Let's open our Bibles to Romans
chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Now, in the context here, Paul
is teaching us, he's been teaching us from Romans chapter 1 all
the way to Romans chapter 3. The same message. He's been dealing
with the same subject the whole way through. And when he gets
to our text today, he doesn't change the context. He's still
dealing with the same subject. And what he's been declaring
is the righteousness of God is manifest and His people made
righteous, not by our works under the law, but by the faith of
Christ Jesus, His Son. That's what he's been declaring.
In Romans 1, verses 16 and 17, he said, it's in the gospel that
the righteousness of God is revealed. God reveals it from faith to
faith. He declared in Romans chapter
1 all the way through chapter 2. He showed the sin and idolatry
of Gentiles. And then He used the Gentiles
to declare to the Jews, you're no better than they are. We've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. So He's totally
showing man his complete and total depravity. He begins to
declare that in Romans 3, in verse 9, he says there's no difference
between a Jew and a Gentile. All are under sin. There's none
righteous, no not one. Then he declares in Romans 3,
19 and 20 that the law was not given to justify us. The law
was given to declare us guilty and shut our mouths. And then
he shows in Romans 3 verses 21 through 26 that the righteousness
of God is manifest by the faith of Christ. By the faith of Christ,
apart from our works. He says we're justified freely
by God's grace. through faith, through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus the Lord. He says it's Christ who God set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. It's Christ
that God set forth to declare His righteousness for the remissions
of the Old Testament saints. It's Christ God set forth to
declare that He's just and the justifier of His people. This
has been the context of everything He's been preaching all the way
through. And when He gets to our text today, He doesn't change
the context. He's still declaring the same
message. And I want to show you now in
our text, things accomplished through faith. That's what these
three points have in common. They are three things accomplished
through faith. Let's read Romans 3.27. Where
is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? By what doctrine? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. There's the first thing accomplished
through faith. Here's the next thing. 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 circumcision, the Jew, by faith, and the uncircumcision,
the Gentile, by faith. That's the second thing accomplished
through faith. the justification of Gentiles as well as Jews.
And then here's the third thing. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. That's the third thing accomplished
through faith, the establishment of the law. Now first of all,
the exclusion of sinners boasting is accomplished through faith
in Christ. This is the one way that God
can exclude all our boasting. We can't boast in anything we
did. The one way that's excluded is through faith. He says there
in verse 27, where's boasting then? It is excluded. By what
law? What doctrine excludes boasting?
Is it the doctrine of works? No. but by the doctrine of faith,
faith in Christ. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Now, here's
something most people don't understand. God will not allow any sinner
to boast in ourselves about any aspect of our salvation. God
will not allow you and me to glory in ourselves about any
aspect of our salvation. God won't allow us to boast that
we chose God. He won't allow that. He won't
allow us to boast that if we say that God elected us, as some
do, He won't allow us to boast that God elected us because God
foresaw something good in us, or because He foresaw something
we would do. That would be boasting in us. God won't even allow that.
When God showed Moses His glory, Moses asked to see His glory.
Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Show me why you're
to be praised. Show me why all the glory and
all the honor is yours. Show me that, Lord. And the Lord
said, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee, and I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee, and listen now, and will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. and will show mercy on whom I
will show mercy. That's God's glory. So God's
not going to share that glory with us. He's not going to give
us the glory of choosing God when we will. He has the glory
of choosing whom He will. That's God's glory. And God declares
that creating His people anew in regeneration. We come into
this world dead in trespasses and in sin. He declares in the
Scripture that to create us new and regenerate us and give us
life by the Spirit of God. He says He won't share the glory
of that work with us. He won't let us praise ourselves
for giving ourselves life. Look back at Romans 2 verse 29. He says he's a Jew which is one
inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart. That's what outward circumcision
pictured. It pictured regeneration of the
heart. In the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men but of God. God's the one who gets the glory
for this work. He said in Isaiah 42, 7, "...Everyone
that is called by My name, I have created him for My glory." for
my praise, for my honor. And God won't share that with
us. We can't boast that we chose God. We can't boast that we stirred
up life in ourselves and by our free will we came to God when
we pleased us. That's boasting. God said no.
The man that I created, I created him for my glory. He that is
born is born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God. God gets the glory. And so, when
we consider here what Paul is telling us all through Romans
is the very reason that God sent His Son to die on the cross is
to declare God is righteous. Is to declare His righteousness.
