Go with me, if you would, back
to Romans 3. Romans 3. A few of the verses
in this chapter are some of the easiest to understand verses
that I know of in all the Scripture. These verses are impossible to
believe if God does not send faith to believe them. Impossible. But they are so clear and they're
so easy to understand, all we need to do is just read them.
Let me give you an example, verse 23. Romans 3.23, it says, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's clear
enough, isn't it? We've already looked at the first
eight verses. We looked at them last week.
And I thought about breaking up the remaining verses into
multiple messages, but I believe they are most clearly understood
as a whole. So we're gonna pick up in verse
nine, and we're gonna go through the end of the chapter. I'm gonna
make a couple of comments along the way. And my prayer is that
God will open our eyes to Romans chapter three today. That's my
prayer. The Apostle Paul has been up
to this point talking about the Jew and the Gentile. He calls them the circumcised
and the uncircumcised. The Scripture makes a clear distinction
between those who are God's people and those who are not God's people.
And the Scripture uses language like us and them, our and their. There's a clear distinction.
But in verse nine, Paul asked this question. He said, are we
better than they? He said in verse nine, what then?
You have all of these distinctions between the people that God chose
to save and the people that he did not choose to save. He said,
what then? Concerning the people themselves.
When you compare both groups of people side by side, he said,
are we better than they? And he answered his own question.
He said, no. in no wise. For we have before
proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin."
Paul said concerning this issue of salvation, concerning both
the saved and the unsaved, he said, let's start right here,
all of us are in the same boat. All of us come from the same
lump. Well, why would you say that,
Paul? Why wouldn't you say that God chose the better ones? Why
wouldn't you say that? Why would you say that we are
no better than they are? He said in verse 10, because
it is written in the word of God, there is none righteous
No, not one. None? Nope. Not one. Not one. Not one. Think about that. Not one. That's
pretty clear. That is pretty clear. It does
take the faith of God to believe that. Here we declare it and
some will believe it and some won't. It takes the faith of
God to believe that, but that's clear. He said, there is none
righteous. Verse 11, he said, there is none
that understandeth. There is none that even seek
God. Some will say, well, at least
we seek God. No. No man has ever sought God on
his own. No man, not one time has a man
ever sought God according to his will, according to his doing. In Isaiah 65 verse 1, God said,
this is what God said, I am sought of them that asked not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. I said, Behold me. Behold me unto a nation that
was not called by my name. That's the truth of how a sinner
seeks God. That's the truth of how it happens.
God says, behold me. That's how it happens. David
said in Psalm 27 verse eight, when you said, seek ye my face,
My heart said unto you, thy face Lord will I seek. When you told
me to, that's the moment I did it. If a sinner seeks God, it
means God sought him first. If a sinner finds God, it means
God found him first. If a sinner loves God, It means
God loved him first because verse 12 says, all that man has done
on his own is gone out of the way. That's all he's done. He's
just prone to wander. Verse 12 says, they are all gone
out of the way, the way of God, the way of his truth, the way
of his holiness, the way of life, his life. Verse 12 says, they
are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable. That means not worth anything. When God told Isaiah to cry,
all flesh is grass, which was prophetic of John the Baptist.
All flesh is grass. What that meant is, it's not
worth anything. It's worthless. It's not good. Verse 12 goes on to say, There
is none that doeth good, no, not one. Can it be stated any
more clearly than that? That rich young ruler came to
the Lord and he said, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? And the Lord said, Why are you
calling me good? There is none good but God." And what he was saying was, if
you're calling me good, you're calling me God. Because beside
Him, there's none good. People will say, well, I believe
there's a little bit of good in everybody. That's the argument
that many people will have. I believe, the way I see it,
is there's a little bit of good in everybody. Unfortunately,
God does not see it that way. He said in Isaiah 64 verse six,
all of our righteousnesses, all of man's righteousnesses, whatever
it is we believe is a good thing. He said, it's all filthy rags
in his eyes. And his eyes are the only eyes
that matter. It doesn't matter what my eyes
see. His eyes are the only eyes that matter. Verse 13, He said,
Their throat is an open sepulcher. He compares the mouth and the
tongue of a man to an open grave, the repulsive sight of it, that
repulsive smell of it. He said, With their tongues they
have used deceit, lies, trickery. He said, the poison of asps is
under their lips. Man spews out all of that vileness
like a snake spews out his poison. Where does all that vileness
come from? Well, he got hooked up with the wrong crowd and they
influenced him. No, sir, right here. It comes
from the heart. Our Lord said, out of the heart,
the mouth will speak. Verse 14 says, whose mouth is
full of cursing. That means cursing, but more
specifically, it means blasphemy, blasphemy against God, whose
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. That means murmuring,
complaining. If you want to see a good description
of man, here it is. He blasphemes God and he complains. That's man. That's man. Verse 15, their feet are swift
to shed blood. The mouth represents the heart
and the feet represent a man's actions. And not only are men
running to sin against God, they're running to sin against each other.
