All right, take your Bibles,
turn back with me to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. A text will be found really in verses 27 through 31,
but I hope to get down to verse 31. That'll be the main point. The apostle asked this question. Do we make void the law through
faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. Now, one of the most subtle things
the enemy has done in this generation is take a man who preaches the
doctrines of grace. He takes a man, he preaches total
depravity, he preaches limited atonement, irresistible grace,
But the subtlety of this is he takes that same man and causes
believers, he puts believers back under the law to trust their
works for sanctification. Well, Jesus is your righteousness,
Jesus is your redemption, Jesus is your wisdom, but sanctification
is a cooperative effort. It is a product of your obedience
to the law and Christ's. I know that there are many people
who have tried to take this verse that I just read to you and prove
that the believer is still under the law. They still require the believer
to somehow establish the law by his obedience. Have you ever
had anybody use this text with you? I have. See, look, do we
make void the law? Obviously we're under the law.
We don't make it void, we're still under it. And make this verse to say actually
the opposite of what it's saying. The opposite. To make this verse
say that we are still under the law, you have to actually pull
it out of its context and set it all by itself. In the context
of what the apostle is talking about, he's talking about freedom
from the law in the whole context. And then all of a sudden, you
claim he's going to say, well, what I really mean is that you're
back under the law. You have to totally void out the whole
context and meaning. So let me say this at the onset. Now, every believer. Every believer in Christ, we
do delight in the law after the inward man. There is no doubt.
There is no doubt that the law of God is good and right. But we who believe know this
by the Spirit of God and the Word of God that we could never
establish the law by our obedience, ever. You can never establish
the law. Not for righteousness, not for
holiness. Listen to this, in any measure,
in any measure, you have never obeyed that law, ever. You have
never done anything in that law perfectly, ever. And so after
you're saved, do you suppose you still can? You now are made
able, right? No. We confess that no sinner
has ever kept the law or established it. Now the apostle states the meaning
of this context, which is that the law is only established through
faith in Christ. That's what the context of the
scripture says. He says, do we make void the
law through faith? No. We establish the law how? By faith. That's the context. We don't establish the law by
going back under the law. We establish the law by faith. That's the whole context. Now look back at verse 19. Again,
we're going to run up and get the context of this verse. Look at verse 19. The apostle
declares the purpose of the law. The purpose. What is the purpose
of the law? He said, we know what sort of
things the law say to them that are under the law. Anybody under
the law? Anybody? Anybody want to be under the
law in anything? Ten Commandments? Anybody want
to be under the Ten Commandments? Well, most people... I say this
constantly. What are you going to do with
the other 603 commandments? There are 613 commandments. You just want to be under 10,
that you haven't ever kept, that you won't ever keep. You that
want to be under the law, listen to what the law says, the law's
purpose, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty before God. The law is never meant to establish
righteousness for you. You can't establish it by your
obedience to it. Therefore, what's the conclusion?
By the deeds of the law shall no flesh establish the law. No flesh be justified in his
sight. Why? For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Then in verses 21 through 26,
he declares this, that the righteousness of God is not by your works. either before your conversion
or after your conversion. He's stating that the righteousness
of God is only by Jesus Christ. Look at that, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifest. What does that mean without the
law? Did Jesus establish righteousness without the law? Is that what
he's saying? No, he established righteousness through the law.
What he's saying is the righteousness of God without your obedience
to the law. It's manifested with being witnessed
by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now how is this law established? By the faith of Jesus Christ. And listen, how is it given to
me? Because I need it. Don't you need the righteousness?
