Okay. All right, we're going
to begin. We'll be in Romans 3, Romans
319. And we're going to be reading
up, so Romans 319 to verse 26. Now here in Romans 3, Paul's
bringing his divine argument, that is divinely inspired argument
that he's been speaking to this whole time, he brings it to a
conclusion in showing that all are guilty before God. So that by the deeds of the law,
whether it's the law of conscience, or the law of Moses, we're left
with one conclusion. We're brought to this one conclusion,
that by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified
in God's sight. By the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. Alright? So in looking
at our study here in Romans 3, if God has given us an ear to
hear, if he's given us the ear of faith so that we hear, then
we're going to know that under the law, whether it's the law
of our conscience or it's the law of Moses, we're going to
know that our works bring us into condemnation with God. And by the Spirit, by that same
hearing of faith, we're going to hear the proclamation of the
good news, of salvation, how God saves sinners. If it's not by our works, then
it's according to promise, and it's how God saves his people
by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, so that we learn and
understand that God justifies, and God saves, and God creates
righteousness in his people by promise. By promise. It's not
something that we do of our own strength. Our title is, Now the
Righteousness of God. Now the Righteousness of God. And we're going to have two divisions.
We'll first look at the conclusion, but Paul is wrapping up here
in his argument, the conclusion, and then we're going to look
at the goal, the goal that he's been driving towards, which is
to preach, to declare plainly the gospel of God revealed in
his son Jesus Christ. So let's look at verse 19. This
is the conclusion of Paul's divinely inspired argument. Now, well,
before I read it, he began this argument. He began speaking about
all of us are guilty. We're all under the condemnation
according to the law. We're all guilty. And he began
speaking to this back in chapter one. and then he spoke to it
in chapter 2, and then he continued it into what we call chapter
3, and so he's been talking about this for a while now, and he's
shown us, back in 1 and 2, that all men are sinners, Jew and
Gentile. Jew being the religious people
and the Gentile being those who don't have religion, or don't
look to the religion that God revealed to the Jews at least,
and all are guilty of breaking the law of God, and all are guilty
of breaking the law of their own conscience. which we understand
by what our parents teach us, by what our friends teach us
at school or on the playground, or as we grow up and go to work,
you know, all these things that inform our conscience as to what
we think is right or wrong, we break that too. We don't even
keep that law. So whether it's a religious law
or just the law of conscience, we're breakers of it. And so
In looking to some law of man, it can never produce a righteousness
in us. It never will produce a righteousness
in us. And so what we conclude, or what
we come to, is to find out that we are all justly condemned before
God in our attempts of trying to keep that law. Whatever that
law is that we think is making us right or justified, before
God." Now, at this point, you hear what Paul has been saying,
at this point, you either believe what he's saying or you don't
believe what he's saying. And you either accept what he's
saying in whole, that we're all sinners, that there's not a justification
for us, we're all condemned before God, or you either believe that
or you deny it. And, you know, some people sit
under the truth and They want to pick and choose.
They want to choose, well, I kind of like what it says there, but
I don't really care for what it says over here. I don't agree
with that. And so they want to pick and
choose what they believe in the gospel, but that's not, God doesn't
give us that option. It's, this is his truth, it reveals
in his word, He reveals it to his preachers, and by the Spirit,
the Spirit testifies to the Spirit he's given you, so that you know
this is the truth. Yes, Lord, that is the truth,
and I believe what you're saying in your Word. And what the Lord
is teaching us in the Gospel, what he's revealing to us, is
that there's no inherent righteousness in us. We don't have a goodness
in us. people in religion that teach,
well, all men and women are basically good, doing the best that they
can do, and they try to do what is good. But according to this
word, according to the God that's revealed himself in this word,
all men and women, boys and girls, young and old, are inherently
evil. We're all evil. We all do that
which is for ourselves, for our own sake, what we want to do,
and we don't want to hear what God would have us to do. And
so we're not inherently good. You've probably heard that song
that talks about it only takes a spark to get a fire going. You know, that nonsense. And
that's not true at all. It doesn't take a spark. There's
not a tinder of goodness in us that just takes a little light
from the Holy Spirit to spark that tinder of goodness in us
and then it lights up and explodes into this religious person. It's
a lie. We are completely dead in trespasses
and sins and are helpless except for the mercy and grace of God
that gives life and creates in us the new man, whereby in that
new man, that new creation of the Lord Jesus Christ, We hear
the truth of God and we believe it and we know him. He reveals
himself to us in spite of what we are in this flesh here, in
this body, which is just all our natural affections and thoughts
and desires and what we think is good or bad. puts that all aside and reveals
to us the truth of God revealed in his son Jesus Christ. All
right, so this brings us to the conclusion here in verse 19.
