Good morning, everybody. It's
good to be back with you all. It seems like it's been so long.
If you want to turn to Romans chapter three, Bible study. Romans chapter three, we'll read
verses 19 through 28. Romans chapter three, verse 19,
this is Paul speaking. And Paul says, now 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, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by
the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law. is manifested, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets, 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, 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 to be 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's excluded by what law? Of
works? Nay, but by the law of faith. therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Now it appears from the scriptures that when the Lord begins dealing
with a man in a saving way, there are three things about his own
character that he seems to reveal to him early on, three basic
things. And the first one is his absolute
omnipotence, his almighty power. Now, if you would like to make
the greatest understatement anyone has ever made, simply say that
the Lord is the most powerful being. That statement is accurate,
and yet it is the greatest understatement anyone could ever make, because
not only is He the most powerful being, He is the source of all
power. means if there is any other entity out there that has
any power, whether it be an angel, a demon, a man, whatever it may
be, He has that power on loan from the Lord. The Lord gives
Him that power to accomplish His purposes. And when that entity,
that creature is done accomplishing the Lord's purposes with that
power, He takes that power back. And that thing is powerless again.
He is the source of all power. And you think about it, when
our Lord was just about to be crucified, Pilate was interrogating
him. Pilate asked him all these questions
and the Lord would never answer him, never said anything to him. And
finally, Pilate said, he said, you're not gonna answer me? Don't
you know that I have the power to crucify you or to let you
go? You remember what the Lord said? Thou could have had no
power over me, except to be given you from above. What he was telling
Pilate in that moment, he goes, you think you're running things.
You think you have some power here. You think you have some
control. Whatever power you think you have, it's just you doing
my father's will. That power is on loan. I'm giving
it to you. And I'm going to take it away
as soon as you're done accomplishing my will. Omnipotence, almighty
power. The second thing he tends to
reveal to man early on is his absolute sovereignty. Now, I'll
pick on Isaiah for a minute. You remember Isaiah chapter six,
Isaiah gets a vision of who God is. Here's what he says. He says,
in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, here's
how I saw him, sitting on a throne. He saw a king. He saw a king
in regal glory sitting on his throne. You know what a king
does? He does whatever he wants, with whomever he wants, whenever
he wants, he has absolute power. And I like how, this is the wrong
wording, but the wisdom of the scriptures in this, he didn't
just see a king, he saw a king sitting. He did not see a king
who was pacing around and was trying to scheme and develop
a way to get men to do what he wanted them to do. This is a
king who was at complete ease. He was ruling and he was reigning
completely content, completely at peace, because he's omnipotent,
which means he has a will, and he has the power to make that
will come to pass, no matter what that will is. So he's not
worried, he's not anxious, he is simply sitting, calm, peacefully,
ruling and reigning, knowing that whatever he decrees, whatever
he purposes, it always comes to pass. I think it was Nebuchadnezzar
who said in Daniel 4, he said, in all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. want to know how people in Heaven
view us, nothing. That's our reputation in Heaven,
nothing. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing,
and He doeth according to His will in the armies of Heaven,
and amongst the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
His hand. Nobody can stop Him, and nobody has the right to challenge
Him. None can say unto Him, what doest thou? And if you carry
that thought out, that he is absolutely sovereign concerning
all men, all events, at all times, that means he's sovereign in
salvation. That means whether you or I will be saved is completely
and utterly up to him. There's a will involved in salvation,
it's not the will of man, it is the very will of God. The
last thing, or the last of the three, the Lord tends to reveal
man is that he is unapproachably holy, unapproachable in holiness. Now I'll pick on Isaiah again.
He said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord
sitting on a throne. He says, I saw him high and lifted
up. Isaiah said, I'm here and he's up there and I can't approach
him. I can't come into his light. I can't approach unto him because
I'm a sinner. I can't stand before this holy,
unapproachable God. That's his character, that's
his nature. Perfect, immutably, unchangeably perfect. And that's
his standard, perfection. absolute, unchanging righteousness. And here's the thing, the only
righteousness he can accept is his own, the very righteousness
of God. That's what we're gonna read
about here in a second. Now, the example I thought of when
we were gonna deal with this was the temple and the tabernacle.