Don't you need obedience to the law? Yeah. Law you never kept
and never will keep, right? Yeah, that's the righteousness
I need. Unto all and upon all them that believe. Them that believe. There's no
difference. For all have sinned. and comes
short of the glory of God. Again, he's pressing that matter. No hope in you. No hope of your
obedience. All have sinned. He's constantly
reminding you of that. Why is he doing that? He's destroying
all your hopes of obedience. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. So, how then are we justified? Being
justified freely. That's how. If you're justified,
it's free. Freely given. By His grace. Listen, through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, there's no... Remember, the law required
two things, right? Righteousness and blood. Payment. Both of these, Paul
is saying, Jesus Christ, by Himself, without you, did it. Without
your help, No contribution of yours or mine. He did it. Now why? Whom God has set forth
to be the propitiation. Remember that? That's the mercy
seed, that great day of atonement. He was the scapegoat. He was
the sacrificial goat. He was the high priest. He was
the ark of the covenant. He was everything. He was the
strong man that carried the scapegoat away. He was the scapegoat upon
whom the sins were confessed. He's everything, a propitiation
for our sins. Listen, but how is this propitiation
given to us? Through faith in his blood. This
redemption, this righteousness, he just said it in 22. Righteousness
is given to those who believe, and guess what? Propitiation
is given to those who believe. To declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare at this time his righteousness. Notice I said
it twice. Whose righteousness are we talking about? His. The gospel is concerning his
righteousness, not yours. His. His righteousness. For this purpose that he might
be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. So having established the truth, having established the truth
that our justification was accomplished by Christ and our justification
is applied to us through faith in Christ. That's established.
That's the context. So I want to give you three reasons
this morning why we are justified by faith. Why? Why did God cause
it to be through faith that we are justified? By faith. First of all, the reason why
God establishes it through faith is so that we have no room to
boast. That's the first reason. We're
going to see that in verses 27 and 28. The second reason is
this. God says justification is by
faith so that he might justify both Jew and Gentile. That's
seen in verses 29 and verse 30. And the last reason is that we might establish the law. We who believe, I want you to
get this, you through Christ, by the power and grace of God,
you have established the law. You've honored it. You've magnified
it. The law has no hold on you who believe in Jesus Christ.
Now the first thing, God saves us through faith to exclude boasting.
Look at 27. He says, where is boasting then? Where is boasting
then? It is excluded. If we are justified
by faith, listen, boasting is excluded. By what law? Works? No. No, works only incite
boasting. How? By the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Lord. Why does
God do this? First of all, because God will not share in the glory. God will not share His glory
with anyone. Isaiah 42 and verse 8 says, I
am the Lord. That is my name. My glory will
I not give to another. Why is it justification by faith? Because God won't let you glory
in it. Listen, God does all the saving,
all of it. If one thing was left to you,
you would fail. And so we see that God does all
the saving, therefore God gets all the what? Glory! He did it this way so that He
should be glorified in every aspect. What part of salvation
do you have a part in? None of it. It's all His work. And because God will not share
in the glory, Scripture says, He that glory, let him glory
in who? Let him glory in the Lord. Therefore God will not
give his glory to us. He will not give us any reason
to glory in ourselves. What about your election? What about your election? You
that believe on Jesus Christ, you know this, you were chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. That you should behold him without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will, listen, to the praise of the glory of
his grace. Election is to the praise and
the glory of his grace. You, their chosen, what did you
have to do with that? Nothing. Nothing. God will not allow the sinner
to boast in his election. Now, anybody that boasts in election
has no idea what election is. They always had that rumor, the
frozen chosen, what they used to call us, as though we exalted
ourselves highly. Listen, anybody that exalts himself
in election is stupid. He doesn't know what election
is. Election is totally by the sovereign
grace of God and nothing I did before or ever shall do merited
my election. God chose us according to his
glory. You know when Moses asked the
Lord, show me thy glory. I think it's Exodus 33. He said,
Lord, show me thy glory. And God said, I'm going to proclaim
my name and my goodness, my name and my goodness, my glory. I'm
going to declare my glory before you. You know what he said? This
is my glory. I will be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. And I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. That's his glory. And for us
to try to make our election based on something we've done, we are
trying to share in the glory. You don't get to share in the
glory. If you were chosen, you were chosen of God by grace and
nothing he saw in you. If you believe that, then you're
sharing in God's glory. You're in dangerous ground. You
have room to boast, right? If you had something to do with
your election, don't you have something to boast over somebody
else? Not according to God. Second of all, God will not allow
us to boast in our new birth. Weren't we all sinners? Scripture
says there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after God. I wasn't seeking
after God. You weren't seeking after God.