And Paul says, now we know, we know that what thing 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. All right, I'm going to say just
a couple remarks, because we've kind of looked at this last time
that we were together. And Paul says, now we know. Now remember, regarding our ability,
our ability to work a righteousness, you either believe what God has
said, that we can't work a righteousness of our own, or you don't believe
it. Paul's shown us that. And Paul's
concluded saying, now we We that are his people, now we know. Before we didn't know. We didn't
know this before. We thought our righteousness
and our acceptance with God was based on something we did in
religion. Now we know. Now we know that
we didn't know. We didn't know before, but now
we know. And so what this is is Spirit-born knowledge. This
is knowledge of the Holy Spirit who's making this known. He's
revealing this to our hearts, that new heart that God has created.
So we know now that righteousness is of God revealed in His Son,
Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ is our very
righteousness and acceptance with God. Now we know that. We
didn't know that before, but now we do know that. And so we're
convinced that righteousness cannot come by the law of conscience,
me doing the best that I can, or the law of Moses, me doing
the best that I can under that. That's not how we're accepted
with God. None of us are righteous by our
good works or bad works. And so Paul reveals that what
thing soever the law saith, it saith for this purpose. to shut
our mouths. For us, our mouths to be shut
before God. Let me just say a few things
about that. The fact that he talks about our mouths having
to be shut, it suggests that naturally, in ourselves, our
mouth is going. It's going and going and going.
And we're trying to justify ourselves before God. We hear, God doesn't
approve of that. Well, wait a minute. I did it
because of this. You know, and we're self-promoting
ourselves. And then we look at others and
we say, well, they're wicked. They're more wicked than I am.
And we're putting them down to make ourselves feel better. Or
we're promoting ourselves. We're justifying ourselves. Our
mouth is always going. whether it's openly saying it
or it's in our own hearts and we think it to justify ourselves
and make ourselves feel better before God. And so the Lord's
got to shut our mouths and he shuts our mouths when we see
that there's no excuse for what I am. I am what I am. I'm a sinner. and I can't get around that. I've offended holy God. And so
the Lord shuts her mouth. If you remember in John 8, where
they brought the woman taken in adultery, it was the self-righteous
Pharisees, and they were doing it so that they could catch Christ
in such a manner so as to turn the people against him. Whether
he was too merciful or he was strict in his justice, they figured,
oh, we've got an opportunity here where we'll turn the people
against him. And the Lord, he convinced them
of both the law of conscience and the law of Moses. He convicted
them. And they heard. It says that Our Lord said, He
that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at
her. And then we read that they which
heard it They which heard it, being convicted by their own
conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even
unto the last. And so, in like manner, we that
are his children, when he brings us to hear what the law says,
our mouth is shut. When we see, nothing. And that's not how God saves.
And he delivers me from that. That's when we're delivered from
that and our mouth is shut. And then the other thing about
our mouths being stopped, it shows us, it declares to us that
there's no appeal. We have nothing to appeal about
this. God is the highest authority.
