Sovereign Grace Chapel located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans
Chapter 3 Romans chapter three. This is
not my introduction. I actually got this, this is
going to be my introduction, but I hadn't planned on it as
my introduction until Paul began to preach. I was with Paul, mainly
with Paul. Of course, Paula was there and
Penny was there, but we were at their house yesterday and
we were doing our taxes. Paul helped me and I thank God
for that. But we were together two, three
hours, right? and I won't go into why it took
so long, because I'll start ranting and raving, but we're together
two and three hours. Paul asked me one question, and
I'm gonna correct him on one thing and one thing only. He
said it was his opinion that we do not have an imputed, he
might not have said it exactly this way, about Christ performing
for us a legal righteousness. He didn't keep the law for us. Don't say those words. But it
never says that Christ kept the law for us. He kept the law because
he was the God man. And he loved God's law as no
other human being ever has. And he kept it. And Paul, you're
only wrong if that's not your opinion. Because the righteousness
that we are imputed and imparted is the very righteousness of
God. And that is much more than a
legal righteousness. God did not rest on the seventh
day because he was told to. He rested on the seventh day
because he was done. Now in Romans 3 verse 27, Paul
had no idea I was going here. I mean, he might have had a little
idea if he did listen, well, he did evidently listen to last
Sunday's message. Romans 3, verse 27. I will try
not to be too long, but we're planning on eating together.
So hopefully no one has to be in a hurry. If you do, then I'm
gonna finish what I've got to say, what I have here to say
this morning. Romans 3, 27. Where is boasting
then? It is Excluded. It's not just strongly
discouraged. It's excluded. By what law? It's the same word used for the
law of Moses, the law of Sinai, but it doesn't mean that here.
By what authority, what principle? That's what the word law means,
an authority, a principle. By what authority? Of works? Is it the law of works? No. It's excluded by the law of faith,
that's what he said. The law of faith. That's not
a Sinai law. It's not a religious law. It's
not a denominational law. It's the law of God concerning
faith. what faith really is, and faith
intrinsically resides in God alone. Now I'm gonna try to hope
this may help. Paul quoted, the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering. Notice it never says repentance.
Repentance is a gift of God, but it's not the fruit of the
Spirit because the Spirit never needs to repent. Do you get what
I'm, the fruit of the spirit are those qualities, perfections
that reside in God alone. And he bestows these things upon
his people by grace, through his spirit, through the encouragement
of the preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified. If the preaching
of Jesus Christ and him crucified does not encourage you enough,
then you will never be truly encouraged. Never. Where is boasting then? Is it
excluded by what law of works? Nay, but by the law of faith.
Therefore, we determine this to be a fact. I'm paraphrasing.
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 and
the uncircumcision through faith. And remember, no word in scripture
is given nonchalantly, just because Paul wasn't just trying to mix
up his language, as I often do. I often just try to mix up my
language. It's because I'm not inspired. I don't know the facts
as they always are, so I give it my best stab. Seen it as one
God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision
through faith. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid. Yes. Yay. We establish the law. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. My title is, although this is
not going to be the exclusive subject by any means, my title
is boasting is excluded. The law, that is as the word
in its simple form in the Greek, means a regulation or a principle
or an authority. The law for this exclusion of
boasting is faith. Faith. One, because faith resides
intrinsically only in God. If you have faith, it is a free,
sovereign gift of mercy and compassion from God. But it is still, though
it's given in measure, you don't have faith to the degree God
does. I don't even know that in glory
we will. He's God, we'll never become little gods. But if he's
given you faith, it is a part of that tremendous, exalted,
perfect character of God himself that resides in you by the power
of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. That
is to say, the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ
is unto all and upon all them that believe. When God gives
you that measure of faith that is Christ's faith, and he gives
that to you, it will manifest itself in belief of Jesus Christ. You will come to him, you will
trust him, you will bow to him, you will seek his honor and glory,
but you will not always succeed. You will fail. I think it was
Micah said, when I fall, when I fall, I shall rise. Not if
I fall, but when I fall. The conclusion to this is, therefore,
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without not single one