You had the holy place and the holy of holies, and the veil
separated the two. And the holy place is where the
priests would do their daily work, but the holy place, separated
by the veil, who could go back there? Nobody. Nobody could go back there except
once, once a year. The high priest could go back
there and he had to bring the blood of the sacrifice. He could slip under
that veil with the blood and he could do the priestly duty,
but he did it because he was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the only one who can come into the presence of the Father,
in the presence of that holiness, and he can find satisfaction
with his Father. And here's the beauty of it,
when he goes to his Father, Every member of the elect, every believer,
they go as well, and the same satisfaction he finds in the
light of his father's holiness, we find the same one. But other
than him, other than that high priest, nobody was allowed back
there because God is unapproachably holy. Here's a question. In the light of who God is, absolutely
omnipotent, sovereign, unapproachable in holiness, what is my standing
before him? Look at verse 19 again. Now 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. What is my standing before this
sovereign, omnipotent, holy God? Guilty. That's the way I'm born
in this world. And that should have my attention,
that should have your attention. It's for this reason. Let me read
you this. Exodus 34, verse six. And the Lord passed by before
him, speaking in Moses, And proclaim the Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and it will by no means clear the guilty. This is a God
of absolute holiness, once again, with a perfect sense of justice.
And here's the thing, when He sees sin on a man, He cannot
sweep it on the carpet. He can't just forget about it.
He can't overlook it. When He sees sin on a man, here's what
He must do. He must punish it. It's part of His character. That's
what He must do. This should have our attention.
We are guilty before this holy, omnipotent, and sovereign God.
Now, here's another question. Is there anything I can do to
change that standing? Is there anything I can do to
change my standing before God? Look at verse 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. The answer is no. By the deeds
of the law, by what I do, is there any way I can change my
guilty status before God? No, says it right there, absolutely
not. Now I want to talk about this
thing for a second, this phrase, the deeds of the law. There's
two ways we can look at this, right? And here's what this means.
It is an all encompassing term which refers to man's complete
inability to satisfy God in any way, shape, and form. The first
way you look at it is man keeping the law. Now if you look here,
the last seven words of verse 20, For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. There we see the purpose of the
law. The law was never given as a mechanism of salvation.
This was not God's plan B that, well, men broke the law when
I gave it to them, so now we have to send Christ to die to
atone for their sins. No, no, no. The law was always given
for this one specific purpose, to declare my guilt, to beat
me, beat me up and say, you're guilty. That's its only purpose. And here's my relationship and
your relationship with the law. The truth of the matter is, I
have never kept it once, and you have never kept it once,
ever. I can see someone raising an argument to that. Someone
saying, okay, I have irrefutable proof that what you're saying
is not true. I have never murdered anyone. I have never cheated
on my wife. I have never took a totem pole
and carved it out and made a god out of it. I've never done those
things, so what you're saying cannot be true, that I have never kept
the law. It is. I'll read you. This is
our Lord speaking, Matthew 5, verse 27. He goes, you have heard
that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery.
But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after
her hath committed adultery with her already, don't miss this,
in his heart. See, the violations of the law,
the offenses of the law, they are not confined to the outward
deeds. The heart, the offenses of the heart. What do we mean
by the heart? The whole man, right? It's those
little things, it's the desires, it's the motivations behind what
we do, the intentions behind things, the thoughts, not just
the actions, but everything, the entire man. And this is what
God says about the heart of man, Genesis 6, 5, and God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil and that continually.
