Would you turn with me to Romans
chapter 3? When someone comes to Todd's
Road Grace Church to preach the gospel, what I want them to do
is preach a very simple gospel message. That's all I want. don't want anything else. And
I pray that the Lord gives me the grace to preach a very simple
gospel message. Now what I would like for you
to do is imagine that you have never heard the gospel before. Now I know you have, most of
you anyway, maybe all of you, but I want you to imagine. that
you had never heard the gospel before. And I want to imagine
that you have never heard the gospel before. How would I preach?
How would I preach to a group of people who had never heard
the gospel before? Now, the first thing that would
come to my mind in bringing a message like this is Romans chapter 3. And I want you to just imagine,
listen to me, like you've never heard the gospel before. You
know, one of the truths about this generation that we live
in is most people never have heard the gospel. They've heard
something called the gospel, but it was not the gospel. Now I pray that the gospel will
be preached tonight. Romans chapter 3. Now before I get to this passage
of scripture, if I was preaching the gospel to a group of people
who had never heard the gospel first, I would not try and prove
God's existence. I feel no need to do that at
all. God is. He is as He is, and I don't need
to try to prove that. Look at creation, and we know
somebody made all of this, and nobody made Him. We understand something about
his eternal power and Godhead in light of creation. And I feel
no need whatsoever to try to prove that there is a God. Everybody knows there's a God. What about atheists? They know
there's a God too. They may have brought themselves
to the place where they say there is no God, but they know better.
I talked to a man just a couple of weeks ago that was an atheist.
And I said, you know that somebody made all this and nobody made
him. He said, well, who made him?
I said, nobody. He said, how could that be? It
is, it is. God is, he is as he reveals himself
in his word, he is as he is without reference to what you or I think
of him. Now, the next thing I would not
try to talk about is man and God's ability to fulfill His
need. That would not be my subject. If I'm going to preach the gospel,
I'm not going to try to prove God's existence, and I'm not
going to talk about man and God's ability to fulfill His need. That's too man-centered. That
has too much to say about man. That's not the way we would begin
in preaching the gospel. I would begin with God, the God
who is, cannot be known except he be pleased to make himself
known to me and you. Now that's where I begin. I wouldn't
try to prove God's existence. I wouldn't try to talk about
my need of God or your need of God. I would talk about the God
who is and he cannot be known except he be pleased to make
himself known. We're totally dependent upon
revelation. Now, the next thing I would say
about this God who is, who created the universe, who cannot be known
except he be pleased to make himself known, I would say he's
made himself known in a written revelation called the Bible.
And all you and I can really know of his true character is
by what he has been pleased to make known in this book called
the Bible." Now somebody says, how do you expect me to believe
that the Bible really is the Word of God? That's a reasonable
question. There's not anybody in here that
hadn't asked themselves that. How can I believe the Bible is
the Word of God? Well, one thing it claims to
be. All Scripture. is given by inspiration
of God. All Scripture. Now, if you believe that God
could create the universe, you can believe that He can inspire
men to write a book, inerrant, and cause it to be preserved
throughout the centuries. If you believe God can create
the universe, you believe that, don't you? The almighty power
of God exerted in creating the universe. If he can create the
universe, he can inspire men to write a book we call the Bible
that is without error God's revelation of himself. Now, thank the Lord
for this revelation. Now, God is. I'm not trying to prove His existence. God is. And I'm not trying to
talk about His ability to meet your needs. I'm talking about
the God who is, who cannot be known unless He's pleased to
make Himself known. You know, perhaps a good place
to start for some people was, I know there's a God and I know
I don't know Him. That's a good place to be. I know there's a
God, and I know I don't know Him. He has been pleased to make
Himself known in this revelation called the Scriptures. That's
the only way we can know His true character. There's some
things we can know about God without the Bible. We can know
He's powerful. We can know He's wise. We can
know He's eternal. There are things we can know
about God just by logic, but we can't know His character.
