Number 51. Praise the Savior, ye who know
him, who can tell how much we owe him. Gladly let us render
to him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us. He for conflict fits and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us. While we trust in Him. Just in Him ye saints forever,
He is faithful, changing never, Neither force nor guile can sever
Those he loves from Him. Trust ye the Lord, O keep us
cleaving To thyself and still believing Till the hour of our
receiving Promise joys with thee shall be where we would be, then
we shall be what we should be. Things that are not now nor could
be soon shall be our own. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
168. 168. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing
Thou art scattering, full and free Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me, Let thy blessings
fall on me. Ask me not, O tender Savior,
Let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for Thy favor, Whilst
Thou call me, O call me. Even me, even me, let thy blessings
flow. Fast be not, O mighty Spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witness, Sir, of Jesus'
spirit, Speak the word of Thou to me. Even me, even me, let
thy blessings flow. So pure and changeless, blood
of Christ, so rich and free. Grace of God, so strong and boundless,
magnify Him always. me. Even me, even me. Let thy blessing flow on me. Pass me not thy lost one bringing. Find my heart, O Lord, to thee. ? While the streams of life are
springing ? ? Blessing others, O bless me ? ? Even me, even
me ? ? Let thy blessings come to me ? Romans chapter three, but let
me remind you of a couple of things while you're turning.
Romans chapter three. Ladies' lunch this Friday, and
we have our church dinner Sunday, and it's gonna be Mexican. And
so we'll have a good time of fellowship on Sunday, God willing. I'm going to read verse 27 through
verse 31. It's going to be the things I'm
going to deal with tonight. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, no,
but by the law of faith. 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 is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith. Uncircumcision
through faith, do we then make the law, void the law through
faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. Our blessed Lord Jesus, our Master,
our God and our Savior, we look for your blessed and glorious
appearing You are great God and you are Savior. You're God over
all, blessed forever. Amen. And Lord, we are so blessed
to be able to come into your presence, come into it without
any condemnation or guilt, without our conscience bothering us,
to come freely into your presence. Come, oh God, into the holiest
of holies by the blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
I'm so thankful for the peace and joy that you give us in believing. And I pray that you'd meet with
us here tonight. Oh, come among us. Lord, we just
sung the showers of blessing. Lord, cause the showers of blessing
to fall on us this evening. Bless your word to come down
on us. Bless the Holy Spirit to come down on us. And Lord,
forgive us of everything that's unlike you. And we thank you
that you've blessed Fran to get to go home and continue to strengthen
her body. And there's other things that
we pray for, Lord, that very people are very sick,
very in need, great, great need. And Lord, you know who they are
and you know what their need is. And Father, save your people
in this place. Bring glory to yourself through
this place. Save your people. Oh God, bless
the word. Cause the church to grow. Cause
the tents of Jacob to extend and reach out and move the pegs
on the tent of Jacob's house. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hymn number 388. 388. Have thine own way, Lord Have thine own
way I am the grain. Fold me and make me after Thy
will. While I am waiting, yield it instead. Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way Search me and try me, faster today Lighter than
snow, Lord, wash me just now. As in Thy presence humbly I bow. Have Thine own way, Lord, have
Thine own way Wounded and weary, help Thee, I pray Power of power, surely is Thine
Touch me and heal me, Saviour divine Have Thine own way, Lord
Have Thine own way O Lord, I beseech Thee Absolute
sway Fill with Thy Spirit Till all shall see Christ wholly,
always Living in me Hit my subject right there in
verse 27. Boasting excluded. Boasting excluded. Now up to this time the apostle
talked about how that the righteousness of God without the law, God's
righteousness by faith, God's righteousness without law, apart
from the law, apart from any works, by faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ is witnessed by the law. by the prophets. And he said
that there's no difference, that faith in Christ is what it takes.
And we're justified freely, freely by grace through our Lord Jesus
Christ. God set him forth to be that
propitiation to take away the wrath of God off of us and to
take the wrath of God and make Christ may took the wrath of
God off of us and through his blood, blood and faith, through
faith through his blood. And I was blessed to talk to
about the gospel last night, and I used verse 26 to talk about
it. How God, how can the world, can
God, how can God, holy, righteous, just God, who said, I will by
no means clear the guilty, will not at all acquit the wicked,
and the soul that sinneth, it shall die. How can he? How can He be just and justify
a sinner? How can He do that? There's only
one way, and that's for God to take His own Son, make Him to
be sin, who knew no sin, set Him forth to be that sacrifice,
that atoning victim, that one on the cross, shed His blood,
to justify us and cleanse us from all of our guilt. And so
God can now be just because Christ, God set him forth, ordained him
to be our substitute, to be our redeemer, to be our sin offering,
our sacrifice. And he can be justifier when
you trust his son and him alone. And He'll bring you to that place
where you can't do nothing else. If He ever brings you that, you'll
never do nothing else. You'll never do nothing else.
