Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Sinners are saved by the righteousness
of God. Saved by the righteousness of
God. That's righteousness which is
of God. That's of God's providing. It's of God's doing. It's of
God's applying. Sinners are saved by the righteousness
of God. Romans 3.20 says, therefore,
now let's review a minute. Since all are fallen in Adam,
since all are dead in trespasses and in sins, Since none can obey
God's law, 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. Now the law can only identify
sin, it can only condemn, it can only kill. That's all the
law can do. That's what it says it was provided
for, to give you a knowledge of sin. The law is righteousness,
but it cannot produce righteousness. The law requires righteousness,
but it can never reveal righteousness. 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
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 has set forth, the margin says, foreordained. whom God has foreordained 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? No, 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 circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea,
we establish the law. Now first of all, we see the
relationship of the law to the righteousness of God. Here's
the relationship of the law to the righteousness of God. Verse
21, But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. The righteousness
of God is without a sinner's deeds to the law. That's what it means, the righteousness
of God without the law. It's without a sinner's deeds
to the law. Even after conversion, even after
you've been converted, our works and our acts of obedience are
in no way connected to the righteousness of God. Not in any way. Our works, our acts of obedience
have nothing to do with the righteousness of God. In fact, in Galatians
3, have you ever noticed this? When Paul is talking about believers
who go back to the law for sanctification. That's what he's talking about
in Galatians 3. They go back to the law thinking by their
deeds they're going to be sanctified. But as soon as he talks about
that, he goes to talking about how no sinner is justified by
the law. He doesn't say sanctified, he
says justified. Why does he do that? Because
before God, well for one thing, our deeds to the law has nothing
to do with our sanctification. But before God, when a sinner
turns to the law for sanctification, God says he's trying to justify
himself. He's trying to earn a righteousness
for himself. Now that sinner in his mind,
he may be going to, and this is what really it's about, he's
going to the law to justify himself as a holy man before men. That's what he's doing. He's
trying to show men he's a holy man. God says what they're showing
Him is they're trying to justify themselves and earn a righteousness
for themselves by the law. And God won't have it. God will
not have it. We cannot be justified or sanctified
by our deeds to the law. Romans 9.31 says this, which followed after the law
of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. They tried
to earn a righteousness by doing the law, and so they didn't attain
to righteousness. Nor can the law reveal to us
What righteousness is? That righteousness which saves
us from sin. The law can't reveal it to us.
The gospel alone reveals the righteousness of God to us. Remember
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believes. For therein is
the righteousness of God revealed. It's the righteousness of God
revealed through the preaching of Christ and Him crucified.
But the righteousness of God is witnessed by the Law and the
Prophets. The Law and the Prophets do bear
witness to the righteousness of God. The moral law, the Ten
Commandments, bear witness to the perfection of this righteousness
of God. If the law could speak, the law
would say, that one is the righteousness of all my precepts. He is and
has fulfilled the righteousness of all my precepts. The Lord
is well pleased for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law
and make it honorable. The ceremonial law bears witness
of the righteousness of God. all through the ceremonial law,
especially the Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, that
was all about the righteousness of God. They had to come with
a spotless lamb, and the sins of the people had to be laid
on that lamb, and that lamb then had to be killed. And then the
high priest took the blood of the lamb into the holiest of
holies and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat. He went in
there alone. No man could go with him. And
all of that was declaring the righteousness of God. Every bit
of it. And then the prophets, they bore
witness of the righteousness of God. Daniel said, Seventy
weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city
to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to
make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness
and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most
holy. When you read Isaiah, you come
to Isaiah 53, that whole chapter is all about the righteousness
of God. Well, if this righteousness of
God is without our deeds to the law, then what is this righteousness
of God? It's not a what, it's a who.