We can't know what he's like apart from this book. Now, I'm going to get to Romans
3 in just a moment. Hang on. Now, in this book, there
are basically, there are many things we're confronted with,
but these are the two major things concerning the character of God.
We're confronted with the truth, and this is from the Bible. Number
one, that he's holy. Number one, He's holy. What's that mean? That means He's not at all like
me and you. That's what that means. He's
other. He's separate. He's holy. Turn with me for a moment to
Isaiah chapter 6. Hold your finger there in Romans
3 and look at Isaiah 6. Verse 1, "...in the year that
King Uzziah died." Now, there's significance to that. If you
look in Chronicles, what happened in the year that King Uzziah
died? He decided he was going to offer up as a priest and burn
incense to the Lord that only the Levitical priesthood could
do. He decided, I can do that. The priest said, "...this appertaineth
not to thee." Don't do this! He did it, and God turned him
into a leper. Now this was a good king, a great
king, a king who'd been greatly used of God, but when he had
dared to approach God's presence without the priesthood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, without Christ representing him, God turned
him into a leper. And Isaiah said, when I saw that,
I saw also the Lord. Now I think it's very significant
if you look in the previous chapter, five or six times, I can't remember
which, he said, Woe unto them! Woe unto them! Woe unto them! He was really good at pointing
out other people's problems. I'm good at that too, aren't
you? But now let's go on reading. In the year the king Uzziah died,
I saw also the Lord sitting not pacing back and forth, sitting. His work finished, sitting upon
a throne, high and lifted up. And his train, the skirts of
his garment, filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim." What are seraphims? I don't know.
They're angels of some kind. Mighty creatures, seraphims. And each one had six wings. With
Twain, he covered his face. He couldn't look on God. With Twain, he covered his feet. They were ashamed of their walk.
Well, how can a seraphim be ashamed of his walk, that he covers his
walk? because he knew he was a mutable creature who would
sin if God didn't prevent it. That's the only reason he hadn't.
You know, the Scripture says he charges his angels with folly. And with twain he did fly, and
one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy! Not love, love, love. Not merciful, merciful, merciful. Not gracious, gracious, gracious. But holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. The whole earth is filled with
His glory. Now God's holiness if I could
say this and when I'm talking about things like this I feel
so ignorant I wish I could speak the way this ought to be spoken
of but God's holiness I guess you could say is his chief attribute
every attribute of God is holy his love is a holy love his wrath
is a holy wrath his grace is a holy grace his eternity is
a holy eternity. His immutability is a holy immutability. Now God's holiness is seen most
in this statement by our Lord from the cross. It's the fourth
saying of the Savior from the cross. This is the one who is
God's Son, God's equal, the one who is with God and the one who
was God. The eternal Son of God cried
out from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why? Because he's holy. The sins of God's elect on Calvary's
tree became His sins, so that He actually became guilty of
the commission of them." Are you saying Christ sinned? Of
course not. He knew no sin. He never sinned,
even when He was made sin. But He so truly became sin that
He became guilty of the commission of my sin, and God's justice
and God's holiness killed it. That's holiness. That's holiness. God must punish
sin. Now if you had a beloved child and somebody brutally
murdered that child and that child was apprehended or that
murder was apprehended and brought to the law And the judge looked
at that man who had brutally murdered your child and said,
I'm a loving judge, I'm going to forgive you. What would your
response be? Outrage. This is not just. This is not right. And yet that
is the way most people present God. No, He's a holy God who
must punish sin. That's the God of the Bible. And the God of the Bible, according
to the Scriptures, is sovereign. First, He's holy. That means
He hates sin. That means he must punish sin
or he'd quit being God if he would let one sin go unpunished.
