Our Lord and our God, our Heavenly
Father, in the name of Thy blessed Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, we come to You. Our God, our Father, we come
with a desire to worship You. Thou art worthy, and worthy is
the Lamb who was slain to receive all honor and praise and glory
that we can give him. Let us worship today. Let us
enter into these things, the things of God, the things of
Christ. Let us worship you in spirit
and in truth and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Deliver us
from the flesh, Lord. Deliver us from the God of this
world who seeks to blind our minds and corrupt us from the
simplicity that is in Christ. Lord, keep the foul of the air,
the things, thoughts of this world from stealing this word
away. Lord, let it be planted, written
on the tables of our heart. Oh Lord, give us saving faith,
which comes by Thy Word. We have this blessed treasure
in earthen vessels, and pleased You by the foolishness of preaching.
You simple clay vessels, O Lord, with the excellence
of the powers of Thee. Not by might, not by power, but
by Thy Spirit, O Lord. And so we ask for Your Holy Spirit
to come in here today and do a work in our hearts. We pray,
Lord, bless those that are going through troubles, trials. We
ask for your healing hand upon Kathy Pruitt, but if not, Lord,
we know that she has a good hope and all of her troubles will
soon be over. But our dear beloved husband,
And all who know and love her, we pray for your help. We pray
for our sister Jeanette and her upcoming surgery, and others,
Lord, that are facing trials going through them. Trials that
you have sent for our good and for thy glory. Let us witness
a good profession like our Lord did before Pilate. Let us be
like Job of old in all these things. Sin not, but charge God
foolishly. and bless the name of the Lord.
Lord, forgive us of our sins. Thank you for this day. I ask
that you be with us for Christ's sake. Amen. Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. We left, we
ended up at verse 19. This is where we pick up. Romans
3, 19. Now, we know He's writing to the Roman church,
and he calls them the called of God, saints, called to be
saints. We know, God's people know this,
because the Son of God has come and given us an understanding
that we might know. 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, subject to the judgment of God. The Lord and the lawgiver, the Lord who gave the law, through
Paul the apostle, says a great deal about the law, and mostly
he says it in the book of Romans. Do you know in the book of Romans,
the law is mentioned almost 70 times? in 16 chapters, almost
70 times. Is this important? Like the word righteousness,
over 500 times, some form of the word, you must understand
something about the law to know the gospel, to know the truth. You must understand something
about the law to understand something about a thrice holy God. to understand
something about man's depravity, your own depravity. You won't know your own sinfulness
until the law comes and convicts you. And then you must know and
understand something about the law to understand why Christ
came. He came to be made a curse. The law is a curse. Christ came
to deliver us from that curse by being made a curse. Made of
one under the law to redeem us. We must. Most people are ignorant. Most people are ignorant. Many
people, most people don't care. Just completely disregard God's
law. Romans 1 describes those people. Then many change it and twist
it and try to add to it or take away from it or try to, you know,
make it the way they want to read. That's it. Paul in Romans
10 talked about his Jewish brethren, his pharisaical brethren, who
said they're ignorant. Ignorant. Many think they keep
it. Many actually think they keep
the law. When I worked on the railroad,
She was talking to a woman about the truth, and she said, I just
know this, he said, those 10 commandments, you better keep
those 10 commandments. What she said was, I don't know
much, but I know you better keep those 10 commandments. I said,
it's right, you don't know much. Because if you think you can
keep them, and if you think that's your salvation, you're ignorant. And many are under it, or want
to be under it, and Paul says, you that desire to be under the
law, don't you hear? You don't hear it. You don't
hear what the law says. If we could keep it, and he concludes
in Galatians, and you've got to study Galatians with Romans,
almost. But he concluded by saying, this
is, it's not just an error in doctrine, he said, but If righteousness
come by the law, Christ died in vain. He said, and I wish
I could tell every German Baptist around here, if you be circumcised,
Christ profits you nothing. If you wear this and wear that
and try to do this according to Levitical law, Christ profits
you nothing. That's how serious it is. Two
verses we've already looked at. chapter 2 verse 13 chapter 2
verse 13 not the hearers of the law are just before God but the
doers of the law shall be justified Romans 10 5 says Moses described
it the righteousness of the law that is if you want to be righteous
before God accepted by God by you keeping the law Moses described
it it's the doers of it This do and live. Now, I remind you, Adam and Eve
were perfect, sinless, better than you and me by nature, weren't
they? Did they do it? No, they didn't. They did not. What makes us think
this? And then chapter 3, we just read
it, verse 19 says, What the law sayeth. Here's what the law sayeth.