Well, I was. Okay, you defy the Word of God
then. God said there's none that seeketh after Him. How many seek
after Him? None. There's none. He said we are altogether unprofitable. Put everything we've got together
and it's unprofitable. It won't move the justice of
God. Why? Because there is none that doeth
good. How many? No, not one. And so you that are born again,
what do you have to boast in your new birth? What did you
do? In Romans 2, 29, Paul says this,
a Jew, you know only people who are going to be saved are Jews, just not an outward Jew. He said
a Jew, the ones that God chose to save, is not one outwardly, but is
one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart in the spirit. Listen, and not in the letter. Have you ever done anything with
your heart? Can you reach in there? Is there
any way you manipulate that thing? You can't do anything. You can
do all kinds of physical things. You can't touch spiritual things.
You can't manipulate them. You can't do anything. This requires
the work of God. The circumcision of the heart
and not of the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God.
And so Jesus, He came to save Israel. Who is Israel? Listen, everyone
who is circumcised in the heart. Doesn't have anything to do with
the flesh. None whatsoever. Christ came to save Israel and
the only way we know we're Israel is if our heart had been circumcised.
What is that? That's a new birth. What he's
talking about is a new birth. The resurrection from the dead,
we who were dead spiritually are now quickened to life. Now listen, you must believe. No doubt about it. If a man is
going to be saved, justified, he must believe. But I want you
to understand this, your faith which is an evidence of the new
birth. It's not the cause. You got that?
This is vitally important. Religion flips it. They say,
well, if you believe, then God will give you life. That's like,
well, if you'll breathe, God will raise you from the dead.
Impossible. God has to give life. God has
to give breath. God has to give spiritual life,
and God has to give faith. You can't generate faith. You
can believe in Santa Claus. That's not the same, is it? Faith is a spiritual work. Remember
what Jesus said to those people in John 6? He said, this is the
work of God. They wanted a miracle. They wanted
something outward. They wanted some meat. They wanted him to be their welfare
program. They wanted him to produce food
for them every day so they didn't have to go to work. He said, no, no, no. I showed
you the miracle to testify who I am, but this is the work of
God, listen, that you believe on Him who has sent. If you believe
this morning, whose work is it, yours or His? By whose will do
you believe, yours or His? If it's yours in any way, you
get glory. God does not allow us to enter
into this matter of the new birth, nor does he allow us to enter
into the glory of our faith. For by grace you are saved through
what? Faith. Faith necessary. You must believe. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God and not of
what works. Why? Lest any man should boast. You see why God does it by faith?
Because our righteousness, our redemption is not of ourselves,
our new birth is not of ourselves, and our faith is not of ourselves. It is all a gift of God. But, Paul says, if we were justified
by works, boasting is not excluded. Look back at your text. Look
at this. Verse 27, where then is boasting excluded? By what
law? Of works? Since when does works exclude
boasting? It doesn't. If salvation comes
by anything you do, then you have right to boast. And that's what we want naturally.
This is natural to us in the flesh to always desire to have
some part of this for ourselves. It is, it's just our nature.
Surely I gotta do something. What can you do? Well, I can do this good thing
over here. Is it righteous? Is it holy? Is it without sin?
Then all you've done is contaminate that which is pure and good and
right, which is the work of Christ. Look at chapter 4. Look at chapter
4. The apostle's going to get into
Abraham here as an example. Chapter 4 and verse 2. He said,
for if Abraham were justified works, he have wear of the glory.
Isn't that so? If anybody's got room to brag,
Abraham did. Abraham had one message from
God. Leave your home and I'll give you, I'll bless you. I'll give you the key. I'll give
you a seat. That's what he said. I'm going
to give you a seat. I'm going to bless you. You know what Abraham did? He
immediately packed up everything he got and went out in the desert
and didn't know where he was going. God said, just go that
way. And by faith, yeah, he just walked and walked and walked
until God told him to sit down there for a little while and
then move on. Anybody ever done that? You have that much faith?
