Bibles with me to Romans chapter
3. And while you turn in, let me
express our thanks, our really heartfelt thanks for your exceptional
generosity and gift to Shirley and I. And I thought Friday night
was one of the best times we've ever had. It was just wonderful. It was really I mean, people
stayed and the food, oh my goodness, you've never seen the lack of
food. And we just, it was just wonderful. It was really, really
nice. Had a wonderful time. I'm gonna
start reading here in verse 19 and go down through verse 26. Now we know that what thing soever the law
saith is said to them who are under the law, that every mouth
may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. being witnessed by the Law and
the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission or payment or passing
over 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. You look back with me here in
Romans 3, I'll show you where I hope to preach from. It says in verse 24, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. I want to talk about justified
freely by grace, free grace, free grace. God justifies sinners
by free grace, freely by His grace, through the redemption,
through the payment price, through the ransom, that's in Christ
Jesus. When a sinful soul is blessed
of God to see our Lord Jesus Christ and His cross, of Christ
dying for them, dying for them, seeing Him take their place,
what a comfort, what a consolation to the soul. A view of the cross
by faith, brings consolation where there was misery. Our Lord
in agony cried in agony that we might cry with joy. He suffered
that we might not have to. Now there's no comfort in Sinai.
There's no comfort going to the law. There's no comfort to going
back to Moses and his coming down with those commandments
off the mountain. But oh, what comfort, what joy,
what peace, and what blessed salvation for that soul that
was accomplished at Calvary by our Lord Jesus Christ. Three
things, I've got three points this morning, three things I
want to look at. And may God make them a blessing to us, to
our hearts and souls. I want to look at redemption,
what it is, the justification of sinners and how it's done,
or the justification of sinners and then how they're justified.
But let's look at this word redemption, therefore being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption. redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
Now let me give you the definition of redemption. You know our Lord
in Romans, I mean Matthew 20, 28 says this, that I give my
life a ransom for many. Now everybody knows what it is
when somebody's taken captive. Somebody comes and captures them,
kidnaps them, do whatever. And then someone sets the price
to get their freedom, to get them set free. Well, We were
taken captive. We were taken captive by sin,
death, injustice. God will not clear the guilty.
So a man's taken captive, and then the ransom's set, and the
ransom's set, and they will not settle for anything less than
what the ransom's set. A price must be paid And this
is what happened when somebody's redeemed. They're set loose.
They're released from their bondage. They're released from their captivity. And when the ransom's accepted,
then they set them free. And they're free and they're
released. Well, here we were, taken captive by sin, and our
guilt and our sin, for we've all sinned and come short of
the glory of God. So what happens when we sin?
What happens when we have guilt? God takes us and he delivers
us up to the law of God and it's curse. By the law, no man is
justified in the sight of God. And I think when he talks about
the law, I think he's talking about the whole Bible. You know,
I heard a fellow say one time, there was a time I didn't believe
the Bible. He's believed it too long. I went for years and didn't
read it and didn't believe it. But here's the thing what I'm
telling you about. God, when we're taken captive by sin, He
delivers us over to the law of God and it's curse. And because
of our guilt, we were given over and because of our sin, given
over into the strict hands of God's infinite justice. And justice
refused to let us go unless, unless there's a ransom. Unless there's a price and God
set the price. And there has to be a price paid.
God set the price for our release, for our freedom. And we cannot
go free and our souls could not be redeemed until there's a ransom
paid. until there's a redemption pay.