So then naturally, they say, well, where's boasting then?
Where's boasting then? Paul has expounded the gospel
righteousness by faith apart from works, from law, from merit. And they still always, people
always raise objections. And Paul, there's so many places
in Romans and throughout the scriptures where he anticipates
what people's gonna say, how they're gonna object. Well, if
a man's justified by faith, well, where in the world we're boasting
at? What part do we have in this
thing? What's our part in it? And oh,
there's always objections to the gospel of righteousness by
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. but the self-righteous Pharisee,
the Jew, his hope was in this, Moses and the law. They said,
We re Moses' disciples. Abraham is our father, and oh,
he declaimed that God was the only true one, and that the Gentiles
and the heathen had no God at all, that his religion, his Pharisaical
religion was the only right one. And the Old Testament scriptures
or the scriptures, especially the five books was his only authority. But now look over here in chapter
two in verse 17, look what it says about him. This is what they say. Behold, thou art called a Jew. Call yourself a Jew and you rest
in the law. That's a bad place to rest, I'm
telling you. There's no rest there at all.
But you make your boast and make it your boast of God. You say,
oh, I make my, God is my God. That's why they said we'd never
been born of fornication, never been in bondage to any man, they
said. And you say you know his will. and you approve the things, or
try the things that differ, prove the things that are more excellent,
you're being instructed out of the law. And you've got this
confidence in yourself that you yourself are the guide of the
blind, a light of them that are in darkness, and an instructor
of the foolish, a teacher of little babes, Teachest thou not
the self, or the form of knowledge, which has the form of knowledge,
and the truth of the law? So that's where he was at. That
was his boast. That's what he bragged about.
And oh, and in the strictness of the letter, in the strictness
of the letter, his boast was right, but here's his problem. He misread the scriptures. Oh,
and he misconceived his religion, and he misunderstood the holiness
and righteousness of his God. But now, I've never met a sinner,
and myself included, years ago. Sinners, they WANT to be able
to boast. They WANT to be able to talk
about THEIR PART in being saved. They, you know, here's the blood
of Christ. They say they believe in grace. They say they believe
that the blood washes away sin. But this is the way they do it.
Here's the blood of Christ. Well, then they take their faith
and mix it with the blood. Then they take their repentance
and mix it with the blood. Then they make their tears and
mix it with the blood. Then they take their works and
mix it with their blood, their decision or their chance, and
they mix it with the blood. And that's how they're saved.
And they all, you know, it all depends on them. They believe
in the blood, but they also believe, I remember very vividly, you
know, when I first started preaching the gospel, up in Indiana, I'd
go up there in meetings, and there was a man up there, they
all got to saying they believed in grace, they believed in grace,
they believed in grace. Well, one time I was riding along
in an automobile with a couple of them. And we started talking
about faith and repentance. And I said, what? I said, you
know, what made your faith better than anybody else's faith? He
said, because my faith was more honest and more sincere than
anybody else's. I said, well, that's not grace.
That's not grace, and he got mad. But he wanted, he said he
believed in grace, but he turned around and said that his faith
was stronger than somebody else's, that's why God saved him. But
oh my! Oh, God, get my prayers, get
my sincerity. And they'll say, well, God saw
what I was gonna be and what I was gonna do. He knows I was
gonna be a good believer. He knows I was gonna be a good
preacher. He knows I was gonna be a good church member. He knows
all I was gonna do, and that's why I do what I do. Oh, my. Oh, my goodness. You know, most
men despise the blessed truth of righteousness by faith. They
really do. They really, really do, and Paul
in these verses, he's saying that God's righteousness is apart
from any law. It's apart from anything a man
does. It's apart from anything a man
thinks. It's apart from any merit a man
thinks he might have. It's apart of any righteousness
that a man supposes he has, and the law the Old Testament Scriptures,
and the Gospel, both are against righteousness by works. Always
has been and always will be. Now look what he says here in
verse 27. Oh, he said, I declare his righteousness
in verse 26. God declares his righteousness
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Well, where in the world is boasting
then? Where's boasting? I'm not like
the heathen. That's what our Lord, you know,
they told our Lord, He's a friend of publicans and sinners. But
oh my, you know, I'm not, that's like the Pharisees, I'm not like
that publican over there. And I'm not like this and I'm
not like that. So they want something to boast
in. Men just cannot stand not having
something to boast in. But oh, where's boasting then?