He's holy and he's sovereign. Daniel chapter 4, 35, he doeth,
here's what this means, he doeth according to his will in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and
none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Now
what that says is God has a will There is such a thing as the
will of God. God has a will. God has the power
to make His will come to pass. God has the right to make His
will come to pass. And God always does make His
will come to pass. Whatever is happening, it's God's
will being done. Now you will only worship a sovereign
God. One in whose hands you are. You can't manipulate Him. You
can't get Him to do anything. You're in His hands and whatever
He does is right. He can save you or pass you by. Whatever He does is right. Now,
when someone finds out who God is, they find out He's holy. This is the revelation of Scripture.
You can't really know that without the revelation of Scripture.
You can see that He's wise and powerful in creating this world.
You can see that he's so many things just from the light of
creation but you can't see that he's holy and you can't really
understand that he's absolutely sovereign apart from this revelation
of scripture. Now back to that original question
if I was going to preach the gospel to someone who has never
heard the gospel before This is the passage that I would preach
from. And I would ask a series of questions.
I want you to consider these questions. Romans chapter 3. Now, God is holy. God is sovereign. That's who
He is. No apologies. No explaining it
away. No taking the edge off. No weakening
this with words without knowledge. God is holy. God is sovereign. Now here is my first question.
What is my state before that God? What is my state before that
God? Romans chapter 3, verse 19, Now
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. That is my state before
God. this holy God, this sovereign
God, guilty, subject to the judgment of God." Now, in this book of
Romans, the first three chapters, I think it's very interesting,
he first speaks to the Gentiles. These are people without a written
revelation. and then he speaks to the Jews,
people with a written revelation. So that covers all types, the
people that never received a written revelation and the people who
were given a written revelation. Now look in Romans chapter 1
verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold or hold down the truth in unrighteousness. Because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has
showed it unto them, these people without a written revelation.
Four, the invisible things of him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen. being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse." Because when they knew God, they glorified
Him. Not as God, neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened,
professing themselves to be wise. This is talking about the Greek
philosophers. This is talking about the best humanity has to offer. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like the corruptible man. They humanized
God. and brought him down to beasts
and forfeited creeping things. Let's pick up in verse 29. These same people. These same
people who were not given a revelation being filled. being filled with
all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant
breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who,
knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things
are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure
in them that do them." What do you think about people this wicked?
Are they evil? What do you think? Let's go on
reading. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art the
judgest, talking about these people, for wherein thou judgest
another, you condemn yourself, for you the judge do the same
things. Now this group of people, yeah
they're bad, and if you look down your nose on any of them,
you're being a hypocrite because you and I do the same things. So much for men without a written
revelation. They have the light of creation,
and that renders them without excuse. And if you look at these
men and think, what a wicked bunch of people, you and I are
no different. You believe that? It's so. Look in Romans chapter two, what
about these people with a written revelation? Behold, verse 17, thou art called
a Jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God and
you know his will. He's given you the scriptures.
And you approve the things that are more excellent being instructed
out of the law. And you're confident that you
yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in
darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes,
which has the form of knowledge and of truth in the law. Thou
therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou
that preachest, a man should not steal. That's what the law
says. Dost thou steal? Thou that sayest, a man should
not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest
idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of
the law through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God? So much for the written revelation. Look in verse 9 of chapter 3.
What then? Are we better than they, we who
are Jews, we who have received the written revelation? Are we
better than those Gentile heathen who are so wicked? No, in no
wise, for we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that
they are all under sin. What's that mean? Sin's over
you. sins over you. You're flat underneath
it. That's the truth regarding everybody. So what is our state? What is
my state? What is your state before this
holy, sovereign God who must punish sin? Guilty as charged. That every mouth may be stopped
and all the world stand guilty before God. You know what that
means? That means you have no claim
on God. That means if God left me or
you to ourselves and sent us to hell, the whole creation would
clap their hands in agreement for his righteous judgment. Has my mouth been stopped? I hope it has. I hope I don't
vindicate myself and justify myself and find some kind of
excuse. Has my mouth been stopped? And if I stood guilty, guilty,
subject to the judgment of God, Well, is there anything we can
do to change this state? That's the second question that
comes to my mind. The first is what is my state?