Now here's our problem. Here's our problem. We're bankrupt,
so we can't pay. And not only are we bankrupt,
but we owe debts. We owe the debt of Adam's sin
if that's the only one we ever had. And not only that, but because
we're bankrupt and debtors, we're poor. And so poor we could not
possibly, possibly pay the ransom of our redemption, the ransom
to be set free. And because we couldn't pay,
all was taken away from us. Because we couldn't pay, here's
what happened to us. We were all left homeless, naked,
poor, miserable, and blind, and all of us, we and ourselves could
not find a ransom. Men's been looking for ransoms
for a long time. They've been looking for a lot
of ways to pay for their sin, pay for their guilt, pay for
their rebellion against God, but God said, Now listen to me,
God said, look at Genesis 30, I mean, Job 33. Here's what God
said. Job 33, this is what the Lord
said. Job 33 and verse 24. Oh my, here we are. We're poor. Homeless, helpless, don't have
any way to pay off any debt that we owe, not the first debt that
we owe, before God. Before God, we're talking about
before God now. And look what it says here in
verse 24. Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, deliver
him from going down to the pit. I have found her. Through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. And oh, listen, look what else
he says in verse 25. His flesh shall be fresher than
a child's. He shall return to the days of
his youth. God makes him start as a newborn
baby in Christ. Oh, he does that for us. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, here's what happened. Oh listen, our Lord
Jesus Christ stepped in to be our surety for us and stood in
the stand of all who would and broom of all believers. And when
he did, he brought the ransom price with him. And that ransom
price was his life's blood, was his life's soul. He made his
soul an offering for sin. And that is through the redemption,
through the blood, through faith in his blood. and his life's
blood, his life's obedience, his life from start to finish
was the ransom that he paid, and he brought it. And now, since
he paid the ransom, since he brought the ransom, and from
the day he was born till the day he was crucified and ascended
on high, that everything he did was the price that was set for
our sins to be paid for, for our guilt to be taken away. And
oh, then we were delivered from the curse of the law and God's
vengeance and justice. And we're set free. Now we can
go on our way. We're clean. We're free. We're
justified by His blood. And oh my, let me tell you something.
You think about the value, the preciousness of this redemption
that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know how valuable it is and
what the price of it is and the preciousness of it is? It didn't
redeem just a few people. It redeemed and paid the ransom
from a multitude that no man can number. 10,000 times 10,000
thousands. That's how precious his blood
was. His blood paid the ransom for men from Abel till the last
soul would be born on this earth who would believe on Christ.
That's how precious it is. And not only did it pay for all
of them, but it paid for all the sins of every single one
of them. Oh my, and I'll tell you something else, this ransom,
this ransom was all paid and all paid at once. He paid all of it and he paid
it at once. You know, he redeemed his people. He paid the price for their sin,
paid the price for their guilt, paid the price to get them out
of the hands of God's justice. to fulfill the law in their place
and he did it completely once for all. He entered in once into
the holy place and there he obtained what? Eternal redemption. For who? For us. For us. He paid to the uttermost father
the debt of all believers of all ages for all time And now
we absolutely owe nothing. We owe nothing, nothing whatsoever. We owe nothing to the law of
God. We owe nothing to the justice of God. I, Lord Jesus Christ,
satisfied. And that's my favorite word in
the gospel. other than the name of our Lord
Jesus, the satisfaction of Christ. His satisfaction, I mean His
blood satisfied God once and for all. He said He'll see the
travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. And Christ satisfied
God in every way God needed to be satisfied. He said He won't
clear the guilty. He didn't. He punished Christ.
We had sin debt from the day we was born till the day we leave
here. Christ got to pay all of our sin debt. He cannot leave
one undone. You know, when it talks about
the law, let me tell you something. I have kept the law. And if you're
a believer in Christ, you've kept the law. And that means
all the word of God from every jot and tittle. Our Lord Jesus
Christ said, I did not come to destroy the law and the prophets,
but to do what? Fulfill it. And there's not any
place in the Bible you can find where you won't stand justified
by the blood of Christ where I don't care where you look at
it. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would be
able to stand? I can stand. Why? Because Christ was marked
for my iniquities. God marked me with all of the
sins of Christ. And I tell you what, He honored
God's law. God never lowered His standards.