Is to declare that God always does what is just and right.
and that he's the one that is just and he's the one that's
the justifier of those that believe in Christ. That's why he sent
his son. So he especially will not allow us to boast that we
made ourselves righteous and justified ourselves by our deeds
to the law. He certainly won't allow us to
boast in that. Look at Romans 3.21. Now the
righteousness of God without your law keeping is manifested. being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith or by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. And it's His righteousness is
unto all and upon all them that believe. Because there's no difference
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This
is the only way we can be made righteous because we're all sinners.
So you see, the righteousness, the glory of establishing the
law, which is to establish the law is to justify His people
and make us righteous. For you and I to be justified
and to be made righteous means we've established the whole law.
That work went to Christ, God's Son. And He accomplished it. And God won't let us boast that
we've had any part in it. He just will not. He will not. In the Lord, Isaiah 45, 25 says,
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. We're going to be justified,
He said, in the Lord. And the result is, And in the
Lord shall they glory. In the Lord. Thou shalt swear
the Lord liveth in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness,
and the nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him shall they
glory. You're familiar with this one.
Jeremiah 9.23, Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory
in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might.
Let not the rich man glory in his riches. Do you know what
it means by when he says, let him not glory, let him not boast. Let him not pat himself on the
back and praise himself. But let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. The Lord said
that I am the Lord which exercises loving kindness and judgment
and righteousness in the earth. In other words, rejoice to know
I'm the Lord who made you the righteousness of God. That's what His people rejoice
in. But now here's the thing, works this message of works,
this message that says that you, either before conversion, that
you have to do something to clean up your act before you can come
to Christ, or that says after you've come to Christ, now you
have to go back to the law and you have to keep the law to please
God and for acceptance and for righteousness or for holiness.
That message, brethren, doesn't exclude boasting. That message
gives you reason to boast. If anything's put into our hands,
we're going to brag about it. We're braggers. It's just how
it is. And so God... Look down at Romans
4, 2. If Abraham were justified by
works, he hath whereof to glory. But not before God. God won't
allow it. So there's only one doctrine by which man's boasting
is excluded. Only one. It's the doctrine. that declares that God justified
His people, that God made us righteous by Christ's finished
work on the cross, and so that God sends the Spirit and gives
us life and faith and brings us to cast all our care on Christ,
and through faith in Christ, God imputes to us the righteousness
that Christ has made us. He imputes the righteousness
that Christ has made the believer through faith. And so, if a man
boasts about his faith, now there are people, we're a strange creature,
a sinner is, and we'll find a straw, if you'll just let us grab on
to a straw, and we'll boast. And a sinner will boast in his
faith. You've heard that probably, you've heard religious folks
boasting about their faith. Let me tell you something, a
person that boasts about their faith does not have true faith. Because that's just the opposite
of what true faith is and what it does. True faith excludes
boasting. True faith does not boast. Even
the way God gives faith excludes boasting. Look at Ephesians 2.8.
Ephesians 2.8. For by grace are you saved through
faith. and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. What's
he talking about? Is he talking about grace? Is
he talking about salvation? Or is he talking about faith?
He's talking about all three. Grace and salvation and faith
are not of us. They're gifts of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we're his workmanship. were
His workmanship. He created us in Christ Jesus
unto good works which He before ordained that we shall walk in
them. And faith in Christ is one of
those works. Faith in Christ is one of those
good works that God ordained before the foundation of the
world that all His children shall walk in. And so He makes us His
workmanship. And He gives us faith by His
grace. And He brings us to believe on Christ. Because He ordained
it. He predestinated it. It's going to happen. Faith excludes
boasting because faith is opposite to works. It's opposite to works. Faith believes on Christ. Faith
trusts that God has justified me in Christ. Acts 13.39 says,
By Him all that believe are justified from all things from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses. We're justified
from all things from which we could never be justified by our
works. And that's through faith in Christ.
See, listen to how opposite faith is from works. Romans 10.10 says,
With the heart Man believeth unto righteousness. Man thinks
you have to do works, you have to keep the law to be righteous
and to establish the law. God says, you believe on my son,
that's how you are made righteous. Through faith in him, believing
on him. Faith excludes boasting because
all faith is accompanied with repentance. What's repentance? It's turning
from something. And it's turning from self and
from self-worth and from all self's works. That's with faith. It always accompanies faith.
Faith and repentance are a two-sided coin. Where you have faith, you're
going to have a man turning from himself and his works and his
self-worth and trusting all on Christ. That's what faith is.