Look here at the second thing. The righteousness of God is by
the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, and the righteousness of God
is God's own Son, Christ Jesus. Look at Romans 3.22. 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. The righteousness of God is not
manifested by our faith in Christ. Manifested means made to appear,
made to be seen, fulfilled, accomplished. That's not done by our faith
in Christ. But it's by the faith of Christ
Himself. Now I say this each time I read
this text, and I'm going to say it again in case somebody is
listening to this message for the first time. If you have a
Bible that says, in Christ, the righteousness of God which is
by faith in Christ, throw it away and get you a Bible that
says the righteousness of God which is of Christ. That is all
the difference in the world, brethren. We're not saved by
faith in Christ, we're saved by the faith of Christ. Whenever Scripture says of God
or of Christ, it's speaking of that which is performed and provided
by God, by Christ. Listen to this. Now when John
had heard in the prison the works of Christ, He sent two of his
disciples. John heard the works of Christ. The works Christ himself was
doing. Listen to Acts 2.31. He seeing this before spake of
the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell,
neither his flesh did see corruption. That's speaking of Christ raised
from the dead. When the Bible speaks of faith
in Christ, it's speaking of the believer believing in Christ. By faith in Christ, we receive
the righteousness which is by the faith of Christ. Look at
Galatians 2.16. This is the best verse on this
right here. Galatians 2.16. And this is an
important point now. Look at this, 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." So our text is declaring that the righteousness
of God is by the doing and dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's
by His faithful doing and His faithful dying. Our Lord Jesus
Christ was made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law. That's why He came forth, and
He accomplished it. He accomplished purging His people
from our sins. He accomplished making His people
the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, He hath
made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. See, all His people were in Him. All His people were in Him as
our legal head and as our seminal head. So that what He did, all
His people really did. So when He was crucified with
the sins of His people upon Him, Romans 6 says, all His people
were crucified. And when he came out of the grave
and arose from the dead, Scripture says all his people came out
of the grave in him and sat down at God's right hand. And then
he's the seminal head. He comes with the gospel and
it's through this incorruptible seed that we're born a second
time. The first time we were born of
corrupt seed and we had a corrupt nature. We're just like our daddy
Adam. The second time we're born of
the incorruptible seed. So that that new man is holy
and without sin. God doesn't create anything with
sin. That is sin. What He creates is altogether
holy and righteous. And He creates a new man within
His people. That's why Christ told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. God doesn't use anything of our
flesh. If we're going to know Him, and
follow Him, and rest in Him, we have to be given a new, inward,
holy man. Therein we worship God. Our flesh
wants to turn us away from Christ. Our flesh wants to go back to
the Law. Our flesh is what we war against daily. But it's in
the new man that we worship Him and trust Him. Paul said, My
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They're zealous. The world around us, the religious
world around us is very zealous. But it's not according to knowledge.
Why? For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Everyone
that truly believes. I know everybody professes to
believe. But the man who is going to the
law, trying to establish his own righteousness, really doesn't
believe in Christ. Because this text says, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes in
Him. And everyone He makes to believe, we stop trying to justify
ourselves by the law. We cease from it. We rest in
Christ. God's Son established righteousness
for His people by His obedience. And you know where we're brought
to through this Gospel? You know where He brings us?
2 Corinthians 10.5 says, He comes and He casts down our imaginations
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God and He brings into captivity every thought to It's the obedience
of Christ. There again, of Christ means
Christ's obedience. He brings His people to bow to
the truth that we're saved, we're justified, we're made righteous
not by our obedience, but by the obedience of Christ. By His
obedience. And then go to Philippians 3.
When He's brought us to that place and made us rest in Christ,
then our desire is Paul's desire. Philippians 3.9. I want to be found in Him, not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
righteousness which is through the faith of Christ. the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His
death. I want to be found in Him, in
His righteousness alone. Now, hear this. This is good
news. The righteousness of God the
righteousness of Christ, it supplies all the need of all who believe,
no matter who you are. Look here in verse 22, Christ's
righteousness is 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. When it says Christ's righteousness
is unto all, it means It's unto all that believe. And here's
what it's saying to us. It was appointed for them from
eternity. It was provided for them. This righteousness was wrought
out for them. It was directed and applied unto
them. And Christ's righteousness is
upon them. because He's come and put it
upon them. You remember when Adam and Eve
had sinned in the garden? The Lord not only slew an animal
and made coats of skins to cover their nakedness, what did He
do next? He put it on them. He covered them with it. See,
we're so ruined in sin that we can't even put on the garment
of righteousness. He has to come and put this garment
on us. He gives us life. He gives us
faith. He brings us to Christ. He puts
this garment on us. It's all of Him. But when He
does this, brethren, whether you're old or young, whether
you're rich or poor, whether you're educated or uneducated,
whether you're Jew or Gentile, whatever the case may be, The
righteousness of Christ justifies all who believe. It justifies
all who believe. It's unto all and upon all them
that believe, for there is no difference. That word, there
is no difference, points back to what was just said and it
points to what's said after. Before, he's talking about the
righteousness of God. There is no difference in the
righteousness of Christ toward His people. He loves all His
people equally. He died for them all equally. And He justifies us all equally,
whether we be weak in faith or strong in faith. There is no difference. In what
He does for His people, there is no difference. And there is
no difference in us by nature. That's why there can be no difference
in what He does for us. Because there is no difference
in us by nature. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. So the only way any sinner can
be justified, the only way any sinner can be righteous before
God is by Christ. Obeying the law for us. And then bringing the gospel
to us and making us hear it and putting this robe of righteousness
on us. That's the only way we can be
saved. Only through faith in Christ can you be made righteous.