law deed. None. It's not our love for God, it's
believing God. But believing God is energized
by love. That's what the book says. That's
what the book says, he goes on though. Therefore we conclude
that a man is justified, justified by faith, start from the start,
and this is when we believe. When we believe. And we'll see
that more when he gives the prime example of this faith in Abraham. This wasn't God, as Earl used
to say, this wasn't God believing for Abraham, this was Abraham
believing God. but we know we only believe God
because God gave him the faith with which to believe. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith, start and all the way through the middle
and in its ultimate consummation. I know men have said it this
way and I think it's totally valid, totally true. Once we
get to glory, we won't need faith. in the sense that we needed it
here, and I added that. I haven't heard another one say
that, and I don't mean to criticize, but not in the capacity that
we need it now. We will be like him because we
will see him with our eyes as he is. We will be fully and finally
conformed to the image of his son, but God's doing that now. but it's God that's doing it,
it's not us doing it for God. So, he then says, therefore we
conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law, start to finish. Is he the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Try
to quickly give us a little help with that. The God of the Jews,
the God of the Gentiles, he is the God of both. That means he
is the creator, he is the ruler, he is the judge, he is the redeemer. If anybody is redeemed, Jew or
Gentile, he's the God that does it. There was not Jehovah for
the Israelites and then Baal for somebody else. Baal was a
figment of men and women's imagination. but the Jews have become so self-centered
and self-absorbed, they thought God was just their God, as though
they owned him. But God owns all men, Jew and
Gentile. To be long-suffering and fit
them to destruction and through justice because of their sins,
or through free, sovereign mercy and grace in Christ, bestowed
upon them freely by the Spirit of God. Is He the God of the
Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles only. Now, what about this thing, difference,
this difference between by and through? This is a little tough. If you try to look up the actual
meanings of by and through, it could throw you for a loop. but I hope God enables me to
help us this morning in this. Seeing it is one God which shall
justify the, notice now the phrase is what? Circumcision, not Jew. Although that's implied, but
it's not Jew. He just mentioned Jew and Gentile.
Now he says circumcised and uncircumcised. Now let us never forget, not
every Jew was necessarily circumcised. There may have been some rebels
amongst the camp throughout the years that were never circumcised. Correct? If you had believing,
disbelieving parents, a mother and father that could care less
about the worship of God in Israel at those days, you may have never
been circumcised as a male child. This is talking now, he takes
it from what your genealogy is to either religious or not religious. That's the meaning, by circumcision.
If you were circumcised under law, it was because somebody
was religious. Somebody at least gave some regard
to the command of God. Right? If you were uncircumcised,
it meant they did not. They did not. seeing it as one
God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision
through faith. The circumcision, not the Jew
as I pointed out. The circumcision, the uncircumcision,
not Gentile necessarily because there were some Gentiles who
were circumcised. Especially when they came into
the camp of Israel and became a part of the camp of Israel.
So you have the circumcised, the uncircumcised. This refers
to this, to religious advantage. He's already pointed it out in
3.1. A circumcised person no doubt had some religious advantage.
You get what he's getting at now? Now religious, religious
but not necessarily spiritual closeness. He mentioned, Paul
mentions that to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 2, 11 through
12. the commonwealth of Israel, and they were, in the fact that
they had the oracles of God, they were close to God. The Gentiles
had none of this. None of this. So it's religious,
not spiritual, necessarily. It has to do with closeness.
The difference is a practical, not a theological. That is, okay,
there's a kind of faith that God saves some by, and then there's
another kind of faith that God saves some through. That's what
I'm trying to point out. The faith is not different. Some
were just close, therefore it was just by. Others were far
off, therefore it is through. In other words, the circumcised
had works, but he didn't necessarily have faith. The circumcised may have well
had works, but he didn't have faith. Faith is essential, thus
they're justified by faith. The uncircumcised had neither
works nor faith. Now they may have had some works,
but they were totally heathenistic works. The uncircumcised had
neither works nor faith. Faith is essential. Therefore,
it's not God gave him some works and some faith, he gave him what?