So it's opposite to works. And when the man has been brought
to this place, he says with the apostle Paul, Paul said in Galatians
6.14, God forbid that I should glory. God forbid that I should
glory in myself. Save in the cross of Christ. There is where I glory. I glory
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. We are the circumcision. Here's
a true believer. Here's a true Jew. We are the
circumcision which worship God in the Spirit. That means we're
not going around putting on a big show outwardly and making our
religion to be all about the outward. We worship God in the
Spirit. And we rejoice, we boast, we
glory in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. and we have no confidence
in our flesh whatsoever. That's a true believer. That's
true faith. That's true faith. Now be careful to note here.
We're going to go to the next point. Paul has not changed the
context. This is the context of Romans
3. It's the context of Romans 4.
It's the context of all Romans. In fact, it's the context of
all the scripture. We're saved through faith in
Christ. We're justified through faith in Christ. We're made righteous
through faith in Christ. We establish the law through
faith in Christ. Not by our works. Not by our
works. But I want you to see here that
this justification, this righteousness through faith in Christ without
the deeds of the law, this is the context right here in our
text. Context matters, doesn't it?
If we don't follow the context, we've totally missed the point. So context is of absolute importance. He hasn't changed the context.
So here's the second thing. Through faith, the justification
of God's elect Gentiles is accomplished. The same as the justification
of His elect Jews. Through faith, God justifies
His elect Gentiles the same as He does His elect Jews. Look
at this, Romans 3.29. 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 circumcision, the Jew, by
faith, And it's one God that shall justify the uncircumcision,
the Gentile through faith. The words by and through don't
change anything. You could say by in both cases
or through in both cases. The point is, it's one God who
shall justify the Jew and the Gentile one way, by faith. By faith in Christ. Now, why
does the Spirit of God move Paul to include the fact that God
is the God of the Gentiles? Why does He move him to do that
right here? It's actually incredibly wise because God never gave the
Gentiles the law. He never did. You and I are Gentiles according
to the flesh. We were not born as fleshly children
of Abraham and fleshly Israel. And that's the only nation in
the world that God met at Mount Sinai and gave the Ten Commandments. The only one. He gave the ceremonial
law. He gave all the law. Right there.
He didn't give it to the Gentiles. They never even had the law.
Back up there in Romans 2, Paul said the Gentiles which have
not the law. We never had the law. How then
is the justification of the Gentile accomplished if they don't even
have the law? You see where Paul's going with
this? He's showing here, if I'm going to prove to you that you're
not justified by your works under the law, what better way to show
it than to show you, I'm going to show you a people who never
even had the law and yet are justified. and fulfilled, attained
to the very righteousness of the law that they didn't even
have. Isn't that a good way to show
that we're not made righteous by our works? If I can show you
that a man is made righteous who didn't even have the law
and didn't even know what the law said, doesn't that show you that you're
not going to be made righteous by keeping the law? By your deeds
keeping the law? Look at Romans 3.30. Here's the
point, it's one God. It's one God who shall justify
the Jew and the Gentile. And He does it one way, by faith. That's the point. That's the
point. What the Spirit of God is doing, turn to Acts 15. I
want to show you this. The Spirit of God is doing with
Paul what He did with the Apostle Peter. And I want you to see
what He did. Look here, Acts 15. This is such
a clear, bold, dogmatic statement right here. These Jews who claimed
to believe the gospel, they came down and they came to these Gentile
believers. And they began to try to bring
these Gentile believers back under the law. Look here what
they did, Acts 15, 5. They rose up certain of the sect
of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful to
circumcise these Gentiles and to command them to keep the law
of Moses. That is what most of you Reformed
Baptists and your Presbyterians and most all religion all over
the world teaches. Once you believe Christ, it's
necessary that you be commanded to keep the law. That's what
they all declare. They call it progressive sanctification. That's the loophole they use
to bring a sinner, a believing sinner back under the law. It's
a bald-faced lie. And I'm going to show you right
here from the Word of God. They said it's an evil to circumcise
them and command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles
and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And
when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them,
Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made
choice among us that the Gentiles The Gentiles, by my mouth, should
hear the word of the gospel. Remember that? Remember back
a few chapters before where Peter was on the housetop and the Lord
let down his sheep and showed him all manner of animals and
he said, Peter, arise, kill and eat. Peter said, oh, not so,
Lord. I wouldn't dare eat any pork for anything. And what the
Lord was teaching him was, whatever I've made holy, don't you call
common. I've made it holy. What I've
chosen and separated and made perfect by my offering and my
blood of my Son and by my Spirit, don't you call it common. Now
go down here to these Gentiles and preach the gospel of Christ
to them. He was showing them that he had already sanctified
some Gentiles. And he was fixing to call them
out. And he sent Peter down there. Peter says, so you know He made
choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. And God which knoweth the hearts,
God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them
the Holy Ghost even as He did unto us, and put no difference
between us Jews and them Gentiles. He put no difference between
us. Purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt
ye God? Why are you tempting God? What were they doing? Why are
you tempting God? By bringing His believing people
back under the yoke of the law. Why are you tempting God by putting
the yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear? He's saying, this yoke of the
law that you're telling them they have to keep, our fathers
never kept that law. And you and I have never kept
that law. Why do you want to put it on
these Gentiles? They can't keep it either. But, now let's get
this statement right here. We believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ we Jews shall be saved even as they. You know what that statement
said? We believe. He didn't say we believe that
those Gentiles are going to have to be saved like us. That would
be saying they're going to have to be brought under the law.