Guilty. Guilty as charged. I am what
the Bible describes me to be. I don't have a reason to look
down on anybody. Well, is there anything that
I can do to change that state? The answer is no. No. There's not one thing I can do
to change that state if salvation is in any way dependent upon
me to do anything I will not be saved." You know, preachers
present, well, here's what you need to do. You need to repent
of your sins. I mean, you need to be really
sorry and not commit them anymore. You need to repent of your sins.
You need to straighten up your life, and you can't return to
those sins. And if you do that, then you'll have salvation. You'll
have the forgiveness of sins. That's what's called salvation
by works. That's all it is. If any, listen
to me, if any part of salvation is dependent upon me doing something
to make it work, I will not be saved, nor will any other man. Now, there's nothing I can do
because all the law does is reveal to us that we are sinners with
no power to obey. Have you been confronted with
that? Have I been confronted with that? That I really am a
sinner. Now somebody says, well, what's
a sinner? What's a sinner? Well, a sinner is the one who
commits the sins. You don't become a sinner when you sin. You sin
because you're a sinner. It's your nature. That's what
the sinner is. A sinner is somebody who... Listen
real carefully. What is a sinner? A sinner is
somebody who all they do is sin. They cannot not sin. Their sin is all their fault. They can't blame it on somebody
else. They can't blame it on God. They can't blame it on the
devil. They can't blame it on their circumstances. Their sin
is all their fault. A sinner is someone who can't
look in judgment on anybody about anything. They have no right
to judge anybody. A sinner is someone who has no
claims on God. I can't charge him with unfairness
or injustice if he passes me by. holy and just is his name
and there's nothing I can do to change that state before God
being a sinner all the law does is expose my sin nothing more
you believe that? doesn't give me power to obey
all it does is expose my sin well that's a bleak outlook Is there any hope? Yes. Yes. There's a glorious hope. Look in 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. That's what we've been talking
about. But, I love the buts in the scripture. 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. Did you notice the righteousness
of God without the law? That means without you doing
anything. That's what that means. The righteousness
of God without the law. It's the righteousness of God.
Now, what How righteous do you have to be to be accepted of
God? You have to be as righteous as
God. His righteousness is the only righteousness He'll accept.
He won't accept something that comes from you. Now, do you have
that? Do I have that? He will not accept some righteousness
that comes from you. But He gives His very own righteousness. It's called in Romans 5, 17,
the gift of righteousness. The gift of righteousness. This
is a gift for all who need it. The gift of righteousness. He gives this righteousness to
many of these sinful people. Now somebody says, how can I
know this is true? How can I really believe that as sinful as I am,
God would actually give me His righteousness where I can be
the very righteousness of God and accepted in Him? How can
I know this is true? We'll look at our text. But now,
the righteousness of God without the law, without my personal
obedience to the law, is manifested. Here's how we can know it's true.
Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. This is what the
teaching of scripture has always been. Never been anything else. How was Abel saved? By the righteousness
of Christ. By his shed blood. I love that
scripture in Jeremiah 23.6. This is the name wherewith he
shall be called, speaking of the Lord Jesus, the Lord our
righteousness. And then in Jeremiah 33, it says,
this is the name wherewith she shall be called. Speaking of
the church, every one of God's people, this is the name wherewith
she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. You see, this
has always been the teaching of the scriptures. Isaiah 54,
17, their righteousness. is of me, saith the Lord." That's
how I know this can be true because this is revealed in the Word
of God. It's always what's been witnessed
by the Law and the Prophets. Salvation through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, who is this for? Who is
this for? That's the next question that
comes to my mind. Who gets this glorious gift of righteousness. Who's this for? Dare I think
that it's for me? Well, let's go on reading. But now, verse 21, 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, the faithfulness, the righteous obedience of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. Now, simple question. Are you a believer? I'm not asking you if you're
saved. I'm not asking you if you know
for sure that you'd go to heaven when you die. I'm not asking
you if you know for sure that Christ died for your sins. I'm
not asking you if you're one of the elect. I'm asking you
this, do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God? Do you believe He's the Christ?