because the source is bad, the man is bad, the nature is bad,
everything that comes from the man is bad. And so every thought,
every motive, every intention, those small, subtle things inside
of you, take the most moral act that you've come up with, the
most selfless thought you and I have come up with, what's the
motivation? Dig deep, you'll find it, it's self-glorification,
it's down here somewhere. The deeds of the law shall no
man be justified. It's evidenced in our text, look
at verse 10. It says, as it is written, there is none righteous,
no not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none
that seeketh after God. They are all going out of the way, they
are altogether become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. That's the truth of the matter,
it's written right there. Now, this is the second way we can
interpret this phrase, the deeds of the law. It just speaks to
man's complete inability to aid in his salvation in any way,
shape, or form. And it's speaking of false religion,
right? So, what is the cry of false religion, right? Christ
stand. You must do something to make the work of Christ to
be effective for you, right? That's the cry of false religion.
Now, depending on who you're talking to and what, I guess,
demographic of false religion you're dealing with, that something
changes, right? But there's always something
you must do. Salvation is in some way in your court, dependent
on what you do. But here's the problem, you can't,
whatever that thing is. You can take free will preaching
as an example. They say you must have the shed
blood of Jesus Christ, you must have the work of Christ on your
behalf, but here's what you have to do to activate that work.
You have to allow the Lord to save you. You have to give Him
the go ahead, right? Choose Him. There's two problems with that,
and you guys know what it is. Number one, it's simply not true.
That the issue is not whether a man will accept God. The issue
is whether God will accept a man. That's the issue. But here's
the greater issue. Let's say that was true. Let's
say that was a truth for a minute, that the only way a man would
be saved is if he, by nature, was willing to accept God as
he is. Let me give you a scripture here. Psalm 14 once says, the fool
has said in his heart, no God. They are corrupt, they have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good. And when he's saying no God,
that doesn't mean he doesn't believe that there's a God. What
he's saying is, I don't like you. I don't like the way you
are. I despise your sovereignty. It
riles me out of my sense of self control. I despise the way you
save because at least you getting all the glory and I get none.
I despise this man, Jesus Christ. So if it was up to us by nature
to choose God, who would be saved? Nobody. Absolutely nobody. That's why by salvation must
be up to a sovereign God, must be all of grace. Now, I have another question
for you. To recap, what's my standing
before this holy, sovereign God? Guilty. Is there anything I can
do to change that by my deeds of the law? No, nothing. Does that mean there's no hope?
No. Look at verse 21. But now the righteousness of
God without the law. is manifested being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. If there is none righteous, know
not one. And God demands perfect righteousness. How can a man be saved? He must
be given the very righteousness of God, the only righteousness
God can accept, his own righteousness. but he must be given it without
the law, without him having to do anything to earn it. Does
that sound attractive? To have the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ without the law, without having to do anything
to earn it. For people who can't earn it,
it sounds very, very attractive. And this is the good news of
the gospel, that for a select group of people. God actually
gives him his righteousness. He gives them that thing that
satisfies himself, and he does it free for nothing, demanding
absolutely nothing from them in return. This phrase here that
says, being witnessed by the law and prophets, what that's
saying is you can take this home, right? This is true, and I'll
tell you why. Because it's in the Bible. It's written in the
scriptures. So what do the scriptures have to say about the righteousness
of God concerning us? I'll give you one that came to
mind first. It was 2 Corinthians 5, 21. It says, for he, speaking
of God the Father, hath made him, speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, sin for us. Who knew no sin, he never sinned,
he never had a sinful thought, he never took on a sinful action,
that we might be the very righteousness of God in him. Now, the question
we need to ask there is, who's the us? Who's the us in all this? Who are these us that are given
freely the very righteousness of God? They are given what God
demands freely, free for nothing. Who's that us? In Ephesians 1,
verse 4, it says, according he hath chosen us. in him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy without blame
before him in love. These are his elect, his chosen
people, people who are eternally united to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I don't understand that concept, that concept of an eternal union
that I have always been a part and you have always been a part
of Jesus Christ, him being the head and you being the body.