No, no. He said Us Jews who have the
law, we're going to be saved like those Gentiles. We're going
to have to be separated from the law just like we don't even
have it and be saved through faith in Christ alone. You talk
about a big statement. That was a big statement he made
to those Jews because they cherished the law and thought that they
cherished their works is what they cherished. Peter showed,
and that's just what, that is exactly what Paul is doing in
our text. He's declaring that it's one
God that justifies the Jew and the Gentile, and he does it one
way, he does it by faith. So, we'll get into that more
when we get into Romans 4, and we'll see that God did this for
Abraham, gave him faith before as yet he was ever even circumcised,
and he did it 430 years before he had the law. Alright, but
let's stick with the context now. So we see here that God
excludes boasting through faith. The context is here God justifies
sinners who don't even have the law through faith. And that shows
you that it's God who justifies all men one way through faith
in Christ. That's accomplished through faith.
Now here's the third thing, and this context has not changed
at all. Through a sinner's faith in Christ,
the establishment of the law is accomplished. Through faith
in Christ, we establish the law. The establishment of the law
is accomplished through faith. Verse 31, Do we then make void
the law through faith? God forbid, yet we establish
the law through faith. Now all of us have heard preachers
come to this point right here, verse 31. And they totally change
the context when they get to this point. They totally extrapolate
verse 31 from the rest of the context and try to make it say
something that runs totally contrary to everything Paul's been declaring
up to this point. You've heard it and I've heard
it. Out of context, they use this verse to do what those Jews
did to the Gentile believers. They tempt God by telling a sinner,
now see there, the law is not made void. You still have to
establish it. That's what they do. Is that
the context you've been hearing Paul speak about throughout this
Roman letter up to this point? That's the very opposite of what
Paul's been declaring. The very opposite of what he's
been declaring. This verse declares the same point that the two prior
points declared. It's declaring what God accomplishes
for the sinner through faith in Christ. And here it is, the
establishing of the law. establishing of the law. The
Apostle Paul faced the same charge that you and I face, which is
a charge of antinomianism, being against the law. On one occasion,
Paul was at Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish religion, he was
there and he was all of a sudden attacked by these will-worshippers,
and they grabbed a hold of him, and here's what they cried out.
Acts 21, 28. They cried out, Men of Israel,
help! This is the man that teacheth
all men everywhere against the people and against the law, and
against this place. This is a man who is preaching
antinomianism. He's against the law. And that's
the reason, knowing that's going to be the argument, knowing that's
going to be the objection when men hear what Paul has written,
Paul says, Do we then make void the law through faith as we be
slanderously reported? That's what he's saying. Do we
make void the law through faith as men slanderously say we do?
God forbid, through faith in Christ who established the law
for us, we establish the law. The whole point of Christ's coming.
Justification. If you're justified, it's God
declaring that you've established the whole law. If you're declared
righteous by God, it's God declaring you've established the whole
law. That's what He's been talking about through the whole context.