They are swift. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Verse 16 says, Destruction and
misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not
known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. There is a way that seems right
to a man. If God does not convince him
otherwise, he'll never be convinced otherwise. Because it seems right
to him. There's a way that seems right
to a man. But if it's not God's way, The
end is always death and destruction. Every time. Every single time. Everything that a man does from
the time it starts in his heart till the moment that it ends
with his actions. Everything a man does leads him
to destruction. Everything a man does. A man
cannot lead himself to the way of peace. He does not know the
way of peace. He can't find the way of peace.
And the reason is because he doesn't fear God. That's the
reason why. If he feared God, he would run
to the way of peace. But man doesn't fear God. The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Moses said, Oh, that
they were wise and would consider their latter end. What is a man's latter end? In
His natural state, death and destruction. No man considers
that outside of God opening the eyes, opening the ears. In His
natural state, death and destruction. It doesn't matter who the man
is. It doesn't matter what he's done, what he has attained. The
end of every man standing on the earth, no matter what he
did in his life here, The end of every single man is death
and eternal destruction. Now, how do we know that? How
do we know that that is the only end that a man has coming to
him in his natural state before God? Here's how we know. The
law reveals it to us. Verse 19 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." That word guilty translates to
subject to the judgment of God. That all the world may become
subject to the judgment of God. The law was given because every
man and woman is under it, and it was given to prove the error
of our ways. We would have never known our
sin had God not sent His law. Never. Verse 20 says, 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. Every word
in God's holy law proves our sin against us. It proves to
us that we will, in our natural condition, never be good enough
for God. I just want to say that one more
time. This law right here, every time we look into the holy law
of God, it is going to prove to us that we in our natural
flesh will never be good enough for God. Man is trying so hard
to be good enough for God, and we'll never be it. We'll never
attain it. Now that is us. That is the law. And that's our sin against it,
all right? Verse 21 says, but now. My favorite part. This is the part we've been waiting
for. The truth of the word, it slays
man, just slays his flesh. And then the gospel cries, but
now. Every time the gospel cries,
but, It honestly makes me cry, thank God. But now, thank God. The glorious news of the gospel
is but now. Paul said, we've been talking
about the natural man long enough. I have talked now about the natural
man, all I want to talk about him this morning. Let's talk about somebody else. Verse 21 says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. What does that mean? That means
the law was sent to reveal you to you and to reveal somebody
else to you. Paul told the Galatians, the
law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. When you see it like that, don't
you say with David, then I love thy law. Oh, that's why God sent
his law? Not to put me under the bondage
of it, but to bring me to Christ? Oh, then I love that law. The law exposes our sin and immediately
points us to Christ. The law does not expose our sin
and then point us to ourselves. It doesn't do that. It exposes
our sin and it points us to Christ. Verse 21 says, 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. It comes to God's people by faith,
the faith that God gives, seeing Christ to be who he is
and what he's done. The scripture says, Abraham believed
God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Verse 22 says,
Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's no difference,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The
only difference in God's elect and those that He will leave
alone is His mercy, His grace, and its evidence through faith
in Christ. Verse 24 says, "...being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation..." That
means a bloody victim. "...whom God hath 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." What does that mean? I think those are, you got to
think as you read those verses. What does He mean justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus? What
does He mean God set Christ forth to be a propitiation, that bloody
victim, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins? What
does he mean that in the righteous work of Christ, he is both just
and the justifier of the soul that believes on Christ? What
does all that mean? Here's what it means. The law said, die. The law said because of your
sin, you must die. You cannot fulfill what God requires. All you can do is sin against
Him. And God is holy. Man has forgotten
that, but it does not change the fact. God is holy. He is a just God who cannot and
will not, he will by no means clear the guilty. He will not. He demands absolute righteousness. That means perfection, holiness,
sinlessness. That's what he demands. And anything
that falls short of the glory of that perfection is going to
suffer vengeance that an eternal hell cannot put away. It's never ending. And this is what the law says.