What about this? God says, in your son, I'm going
to give you a son. And in that son, I'm going to
produce the Savior. The Savior is going to come from
that boy. And he gave him that son when
he was old. Miracle! And then he said something
that seemed to contradict everything he promised. He said, go and
kill your son. You know what Abraham did? In
that moment, in his mind, he was dead already. Now, Abraham,
if anybody had room to boast, Abraham did. That was what Paul
said, but not before God. Yeah, he's better than you, but
he's not as good as God. So works do nothing but give
us room to boast. And so there's only one way a
man is excluded from boasting, and it is this. It is by God
himself justifying us through the finished work of Christ.
That is the only way boasting is excluded. The work of salvation
is done outside of us. And then by the grace and power
of God, it is accomplished in us. It's the only way boasting is
excluded. He says, therefore, verse 28,
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without what? Without his works. Without his
works. This conclusion, he says, is
the end of debate on that. He said, that's it. Paul said
it in Galatians 6, God forbid that I should glory save in what?
The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to glory in anything
else. Now, secondly, God saves his people through faith, not
only to exclude boasting, but that he might justify all his
elect. That was His purpose from the
beginning, that we should all be holy and without blame before
Him, both Jew and Gentile. Look at that in verse 29. He
says, 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. One God. which shall justify. I like these words that are determinate. It's not he might or he may,
hmm, kind of, hopefully. Oh, it's one God, and what is
he going to do? He shall justify. Jew and Gentile. He shall justify the circumcision,
how? By faith and the uncircumcision
through faith. He's just saying the same thing
when he says by and through. He's saying the same thing. by
faith. No real reason to change the
word. So that God does it by faith
so that he might justify both Jew and Gentile. Now God has
an elect people among the Gentiles as well as the Jews. This is
what he's telling those people. Remember, that church was mixed.
Our church is not mixed. But that church was. That church
had Jews and they had Gentiles. They didn't really kind of know
their standing. The Jews always thought themselves superior.
Paul said, no, no, no. He said, if you're going to be
justified as a Jew, you're going to be justified the same way a Gentile is. And
you Gentiles, if you're going to be justified, you need to
be justified the same way the Jews are. Which is how? By faith. By faith. Now if God would justify men
by the works of the law, do you realize that Gentiles would be
excluded completely? God never gave the law of Moses
to Gentiles. Do you understand that? It was
never given to a Gentile. And so if God were to justify
by the law, then no Gentile, you and me, wouldn't be saved
at all. It wasn't even given to us. But seeing there is one
God that shall justify according to His oath, His covenant, and
His grace. He shall justify them. How? Through
faith in Christ. That's how. Through faith in
Christ. Go to Acts chapter 15. This was
the topic that caused great trouble in the early church. And I wonder
why it's still causing trouble. It's just the same conflict. The law. Look at Acts chapter
15. And verse 5, it says, but there rose up certain
sects of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law
of Moses. Isn't this what's happening today?
Not circumcision per se, but keeping the law of Moses. There are people who say, I believe,
I believe that Jesus Christ is all our righteousness, all our
wisdom, all our redemption, but you know, you've still got to
obey the law. That's what's happening here. And notice this, and the
apostles and elders came together to consider this matter, and
when there had been much disputing. That's it. That's all this thing
does is generate disputing. I don't lie. When you understand what I'm
saying, I'm done debating you. As long as you understand what
I'm saying, I'm finished. I don't need to debate you about this.
But there's been much, they were arguing, they've been a long
time arguing, Peter finally just done. He's done listening to
him bicker and complain about it, know what he says. And Peter
rose up and said, men and brethren, you know a good while ago God
made choice among you that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear
the gospel and believe. Over that time he went to Cornelius.
You understand that Peter had some resistance about that himself.
He didn't want to go. He didn't want to eat that meat
offered, you know, that unclean meat. God put him through the
mail on that one until he went down to Cornelius' house. But
he did. He went down, he preached the gospel, and guess what? Cornelius
and his house, they believed. They believed. They all knew
it. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
to us, and put no difference between
us and them, how purifying their hearts by faith. Isn't this the
context of our text? Justification by faith? He said,
now therefore, why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the neck
of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able
to bear? He said, why in the world are you trying to put the
law back on these people that we didn't even obey ourselves?
