glory in.
But not before God. God's not going to let anybody
have glory. What says the scripture? Abraham
believed God and it was counted, it was imputed to him for righteousness. It was not of debt, it was by
grace. He says there, now to him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David describes the blessedness
of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without work, saying,
blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. This is the good news. Sinner,
if you're sitting here today, and you think you're good, or
you think, you just read that, it said there is none righteous,
no not one. There is none good, there is
none that seeks after God, there is none, brethren. But if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, God
declares you're righteous. And when God says you're righteous,
it's because you really are righteous, been made righteous by Christ.
And believer, this is a good news for you and me. God will
not impute sin to you because you don't have any. You can't
be righteous and a sinner. Before God, before God's holy
law, in Christ, by Christ, We have no sin. That's why God won't
impute sin to us. We have been made the righteousness
of God by the Lord Jesus Christ's obedience, and so therefore,
believing Christ, God imputes righteousness to us. It's what
we've been made by Christ. By the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Oh, that's good news. Isn't that
good news? You could preach that chapter
to me, Every time you come and preach, I'll be happy to hear
it. That just thrills my soul. That's my hope right there. If
you ask, what is your hope? That's it right there. Christ
Jesus, my righteousness, is my hope. Alright, let's go to the
Lord. Father, we thank you for this
word. We thank you, Lord, that you sent Your Son and justified
Your people freely by Your grace. Thank You for faith to believe
Him. Lord, thank You for this Gospel to keep us in remembrance
of our Redeemer. We pray for our brethren that
aren't here with us now. We pray You'd be with those that
are sick, those that are suffering in whatever way they are, that
You'd be with them and comfort them and keep them and turn them
to Christ and keep them rejoicing in Him alone. And Lord, we pray
now that You would plant us firmly upon Christ and keep us looking
only to Him. Make us ever know that we have
no righteousness of our own. We're sinners in ourselves. Our
righteousness is Christ alone. Thank You, Lord, for this mercy.
Thank You for this grace. Thank You for this free salvation,
for this perfect righteousness in Christ. In His name we ask
it. Amen.