Faith. Because it's only by true God-given
faith that you ever truly work for God. And faith produces work, obedience,
effort, desire. And I mentioned that last Sunday.
By faith, Noah, what? He didn't say, all right, the
flood coming, I'm gonna find me the biggest tree I can find
and hang on to it with all my might. God said build a boat.
Didn't he? So what does faith make him do? Builds a boat. God said in some
way, God, and I think it's through Adam and Eve, but God had informed
Abel and Cain what to do, the right way of sacrifice, blood
sacrifice. Abel had faith, so what did he
do? He offered a blood sacrifice. Cain did not, therefore he had
no blood in his sacrifice. Now, that's brought us up to
this. Do we then make void the law
through faith? I might not even finish what
I was gonna say about Paul. We were together three or four
hours and never mentioned this part. And when he began to read,
I thought, he ought not be doing this. This is my territory this
morning. Because this is going to be my
subject. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yay, we established the faith.
Now had he asked me yesterday about this, I would have said,
Paul, don't preach on that. I'm gonna preach on that. But I'm
glad he didn't ask me because God's in this thing. God's in
this thing, and God evidently wants us to hear this twice this
morning. And as God is my witness, Paul and I never discussed this,
did we? Never did. Now Paul asked the question about,
and he's right now, I know the spirit of God was there in this.
Paul asked the question about those who hold to faith. Do we
make void the law through faith? He didn't say, does faith make
void the law? Faith doesn't have to do with
the law. The law is not of faith. See? But we do have something to do
with the law. One, we're all under it by nature. And our old nature, our flesh
is still under that law. God has not delivered our flesh
from the law. He's delivered us from the law. Now before I go any further,
someone says, well does that mean I'm supposed to obey God's
law in the flesh? You can't. I'm not saying to you it's okay
if you're under grace to break the law. I'm telling you, you
break the law whether you want to or not. You tell me you keep
the law, I'll call you to your face a liar. A liar. And as Paul ably said, we're
not trying to break God's law, but I'm telling you the truth
this morning. I don't go around thinking I got to keep the law
today. If you do, you're in trouble.
You're miserable, you gotta be miserable, or deceived, one or
the other. One or the other. So Paul asked
this question about those who hold to faith only, and that's
the context. Do we, who, not everybody we,
not the old pontifical we. We as believers, that's the whole
context. Do we who are believers, and
I am paraphrasing, but do we who are believers then make void
the law? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. Does our stance for faith alone
start to finish? And if your stance If you're
not facing this thing through faith and through faith from
start to finish, you will have a rude awakening one day. You'll have a rude awakening.
Hebrews is clear. These all died in faith. But it's clear from the context,
somewhere along the line, God gave them faith to start with.
And this life they lived in was a life of faith. Utter failures. Every one of them did. Every
one of them. Look at Jephthah. Made a covenant
with God that the first thing that comes out of my house, I'll
kill it and sacrifice it to you. It was his only daughter. Be careful when you promise God
something. Because God's not going to let
it slide because of our foolishness. Start to finish, does our stance
for faith alone? Start to finish, do we delegate
the law through faith? Paul is clear, God forbid. Now
just briefly, Paul's ably dealt with some of it. Believers acknowledge
the law is holy and the commandment holy, just, and good. If you
find somebody that says they believe in free, sovereign grace,
but they're angry about the law, they don't love God's law, they
don't like God's law, they don't care about God's law, and they
think it's okay for them to break God's law, they don't know what
they're talking about. It's never okay for us to break
the law, but we do all the time. And that may be a conundrum,
it may be a cop-out to some, but let me tell you something,
when a person is unregenerate, they're not going to understand
the truth. And you can't ease it and kind of put law and works
and faith kind of together just enough to help them to maybe
not be so offended by grace. They don't get it to start with. And when you mix it up, you are
dishonoring Christ. You are not helping out that
person's soul. You are not, I would not be.