It wasn't even given to them. They were Gentiles. It was given
to us, and we didn't obey it. Why would you put that yoke on
them? But this is our faith. This is what we believe. We believe
that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved even as they. You got that? He said, he didn't
put it the other way. They're going to be saved like
us. You know, that put him, put the Jews above the other. He said, no, we're going to be
saved just like them. That put the Jews down. He said, if anyone's going to
be saved, how are you going to be saved? You'll be justified
by faith in Jesus Christ. Seeing one God shall justify
both uncircumcision and circumcision. How? Through faith. Now that's
the context. Now we're getting to verse 31.
We found the context, right? Justification by the work of
Christ, by the obedience of Christ, by the death of Christ, as it
is imputed to us who what? Believe. Now what has taken place? You that believe, what has actually
taken place within you? I'm going to give you this. You've established the law. You
fulfilled it. That's what he's telling us next. It's salvation by grace through
faith so that we may establish the law. This is the only way
you can do it. You can't establish the law any other way. Look at
that in verse 31. Go back to your text. Do we then, by justification
by faith, do we make the law void? God forbid. What do we do when we believe?
We establish it. We establish it. We satisfy it. Now the Apostle Paul is charged
with the same thing that I'm charged with, that other preachers
are charged with, lawlessness. That's what we're charged with.
We're charged with saying, if you're not under the law, then
that means you're inciting sin in your congregation, that your
congregation is going to go out and be vile and wicked and evil
if you don't put that law on. Charges with antinomianism. Well, knowing this, is our charge,
as Paul knew it. He says, do we make void the
law? That's what their accusation is, isn't it? When they come
to you, and you say you're justified without the works of your law,
you're sanctified, you're justified, you're saved without any merit
from you. This is what they're going to
say. Well, you're making void the law. Paul said, God forbid, that's
not what we're doing. We're doing something you haven't
done. We've established it. Have you?
You that want to be under the law, have you established the
law? We have. We've established the law by
faith in Jesus Christ. Now, our Lord declared this very
same thing. Look at Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, look at verse
17. This was the accusation of the
Lord when he was talking about mercy, is that he come to make
void the law. He said, do you think not I am
come to destroy the law or the prophets? I am not come to destroy the
law, but to what? Fulfill. For verily I say unto
you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the law, listen, till all be fulfilled. I came to fulfill, and that law
will stand until I do what? Until I fulfill it. Until I fulfill
it. Men use this verse just like
they do that one in verse 31. They use it as a text to prove
we're under the law, when it's actually the opposite of what
he's saying. He said, I came to fulfill the law and what?
The prophets. Well, people like to say, I came
not to destroy the law, but to fulfill. And they leave out prophets. Well, if you're under the law,
are you under the prophets? Are we still waiting to fulfill the
prophets? No. He fulfilled both the prophecies
and the obedience to the law. What does it mean to fulfill?
Listen, I'll get deep. It means to feel full. That's what it means. You take
a glass and you fill it to the top. If you add one drop of water,
what does it do? It just overflows. It's full.
It's done. You can't add any more to it.
If you add any more to it, it just falls out. It doesn't do
it any good. It's done. Jesus said, I came
to fulfill the law. Not one thing could be added
to it. He fulfilled the law and the
prophets so that nothing could be added to it. That's why Paul
says in Romans chapter 5, as our representative man has said,
by the disobedience of one, many were made what? Sinners. Empty. We were empty of righteousness. But by the obedience of one,
shall many be made what? Righteous. Full. Full of righteousness. Fool. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, what? Grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life. How? Listen to these words. By
Jesus Christ. Got that? That's how eternal
life comes. That's how righteousness is fulfilled
by Jesus Christ. So behold, believer in Jesus
Christ, I want you to know this. You have already established
the law. When did you do that? When he
did it. This is representation, friends. This is how salvation
comes. It is by representation. So whatever he did, I did. Whatever he accomplished, I accomplished. Whatever he's satisfied concerning
the justice of God, I've satisfied. And so then we have established
the law. Look at Romans chapter 8 real quickly. Romans chapter
8. What does Paul say to us who
are in Christ? There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. What does the law do? What is
the one purpose of the law? Already established that is that
your mouth be shut up and you're guilty. That's all the law can
do is expose your sin. What does Christ reveal? Christ
reveals that there's no condemnation. The law cannot condemn me. Look what it says, for the law
of the spirit of life hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. See, he's putting these two up
together. He's saying there's a law of
sin and death. That's the law of Moses. That's a law that we
can't obey. We can't honor. But what's made
me free from that? The law of the spirit and life. It's given me life. For what
the law could not do in that it was weak to the flesh. See,
there's a problem. It's not the law. The law's good. But you're
weak. You couldn't do it. What'd God
do? God sending his own son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in
the flesh. For what purpose? That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us. The law is fulfilled in us. But if you seek to be under the
law, listen to me, you make void the law. I've established the
law. Have you? Being justified by
faith, I have established the law. The law is magnified. The
law is honored by us who believe in Jesus Christ. But if you desire
to take the law back under yourself, what do you have to do? You neuter
the law. You say, it's not really, you
know, more like a guideline. That's what they say it is now.