It doesn't exist. Mouths have been stopped. We've
proved before both Jew and Gentile all are under sin, none righteous,
no not one, none that understandeth, none that seeks God. None. And he said, now we know that
no flesh in the sight of God shall be justified by the law.
But now the righteousness of God. But oh my, I tell you, salvation
for Jew and Gentile is identical. All men are put on the same ground,
same ground. Oh my, but what principle then?
He says, well, where's boasting then? It's excluded. It doesn't
exist. Boasting doesn't exist. How many
people have you heard boast in their religion? You know, your
kin, folks, for years and years, Kim, on both sides, I mean, they
had religion coming out their end. They passed out tracts,
and I know folks, if they got religion, they got to let you
know it. They have to let you know how devoted they are, how
Sincere they are, how DEDICATED they are, how DEVOTED they are,
the WORKS that they re doing, but BOASTING DOES NOT EXIST! That s what he s saying. Salvation
puts Jew and Gentile right on the same ground. But he says,
By what law? And when he says law here, he
s talking about a PRINCIPLE. Well, is boasting excluded? By
what law or principle is boasting excluded? Is it by works? Oh no, no. If it was works, brag
all you want to. Boast all you want to. But oh
no, look over here in Romans, I mean 1 Corinthians 5, 6. Look
over here, I wanna show you something. 1 Corinthians 5, 6. Oh, it's,
but by the principle of faith. Principle of faith. This is,
let me get there myself here. Look what it says here. And Romans,
I mean, excuse me, 1 Corinthians 5, 6. Oh, by what law works? No, but by the law, the principle
of faith. He said in verse six, your glorying
is not good. Evidently there is folks in Corinth
glorying. There's glorying in their selves.
Isaiah said like this, you let the postures of the earth strive
with the postures. But oh my, but look what he says
here. Your glorying is not good. Don't
glorying in what you are, glorying in what you've accomplished,
glorying in what you do, glorying in your grace, glorying in your
race, glorying in your faith, glorying in anything. And he
says this here, don't you know that just a little bit of leaven
leavens the whole lump. And what he means there is that
any boasting that you add, any glorying that you do in yourself,
that little bit of leaven destroys your glory and it destroys your
boasting. And oh, he goes back over here
in our text now, by what law works? No, no, no, but by the
law of the principle of faith. Now, we know, you know and I
know that by You know, you're saved by faith
and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, not of works. And that's why, why did he say
it's not of works? Lest any man should boast. That's why he said
this faith is the gift of God. You didn't produce it. You didn't
have it. And God gives it to you as a
gift. And he gives it to you as a gift for the very reason
to shut your mouth and say, God done it all. That's the whole
purpose of it. And oh, if a man WERE to fulfill
the letter of the law, he'd have the right to demand, God, You
owe me salvation! I've kept it! I've kept it all
along! But oh, my! Oh, he could boast
of his works, he could, but look what he says there in verse 28,
But we conclude, therefore we conclude, Since you're not justified
by works, you're only justified by believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Now let's
talk about this business of faith. There is no credit, there is
no merit in the act of believing. There is none, there is none. You go to a doctor. you'll believe
what a doctor tells you. Would you not believe what God
says? And here's what he's saying is, there's no merit or no credit
in the act of believing, because what it is is trusting in another. It's the opposite of trusting
in yourself. It's the opposite of being dependent
upon yourself. It's the opposite of being dependent
upon your power. When you faith goes outside of
itself, it always is outside of itself. And I tell you, you
know, when you trust another, that means I don't trust myself.