How do we establish the law? God sent His Son. And His Son
established it for His people. And we establish it through faith
in Him. The only way. Sadly, what's even
more amazing, usually when they twist Paul's words, at the same
time, they take us over to Matthew 5, to Christ's Sermon on the
Mount, and they twist Christ's words and use it to say the same
thing. Go with me to Matthew 5, 17. Here, Christ is about to declare
how strict the law is so that He's showing that it's going
to be impossible for you and I to keep it except through faith
in Christ. And He says in Matthew 5.17, Think not that I have come
to destroy the law, I'm not come to destroy it. And that's about
all sinners act like they read when they preach from this. It's
just that. And then they start saying, see there? He didn't
destroy the law. The law is still in effect. You've
still got to keep the law. You're in an obligation to keep
the law. That's not what Christ said. Listen, think not that
I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come
to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle, one dotting of
the i, one crossing of the t, shall in no wise pass from the
law till all be fulfilled. Now, how could you read that
and say, well, see there, Christ didn't destroy the law. Believers
are still obligated to establish it. Well, if we're going to use
that argument, if we're going to use that reasoning, think
about this. Christ said here, I didn't come to destroy the
law and the prophets. So, if I won't get from that,
that since He didn't destroy the law, I have to keep the law,
then I also have to get from that, that since He didn't destroy
the prophets, I have to fulfill the prophets. Would any man be
that absurd to say, I can fulfill the prophets? Of course not. And neither can we fulfill the
law. Neither can we fulfill the law. The establishing of the
law, the fulfilling of the law is to perfectly keep it in every
jot and tittle. That's what it is to be justified.
That's what it is to be righteous. Paul declared plainly in Romans
1 and 3, no sinner can do it. There's none righteous, no not
one. He declared Christ alone is the one who came and perfectly
established the law, who perfectly filled it full so that nothing
else can be added to it at all. And that righteousness, that
perfect establishing of the law is unto and upon all them that
believe. That's just so clear from our
text. If a man has ears to hear what Christ is saying there in
Matthew 5 is, He's saying that when the Pharisees teach sinners,
that sinners can establish the law, those Pharisees are breaking
the law, and they're teaching other sinners to break the law.
Look at Matthew 5, 19. Whosoever therefore shall break
one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall
be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Drop down to verse
20. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. And blind sinners
take that and say, see there, you're going to have to do even
better than the Pharisees. That's not what he's saying.
He's saying, they're the best that can be. You can't do better
than them. But you've got to have a righteousness
better than them. And Christ is that righteousness. Look back
at verse 19. Whosoever shall do and teach
them, Christ fulfilled the law and Christ is teaching us the
way that we fulfill it is through faith in Christ. Whosoever shall
do it and teach it, the same shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven and that's Christ. That's Christ. Now back
to Romans 3. You see the context. I don't
have to go through all that again. After all that, it's absurd to
think Paul is saying that we now establish the law by our
works. But to go forward just a little
bit, I want to show you Romans 4.1. Look at the context that
he goes into, right into. He hasn't changed the context.
He's talking about a man that lived 430 years before the law
was given. Verse 1, What shall we say then
that Abraham our father is pertaining to the flesh hath found? For
if Abraham were justified by works, he hath worth the glory,
but not before God. For what says the scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. You see that? I'm just reading
that to you to show you the context. Nowhere in here is he talking
about you keeping the law. He's saying we can't keep it.
Christ only kept it. Here's the good news now, sinner.
Hear this and believe on Christ. Look at verse 23, Romans 4.23.
It was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to
him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. who was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. If you
believe on Christ, God says in the court of your conscience,
you are as righteous as God is righteous. That's right. Through faith in Christ, because
Christ made us the righteousness of God by His blood and His righteousness,
God imputes to the believer the righteousness that Christ has
made us. And He declares to you, you are as righteous as God is
righteous. And here is what we have because
of that. This is the great comfort we have, Romans 5.1. Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. You want to have peace with God?
Lay down your works. Lay down your doing, lay down
your self-worth, lay down everything about you and come as a guilty,
hell-deserving sinner to Christ and ask mercy and cast all your
care on Him. And you'll have the righteousness
of God and you'll have peace with God. Let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
day. We thank You for this Word. We thank You for Christ Jesus,
our righteousness, our perfect establishment of the law, our
perfect fulfillment of all righteousness. Lord, don't let us ever turn,
don't let us ever look anywhere but to Christ. Keep us looking
from ourselves, keep us looking from our works to Him alone.
Lord, call out Your sheep, make them to see this glorious good
news This law that was so massive and so tall and so broad that
we could never keep it, Christ has fully established it. And
now, Lord, by your grace, we can live under you in peace and
communion, never ever to be severed. Keep us, Lord, in that love.
We ask it in Christ's precious name. Amen.