That's the only way, brethren. That's the only way. I'm saying
this to everybody here today who has not believed on Christ.
You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him. You cast
all you care on Him. You're not looking to you in
any way. You're looking to Him only. Persuaded that He alone
is able to save you to the uttermost. You believe on Him and you shall
be saved. You shall be saved. Now let me
show you this next thing. This righteousness of God is
free to us because Christ paid the price to redeem us from the
lost curse. Look at verse 24. Being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. You see, all for whom Christ
died, all for whom Christ died, He shall bring to believe on
Him. And we're all justified by Him. Justified. That means to have
no record of sin. Past, present, or future. Before the all-knowing, all-seeing
God is to have no record of sin. That sounds good, don't it? No
record of sin and our justification is free. It cost us nothing. God did it. Listen to this. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins. Return unto
me for I have redeemed thee. He did it. That's why it's free
He did it. He justified His people. And
this is all by His grace. Grace is unmerited. If we could merit grace, it wouldn't
be grace. Salvation is by grace. That means it's not by works.
Grace and works don't mix. If it's by grace, it's no more
of works. And if it's by works, it's no
more of grace. Salvation is by grace. That means by grace, He
chose whom He would redeem. By grace, He sent His Son who
redeemed us. And by grace, He sends His Spirit
and regenerates us and brings us to faith in Christ. It's all
by unmerited favor. God can choose whom He will.
God can put His favor upon whomever He will. That's God's prerogative
as God. You do it every day and so do
I. We don't usually stand for the
neighbor coming over and telling us how to do things with what
belongs to us. And we can't tell God how to
do things with what belongs to Him. Can I not do with mine own
what I will? Why is thine eye evil? Because I'm good, God said. But never forget this. Justification
is free to us because it costs Christ His precious blood to
redeem us from the curse of the law. Galatians 3.13 says, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. And he did it that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith,
that we might receive all this free justification. Not only
did He bear the shame of our sin, our Lord Jesus Christ was
made a curse for us. That means He bore the fierce
fury of God's wrath. I can't begin to imagine what
that would be like. But He says to us in Lamentations
1.12, Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Can you hear
this? Can you hear that God's own Son
was made a curse for His people and this not bring you to bow and to look upon Him and rejoice? Is it nothing to you, all you
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. This is what His people do. Psalm
107.1, O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His
mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. whom he hath redeemed from the
hand of the enemy and gathered them out of the lands from the
east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
And that's what we do. We give thanks to the Lord that
He was made a curse for us and redeemed us freely by His precious
blood. Now fourthly, why did God set
Christ forth to do this for His people? It was to declare His
righteousness. Look here in Romans 3.25. It
says, 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. from eternity, before
this world was ever made, God set Christ forth. The margin
says He foreordained Him. And if you take out the italicized
words, you see what it means. He foreordained Him a propitiation. He chose Him to be a sacrifice
and a mercy seat where He would meet with His people. There's
only one place an offended God and a sinner can meet together
in harmony, and that's in Christ, our mercy seat. That's what a
propitiation is. It's the mercy seat. It's where
you come and meet God. That's one place we can meet
Him. And the reason God foreordained
Christ is to declare His righteousness in remitting sins that are past. You know what sins that are passed
are? They're sins that are put away forever. They're passed. They're gone. They're put away. And God declares
His righteousness in putting away our sins. That's the reason
that He says there that we might behold His forbearance. Why did
God forbear when Adam sinned in the garden? and not just destroy
the world right then? Because we all sinned in Adam,
we all became sinners when Adam sinned. By one man, sin entered,
and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for in Adam
all have sinned. Why didn't God just destroy everything
right then? Why did He forbear? Because He
would declare His righteousness. He would declare His righteousness. That's why. I wish I could get
people to understand this world was made by God for one reason,
to declare His righteousness. That's right. He upholds it right
now, where it is, for one reason. He's going to declare His righteousness.