We can't go above him. And he's the one who declares
that we are all guilty. None of us are justified before
God. None of us are justified before his law. As Paul said, tell me ye that
desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? And that's because there's some
that would turn back to the law for justification, but even more
than that, there's many that would turn to the law for their
sanctification, as though it's a partnership between you and
God now to make yourselves righteous. and to improve your standing
with God and to earn a little more favor with God and receive
more divine light because you are really trying your hardest
and looking to the law of Moses now to make yourselves more righteous
and accepted with God. And Paul says, don't you hear
the law? The law doesn't make anyone righteous. The law was
given to declare us either righteous or unrighteous. It just makes
it known what we are. We're either justified with God,
it's our state before God, or we're not just before God. And
it doesn't matter how hard you work at the law, because we're
corrupt, because we are sinners inherently from Adam, we're dead
in trespasses and sins, we can't work righteousness before him.
We always come up short of the righteousness of God. Therefore,
Romans 3.20, 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. And so it's just making known
to us that we are sinners. That's why I was given. In fact,
in Romans 7, verse 7, Paul said, what shall we say then? Is the
law sin? Because I see now, when I look
to the law, I see what a sinner I am. Is the law therefore sin? And he said, God forbid. Nay,
I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust,
except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. Alright, so
what do we understand from that then? Well, God gave the law
because before the law came we were just operating under our
conscience and under our little tribe and group of people that
we were with and growing up with and that was our law and that
wasn't sufficient to save us. We couldn't even keep that. But
the law was given to show us just the exceeding sinfulness
of sin just how wicked we are and how corrupt we are it showed
us perfection and we if we're honest see i'm not perfect i'm
not doing this thing perfect and so it showed us how wicked
sin is it showed us what sin is unless we should claim ignorance
to it it showed us what it is and it showed us that how to
punish sin, what's required to punish sin, just how exacting
and just and perfect it is. And it's harsh to our flesh because,
you know, when it's happening to us, we don't like it. When
it's happening to somebody else, we feel fine with it, not good,
they got what they deserve, but it shows us what we are. So that's
why God gave the law, so that it was clear and obvious that,
wow, I'm not doing it. I'm not cutting it. God's perfect,
and he is, then I'm not. I have no part in him by myself. And so it should shut our mouths
so that we stop and listen and say, well, how then can a man
be just with God? If I can't do it myself, how
then is a man or woman just justify with God? And that brings us
to our final point, the goal. This is what Paul's been driving
at since Romans 1, 16, and 17. And he said, I'm not ashamed
to declare to you the gospel, because it's the power of God
unto salvation. That's what Paul wants to preach
and declare to the people, the salvation of God. And so he's
dealing with sin, the issue of sin in the law, so that we don't
stop there and think, wow, this is my salvation now, this dead
religion, this death of religion is it. No, it isn't. It's to
drive us to Christ, to bring us to Christ. Look at verse 21,
Romans 3, 21. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. So the picture here is that the
prophets and the law are pointing not to themselves. They're saying,
don't look to me. I'm not your righteousness. I
can't help you be righteous by you doing your best in the law
or you studying the prophets to be like them or to try and
get something out of it, some religious thing from the prophets,
that that's your religion. And that's where you stop. And
that's your righteousness. Not at all. They're saying, don't
look at me. I'm not your righteousness. Look
to the one who we're testifying. Look to the Lord of glory, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's your righteousness. Look
to him. So they're bearing witness to
A, that we're sinners, unable to keep it, and B, Therefore,
God provided salvation in his son, Jesus Christ. It says John
the Baptist said in John 3.30, he must increase, I must decrease. And as a prophet, he said, he
must increase, I must decrease. And that's what the law and the
prophets are saying. Don't look to me, I'm decreasing here. I
got nothing to help you in terms of righteousness. I can only
show you that you're not righteous. Look to Him who God has sent
us to testify of, to bear witness of, He who is true righteousness,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ himself said to the
Pharisees, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. And that's what we all got in
religion. We read this Bible thinking that,
all right, I'm going to get something out of this thing that's going
to make me righteous and holy, if I do it, if I do my best and
really give myself to it diligently, I'm going to get some special
vibes and feelings out of this thing. And it's going to be my
religion. This is going to be my righteousness now. And Christ
said, that's not your life. That's not righteousness. They
testify of me. Look to me, I'm your righteousness.