Believers acknowledge the law is holy and the commandment holy,
just and good, chapter seven, verse 12. Believers acknowledge
the law's defining of sin by the law is the knowledge of sin,
chapter three, verse 12. And it still tells us what sin
is. It's still a sin to commit fornication, right? It's still a sin not to rest
on the Sabbath, but how many of us do? How many of us really
do? Oh, well, I don't do much work
on Saturday. I stay home. At best, I go get
groceries. Don't wanna talk about keeping
the Sabbath. But that's no less moral than loving God with all
your heart, mind, soul, and strength. It's all still sin. So don't misunderstand me here.
It's all still sin. If you don't honor your mother
and father, it's still a sin. But you're not gonna get merit
before God by honoring your mother and father. Because even if you
could do that one, you still have 10 more to deal with. And
they encompass hundreds of others. I know the natural mind looks
at this and says, that don't make sense. It does with God
because he's the one that designed all this. I've got to tell you, there seems
to be some overlap to me, but I know these two things, law
and grace, are separate like this. They're separate like this. Believers acknowledge the law's
defining of sin, but believers also know the law don't really
tell us how bad sin really is. It tells us what sin is. but
it don't tell us how bad sin really is. We see how bad sin
really is when we see God the Father turning his back on the
son when he hung on the tree because God seen sin in his son. That tells me how bad it really
is. If he'll do that to him, what do I deserve? What do I
deserve? I wish today I could tell you
from this day forward I'm gonna start obeying and keeping and
honoring God's law. But I've got to be honest with
you, I can't. I can't. And there have been
times I have tried, and at best it don't last long. And usually
it's fraught full of self-approval. Well, you know, I didn't mean
for that to happen. I didn't mean to say that that
way. I was putting forth my best effort. The law doesn't demand our best
effort. It doesn't demand our best effort.
It demands it be kept completely and wholly and absolutely. Believers
acknowledge the law's entrance, that it's the giving of the law
that the offense might what? Abound. Abound, Romans 5, 20. But here we go. We've got five things, there's
more than five. But believers reject. Now, Paul was absolutely
correct. Everything he said is right about
do we make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. And he said enough that I could
have not said another word. But this is where I'm at in our
study. And I have struggled with this, as my wife will testify
to you, I have struggled with this for the past week. And I
have rewrote this and rewrote this and rewrote this. One evening,
as a matter of fact, Sunday evening, while they were sitting just
watching TV, she was watching TV, I was, and I rewrote this
thing twice that evening. And I thought, it still ain't
it. When I looked down, I had a lot of I's in it. Me, me, me. I thought, that ain't right.
So I rewrote it again that Sunday evening. And then I still rise,
this ain't it. Now listen to me, believers reject
any and all overextension of the law's purpose as well. It
is not establishing the law if you extend the law further than
what the law's designed for. Do you understand what I'm saying?
If you said, well, the law is for this, but it's not really
for this, you're not establishing the law. That means to make it
to stand, to confirm its rightful purpose. It doesn't say by faith
we keep the law. It says by faith we establish
the law. So again, I say believers reject
any and all overextension of the law's purpose. This too is
to establish the law. Just five things. Believers reject. Reject. It's not just something
that's not really, they're dabbling a little bit, but just don't
make it the prime thing. Believers reject. And when I
use this word, I'm gonna use it five, well, I may use it more
than five times, but it's all five of these things, I got this,
reject. It means the same thing as to oppose, or to be against,
or to be anti. And I will say it clearly, I
am anti-law when it comes to these five things I'm gonna give
you this morning. I am anti-law. I am Mason antinomian. I am against God's law when it
comes to these five things. I am not, not going to cow down
and preach and try to mix law and grace.