If you trust another, you say, I ain't got no power to trust
myself. And oh, the very fact that we're
dependent upon another shows us, shows us that we cease to
depend upon ourselves. Faith has no power. Listen to
me now. Faith has no power. Faith has
no virtue apart from its object. You take Christ away from faith,
and you got nothing to believe. You take Christ away from faith,
and it's got no power. You take Christ away from faith,
and it has no virtue. I mean, you take Christ out away
from everything, and then you got no one to trust, no one to
believe. And that's what we're talking
about. Faith has an object. I got a fella come over yesterday
and he made this statement. He said, I know that Armenians
and Pentecostals are saved. They just not sure, they just
don't know that their salvation is eternal. And I said, no. I said, no, I
don't believe that at all. I said, that's impossible. That's just not right. There's
nothing right about that. And I went to Romans three, went
to the garden. First thing I did, I said, you
know, a man's got to know what happened in the garden. How did
you get, become a sinner? How did you become dead? He looked
at me like a big guy. And he, you know, and we've talked
so many times, but he makes so many statements. And I said,
I just can't let him get by with them anymore. But I went there,
but I went over here about just and justify. And I started telling
him how just and holy and righteous God is. And how could God let
you, an awful sinner and like sinner like me, how could he
possibly save you? How could he save you? And I
said, you know, Christ, and I started crying. I said, you know, Christ
bore my sin on the cross 2000 years ago. And he bore every
single one of them. And the only way in the world
God can accept me is because of Christ bearing my sins on
that cross. And the only way I can be just
before God is because Christ died. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. Who's
that condemneth? It's God that justifies them.
And I tell you, the very fact that we're dependent upon another
shows us that we cease to depend upon ourselves. Oh, we, that's
one thing after I said, I don't, what, why would we depend on
ourselves? That's like leaning on a straw. Oh, and that's why faith has
no part of a province object. And that's why I said, therefore
we conclude. that a man is justified by faith
apart from works of the law. And if your works can't justify
you, if works all they can do is condemn you, then boasting
is excluded, it's excluded. And now look what he says. And
oh my, look what he said in verse 29. Righteousness by faith is
the same for all. Look what he said here. Is he
the God of the Jews? Only is he not also of the Gentiles? Also, seeing it as one God, we
shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision
through faith." Now, here s what happens. The Jews said that God
was His God and His God only. Nobody else. They said, The Gentiles
ain t got a God. They re heathens, they don t
have a God. But the apostles said, Here, there s one God.
And if there s one God, He must be the God of EVERYONE, Jew and
Gentile alike. Huh? Oh, my! Illustration. Your God isn t
MY God. Do you remember the woman at
the well? She said, They said, Up here in this mountain is where
we re supposed to worship. That s where we re supposed to
go worship. And the Jews say, You ve got to worship over here
in Jerusalem. Our Lord said, You don t worship in neither
place. God as a Spirit must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.
And oh, you say, God isn't my God. And there's a lot of people
who say that. Yes, He is. You may not like
Him being God. You may not enjoy Him being God. You may not bow to Him being
as God. And you may never worship Him
as God, but He is God over all. Oh, I tell you, people say they're
atheists. Well, they're going to find out. Oh, there's not two gods. He
said there's one God, God of the Jews and a God of the Gentiles. There's no two gods. There's
not a God for this group and a God for that group and a God
for this other group and God for this and God for that one.
No, no. No, no, there's only one God,
and if there's one God, then He has to be worshiped, He s
God over all. And there s not two gods, and
the fact that there s one God, it s impossible for Him to have
two different ways of saving a sinner. He don t save an Armenian one
way, and He don t save somebody by grace another way. He has
one way of saving sinners, one God. If there was two gods, then
there'd be two different salvations. But then there's one God, Jew
and Gentile, they got to be saved exactly the same way. Now, if
there's two gods, we're in trouble. Which one do you trust? Oh, my. You know, here's another
thing. Here's another thing. If a man can be saved, and this
is how God just hemmed me up so close, God will not save a
man with a lie. He won't save him with a lie.
He won't save him apart from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't care where he's at. I know there's people that say,
they think that, you know, God can get his people anywhere,
anytime, and without a preacher, WITHOUT ANYTHING, WITHOUT EVER
HEARING THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. I REMEMBER YEARS
AGO, AND I'LL MENTION THIS HERE, SCHULER, ROBERT SCHULER, HAD
THAT CRYSTAL PALACE, AND BILLY GRAHAM, THEY GOT TOGETHER AND
HAD A CONVERSATION, AND THEY'D DONE IT ON ONE OF THEIR PROGRAMS,
AND THEY BOTH DECIDED THAT GOD would save multitudes of people
in foreign countries if God just crossed their mind, if they even
THOUGHT of God, and that He would go and He would save multitudes
without ever HEARING the name of Jesus Christ. It upset Henry
so much that he brought a television, set it up in front of the pulpit,
and said, You all gotta see this! What they're saying is you don't
need Christ to be saved. That's what they were saying.
You don't need faith to be saved. You don't need blood to be saved.
