All right, let's go to Romans
chapter 3. I'd like to say thank you to
everybody that worked so hard yesterday. And it looks really
nice. We finally got the cross down
off the front. I thought that thing was fastened
on there. We were going to have to cut
it down. And it took about five minutes to unscrew it, take it
off. And I'd have been gone a long
time ago if I knew it was that easy to take off. And we got
it down. And we're looking at it. And
it's so cheaply made with the cheapest materials it could be
made with. And I told Scott, that's a lot
of irony in that, isn't it? You have a cross made with the
cheapest materials that could be made. So anyway, we got that
down. Let's turn now to Romans 3, and
I want to ask a question at first here. What is the chief reason
Christ laid down His life on the cross? What is the chief
reason He was crucified? Most would say it was to manifest
God's love. Some would say it was to manifest
the grace of God. And a few might say it was to
manifest or it was to save His chosen people. All of those things
manifest those things, but they're not the chief reason He laid
down His life. The chief cause is found in our
text. Romans Give me one second here. Romans
chapter 3, verse 25. Whom God set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, now here
it is, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past. 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. The chief reason Christ died
on the cross was to declare the righteousness of God. It was
to declare God just and the justifier. I try to preach this every time
I preach. And some may get tired of me
talking about it, but this is the gospel. This is the very
heart of the gospel right here. If a man doesn't preach this,
he's not preaching the gospel. The righteousness of God set
forth is our gospel. Now first of all, understand,
God's chief attribute is His righteousness. God's chief attribute
is His righteousness. God will not pour out His wrath
and His justice on the righteous because that would not be just.
He will not do so. You remember when Lot was in
Sodom and Abraham drew near and he was speaking with God and
he said, if there's 50 righteous men in that city, will you spare
that city for those 50 men. And he kept going all the way
down until he got to 10. Remember that? And he said, will
you spare it for 10? And he made this statement. He
said, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? He said,
it be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the righteous
with the wicked. That the righteous should be
as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the judge of
all the earth do right? God will not slay The righteous
with the wicked. God, He waited until He got that
one righteous man out of that city, Lot. And then He rained
down fire and brimstone. God's righteous. But God also
will not clear the guilty. He will not condemn the righteous
and He will not clear the guilty. When Moses saw His glory, the
Lord declared that He keeps mercy for thousands. that He forgives
iniquity and transgression and sin, and that He will by no means
clear the guilty. He will by no means clear the
guilty. God is a righteous and just judge. Everything He does
is in accordance with His holiness, His righteousness, He does everything
right. He said in Proverbs 17 15, He
that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just,
even they both are abomination to the Lord. He that justifieth
the wicked, And he that condemneth the just, even they both are
abomination to the Lord. In Proverbs 24, 24, it says this,
He that saith unto the wicked, thou art righteous. A wicked man comes into a court
and a judge says, you're righteous. This is what the Lord said. Him,
that judge, talking about that judge. Him shall the people curse,
and nations shall abhor him. He's an unjust judge. In Deuteronomy
16, 18, the Lord said to the judges, they shall judge the
people with just judgment. Thou shalt not rest judgment. You shall not do anything that's
less than just. He said, thou shalt not respect
persons. You know, if your son comes before
you and he's guilty, God says you don't respect the person. Justice does not respect a person.
Neither take a gift, a bribe. For a gift does blind the eyes
of the wise and pervert the words. It perverts the judgment of the
righteous. A gift makes a man want to show
a little leniency to the giver. That which is altogether just
shalt thou follow. God is altogether just. So, we
know these things now, we have to see right away that you and
I have a problem. We have a problem, because we
come into this world guilty sinners. Romans 3, back up there in verse
9, I'm sorry, in verse 10, he says very plainly, there is none
righteous, no not one. Now that settles it. This is
what God says, there is none righteous, no not one. And as
we saw, when God judges righteousness, it has to be absolutely righteous. It can't be what men call righteousness,
comparing ourselves to other men and saying, well I'm more
righteous than he. No. It has to be righteous as
God is righteous. We can't justify ourselves by
working out a righteousness under the law. Romans 3.19 says, We
know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law, by our deeds under the law, there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. That's why the law was given.
But there's another problem besides the fact that we're guilty sinners.