There's never a time that we've been separated from him, but
that's the case. were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And 2 Corinthians 5.21 tells
the story of how those people are saved. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to this earth and He was made our sin. I don't understand
that either. I don't understand how God was
able to take my sin off of me and to put it in Jesus Christ,
so much so that He bore the shame of it, that He bore the guilt
of it, where He actually became guilty of these sins, so much
so that God, in all His justice, His perfect sense of justice,
He will never punish an innocent man, nor will He let an unrighteous
man go free. He poured His wrath down on him,
and He punished him to the point of death. But in that death,
He actually wiped out our sins. and that we actually have the
very righteousness of Jesus Christ. How real is that? Is that just
marks on a ledger? Is that just changing some numbers
on an accounting pad? Or is that real? Here's how real
it is. Jeremiah 23, verse six. In his days, Judah shall be saved
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name, whereby
he, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, shall be called the Lord,
our righteousness. And a few pages over, Jeremiah
33, 16. In those days shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name
wherewith she, the church, his people, every believer, shall
be called the Lord, our righteousness. What's your name? My name's Aaron.
You know what my head is named? Aaron. You know what my foot
is named? Aaron. You know what my hand
is named? Aaron. This is all Aaron right
here. How real is it that we actually have, we actually are
the very righteousness of Jesus Christ? Is Jesus Christ himself
righteous? His name is the Lord our righteousness.
He is our head, and whatever part of the body we are, we are
the Lord our righteousness. This is real, absolutely real.
Now, here's a big question. How can I know if I'm one of
these people, these people who their sins have been taken away,
that they are the very righteousness of God in Christ? Look at verse
22 of your text. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith, of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. Who are these people? How can
I know if I'm one of these people? It's very simple, they believe.
They trust the Lord Jesus Christ. This is all their hope, is that
Jesus Christ became their sin, that he suffered the punishment,
that he took away that debt, and they have his righteousness.
They are the very righteousness of Christ in him. That's their
hope, that's all they have, they believe. Let's expand on that
thought. What do they believe? I'm gonna
give you seven things here, quickly. First off, they believe that
there is no difference between them and the most outwardly,
morally reprehensible individual to ever walk this earth. Pick
up in verse 22 and look at the last five words. For there is
no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. That's the first thing we believe,
isn't it? Think of the most reprehensible crime you can think of, child
molestation, rape, murder, and men who have committed those
offenses. What's the difference between me and them? And the
answer is absolutely nothing. The same heart, the same nature
that dwells in them, it dwells in me, the exact same thing.
If you haven't acted out on those same things the way someone else
did, it is simply by the restraining grace of God. That goes for you
and me. There is no difference whatsoever. I was thinking about,
Luke 18, you had the publican and the Pharisee. And the Pharisee,
he walks into the temple to pray, and he feels very comfortable
in the presence of God. He stands in the middle where everybody
can see him, very comfortable in the presence of God. I thank
thee, Father, that I'm not like other men are, unjust, adulterers,
not like this publican either. I'm really thankful for that.
I'm not like this guy down here. He prayed thus with himself.
And then the publican, he did not feel comfortable in the presence
of God. He stood far off. And he didn't look around, he
wasn't talking about anyone else, he wasn't looking for anyone
else. He simply kept his eyes down, and he beat on his breast.