Well, the law doesn't really condemn us. It's just more of
a guideline. Well, you've neutered it. You've cut its power. You make
it nothing. No, if you want to be under the
law, you make void the law. I've not made void the law. I've
established it. In Christ, I've established it.
The law is perfectly satisfied with me. And I'm going to give you this last
thing. In Romans chapter 4, look there. Who does Paul use as an
illustration of this? Paul uses Abraham to illustrate
this very point. He says in verse 1, what shall
we say then? that Abraham, our father, pertaining to the flesh,
hath found. For if Abraham were justified by works, he have whereof
the glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was what? It accounted to him
for righteousness. God imputed the righteousness
of Christ to Abraham. Listen to this. 430 years before the law was
written. The law was established for Abraham,
in Abraham, how? By faith. By faith. What did Abraham know about the
law? As he walked through this world, according to religionists,
Abraham must have been a wicked man. He didn't have the law.
Oh my goodness, what kind of vile person he must have been.
He must have committed adultery every single day because he didn't
have the law tell him not to commit adultery. So he must have
been a wicked person. No. How did Abraham live? Without
the law? By faith. How does everyone who
is a believer in Christ, how do we live? We live by faith. And it is not the law that constrains
me from sin. It's love. To see the love of Christ constrains
me from sin. Isn't that what faith reveals?
The love of Christ? That moves me from sin. So the same way Abraham established
the law is the same way we establish the law. Paul says in verse 23,
it's not written for his sake only. It's written for yours.
It's written for your sake. If we believe on Him who raised
up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, who is delivered for
our offenses and raised again for our justification, we shall
have the righteousness of God imputed to us. Is there any sinner that needs
the righteousness of God? I mean, is there anyone? Is there
anyone who needs to be washed in the blood of the Son of the
living God? Anyone? The only way you'll ever be justified
is through faith in Christ. I know this for a fact. Belief
in Christ is not a choice. I don't have a choice, and I
don't want one. I know this. Before I believed,
I didn't. And when I believed, I couldn't
do anything but believe. That's just so. When the Spirit
of God gets a hold of a man and he believes, that's all he can
do. He can't do anything else. How long is he going to do it?
He's going to do it for the rest of his life. Why? Because the one who gives us
faith keeps our faith, isn't it? And what is our faith in? Our faith is in the righteousness
and redemption of Jesus Christ. We dare not take our eyes off
of Him and put them on ourselves. I know it's natural for people
to want to look for progress. You that believe in Jesus Christ,
we often want to look, man, am I really saved? Oftentimes we feel guilt and
doubts and fears and we try to look then, what do we do? We
look within. Oh, mistake. Don't look there. You won't find
anything there. Where do you look when you doubt?
Did he fulfill the law? Was his blood sufficient to satisfy
the justice of God? Yeah. I believe in him. I believe in him. He is all my
salvation. I'm justified. Where's boasting? Out the window. I mean, I don't
even have room to boast. If I have any understanding,
any knowledge of this, who gave it to me? He did. Why'd God do it? So he could
save all of his elect. Did he do it without the law?
Did he set aside the law? No, Christ did it through the
law. The law is established. And I'm not going to add anything
to it by my obedience of it. In fact, if I try to go back
to it, I've destroyed what he's done. I pray God will bless this to
your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Glenn, dismiss us in prayer,
please.