The other problem is this. All those that God determined
to save out of this mass of fallen humanity, all those God determined
to save from the beginning, we're all guilty. So we have to be
executed. God will by no means clear the
guilty. We have to be slain in order
for God's justice to be upheld. And yet God has determined to
justify Himself, to justify all those that He shall save. So
how is that going to happen? If God just sent the whole world
to hell, that would be just. And if God comes and says, well,
I'm just going to overlook my law and I'm just going to declare
everybody justified and declare everybody righteous, that would
be unjust. So how is God going to be just
and show mercy to His people? How is He going to do that? This
is the gospel. How God can be just and Himself
be the justifier. The answer to the dilemma is
this. God came Himself in the person
of His Son and laid down His life for His people. That's the answer. Romans 3.22
says the righteousness of God is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Romans 3.25 says, whom God has
set forth a mercy seat, a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. And to declare at this
time His righteousness that God might be just and the justifier. Now look with me at Colossians
1. The Son of God is the last Adam. What do I mean by that? The first Adam represented all
those that would be born of him. That's who he represented. So
what he did, they did, because he was their head. He was our
head. Now Christ is the head of all
God's elect, Colossians 1.18. He is the head of the church. That's who he's the head of,
God's elect, the church. He's the head of the church,
his body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. This is who we're talking about.
He's the head, legal and seminal. Now, in Ephesians 5, 23, it says
Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body.
He's the Savior who saves His body. It says Christ loved the
church and gave Himself for it. That means He laid down His life
for a particular people. He laid down His life for a people
and knew who He was laying down His life for. Hebrews 2 verse
9. We see Jesus who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death. That's why
Christ was born, to suffer death. He's crowned with glory and honor
now. But he came down for the suffering of death that he by
the grace of God should taste death for every. And the word
man is added there by the translators. It's not in the original. The
word for every is each. That he would die for each. And
then he tells us who they are. Look at verse 11. For both he
that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he's not ashamed
to call them brethren. He's not ashamed to call them
brethren. Look back at verse 10. For it
became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in
bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. That means through suffering
Christ, who is the captain of our salvation, worked out a perfect
salvation. So it became Him. So look at
verse 14. I'm sorry, Hebrews 2.14, for
as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not
on him the nature of angels, But he took on him the seed of
Abraham. If you know the Bible, you know
that the seed of Abraham is not all Abraham's children. It's
only God's elect, whether they be Jew or Gentile. That's Abraham's
seed. He took on him the nature of
God's elect. Wherefore, in all things, In
all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted. In all things it behooved Christ
to be made like unto his brethren, We were flesh. The children He
came to save are flesh. So our Lord Jesus Christ took
flesh. The Son of God came down and
took human flesh. But He took perfect flesh, holy
flesh, sinless flesh. That's why He was born of a virgin. so that he would not be born
of corrupt seed like you and me are. He's holy, spotless,
undefiled, so that he could be fit to take the place of his
people. We were flesh, so he was made
flesh. We were under the law, so he
was made under the law. The lawgiver, this is what's
made. The lawgiver came down and humbled
himself and took the form of a servant and was made under
the law. And it wasn't like Christ had
to walk about and try and check the law and make sure he was
doing everything the law said. He is the righteousness of the
law. It was natural for him to do
what the law said. That's his very character. And then we were sinned. And the scripture says, He hath
made him sin for us who knew no sin. Both of those words,
sin, are the exact same word. What the first one means, the
second one means, and what the second one means, the first one
means. He hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And we were a curse
because of sin. And He hath made Him a curse
to redeem us from the curse. These are the things that are
pertaining to God. in all things that behooved Him
to be made like unto His brethren. Now for the honor of our Redeemer,
we don't just talk about this and treat it lightly and move
on. I want you to think about what
the Lord Jesus Christ was doing on that cross. He came and was
made everything that comes with sin. so that it was just for
God to pour out justice on him. That is the main point about
him being made sin. He was made sin so that it was
just for God to pour out justice on him in the room and place
of his people. And at the same time, he was
made everything that sin's penalty demands. That's what he was made
to suffer. What are some of those things?
The shame of sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ bore the
shame of sin. Sin is the most shameful thing
there is. It's not shameful as it ought
to be to you and me because all we know is sin. But here you
have this One who in Himself is holy and spotless, who knew
no sin. So He knew what it was to bear
the shame of sin. He was despised and rejected
of men. His own disciples turned their
faces and hid their faces from Him. Men spat upon Him and mocked
Him and cursed Him. And worst of all, He bore the
shame of sin before Holy God, His Father. Scripture says He
went to the cross and bore the cross despising the shame. Despising the shame. Another
part of sin and its penalty is sorrow. And he said, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even to the point of death, of just
dying from the sorrow that he was bearing. It was so intense, it made him
sweat blood. The sorrows of death compassed
me. That's what it was. The sorrows
of death. The pains of hell got hold of
me. I found trouble and sorrow. Look
at this faithfulness. Then I called upon the Lord. Oh Lord, beseech thee, deliver
my soul. You see, this sorrow he was bearing
is why he cried out in Lamentations 1.12, Is it nothing to you, all
ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. And
then he bore God's desertion. Sin and its penalty require God's
desertion. This very much has to do with
what sin is. When Adam sinned in the garden,
God withdrew his spirit from him. And because Adam was only
a man, Adam was corrupted by that. Our Savior is the God-man. He was not corrupted. But he
was deserted. Because it was justice. And he
had to be. He cried out, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? See, these things are mysteries.