And he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He wasn't
looking at what everybody else was doing. He wasn't concerned
in someone else's state. As far as he was concerned, maybe
they have it all figured out. Maybe they do have something
they can bring to God. But I don't. I have absolutely nothing. I'm
in need of mercy. To God to withhold from me what
I deserve when I've earned. And the scripture says that man,
that publican, he went down to his house justified, not like
the other. Second thing, every believer
believes. They believe salvation is found
in Jesus Christ only. Look at verse 24 of your text.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Familiar with Numbers 35, it
speaks of the cities of refuge. So here's how this worked in
the Old Testament. Let's say you're working, and along the
way, you accidentally killed someone. So let's say you're
chopping a tree, right? And along the way, you're swinging the
axe. The axe head falls off, goes flying in the air, hits
another guy in the head, and kills him, right? His death was
still on your hands, right? And that man's family could avenge
him. So they'd pick someone. He was called the Avenger of
Blood. And he'd come after you, and he could kill you. He had
the right to. So they set up seven cities of refuge. And if
you went to these cities, you could flee from the Avenger of
Blood. He'd pursue you. But if you got inside one of
these cities of refuge, he couldn't touch you. It was not good enough
that you simply hung out around the city. And it was not good
enough that you just walked up to the wall and put your hand
on it. You had to be inside the city. There was only one place
of safety, and it was inside that city of refuge. Now, how
do I flee to Christ? You believe upon Him. You trust
Him. lose any hope of finding something
in yourself that you might find some hope in, that you think
God might find some pleasure in you because of that. You abandon
all that, Christ alone, that's it. I've cut ties with everything
else. I've burned every other bridge. It's this man alone.
Here's the beautiful part of it. When you do, when the Lord
enables a man to believe, to flee inside that city, what he
finds is that he's always been there. You've always been safe
and secure inside those walls. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. This was his plan. This was his
purpose all along. You've always been there. You've always been
safe and secure in the person of Jesus Christ. The third thing,
they believe that salvation came to them by grace alone. Look
at verse 24 again, being justified freely by his grace. book of Hosea, it's an interesting
book. It opens in a manner that's unusual. It opens with the Lord
going to Hosea and telling him to take a prostitute to be his
wife. Once again, this is the wrong wording, but you see the
wisdom of the Scripture and all that. You want to catch somebody's
attention in just a few words? Start that way, right? Here's
this prophet and he says, here's what you need to do, go down
and find a prostitute and make her your wife. So Hosea does. He finds the woman
named Gomer, who's a prostitute. And so he marries this woman.
Gomer is not interested in Hosea. She's not looking for Hosea.
Hosea comes to her and he makes her his wife. And you know what
she does? She cheats all over him, right?
As soon as they're married, goes back to her lovers, constantly
going back to her former lovers. And along the way, she finds
these packages as she's out, being unfaithful, being rebellious.
These packages are left for, they have food in them, they
have jewelry, they have ointment, not just the necessities, but
beautiful things, gifts of love and affection and things like
that. All these are left for her along the way. And the whole
time, who does she think is leaving these for? Her lovers, she thinks,
they're leaving for me. These are rewards for me doing
a good job. But who is it the entire time?
It's Hosea. In all her rebellion, in all
her unfaithfulness, in all this, he still faithfully took care
of her. And think about it, it wasn't just the basic necessities. Jewelry,
ointment, food, creature comforts provided for her grand the entire
time. Is that not how the Lord has
dealt with us? In the constant rebellion, the
constant unfaithfulness provides day in, day out. We still have
the shed blood of Jesus Christ that puts away the sins of yesterday,
the sins of today, and the sins of tomorrow. We still have the
very righteousness of Christ, those precious things, those
beautiful things. In the midst of all our rebellion,
all our unfaithfulness, which lasts this entire life, He remains
faithful to us. Salvation is by grace. Fourth thing. They believe they
were saved according to the purpose and the will of God. Look at
verse 25 again. Whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation. Who set forth Jesus Christ to
be a propitiation, to be a sin-removing and peace-creating sacrifice
for his people? God the Father did. He set it
forth, he purposed it. He put things into action and
He made it happen. He purposed these things. This
is what every believer believes, that their salvation was purposed
by the sovereign will of God alone. Now, we talked about the
sovereignty of God just a little bit earlier. This is the attribute
of God that is hated more than any other attribute by the natural
man. It robs men of their sense of self-importance, of their
sense of control, and things of that nature. But you know
who loves a sovereign God? a man who has no sense of self-importance,
and who has no sense of control. David, after he had risen to
this place of power as the king of Israel, and he had vanquished
all his enemies, and he's sitting on his throne, the most powerful
and feared man on the face of the earth, he asked this question.