You have fallen short. But God, The just and holy God is also
a merciful God. This just God who will punish
your sin is also a Savior. He said, you go tell them I'm
a just God and a Savior. Because you are sinful, because
you are as sinful as you always have been and always will be
in your flesh. Because you are as ruined as
you are and don't even realize it. Not realizing that you are vile
and you are wicked and you are corrupt. The law says, but because
you are what you are and because God is what He is, And because justice demands what
it does, God sent His own Son to you. God sent His own holy,
righteous, spotless, sinless Son to you to hide you in the
secret place of His pavilion. That's what He did. Just before
the time of trouble came, Just before the time of judgment
fell, God graciously hid you in the hiding place of His Son. Christ wrapped His righteousness
around you, and He exposed Himself with your sin. And God unleashed His wrath until
there was no more wrath to unleash. He poured it all. He poured it
all. And when it was all over, God's
justice was satisfied. Satisfied with Christ's death.
That's what justice demanded, and that's what it got. And God's
holiness was satisfied with Christ's righteousness. It demanded righteousness,
and that's what it got. And we were saved, completely
saved, in Him. A man named Jehoiada Brewer wrote
a song about it. All right, and this is what he
wrote, and I love this song. He said, hail sovereign love
that first began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless free eternal grace
that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who rules the
sky, I fought with hand uplifted high. Despised the mention of
his grace, too proud to seek a hiding place, enwrapped in thick Egyptian night,
that's bondage, and fond of darkness more than light. Madly I ran
the sinful race, secure I thought, yet I was without a hiding place.
But thus the eternal counsel ran. Almighty love, arrest that
man. I felt the arrows of distress and found I had no hiding place. Indignant justice stood in view. To Sinai's fiery mount I flew. That's where God gave Moses the
law. I ran to the law, that's what everybody does. But justice
cried with frowning face, this mountain is no hiding place.
Before long, a heavenly voice I heard, and mercy's angel form
appeared." That means God's Spirit came to me. who led me on with
gentle pace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. On Him, almighty
vengeance fell that must have sunk a world to hell. He bore
it for a chosen race and thus became their hiding place. Should
storms of sevenfold vengeance roll and shake this earth from
pole to pole, no flaming bolt could daunt my face, for Jesus
Christ is my hiding place. A few more rolling suns at most
shall land me safe on heaven's coast. There I shall sing the
song of grace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. What do all these verses right
here in Romans 3 mean? They mean I did not save myself
and you did not save yourself. Christ saved us. He satisfied
the law for me. He satisfied God's justice for
me. He paid the price of all of the
redemption of His people. He paid it for all that God the
Father gave to Him. And then He set all of us free.
He set us free. Verse 27 says, Where is boasting
then? It's excluded. By what law? Were we saved by the law of works?
No. By the law of looking to Christ,
our hiding place. Verse 28 says, therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by, here's the conclusion of the whole matter,
a man is justified by, and the next word is faith, and faith
is the faith of Christ. It's his faith. Faith is the
gift of Christ. Faith looks to the object of
Christ. So we can summarize all that
by just saying Christ. Verse 28 says, Therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by Christ without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only,
and is he not also of the Gentiles? Yea, of the Gentiles also. Seeing
it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by Christ, faith
in Christ, and the uncircumcision through Faith in Christ. Do we then make void the law
through Christ? Because of Christ and our faith
in Christ, do we make void the law? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law. Is the law now our enemy? We
were the law's enemy. But Christ reconciled us to the
law through His obedience to God for us. And now that He has
accomplished perfection for us, do we now throw out the law?
Do we make void the law? Do we ignore it? God forbid. For Christ's sake, for our Redeemer's
sake, our Substitute's sake, our Justifier's sake, we establish
the law. We establish the law. Here's
my last question. What do we establish about it?
What do we establish about the law? Here's what it is. I couldn't
keep it. I can't keep it. And I never
will be able to keep it. But Christ kept it for me. In
him, the law is established. Do we throw it out? No, sir.
We keep it in Him. In Him, the law is established,
God is satisfied, and we're redeemed. And that's the greatest news
a sinner is ever going to hear in his life. You know that? That's
the greatest news. A true sinner, if a man or a
woman is a true sinner, that'll be the greatest news he or she
will ever hear. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb, His child, forever I am. Wonderful. All right, let's all
stand together.