And it's true, right? Christ, it's not a dead letter
religion. It's the living Christ in you. A river flowing in you. The Spirit
flowing from God to you, giving you life and giving you light. But to see, I'm nothing to myself,
I'm not earning my righteousness, I see, I see what God has done,
I see who he's provided, and we'll get to that in a moment.
So the Lord creates that faith in us in the new man which he
creates that new creation where there was no life. All we could
do by nature was just dead letter religion and we would have been
satisfied with dead letter religion and we were until God drove us
from that and showed us that's not salvation. He kept that hunger
and that thirst to know true righteousness. when we were just
dead in trespasses and sins. He created that in us and revealed
to us by His Spirit, His Son, so that we heard faith. By the hearing of faith, we heard
faith, and we heard the faith of God in His Son. Revealed to
us and so that believing when we heard of Christ and we stopped
working and we believed Christ All that work is the work of
God. It's all his act upon us. It's his operation of grace upon
us and so look at Romans 3 22 and 23 and He said, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, or Christ's faith,
not your faith, but it's by his faith, his faithful work, believing
his Father for you. 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. And that's a blessing. God has
concluded every single one of us under sin. every one of us. Had there been one, God could
have just looked at that one and said, well, this one's saved
and the rest of you are cut off. But every one of us has been
concluded by God to be under sin, so God has provided salvation
for us. That's what he's saying to us
there. That's the joy that we have. What happens when we forget this,
when we look to ourselves, when we stop looking at Christ and
we look to how we're doing, when we open the scriptures and we
start looking to see, well, how am I doing today? There's fear
and we're shaken and we're concerned because we see in ourselves I'm
not doing. I'm not the righteous man. I'm
not the most upright that this word speaks of. I'm not cutting
it. I'm not doing well. And so there's fear and trembling
and we're afraid. But when we stop looking at self
and we look to Christ, that's where there's peace. Because
he's created peace and reconciliation between the people of God and
God the Father. He's created that reconciliation,
that peace between us who are sinners and God who is holy. And so look there at verse 24,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. And so that word is declaring
to us plainly, the state of us who believe Him is a state of
justification. We are now justified before God. There's nothing more to be done.
All the work has been completed and fulfilled by Christ. Everything that was necessary,
the Lord did. And he left nothing undone that
needed to be done. So all that work's been done
for us. Now Romans 6.23 tells us that the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so that, we understand,
this is by faith, this is a walk by faith, not of our works. That's not our hope and our confidence
and our trust is not seen in our works. We serve Him out of
joy and gladness. And He gives us that desire to
serve Him and to know Him more. He works that light and life
in us. And He will, He does instruct
us. It's not that we go on sinning
and doing those things that we once loved before we knew the
truth. he turns us and he delivers us from that walk and from that
path of things that are harmful and not helpful and hurt our
brethren and hurt ourselves. He turns us from that through
his patient instruction and teaching and he has a way of of doing
it. Some things go quickly, and some
things He teaches us in time, and He makes it more obvious
to us. And we begin to notice that, you know, I really shouldn't
be doing this. There's no profit in it. It's
not good. It doesn't help me in any way,
so let me stop doing this. And as we keep going back to
it, the Lord will teach us. He'll increase whatever needs
to be you know the the light on it he'll deal with it some
things may be painful some things are taken away some things are
stripped away but he has a way of doing it so that the heart
is made willing even it's not always just a reluctance of letting
things go, but rather a willingness to let things go. And he does
that because he knows how to work it. He knows how to teach
us and grow us in that grace and that faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ so that we're made willing to do it. It's not all just beating
and whips. In fact, he doesn't whip us and
beat us. He struck Christ. He put the rod on Christ to punish
sin. And Christ bore that punishment
to put away sin and the guilt of sin and the stain of sin.