He said, is there yet any left of the house of Saul that I might
show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And one of his servants
speaks up. He said, yeah, King, there's
one. There's this kid named Mephibosheth. If you want to know what that
means, it means shameful thing. He said, before you go any further
with his thought, King, I want you to know something about him.
He's lame on both his feet. So he can't even provide for
himself. He lives in squalor down in this land called Lodobar.
He can't provide for himself. Everything has to be done for
him. He certainly can't do anything for you. Right? And if you take
him on, you're gonna have to do everything from him. There's
nothing he can do. You're gonna have to provide
for him in every way, shape, and form. And King, here's the thing. If
you want him, we can't even just summon him. We have to actually
go down there and get him and bring him here to you. You know
what David said? Go fetch him. Now, go fetch him. went down
there, and they brought him back. And Mephibosheth sat that in
the court, and he ate at David's table every day after that."
You know what Scripture says? His table covered his lame feet.
You looked at that table, and you looked at Mephibosheth, and
you looked at everybody else, you couldn't tell he was lame. David's table
covered that lame feet. David provided for him every
single day of his life going forward. Now, the natural man
may hate the sovereign God. You know who loves the sovereign
God? Every Mephibosheth. Every one of us who are lame
on both our feet, can't get to David, can't do anything for
David, can't do anything for ourselves. Need David to come
to us and do everything for us. We love that sovereign God, it's
the only way we can be saved. Now somebody asks, what about
Revelation 22, 17? You speak of this sovereign God,
what about this? And the spirit and the bride say, come. Let
him that heareth say, come. and let him that is a thirst
come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
So how do you reconcile that with sovereignty of God? Is that
not saying, whosoever will? Any man who is in need of mercy,
he can come, he can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact,
he's commanded to, and he will find mercy. Is that not what
it's saying? That's exactly what it's saying.
If you're a sinner in need of mercy, you come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, you are commanded to, you do that right now, and you
will find mercy. You will find acceptance. And
you know what? Somebody says reconcile that with the sovereignty
of God. It's very simple. If you ever do, if I ever do,
because he purposed it and he willed it and he caused it to
come to pass. Number five, they believe that
the death of Jesus Christ is the very accomplishment of their
salvation. Look at verse 25, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in His blood. Isaiah 53, 3 says, but He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
We are, that's the word, healed. Not we will be. Not we will be
if we do something. With his stripes, we, every believer,
currently are healed. And this is our hope, folks,
that when Jesus Christ shed his blood, Before he died, he said,
it is finished. And that's our hope, that there
is nothing left undone, that there is nothing to do. We simply
rest and we trust Christ. And that's the reality of the
situation. For every believer, if all you have is Christ, you
know what you do? You rest and you trust him. That's all you
need. Sixth thing, they declare only
the righteousness of Christ. Look at verse 25 again. whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remissions of sins that are
past. Question, do you want God to
see anything when he looks at you other than the righteousness
of Jesus Christ alone? Is there something about you
you want him to see? Is there something you've done?
Is there something you've said? Is there anything about you that
you want him to see when he looks at you? Nothing. We declare only the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. What's my history? What have
I done? What have I thought? What have I said? Whatever he
said, whatever he did, whatever he thought, that's my history.
That's all I want. They understand their purpose.
We'll finish up with verse 26. To declare, I say, at this time,
his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. We declare his righteousness,
but we also declare the glory of his righteousness, the glory
of how he has devised a way to be just and justify someone as
wicked and sinful as me. And that's our purpose. to proclaim
the glory of that righteousness. This is my Savior. This is Jesus
Christ, the just one, this one who will not let sin go unpunished,
who will accept nothing but perfect righteousness, but is also merciful
and gracious and wise in the sense that he devised a way to
save someone as miserable as I am. It's been a pleasure, folks. We'll stop there.