He satisfied God by bearing the curse of the law of God in our
place. When our Lord Jesus Christ cried
out, when He said, it is finished. Do you reckon he meant that it
was finished? Or just part finished and left
for us for something to do? When he said it is finished,
what do you reckon he meant? And he said that before he said
it's finished. He said he had finished the work
before he finished it. You know why he said it? He said,
Father, I finished the work that you give me to do. Now glorify
thou me with thine own self with the glory I had with you before
the work. How can he say he finished the work before he ever went
to the cross? Cause he was the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world and it was done before he ever got here. Ain't that right? Oh, that's why I know it was
done. You know, we're not glorified yet, but God puts that in the
past tense. All of our salvation is always
put in the past tense. Even the fellows that ain't even
believed yet, it's all put in the past tense. And here's what's
so wonderful about the gospel, we didn't know anything about
it until somebody come told us about it. We found out what God
had done from eternity to eternity when somebody preached the gospel
to us. Oh my. Salvation, there's nothing left
for us to do. Now to accomplish, not one thing
do we have to do to accomplish. Sin is finished, death is finished,
law is finished, salvation is finished, and we're complete
in Him. And I'll tell you something else,
He paid this ransom, He paid it all, and He paid it all at
once. And not only that, but He paid
it all by Himself. He did it all by himself. Look
in Hebrews 1, verse 3 with me. Look at this. He did this all
by himself. There wasn't one soul, one person
that helped him. God didn't help him when he was
on that cross. God didn't help him when he was
in the garden. God didn't help him when he faced
all the judges. God didn't help him. Look what
it says here in Hebrews 1, 3. excuse me, who being the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person, God's persons,
who he's talking about, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself, by himself purged our sins. Oh, When he says by himself,
that means that I had nothing to do with it, you had nothing.
He did this, he did this 2,000 years ago and I wasn't there
except as I was in him. Don't you see? Oh my, he paid
this ransom all by himself. I know he's on the way to the
cross and they had Simon the Cyrenian to bear his cross for
him for a while. But Simon wasn't nailed to that
cross. And there was three crosses that
day. Three crosses that day. And there was two thieves, one
on either side of the Lord Jesus Christ, and neither one of them
was righteous. And so they couldn't help him
when he was on his cross. And here's what happened when
those three men were on the cross. One was dying in his sin. One
died in his sin, went to hell, ran off the cross. One was dying to his sin, that
one that the Lord Jesus Christ said today, thou shalt be with
me in paradise. And then that man in the middle
cross was dying for sin. And if he died for sin, God cannot
ever come and require payment from someone for whom Christ
died. Can he do that? He couldn't do that. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, everybody on that cross, was suffering the consequences
of sin. The man who died in sin, the
man who died to his sin, and Christ who died for sin, all
of them suffered the consequences of sin while they were on it.
And our Lord Jesus Christ was left there alone. Isaiah 63 says
that he treads in the winepress of the fierceness of God by himself. Who is this that cometh up from
Basra? His garments red and dyed red. Why, he's been treading the fierceness
of God's wrath and he's covered in blood. He's covered with his
own blood. He's taken God's vengeance and
he's putting it in God's wrath and he's satisfied. And our Lord
Jesus Christ was left there alone, and the awful, awful debt of
all his people was laid upon him, laid on his shoulders. Listen to me, laid on his heart,
laid on his soul. He said he'd made his soul an
offering for sin. And oh, listen, he was there
to bear all of them. And that's why our Lord Christ
said, Father, Father, if it'd be possible, if it'd be possible,
if there's some way that you could save them awful God-hating
rebel sinners and pay their awful debt without means doing this,
if it would be possible. He says, but nevertheless, that
I will. And he said, oh, let this cup
pass from me. But God didn't. He took that
cup, a cup, and He turned it up. And it was full of vengeance,
it's full of wrath, it's full of sin, it's full of everything
that a sinner is, and everything that God held against a sinner,
He turned it up. And as Scripture says, He drunk
it dry, even to the dregs. The dregs. Look at all the dregs
in our lives. Oh, what dregs we have. And He
drunk them all. Huh? Oh, he drank it dry. And I tell you, let me tell you
something else about this ransom price it was paid, this redemption
price. It was accepted of God. God accepted
it. Our Lord Jesus Christ declared
he would pay all the debt to justice. And here's what happened
to him. They always tried to figure out
a way to have him arrested. Well, they finally, finally,
When the hour was come, he was over in the garden, over in Gethsemane. And a group, great group of men
went out there to arrest him in the garden. Peter, James,
and John was with him. And they arrested him in the
garden. And they took him, they took him to Herod. Then they
took him over to the high priest. And while he was there, they
mocked him, spit on him, slapped his face, beat him. Planted a
count of thorns and put it on his head, put a robe around him.