You don't need righteousness to be saved. You don't need grace
to be saved. You don't need nothing to be
saved. You just think in a good thought and God will save you
no matter where you're at. And I'll tell you, That's bypassing
God, bypassing the Bible, bypassing everything that's right, just
and true. It's like that woman at the well.
Oh my, that woman at the well. She said, oh, you must be a prophet. Yeah. He told me all things that
ever I did. You know, God don't have two
different methods of saving man. He don't. He just don't do it.
He don't do it. And I tried to talk to that fella
last night about it, you know. He comes over and he just dominates
and dominates and dominates. But every time he'd say something,
I'd say, I don't believe I believe that. I don't think that's right.
And I tried to give him book, chapter, and verse. Boy, you know, he just believes in election
and predestination. He just talks about it all the
time. But look what he goes on to say, here again, in verse 29, seeing it is one
God, one God, which shall justify the circumcision,
that's the Jew, by faith in the uncircumcision through faith.
The one God, the Jew by faith. What does that mean? Not of works,
not of laws, not of ceremonies. You know, FAITH! Not starting at Moses, FAITH!
Not starting at the law, FAITH! Not Abraham, FAITH! God justified
the circumcision by FAITH! not Moses, and trusting Him by
faith. And then look what he said, and
the Gentile, or the uncircumcision, us, through faith. And oh my,
what is he talking about there? Oh my, no, we were never, we're
not under the yoke of the law. Look in Acts chapter 15 with
me. This is, this is what, this is
what, this is what happened one time. You all remember this very
well when we was going through Acts. But oh my, it's one God
which shall justify the Jew by faith, not by laws, not by ceremonies,
not by rituals. Faith is the starting place,
not Moses, not the law, not Abraham. But this is how it happens. Acts
15, certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren
and said, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you
cannot be saved. Boy, that's not what Paul just
talked about, huh? When therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension and disputation, argued with them, dissented with
them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain of them
should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about
this question, Moses and the law and circumcision, or you
can t be saved. Well, they brought them on through
the church they come through. And then when they were come
to Jerusalem, verse four, they were received of the church,
of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that
God had done with them. But listen to this, there rose
up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, saying
that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep
the law of Moses. Boy. That's pretty strict, ain't it?
And oh, my! So they came together, and elders,
to consider this matter. Been a lot of arguing, they said
there in verse 7, disputing. Peter rose up unto them and said,
Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago, God made
the choice among us. God did! that the Gentiles, and
this was when he went to Cornelius' house, that the Gentiles by my
mouth should hear the word of the gospel. And what did they
do? They believed. Didn't get circumcised, didn't
keep the law of Moses. Now watch this. And God which
knows the hearts, He knew the hearts, He knows the hearts,
He bare witness to those folks believing the gospel, giving
them the Holy Ghost like He did unto us. gave evidence that the
Holy Ghost come upon them. And he put no difference between
us, us Jews, and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, oh,
here's what's happened. Now, therefore, why tempt ye
God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers, and listen to this, or we are able to bear? Now,
watch. But we believe, this is it, WE
BELIEVE, THROUGH THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, WE SHALL
BE SAVED, JUST LIKE GOD SAVED THEM GENTILES. Oh, my! Alright, back over in
our text. Verse 31, and so he comes down
here and says, Man is justified by God and by faith, and then
it says, do we then make void the law? Because we believe. Do we make void, do we just nullify
the law through faith? When we believe, does that mean
the law don't have no power? That means the law can't justify
it. God forbid, look what he says, yea, we establish the law.
Now Paul has established and settled two things. All boasting
is excluded. God is one, so salvation is the
same for all. By faith, one God, one salvation. He's established that. And if
the apostle excludes works, and the Old Testament demands obedience,
Does it make the Old Testament void? Does it make the law void?
Does it open the door to us licentious living? Oh, the gospel, let me
tell you, no, the gospel puts the law in its proper place and
establishes it, establishes it on the foundation of God's revelation. And it's always revealed salvation
by faith through righteousness. Now listen to me now. Doctrine,
the righteousness by faith, the gospel establishes the law. It does, it establishes the law.
There's three meanings of law. Let me hurry and get this through.
There's three meanings of law. First of all, it's the Old Testament
scriptures, all of them. Open mine eyes that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy law. You go through the Psalms and
how many times you talk about the law? And oh my, so it's all
the Old Testament scriptures, that refers to the law. And then
there's the Mosaic law. That means that all, that's the
first five books of the Bible. That's with all of the ceremonies,
that's with the sacrifices, with its holy days, that's with three
feasts a year, all the rituals they had to go through, all the
cleansing, all the dietary laws. I mean, there was a multitude
of things that they had to do. And then the third law is the
moral law. That's the Ten Commandments.