Human being born on this earth, born in sin, every son of Adam
says the law says guilty. You know, that's all the law can
say to us. All the law says to us is guilty
of what? Breaking every law. Not me. You're calling, let God be true
and every man a liar? Christ said, I say unto you,
if you have looked with lust upon somebody, you're guilty. He said, I say unto you, if you
coveted, you're guilty. He said, I say unto you, if you've
been angry without a guilty, God looketh on the heart. God doesn't see as man see. People
look just fine on the outside. Christ said, I came, Christ came
to expose sin. Like the light discovers darkness,
and oh, that's in the darkness. Our Lord said, if I had come,
there would have been no sin, but now I come. The Lawgiver came to keep us
safe. Alright, James said this to append in one point. To be
guilty of it all. That's why David said, against
thee and thee only. That's God's law. So, to append
in one point. It's to be guilty of it, and
ignorance is not innocence. It's guilt. It's guilt. I told you about me speeding,
you know, and I didn't see a speeding sign anywhere, so I pleaded that
with the officer of the law. I pleaded that with the officer
of the law. He said, well, it was right back
there. You didn't see it, but it was
there, and you're guilty. He wrote me a ticket. But no
buts. Guilty. I was just going one
mile. Guilty! If I would have said, hadn't
I? There was a missionary in Jamaica years ago that came into
this country and they had not many speeding laws over there
like other countries. You know, Mexico, sky's the limit. Fly! And this fellow was pulled
over for speeding. a Jamaican missionary while he
was in the States, and the officer came up, and as he was approaching
the car, the missionary was going, Mercy! Mercy! Mercy! Have mercy on me! He had mercy on him. But now
the law of God can't have mercy on us. The soul of the sinner shall surely die. Now this is Bible. It's Bible
because it's God's law. It's a reflection of his holy
character. What things the law sayeth, it sayeth to them under
the law, the moral law, in command. Okay? You love the law of God?
I do. And the scripture says it's written
on the tables of his people's heart. The moral law, thou shalt
have no other gods beside me. I love that. That's what I want,
don't you? But do you? Ever? You know, covetousness
is idolatry. Anybody ever covet? Anybody give
more thought to things in the world than God? Ever go a lengthy
period of time without giving your God a thought, your husband,
like a forlorn wife, like an unfaithful husband? Anybody?
Guilty! Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. Anybody ever use his name in
a way that's not perfectly holy and full of praise and honor
and thanksgiving? Not a long ago. You know, the law requires perfection
not only in Negatives, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt
not. But in positive, thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your mind, all your
soul, and all your strength. That's what God said. Anybody? Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. As well as a
million other things we're guilty of. Verse 20 concludes, now the
righteousness of God, verse 20, I'm sorry, by the deeds of the
law, therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Here is the purpose of the law. Here is why God wrote it,
to reveal his holiness and to show us our sinfulness. That's
why it was written. And that's what people under
the law are ignorant of. And those that would have us
be under the law are ignorant. Chapter 5, go over there. Chapter
5, look at verse 12, Romans 5, 12. Now, by one man,
wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death
by sin. So death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. We not only inherited Adam's
Sin, that's original sin, but we sin like Adam. We commit sin. Don't blame it
on Adam. Somebody said this one time.
Somebody argued this with a preacher friend of mine who was talking
about sin, imputed sin from Adam. And they didn't like that. He
said, I can't be held responsible for Adam's sin. How can God do
that? He said, then you can't be held,
you can't be righteous by Christ. Huh? You can't receive Christ's
righteousness. It's imputed. But don't blame Adam because
we sinned. We sinned willfully. No. Verse 13, until the law of
sin was in the world, the sin is not imputed when there is
no law. But nevertheless, death reigned. From Adam to Moses, before the
law, death? Why? Because the wages of sin
is death. So we die. People die. Besides, Paul just told us in
Romans 2 that the Gentiles that don't have the law, how do they
know that it's wrong to steal? How do they know it's wrong to
murder and so forth? The law is written on the heart. So, and then he says, so sin,
death passed, death reigned, verse 14, from Adam to Moses,
even over them that had not sinned at the similitude of Adam's transgression.