Took an old reed that you'd go get out of a pond and got on
their knees and said, hell, king of the Jews. And people are so
foolish to think that they can put a cross out somewhere and
hang a scarlet scarf around it and thank their honor in Christ.
What a blasphemy. What a blasphemy. But oh, listen. And then they took him over to
Pilate. Pilate said, there's nothing wrong with this man.
He's not done anything worthy of death, but them priests were
standing out there, all right, crucify him, crucify him. And
so he delivered him up to their will. That's man's free will
at its best. You deliver Christ up to man's
free will, he'll do what he always did with him. And I tell you
what, and I tell you, beloved, so they took him out, nailed
him to his cross, laid it in the ground, And our Lord suffered
six hours on that cross. And the last thing he said to
Lael, it is finished. They took him down and put him
in a grave. And then they put a big stone
over that grave. Let somebody come steal his body
away. And the worst thing, the things
would be much worse for them than it already was. But when
that covenant in heaven was fulfilled, And Christ entered into that
holy place and put his blood on God's holy altar. The third
morning, they went out there to see what was going on. The
tomb was unlocked, and they said, who are you looking for? Jesus
said, Nazareth. Well, he's not here. Where's he at? He arose. And he's going to go over to
Galilee to see his brother. Oh, you know why he was raised
up? because God accepted his ransom. Showed that his ransom actually
paid the debt. God accepted his ransom. And now all for whom Christ died,
you know what his resurrection is for us? That's the receipt
that our sins have been paid for. That's the receipt. You
know what's signed in? In the blood of Christ, through
the blood of the everlasting covenant. And all His resurrection
is a receipt for the payment of the debt. And you know what?
Our justification, our justification is proof of it. His resurrection
is proof that the payment was accepted. Oh my. And I'll tell
you something else now. And I'll tell you another proof
that His ransom was accepted, that His sacrifice was accepted,
that His redemption was successful. God only did God raise Him from
the dead, But God set him at his own right hand. Ascend! Come up here! Sit down here at my right hand.
This position of honor and power and authority. You went and done
just what I sent you to do. You accomplished it. You satisfied
me. You saved your people. Now sit
down and let all the angels of God adore him. And they set him
down, he set him down in his own right hand and far above
all principalities and power. And by this man, this man, his
body was made an offering for sins and he hath perfected forever
them that he washed in his blood, sanctified in his blood. Can
you imagine what it was like When our Lord Jesus Christ ascended
back to glory, can you imagine what it was like? He had been
gone. And the angels, he said, I could
call 12 legions of angels. And the angels come and minister
to him at times. And said, awake, all ye gates,
and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts, mighty in battle. And oh my. What was it like when that holy
heavenly king entered there after what he had accomplished there?
Oh, I can imagine the angels just praising him and blessing
him and all the spiritual just men that were already made perfect.