And so we don't look to the law. You look to the law and you'll
feel guilt and shame and the sting of sin. The only cure for that, the only
help for that is looking to Christ and staying right there. If you
sin and the Lord shows you, confess it. Be honest and confess it
and ask the Lord to help you and to turn you from it and He
will. Now, this faith of Christ, let me just show you this in
verse 25. It's his faithful salvation word. Romans 25, 325. Whom God
hath set forth. Now those words, to be, they're
not in the original. The translators added it to be.
It's not a future thing. It says whom God hath set forth,
a propitiation. He already has propitiated the
sins whom God has 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. Now many of you have
heard me multiple times on this particular word that you can
understand it as it's the means of our forgiveness. That word
propitiation is the means of our forgiveness. And that's a
nice simple way to remember it. And if you want to be a little
more technical, if you want to understand it a little better,
that propitiation is he's our sacrifice. He's our sacrifice. He's that unblemished, holy,
perfect sacrifice. And he's the high priest that
offers that holy sacrifice. And he's the altar that sanctifies
the gift, that sanctifies that sacrifice. He's the high priest. who takes himself the sacrifice
as he offers up to the Father for forgiveness upon the altar
of himself, which sanctifies the gift, which sanctifies the
offering. So he's that whole thing is our propitiation. He's
the prophet, priest, and king. He's the high priest that offered
himself a perfect sacrifice on the altar of himself. giving
everything he had to sanctify, to justify, to deliver you and
to to create you, to give you life, a new birth in Himself
in the family of God. All because of Him. And so He's
the propitiation. He's the one God provided to
be our very righteousness and hope before God. So all our sins
were laid upon Him as Isaiah shows us so clearly that the
sins of people were laid upon Him. Not that He Himself is sinful. He didn't become a sinner. He didn't, not like that at all,
but being perfect, the sacrifice, the sins of God were laid upon
Him and He offered Himself up to God and God poured out His
wrath upon Him against that sin to put it away forever for His
people. He made atonement for you, brethren,
that believe, that have no hope or confidence in your flesh,
but hear of Him, the propitiation, the means of our forgiveness.
You've heard of Him, and God's given you faith to believe. Rest
right there in the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep looking to Him. And so the great comfort to us
who are saved sinners is that God has provided that which was
necessary for our forgiveness. That which was necessary to put
away our sin. That which was necessary to make
us righteous. God provided it all for you because
it's according to promise. According to promise. Not your
working, but His promise. And that's why we glory in Christ. That's why we preach Him and
speak of Him, because it's the good news. Each week, each day,
each moment and hour that you go through, you see what a sinner
you are. You're reminded, from time to
time, the Lord allows us to see what we are, and it's a comfort
to hear, Ah, it's not me. I don't need to be working harder.
I just need to be looking to Christ, Lord help me, help me
look to your son, the propitiation you provided. As you're satisfied
with him, make me satisfied with him and help me to walk before
you in love and by your spirit. Alright, so now looking back
in our text in Romans 3 26, he says, to declare I say at this
time righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of
him which believe it in Jesus." So that what he's saying there
is God is justified. Someone could say, well, for
all sinners, why are some going to hell and some going to heaven?
God is just to forgive us, because he's put away the sin of his
people and his son, Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of him. So he's
justified you, and he's, so he's the justifier, and he's just
to forgive. Because he's done everything
necessary. We can't question him or doubt him. He says it's
done. It's finished. So you believe
him. So Brethren, I pray that Lord will be a comfort to your
hearts and that you rejoice in your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your mercy and your grace in providing
salvation in your Son Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that you would
Bless your people here that you would fill our hearts with love
and joy, trusting you in the faith, Lord, to see what you've
provided for us in your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to walk
in faith by your Spirit. rejoicing in your Son, Jesus
Christ, and helping one another unto this, Lord, not being a
hindrance or a stumbling block to one another, but that we would
be helpers of one another's joy in the salvation that you freely
provided for us in your Son, Jesus Christ. It's in his name
we pray and give thanks. Amen.