You see, faith, understand this, faith doesn't have anything to
do with what you believe about yourself. Faith has wholly to
do with what you believe about Him. Now let's go on reading. What is it they believe? Verse
23, For there's no difference There's no difference. You take
the most moral man alive and the most sinful, degraded man
alive. There's no difference. Not before
God. There's no difference. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now when you believe,
you believe that. You believe there's no difference.
You believe God's holy. You believe God's sovereign.
You believe you're sinful. You believe you can't save yourself. You believe there is a righteousness
that He gives freely in the gospel. We're going to get to that more.
And you believe that there's no difference between men. You
take the most moral man and the most immoral man in the world.
There's no difference. Now, I'd rather be around the
moral guy, wouldn't you? I mean, I'd be afraid the other
guy might murder me or steal from me or something like that.
But before God, in God's sight, there is no difference. For all have sinned, and what a definition of sin,
to come short of the glory of God. What a title for sin. What a
definition of sin. Coming short. How infinite is
His glory. You know, the Lord is so transcendent,
so glorious. If I asked you, who is most like
God? An angel or a grasshopper? You know, the answer is neither. Neither. God can't be compared
to anybody or anything. He's utterly transcendent in
His holiness. Well, how can He be? Let's go
on reading. Verse 23, "...for all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God." Now look at verse 24, "...being justified." freely by His grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Now here's what people believe.
Who believe? We believe. We believe. This doesn't have
anything to do about what we think about ourselves. Remember
that and may God give us grace to never forget this. Faith has
nothing to do with what you believe about yourself. Nothing. I believe so many different things
in a day's time. All of it, I don't trust anything
that comes in my mind. Faith has wholly to do with what
you believe concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation
that's in Him. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Now let's
talk about this word justification for just a moment. It's not a
more important word in the Bible. being justified freely by his
grace. Now, when a judge justifies somebody,
what's he saying? He doesn't say you're forgiven,
does he? He says you're not guilty of the crime laid to your charge.
That's what justification is. You're not guilty of the crime
that's been laid to your charge. Now, if I'm justified, that means
when God looks at me, He looks at someone without sin in His
sight. That's what justification means.
Being justified freely by His grace. This is a gracious act
of God that He can confer on a sinner as He wills being justified
freely by His grace. And it's not just some kind of
arbitrary decision. It's through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus. And this is what somebody who
believes, believes. They believe that they're justified freely. They really believe it
has nothing to do with what they decided or what they thought. It had no bearing on them. This is God's act being justified
freely by His grace. Grace means it has nothing to
do with your works. You believe that? It has absolutely nothing
to do with your works. being justified freely. If you have anything to pay,
you disqualify yourself. You're out of the picture. The
only way you can be justified is if you have nothing to bring
to the table, freely, by His grace, through the redemption,
through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ on the cross. When He said, it is finished, It was finished. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, His
redeeming work. Now, who initiated all this? It seems too good to be true. Is this pie in the sky? Who initiated
all this? That me, a sinner, that can't
do anything but sin, by an act of God's grace, through the redeeming
work of Christ, I can stand before God not guilty, without guilt,
perfectly righteous. I'm not talking about some kind
of piece of paper that says, I'm not guilty. I'm talking about
me being sinless before God. That's what justification is.
Who initiated all this? Look what it says in verse 25,
whom God hath set forth. Now that word set forth is found
three times in the New Testament, and the other two times it's
translated purposed. Whom God purposed. Now understand
this, before there was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. And God made
the universe simply for this. He purposed Christ, whom God
has set forth to be a propitiation. Now that word propitiation is
not a word we hear a lot. What does it mean? A sin-removing
sacrifice that actually satisfied and appeased God. It works like this. There were
two men that went up to the temple to pray. You're aware of this,
the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. Two men went up
to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a Publican.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. I love the
way it says thus with himself. He wasn't praying to the Lord,
he thought he was, but he didn't get any further than the ceiling.