Can you imagine how they felt when he entered into glory? How
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob felt when they saw him enter into
glory? Huh? My and I tell you right now. He's got a belt hanging around
his waist And you know what's it the keys that are in that
belt. He's got two keys Keys of death and of hell, and he's
done suffered. He put death away for us and
suffered our hell We'll never have to suffer uh-huh he conquered
both of them death and hell both well. Let me give my second point
That's the redemption. That's what redemption is the
ransom has been paid Now this ransom, this redemption, it is
effectual for it says being justified there in verse 24, being justified
freely. Romans 3, 24, being justified
freely. Now let me tell you something
about justification. Justification has to do with
law, has to do with law. And justification has to be done
outside ourselves. It has to be done in courts.
God's got a court in heaven, and He's the judge of all the
earth, and He must always do right. Now, one way a man can
be justified in earth is if a court of law If a man's in a court
of law and he's accused of something, the only way that man can be
justified in the sight of the law is to be found not guilty
and not be guilty. Because if he's guilty, they
may justify him, the law may justify him, but if he's guilty,
then that's a miscarriage of justice. But if he's really innocent
and they prove him not guilty, then he's justified and proved
to be a just man. But if he's found guilty, if
he's found guilty, You can never justify. You may pardon him,
but he's still guilty. You see, the pardon doesn't change
his standing before the law. You know, we've got this thing
going on right now. This here General Flynn, he pleaded guilty. He's asking the president, maybe
he'll pardon him. Well, the pardon won't do away
with his guilt. The pardon won't change his character. The pardon
won't even change his standing before law. He's just saying,
well, I pardoned him. And a pardon cannot change a
man's character, but the way God justifies a sinner. In our
courts, under law, if a man was allowed to take another's punishment,
that still couldn't take away his guilt. He could not take
the man's character upon himself. Flesh and blood can't do this,
but our Lord Jesus Christ did it. He not only took our guilt,
took our guilt before long and set us free and changed our characters
all at the same time. I stand condemned, guilty. God will and he must punish me. But the Lord Jesus Christ comes
and he sets me over here, sets me aside. He steps right in my
place before the courts of heaven, before the justice bar of God.
And not only does he take my place, but he says, give me his
guilt, give me his shame, give me everything that he's done.
And my punishment by his redemption is the price that paid for mine
and your salvation. Now, God being just, lets me
go free. Our Lord stands before him and
says, now let him go. Let him go. It's like when they
came and got him that night in the Gethsemane. If you want me,
let these go their way. If you want me, you gotta let
these go. Well, that's what happened. If
you got me, you gotta let these go. If I suffered, you gotta
let these go. And oh, here's what our Lord
Jesus Christ says. Our Lord stands before God and
says, let him go. He has my righteousness put on
his account. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, let
me have his guilt. Let him have my righteousness.
Let me bear his curse. Give him all my blessings. Let
him stand perfect. Let me be judged for all of his
imperfections. Let me bear his sin. Let him
bear my obedience and righteousness. No wonder David said, blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Here's
what happens. God doesn't save a sinner by
passing over the penalty. No, no, no penalty. No one but
the penalty has been paid because Christ paid his people's penalty. He's a perfect substitute. And
by this way, God can save us with a perfect salvation. And
that's why we're saved. You know, here's what happens. When Christ took our place, and
he was delivered for our offenses, God delivered him up for all
our offenses, then he was raised up for our justification. How
could he justify that? Because payment's been made.
All the offenses has been put away. Let me tell you some blessings
of justification. Now justification, and this is
what I'm telling you. Call the law against me. Call
all of God's word against me. Call all of it. God said, I justified
it. Call up all my sins. God said,
he don't have any. Call up all my imperfections.