That's little babies. Why did they die? If they were
sinless, they wouldn't die. Right? They'd be no better. Christ couldn't die. The Lord
Jesus Christ couldn't die. He said, no man taketh my life
from me, so I lay it down. He had to be made sin, didn't
he? Adam would have never died if
he had never sinned. Well, the second Adam had no
sin. You see? So, and we looked at that, the
Lord's preserving the sinful. Psalm 116, we saw that didn't
happen. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ
died for babes. Well, alright, you can't, you
see, all are sinners and we die because
of sin. And we're born dead and trespassed
in sin, dead. And all are dead and they don't
know it. This is why people are so confused. They're dead and
they don't know it. Blind and they don't know it.
And you can't argue with a blind man. Can you? You can argue all
day. Now, that's red. No, it's not. He's blind. But when he's born
again, you can argue with him. Oh, that's red. When a man's
dead, you can't argue with him. But when he's born and given
life, oh, I was blind, I was dead, I was lost. We're born dead and trespassing
sin and man doesn't know it. He's blind, he's guilty and doesn't
know it. He doesn't think it. And so we say you must preach
the law. The law is good, Paul told Timothy,
if you use it lawfully. It's not made for the righteous.
It's not our rule of life. Oh no, we're not going to begin
in a spirit that is made perfect by the flesh. We don't go to
Calvary for justification and go to sign up for sanctification. No, Christ is all that there.
We come to Him. Whatever He says, Mary said.
Mary said, whatever He says, do it. He didn't say, now, let's
go back to the law. No sir. But yet, through all
the epistles He gives us, and I'll deal with that in a moment.
Chapter 7, Romans 7. Romans 7. Verse 9. Paul says, I was alive
without the law once. Or thought I was. But when the
commandment came, sin revived and I died. What do you say,
Paul? Verse 10. The commandment that
was ordained to life, this do and live, I found to be unto
death. He said, I found out I haven't
done it. And it slew me. What the law did, he said, I
wouldn't have known, went on another place, I wouldn't have
known, verse 7. Is the law sin? No, there's nothing
wrong with the law. There's something wrong with
me. I hadn't known sin, but by the
law I hadn't known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt
not covet. Paul, remember in Philippians
3, he said, I was concerning the righteousness of the law.
He said, I was a Pharisee. He said, I was blameless. He
finally realized. Verse 14 says, the law is spiritual. I'm flesh. See, when I found that out, the
law requires absolute perfection in motive, in thought, as well
as deed and action, in purity, complete, perfect purity of heart. He said, he slew me. It broke
my heart. Convince, when the Spirit of
God comes, the first thing he does is takes the law and convinces
you of sin. Because they believe not on me,
Christ said. But what? What do you mean? That I'm your
only hope. That I'm your only righteousness.
That I'm the only way you're going to get to God. Not you
and me, but me. And of righteousness. That you
don't have one. That I'm it. That I'm going to
God. I'm going to the Father. The
gates are going to open wide for this King of Glory. And some
people coming in with Him. Who? Covenant by His righteousness. And judgment, the God of this
world is judged. That Christ said to go to the
cross. This is our message for the next hour. Christ said to
go to the cross and defeat this one we were held captive by.
Salvations of the Lord. From start to finish. He didn't
start it, then he'd finish it. That's what false religion says.
He's the author and what? Finisher of the faith. deep faith
of God's elect, and all it's done, it's delivered to the saints. It's given. By grace you say,
through faith, and it's not of yourself. It's a gift of God.
Oh, it's not of work, as St. Emmanuel said, but we're His
workmanship, created by God unto good work, which God hath before
all day. We're His workmanship. It is
God that worketh in us, both to will and do His good work.
No place is going to glory Alright, time to teach Romans
again. That's his glory. And people
are ignorant. Do you not think Paul was real
passionate about this with his self-righteous Jewish brethren?
Oh, yes. And they hated him for this.
They hated him for this. They beat him up. They wanted
him dead for saying these things about the law. And they accused
him of making boy the law of God. They accused him of that.
So they slanderously report, well, that's just sin. That's
a great sin. Let's just leave him away. No,
God forbid. We don't teach that. We don't preach that. But we
do teach and preach clearly, you can't keep the law. If you could, Christ didn't need
to come. And here's the glorious good
news for sinners convicted by the law of God. It's been kept,
and you're kept, by the power of God. That woman caught in the act
of adultery. Caught in the act she did. She
was guilty. Everybody there knew she was
guilty. Who went out of there not guilty? One person went out
of that room not guilty. Who? The guiltiest one of them
all. This was good news to her. Everybody
wanted to stone her. The law said stone her. She heard
the best news she had ever heard in her life. Not guilty. Who said that? The law giver. You can't do that. I just did.