And He's declaring His righteousness to a people that He chose to
declare it to. To a people He exercised His
righteousness upon. His righteousness is this. In
Christ crucified, God is just. He's just. Scripture says God
can by no means clear the guilty. Are you guilty? I'm guilty. By nature, I'm guilty. There's no good in my flesh whatsoever. I come into this world and as
soon as I was born, I began speaking lies. I'm dead in trespasses
and in sins. Well, if God's going to be merciful
to me, you know what God's got to do before He's merciful to
me? He's got to kill me. In order for His law to be upheld,
He has to kill me. If He's going to remain just,
He has to kill me. I saw on the side of a police
car, I'm trying to think where this was. It was somewhere nearby
here, I think. But on the side of this police
car, their slogan was, dealing out justice and mercy, or something
like that. And I thought, no you're not.
No, you're not. You're dealing out one or the
other, but you're not dealing out justice and mercy. If you
deal out justice, you can't deal out mercy. If you deal out mercy,
you can't deal out justice. Only God could do both. And He only does it in Christ.
You see, in Christ crucified, His law has been honored because
every guilty sinner that God saves, He slew in Christ on the
cross. or the soul that sinneth, it
shall surely die. And we all died in Christ, all
His people did. And so now God is just to declare
us righteous and to impute righteousness to us because we are righteous
in Christ. And the way we became righteous
in Christ, it says there, in Christ God is also the justifier
of all that believe in Jesus. He's just and He's the justifier. That means He's the one that
made His people righteous. He's the one that justified us
from all our sins. He did it. We have nothing to
do with justifying ourselves. God did it all. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. That's Romans 8.33. It's God's
righteousness. Now listen to this carefully.
It is God's righteousness, God being just and the justifier
that sets Him apart from every man-made God in all the world. And that's what every other religion
is, is man-made. Let me tell you something. People,
you know, you get a certain age and you start wanting to search
out religion and see what all these different religions are
about. Let me tell you something about every religion in this
world you're going to search out. They all have this in common. They give you something to do
to be saved. Every single one of them do. There's only one that doesn't.
You're hearing it right now. See, in all the world there's
only two religions and one is false. It's Cain and Abel. Abel came through the blood of
a lamb. That's salvation by God's grace
through Christ. Cain came with the fruit of the
ground, with the works of his own hands. And that's all religion
summed up. The religion of grace and the
religion of works. And I'm declaring to you today
the religion of grace. And this is the religion that
sets, this is the righteousness of God, sets the true and living
God apart from all other gods. Listen to this, Isaiah 45, 21. He says, There is no God else
beside me, a just God and a Savior, none beside me. A just God and
the Justifier. He's just and He's the Savior. Now let's hear the conclusion
of the whole matter. Verse 27. Where's boasting then? It's excluded. We can't boast. By what law is it excluded? By the law of works or by...
No, 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 circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith.
The words by and through are not the important words here.
He's just simply saying God justifies all His people one way. Whether
we be Jew or Gentile, we're justified through faith in Christ. Do we
then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we established the law. To be justified, to be righteous
is to have established the law. How do we establish the law? Some people read that last verse
and they say, see there, we go back to the law and we have to
keep the law. Is that the context of anything
you've heard me preach from this passage? That is not the context. And you go into the next chapter,
and that's certainly not the context of the next chapter.
But what the context is, is it saying the righteousness of God
is without the deeds of the law. The righteousness of God is without
our doing. Boasting is excluded. We conclude
a man's justified. He establishes the law by faith
without the deeds of the law. It's one God that justifies.
So that means that brethren, it's not established by our doing. How is it established then? Read
it again, verse 31. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law through faith. We establish it through faith.
Even as Abraham established the law before the law was even given.
Romans 4.2. 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 accounted to him for righteousness. Now sinner, hear this. Look down
at 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 from our fences and was raised again for our
justification. Sinner, believe on Christ. Somebody
might say, well, see there, you're putting something in our hand
to do. Faith is not a work. He's saying all through this
chapter, faith is the opposite of works. Faith, true faith,
is resting from all our works and trusting Christ. You see,
as long as you make faith out to be a work, men don't have
a problem with faith. But you make faith out to be
totally resting from you and any goodness in you and any work
done by you, and then men start having a problem with faith. Believe on Christ and His righteousness
will be yours. You will have fully established
the law, not by our doing, but because Christ established it
for us. That's what faith lays hold of.
And now there's no condemnation. No condemnation because we've
fulfilled the law. Let's stand together. Father, thank You for this Word.
We pray You bless it now to our hearing that You make us to truly
rest in Christ our righteousness. Lord, if it's Your will, we pray
today You bring a destitute sinner to hear this Word and put all
his care in Christ. Show mercy, Lord. Exalt Your
righteousness before us today. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. you