We ought never take them lightly and think, well, that's just
easy to explain. Can you explain God forsaking
God? Who can explain that? It's a
mystery. The world went dark when it happened. And then, sin and its penalty
is death. It's death. And our Lord Jesus
Christ died unto sin once. Never forget, as you're thinking
about those things, never forget His person. Never forget who
this is. This One who was bearing this
for His people is God over all. Scriptures tell us God purchased
the church with His own blood. You might say God doesn't have blood.
The God-man did and does. He purchased the church with
His own blood. And while as yet He bore our
sin and His body on the tree so that God was just to punish
Him in His person and in His heart, He Himself remained without
sin in His person. Himself. He wasn't a sinner. A sinner is a rebellious person. A sinner is somebody that's rebellious
and rebels against God, breaking God's law. Christ in His person
did not do that. He was made to bear our sin,
but He didn't Himself turn rebel against God. While He was bearing
that, He remained faithful, undefiled, and harmless. And by His suffering
and death as a substitute for His people, God's righteousness
now is clearly, openly manifest. It's manifest before the whole
world. This is why He came. God is just
and God is the justifier of him which believeth in the Lord Jesus. God is just. His law has been
upheld. Christ died under the penalty
of the law. And when He died, all His people
died in Him. And that's God doing the justifying. So He justified. That means He
justified somebody. He justified a particular people.
He didn't come and just do this work and just do it for nobody. How could He have done that?
How could He have just borne nobody in particular's sin? And
justified nobody in particular just hoping somebody would come
to Him and say, well, it was me justified. No, He came and
bore a particular people's sin and justified a particular people
called the elect of God. And incidentally, that's the
only ones He died for. Because He didn't fail, He justified
them. This is the good news for His
people. Just like Adam was head over all His people and everything
Adam did, we did in Adam. Christ is the head of His people
and everything that Christ did, we did in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were in Him. As by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. I fell in another, but I was
restored in another. You see, my hand didn't have
anything to do with the Word. God did it. God did it. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies it. Not
man. God. Now lastly, what does it
mean here in our text when it says that He came to declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God? What does that mean? It means
that due to Christ becoming the surety for His people, in eternity,
before He made anything. Christ entered covenant with
the Father and became the surety for His people. A surety is somebody
who says, if they owe you anything, I want you to put that on my
account and I'm going to pay it. That's what it is to be a
surety. Now when the time comes to pay
it, whatever that debt is, it's going to have to be put on your
books. for it to become yours, and you're going to have to pay
it. You'll be the sole one responsible for it. But as a surety, you're
saying, when they owe you something, I will pay what they owe. And when He became the surety
for His people, because Christ shall not fail and cannot fail,
right then in the mind and purpose of God, it was done. He's the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God is eternal. He has no beginning and no ending.
And so is His redemption. It's eternal redemption. It means
it didn't have a beginning, it didn't have an end. It's eternal
redemption. That means for His people, all
His people, those He chose in Christ before the world was made,
those Christ became surety for. We were justified in purpose
from eternity in Christ our surety. And then we were justified indeed
at the cross when Christ poured out His blood. We're justified
experimentally, we experience this justification in the court
of our conscience when He comes and Christ is formed in you and
our conscience is purged and we're brought to faith in Christ
by the gift of God. And finally, we'll be justified
when we stand before God in the day of judgment, robed in Christ's
righteousness and God says, enter in, my good and faithful servant. This work, beginning to end,
is the work of God. But it also means this. It means
that whenever, because that happened, because he was the just one from
the beginning, all of those Old Testament saints, they came with
lamb. Because God's law said, come
with a lamb, a spotless lamb. And they watched that lamb. They
saw their sins in ceremony being put on that lamb. And then they
saw that lamb being slain. And they watched that high priest
go into the holiest of holies by himself and sprinkle that
blood on the mercy seat. Once a year, once every year,
they had to do it every year because the blood of bulls and
goats never put away sin. But what they saw in those sacrifices
was Christ to come. They saw the Lamb of God that
was to come. And they believed on Christ the
Lord. And God was just to justify them
through faith in Christ even before Christ came and laid down
His life because the works were finished before the foundation
of the world in Christ our surety. He says He did this through the
forbearance of God. You know the one reason God did
not slay Adam and just end the entire human race the moment
Adam sinned? Why did He forbear? Because Christ
had become surety for His people and He was looking to Christ,
our Justifier, and so He was forbearing till Christ could
come. But all those sinners throughout
the Old Testament, they were all saved one way. Through faith
in Christ. Trusting the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every one of them. They were not saved by the works
of the law. Works of the law never ever put away sin. When
they came, they saw Christ. Some came with those sacrifices
and they were looking to their act of bringing the sacrifices. You know, today there's a lot
of people that come and sit under the truth of the gospel. And
there's some that come and they hear Christ in the message and
they're looking to Christ and they're bowing to Christ and
all their hope is in Christ and they're rejoicing in Christ.