Christ said. And you can't say anything about
it. Don't you like that? You think
she wanted to go out and live in harlotry again? No. Wanted
to live for Him who gave her that pardon for His glory. I can't preach this without getting
excited. I'm a sinner. And this is good news, Rick,
it's good news, isn't it? Full, free, final, eternal, pardon,
justification, forgiveness of sin, past, present, we've got
more to come, future! How about Jesus Christ? Just believe me. Just trust me.
I believe you. I sure can't keep the law. Try
as I may, Oh, the things I would do, I can't, Paul said. The things
I don't want to do, that's what I do. Wretched man, who shall
deliver me? I thank God, through Jesus Christ
my Lord. With the spirit I serve the Lord,
with the flesh, though this old flesh is so weak. Christ did
that. He said it. The Spirit's with
me. A new man that I've given. willing if the flesh is so weak. Galatians, go to Galatians. Galatians is written to the church,
professing believers, saved by Christ, saved by grace. You know
some fellas came in, Paul called them false brethren, came in
to spy out their liberties, said, look at what you're doing, look
at you, look at that, you're having it, like elders. And we
have a couple back there who's in so-called reform religion.
And they would go to houses and examine everybody. Examine everybody,
see how they were living. See what they were doing, see
if they had a TV or see if they had this or had that. One fellow
one time got tired of that and told the elders, said, can we
come to your house and examine you? That didn't sit very well,
so he was cast out. I tell you what, God examines
us. And buddy, if you're not covered
by Christ, you're guilty. Say what you will. God knows. He can't cover you. You look good on the outside. Our Lord said that one time.
He said, you're righteous to succeed the righteousness prescribed
in the Pharisee. You're not going to get any glory.
How good does that have to be? As good as God. Leviticus 2221,
it shall be perfect to be accepted, without spot, without blemish.
Anything about us, anything, not one thing. Like that leper,
you find any good flesh in you anywhere? The leper came to the
high priest, any good? Leviticus 13, is there any pain? No, from the sole of my feet
to the top of my head, there's no sound of sin, nothing but
wounds and bruising and putrefying sores that have not been bound
up or mollified with ointment. Is that you? The leper says,
that's me. The high priest says, clean.
Go learn what that means. And he'll smile. And that's who the atonement
was made for. He says, verse 6, that the church
shall marvel. You're so soon removed from Him
that calls you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. He calls this gospel of mixing
works and law another gospel. It's not the gospel that you're
saved by Christ, but you're going to live according to the law.
That's another gospel. Paul dealt with Peter about that.
Then Peter, Paul came into Galatians chapter 2, and Peter was sitting
with the Gentiles eating ham, eating a ham sandwich, eating
pork. And in came James and the Jewish,
you know, and ooh, ooh, there's the Jews. And he got up from
the table with those sinners and went over and sat with those
Righteous Jews, you know. And Paul faced him to the face.
And he said, are we saved by grace or works? Are we saved
by the Christ or the law? Are we saved by Christ and we
go back to the law? Peter, you're denying the law. I mean, you're denying the gospel.
You're bringing people back under the bondage of the law, the curse
of the law. It's basically summed up. What he's saying throughout Galatians,
this whole book, I wish so many guys, Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh-day
Adventists, German Baptists, Reformed, you name it, Catholic,
I wish they all could read the book of Galatians. Hear it preached,
better yet, hear it preached. Chapter 3, you want
it quickly. As many, verse 10, as are under the works of the
law, under the curse, it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth,
not in all things, all things which are written in the book
of the law that doeth. That no man is justified by the law on
the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith. The law is not faith. The law
saith, The man that doeth them shall live in them. The Christ
that has redeemed us from the curse of the law be made a curse
for us, as it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. Go back to Romans. Now, Paul said, verse 21, Romans
3, he says, but now the righteousness of God without the law. And Moses
said, the righteousness of the law says do this and live. That rich young ruler came, what
good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He said,
you know the law, keep it. He said, all this I've done from
my youth up. One thing they lack. One thing
they don't. Probably. The law, Paul says
in Galatians, is a schoolmaster to do what? What does the law
teach us? Where does the law point us?