God said, he don't have any, he's perfect. Oh, and I'll tell you some of
this blessings of justification justified from all sins, all
of them. He said he cast them into the
depth of the sea, cast them as far as east from the west, brought
them out as a thick cloud. Can you know that on the Day
of Atonement, they had two goats. On one of the goats, they put
their hands on it and confessed all the sins of Israel. They
took that goat and slew it, punished it, shed its blood, and put it
on the altar. That's what Christ was when he
was in our preparation. and the second goat they put
their hands on it and confessed all the sins of Israel over and
and that was a scapegoat he was sent way out in one died for
sin and the other is going to show you that all of our sins
are gone they're paid for here by this one and then they put
him on that scapegoat and a fit man took that scapegoat and went
way and they just kept watching go go go go go and he's going
out of sight That shows you that your sins are all gone. They
suffered over here, but then, you know, they want evidence
that they're gone. So they take that scapegoat, carry him way,
way out there, and he gets out of sight. In a while, he comes
walking back, and they see him walking back, and he ain't got
that goat with him. He left Him and all of His sins
out there. That's what Christ did for us.
He not only suffered for our sins, but He carried them all
away. And He was the fit man who carried
them away. Oh, and here's another blessings
of this justification. This justification never changes,
never changes. As justified right now as you'll
ever be, even when you get into eternity, your justification
will not change. This debt has been paid. God
will never ask for it ever again from eternity to eternity. It's
based on righteousness of Christ and what he accomplished. And
then let me give you this and I'll wind this thing up. Look
at the way we receive this justification, this redemption that's in Christ.
It says there in verse 24, being justified freely by his grace. freely. I love the term free
grace. You know why I love the term
free grace? I like it better than sovereign grace. And what
I like about free grace is that that tells you and you know when
you ask everybody almost everybody tell you they believe in salvation
by grace and then they'll say but you need to go pray through
but you got to live a holy life but you got to get sanctified
but you got to do this but you got to do that but you got to
do this other thing Well, free grace says there ain't no buts. It means that it's free. There
ain't nothing anybody has ever done. Bill Gates could give all
of his billions of dollars and he wouldn't pay for one cent,
not himself or nobody else. It wouldn't entitle him to even
speak to God, much less God speak to him. But I tell you who, our
Lord Jesus Christ. This redemption, this justification,
it can't be bought. It can't be earned. It can't
be deserved. If we preach justification by
setting a price on it, most would be glad to have it. But when
you tell people it's already done, it's an accomplished fact. When we say being justified freely
by His grace, Hosea said, I will love them freely. But if we preach
justification, and by something somebody had to do, set a price
on it, like suffering, giving, weeping, people torturing themselves,
people would do whatever it took, whatever it took, whatever it
took. People want to be justified by
anything that they can other than freely by the grace of God.
Do you mean I have nothing to do with this thing? Yep, that's
what I mean. Well, didn't I have to believe?
Yes, you did. But who gave you the grace to
believe? Who gave you the faith to believe? That's why it's all
of grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not even of yourselves.
What is it? It's a gift of God. And oh my,
I tell you what, it's by his grace and it is free. It is free. If it was free, if it wasn't
free, Let me ask you this, if it wasn't free, what could you
do about it? If it wasn't free, what would
you do to get redemption? What could you do to be justified? What could you do to pay for
sin if Christ didn't do it? And how could we justify ourselves
if Christ didn't do it? And how could we be saved if
it wasn't free? What could we do, huh? What could
we do? I'll tell you what I'm going
to do. I'm going to jump in that pool of grace. I'm going to throw
myself on Christ. Where I stay. Where I stay. That's what I'm going to do.
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. What a gospel. What a gospel. Our Father, in the precious,
holy, blessed name of Christ our Lord, thank you for allowing
us to preach the gospel again this side of eternity. O Lord,
we pray that you'd be pleased to bless this to the heart, to
the mind, to the understanding, and that it's been edifying to
your dear, dear saints. that it's fed them, that it's
encouraged them, that it's gave them peace and joy, and it'll
produce what you sent for it to do. It won't return void,
and we find such comfort and assurance in that. Lord, strengthen
your people, encourage them, save sinners in this place. Be
merciful to the lost, and we ask it in Christ's holy name.
Amen.