That's the Ten Commandments. And that Ten Commandments is
do and live, don't and you're cursed. Well, how in the world is the
law established by the gospel? No, we establish the law. You
know how? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. And I tell you, He fulfilled,
you know, He said in Matthew 5, 13, Don't think not that I've
come to destroy the prophets and the law. Oh no, I came to
fulfill them. I came to fulfill them. And all
three meanings was fulfilled by Lord Jesus Christ. It is written
of me in the volume of the book. That's all of it. And I tell
you, not only that, but then there's all the ceremonies and
all the rituals and all the sacrifice. Christ was the end of all those
sacrifices. Christ put away all those sacrifices. And then the moral law, the Ten
Commandments, He kept every single one of them perfectly. So every,
all the Old Testament, He fulfilled all the scriptures. I mean, you know, when you look
at the ark, that was Christ. You look at the Passover lamb,
that was Christ. And then the moral law, after
our Lord Himself said, Which of you confess me of sin? When
they took the woman and taken her to adultery, He stooped down
and wrote, and He got up and said, He that is without sin
among you, let him cast the first stone. They ALL walked away and
left. And oh my, not only has the laws
and the precepts been fulfilled by Christ, but not only that,
we dishonored God in the law. We broke the law. We shattered
the law. But God never lowered His standards. God never lowered us just to
just holy and righteous law, but God never lowered it. Christ
MAGNIFIED it! He brought it up there where
God s at and where it s all established at. He brought it up to the holiness
and righteousness and justice of God and brought it up to all
of His glory. He brought it way up there and
He MAGNIFIED it and He HONORED it! And oh my! And then He fulfilled His covenant,
you know, And cursing is ever one that continueth not in all
things written in the book of the law to do them, but Christ
was made a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law.
And I tell you, not only did he fulfill it, But He bore its
penalty. That's what I just said. Cursed
is everyone that continueth not. He was made a curse for us. He
bore its penalty for us. Not only upheld it, but then
He took our place and bore the penalties of all of us breaking
it. Oh, by faith Him and His righteousness is imputed to us
because faith unites us to us. Faith makes us partakers with
Him. And that means this, when he lived, we lived. When he died,
we died. Crucified with Christ. When he
was buried, we was buried. When he was risen, we was risen.
When he ascended on high, we went with him and sat down in
the heavenly places with him. That's what faith does. It unites
you to Christ and makes you one with him. Huh? Oh my, no man, no man can obtain
righteousness By law, unless he perfectly keeps it in every
jot and tittle. Since that's impossible for sinful
man. He has to turn around and go
for a righteousness for somebody's got one. And oh my, and that's
the one who kept the law perfectly. And that's our Lord Jesus Christ.
So Christ as our perfect righteousness and the perfect righteousness
of the law, really, really, really, Establish the only possible way
that the law is not made void, but it's established by faith.
I don't find a thing in the world wrong with the law, do you? You know what the problem with
the law is me. I can't keep it. If you offend
in one point, you offend in all. But oh my, but there's one who
didn't offend in any. That's that blessed son of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you what, he fully
established in the only possible way the law, because the man
who seeks righteousness by right works always comes short of it. And perfection, which the law
demands, faith and law both point to Christ, and he's the one who
established the law. Huh? Oh, my. Boasting excluded. Boasting excluded. We're the true circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. Our Father, thank you for meeting
with us this evening. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for the truth as it is in Christ. Oh Lord, we have nothing to boast
in, nothing to glory in. Christ, we glory in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We glory in our Lord Jesus Christ
who established the law, fulfilled the law. bore its penalty and
its curse for us. Lord Jesus, thank you. Blessed
be your holy name for taking upon yourself everything that
was against us. You took it out of the way. You
nailed it to your cross. And now there's nothing, nothing
can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ. Nothing. And Lord, not our Feelings, not
our thoughts, not our words, not our deeds, not our coldness, not any part
of us can cause us to separate from Christ. I thank you for
that. Thank you for the faith that
enables us to believe, to believe and trust our Lord Jesus Christ. Never trust ourselves. God bless
these dear saints. Continue to bless Fran and make
her stronger. And Lord, for those who are with
us through your providence, God bless them, strengthen them,
encourage them for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Every hour of every day Every
moment and in every way I'm leaning on Jesus. He's the rock of my soul. I'm singing His praises wherever
I go. See you Sunday, God willing. th th