He prayed thus with himself, God I thank Thee. He gave God
the credit. that I am not as other men are. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer. I pay tithes of all that I possess. Nobody believes anything he said,
do you? He was looking at himself and
finding somebody he could compare himself to and came out a little
bit better. But the publican, beating upon his breast, crying,
God be merciful, actually propitious. Lord, do something about my sin. I can't do anything about it.
do something about my sin, make it to be gone, make it to go
away, be propitiated through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now what did the Lord say about
that man? I tell you that man went down to his house justified,
rather than the other. Now these two men represent Oh
man, you're one of these people, I'm one of these people. The
Pharisee believed there's something that he did that separated him
from other men. The publican knew that it was
only something God did that would separate him from other men.
You know that? This thing of propitiation. I
love that passage in Hebrews 8, 12. I will be propitious. When it says, I'll be merciful,
the word is literally propitious. That means a sin-removing sacrifice
that satisfies God to where God is actually satisfied with me.
He said, I will be propitious to their unrighteousness and
their sins and their iniquities. I will remember no more. Why? There's nothing there to
remember. If He was a propitiation for
you, your sin's been removed. There is nothing there to remember. Next question. Don't miss this. "...whom God has set forth to
be a propitiation..." Now look at this next phrase. This is
so important. "...through faith in His blood." Now, you've been talking about,
there's nothing for us to do. Yeah, right. Well, do we got
to believe? Yeah. Right. Well, does that
works? No. Listen, there's no salvation
apart from faith. There's no salvation apart from
repentance. There's no salvation apart from
calling upon the name of the Lord. You'll call upon Him. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. You'll call upon Him. But understand
this. you will have faith in His blood."
Now that's what faith is. You want to understand faith?
Faith in His blood. How can one man hanging on a
cross for six hours put away the sins of so many millions
of people? Because of whose blood it is.
This is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood is worth
infinitely more than me or you. This is His blood. The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And His blood can make you perfect. Do you have faith in His blood?
I'm not asking you, once again, I'm not asking you if you think
you're saved. I'm asking you, do you have faith in His blood?
Do you believe that He by Himself, you know what that means? You didn't have anything to do
with it. He by Himself, with no contribution
from you, He by Himself purged our sins. Faith in His blood. Verse 25, I'm going to go through
the rest quickly, I'm preaching too long. Whom God set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare
His righteousness. To declare what? His righteousness.
Not simply His grace, not His mercy. You see, God saves me,
the very righteousness of God demands my salvation. I don't
get him by the skin of my teeth. The righteousness of God demands
my salvation because of His blood, what He accomplished. 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? What
can I take credit for in this salvation? Is there something
I can rejoice in? Surely there's something. Where
is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude, this is
what we conclude, that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law, to him that worketh not, but believeth
on him that justifieth the ungodly. Would that be you? Somebody who
works not. You see, you really believe you
can't be saved by your works. And you look only to Him who
justifies the ungodly through what Christ did. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the
God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing it's one God which shall justify
the circumcision of the Jews by faith, and the earned circumcision
through faith are saved the same way. Do we make void the law
through faith? God forbid. You're the only way
you can honor God's law. I hope somebody doesn't take
this wrong, but you don't honor God's law by trying to keep it. You can't. All you do is dishonor
God's law in your attempt to keep it. You bring it down to
human level, something you can do. I love God's law. I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. The only way you're going
to honor God's law is by looking to Christ only is the end of
the law. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Now,
Romans chapter 3 is where I would want to go if I wanted to preach
to some people who had never heard the gospel. And I'd like
to preach to myself all over again. You know, I need to hear
the gospel all the time. Matter of fact, the only time
I'm... I don't know how to say this, but the only time I know
that I'm saved is when I'm hearing and believing the gospel. Soon
as I walk out, I'll start having question marks. But when I'm
hearing and believing the gospel, this is my gospel.