To bring us to Christ. The law says guilty. Look, there's
your pardon. The law says condemn. Look, there's
no condemnation. That's what the law says. But
what? Now we have to answer the question
about it. And Romans 3, he said, but now
the righteousness of God, remember how we started this thing in
Romans 1, verse 17, the righteousness of God revealed, faith to faith. Abraham, before there was a law,
this is Galatians, this is Romans, Abraham, before there was a law,
God said, Believing, trusting Him was imputed unto Him for
righteousness. And it was written not for His sake alone, but for
Christ's. Verse 20, 1. The righteousness
of God without the law, that is, without you keeping it. Somebody
kept it. Christ kept it. For us. He said the giant behooves us
to fulfill all righteousness, didn't He? Well, John can't do
that. But we did in Him. That's what
Galatians says. That's what Galatians says. We
did in Him. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us
in first Christ. I don't understand. Well, I do. I understand that if Christ is
not my righteousness, I don't have one, and God won't accept it. All right, verse 21 says
it's witnessed by the law. And the prophets all the way
through. Moses, the Lord. The books of Moses, all the way
through. Christ said Moses wrote of me. Didn't he? He said, you search the scriptures,
you little Jews, you little Pharisees, you think you have life, but
they testified of me. Moses wrote of me. Abraham saw
my day and rejoiced to see it was glad. Moses wrote of me. Remember that smitten rock? That's
me, those people in sin. God ought to have wiped them
out. But God told Moses, take a rod of the law and smite the
rock. That rock is Christ. He was smitten,
wounded, bruised, afflicted, under the law, condemned, made
sin. The wrath of God fell on him.
And out of him came water, life, It's circling on a pole, Moses
wrote it, and on and on it goes. The righteousness of God without
the law. Righteousness imputed. Righteousness
given freely by the righteousness of another. Even verse 22, the
righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ. I cannot, I
cannot emphasize this enough. If you have any Bible that doesn't
read that way, throw it away. John, how many times does he
say that throughout Romans and Galatians and other places? The
faith of Christ. It's not a grammatical error. It's His faithfulness. David
says that in Psalm 71, Deliver me in Thy righteousness and Thy
faithfulness. We're delivered by His faith. He lived by faith, but Joshua
lived by his faith. The life I now live, I live,
Paul said, by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me. He gave himself for me. I live, he said, yet not I, but
Christ that liveth in me. Faith of, faith of. Unto all and upon all that live.
There's no difference. But all of sin, verse 23, all
of sin comes short of the glory of God. But we're still sinners. You know, we're still sinners.
What are you going to do about that? That's what I was talking
about this progressive sanctification thing. That sounds real good,
doesn't it? Well, if you make some progress, what are you going
to do if you fall, if you fail? What are you going to do? You
lose all that progress? Hopefully, yeah, hopefully you
go back to where you started. Let's hopefully go back to the
beginning of your confidence. And stay right there as a sinner,
dependent upon looking to the mercy of God and the grace of
God that's here in Christ. Stay right there. Don't progress
beyond that. Or you digress. You've fallen
from grace. That's what Paul wrote in Galatians
all the way through. You've fallen from grace. You've
left the gospel of grace if you think you can do anything to
perfect yourself. If you're a real child of God
and you think you can, He'll show you real fast. He'll show
you real fast that you're still a sinner. And you're saved one
way. You're kept one way. By me. By
me. Besides, we're only conformed
to His image, not by looking to the law, but by looking to
Him. We're changed in the same image
one way, by looking at Him. To Him, for grace and strength.
To Him, and at Him. That's how I want to be. That's how I want to be. Look at this, verse 24, being
justified freely by His grace. How? Through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. We've read this a thousand times. Right now, it's like I read it
for the first time. This is wonderful news to me. Justified from all things, Paul
wrote another verse, thou which could not be. And verse 25, God set forth Christ
to be a propitiation, a bloody covenant, atonement, the serpent
on the pole, through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness,
see? For the remission of sin, for
the forgiveness of sin, for the sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say. Didn't you hear me the
first time? I'll say it again. At this time, His righteousness,
that God may be just and justifier of Him which keepeth the law.
Now, now believe me. Where's boasting? It's excluded. By what law of works? No, the
law of faith. We conclude then, here's the
conclusion. A man is justified by faith without the visa of
the law. He's the God of the Jews and the Gentiles. There's
one God that justifies circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through
faith, that is, by Christ. Do we make void the law through
faith? We establish it. God forbid. What we're saying is, the law's
been kept. It's not us, though, it's Jesus
Christ. And Paul, he's going to answer
all the arguments against this in Romans. He's going to answer
them. And it's unanswerable. The truth's unanswerable. And
I'm glad. I'm so glad. Because all the
promises of God in Christ are EA. Or am I justified? Yay! Am I accepted? Yes! Am I holy, unblamable, unapproved
by God? Yes! How? Me? No! Yay and Amen! Amen! To the glory of God by
us who love that.