There are others who come and their righteousness, they think,
is in their act of coming and playing church games. That's
their righteousness. Our coming here, and our singing,
and our praying, and our scripture reading, and me preaching, none
of this is our righteousness, nor adds to our righteousness.
Our righteousness is Christ only. The reason God was just is because
He always looked to Christ. That's why He was just to pass
over their sins. And this means something else
too. You and I, brethren, We come into this world sinning
and we went through all our days of rebellion sinning. And when
we sin, the moment we sin, our sins are past sins. But at this
time, God is just and the justifier to remit all our past sins. It doesn't mean, I'm not saying
that our future sins are not already, we're not already justified
from them, we are. But I'm saying, The ones that
trouble us are the ones we know about in the past. And they ought
not to because they're already passed over. They blotted out
of God's book. And the reason God right now
has not destroyed this world, there's one reason this world's
not destroyed. Men are running around so worried
about global warming. There is going to be global warming
on a massive scale. Peter said in 1 Peter 3 that
God's going to melt everything with a fervent heat and everything's
going to be burned up. But God's going to do it. And
you and I are not going to make that happen anytime before it's
time for it to happen. Now I'm not saying go throw all
your trash out the window, don't do that. But if you threw all
your trash out the window, and I did too, this world's not coming
to an end one day sooner than God's already predetermined.
The reason is God's forbearing right now because He still has
a people in this world that Christ has justified and it will not
be wrapped up until they're called to faith in Christ. That's why
I'm preaching. That's why we're sending this
gospel forth. We're on the hunt for the sheep and Christ is going
to call them out. And when He's done, this thing
will be over with and we'll be in glory with our Lord. So understand
this, brethren, every sinner that has ever been saved, Now
get this, this is the most important thing for you to understand right
here. Every sinner that's ever been saved, past, present and
future, have all been saved one way. Repenting from all our works,
repenting from all our self-worth, repenting from anything about
us, and trusting Christ in His person and His work. to do everything
for us to bring us to God and make us justified, righteous
and holy by His work. That's what we're trusting in
and that's how everybody's always been saying. Don't go to this
book looking for how you can work out a righteousness and
have life by it. That's not what it's about. This
book from beginning to end is concerning God's Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And those who have life, those
who have righteousness, those who have salvation are those
that Christ worked out a righteousness for. He did it. He made them
just. And therefore, God calls each
one and they believe on Christ through His gift of faith and
God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us because Christ
made us righteous by His one offering. Now, if you find yourself
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you find yourself trusting
Him that He's all your righteousness, here's the good news. There is
therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. There's
no condemnation. That means the law will never
ever condemn you who believe, ever. The law bears witness that
you're righteous. God said, I, even I, am He that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not
remember thy sins. That's good news. If you haven't
believed on Him, This is the issue. This is the one thing
needful. Christ the Lord. You go through
your life and you might become everything that you ever dreamed
of, but you're going to perish with nothing if you don't find
out who Christ is and come and cast all your care on Him. That's
my prayer. Alright, let's stand together. Heavenly Father, we thank You
that You're just God and a Savior. We're thankful, Lord, that You
have established righteousness for us so that it's perfect. And we're thankful, Lord, that
You did it justifying us from all our sins. Lord, what a gracious,
holy God. Thank You, Lord, that You did
all this in Your precious Son. Thank You for calling us and
making us experience it and making us bow to Christ and trust Him
alone. Lord, thank You for the forgiveness
of past sins, present sins and future sins. We pray now, Lord,
for each believer here, Your people everywhere that You continue
to keep us looking only to Christ, coming to Christ, continually
being cleansed by Christ, And Lord, we pray for those lost
sheep that don't know you yet. And I pray, Lord, you'll call
them out. In the name of our precious, glorious Lord Jesus
Christ, we ask these things. Amen.