Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today
and I'm glad you could join us and I hope and pray that you'll
be blessed by these messages from the scripture. I'm going
to talk about today from Romans chapter 3, if you'd like to follow
along in your Bibles, God's redeeming grace or God's redemption of
grace. Now last week I talked about
God's electing grace or God's election of grace. And what I'm
talking about here in these messages is what I call the prerequisites,
those things that are required beforehand for a sinner to enter
salvation. And I told you about somebody
who'd written an email to me telling me that I didn't preach
repentance as a prerequisite for salvation. Listen, every
sinner who is saved must believe, they must repent, they must persevere. But believing, faith, repentance,
and perseverance are not prerequisites, pre-qualifications, or pre-requirements
that we must fulfill or meet out of our own power and our
own will in order to attain or maintain salvation. That would
be salvation by works, salvation conditioned on the sinner. And
the gospel is salvation conditioned on Christ, the merit of His works,
according to God's will, All right, it's that Christ fulfilled
in his work on the cross in dying for his people. His death, burial,
and resurrection, establishing righteousness. And last week
I dealt with God's electing grace. That's the first prerequisite
for a sinner to enter heaven. God must choose his people because
by nature we will not choose God if left to ourselves. You
know, people talk about free will. All right, you have the
will, you have the freedom, rather, to choose whatever you wanna
choose as far as this matter is concerned. But the Bible teaches
this, that our will, we fell in Adam, ruined by the fall,
and were born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, and if
given the choice of our own free will, we will not choose the
way of God. We will choose our own will.
Over in Romans chapter three, listen to this. This is verse
10 of Romans three. It says, as it is written, there
is none righteous, no not one. Now don't relegate that off to
some immoral group of people. That's all of us by nature. We're
not born righteous. We're not born spiritual. We're
born naturally dead in trespasses and sin. And of ourselves, we
have no righteousness. The righteousness that God requires.
Now, the second prerequisite for a sinner to enter salvation
is righteousness must be established. And how is that righteousness
established? Through the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ. Now hold
on to that. Let's look at verse 11 now, Romans
3. He said there's none righteous,
no not one. Verse 11, there's none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. Verse 12, they are all gone
out of the way, the way of God's grace, the way of salvation by
Christ. They are together become unprofitable. That means the ways that man
naturally chooses of his own free will is unprofitable, it
won't work. And there is none that doeth
good, that is according to God's standard of goodness, no not
one. Do you see that? Now don't read
the Bible with the accept me syndrome. There's none righteous,
no not one, except me. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God, except me. You know if any
sinner truly seeks God according to God's revelation of himself, That means this, that means that
God has already intervened and brought that sinner to do so.
And all who seek Him will find Him. God must choose His people
in Christ. And that's the first prerequisite.
The second one is righteousness be established, and it's established
by God's redeeming grace in Christ. Well, look at verse 19 of Romans
3, Romans 3 and verse 19. It says, now we know that what
thing soever the law saith, the law, it saith to them who are
under the law, that is those who are seeking salvation by
works of the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all
the world may become guilty, subject to the judgment of God,
guilty before God. That's our state by nature. And
verse 20 says, therefore by the deeds of the law, the works of
the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight,
for by the law is the knowledge of sin. In other words, the only
thing the law can do for a sinner is to show him his sin. You fall
short. Righteousness is the standard,
that's the perfection of the law. We don't have it, we can't
work it. Where are we gonna find it? Well,
not by deeds of the law. Somebody says, well, it's by
faith, it's not by works. Well, that's true. But faith
in and of itself, believing in and of itself doesn't do it.
It's Christ in whom we have faith who did it. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. We
believe in him. You see, faith is not our savior. Christ is. Repentance doesn't
save us. Christ did. And if Christ has
saved, if God chose us before the foundation of the world and
Christ saved us by his work on the cross, then we will be given
faith and repentance to lay hold of him and to turn from our sins
and turn from our works. Well, look at verse 21. Now here's
God's redeeming grace, God's redemption of grace. He said,
verse 21, but now, now by the law is the knowledge of sin,
but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
made known, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Now
this term, the righteousness of God, that's what the gospel
is all about. If you truly believe in Christ,
if a preacher truly preaches Christ, He's preaching the righteousness
of God. Because Christ is the Lord, our
righteousness for His people. Jeremiah stated that in Jeremiah
23 and Jeremiah 33, back in the Old Testament. He used the term,
the name of God, Jehovah Sidcanu. Christ is the Lord, my righteousness. I don't have any righteousness
but Him. Old John Bunyan said, my righteousness
resides in heaven, interceding in my place, that's Christ. And
so the righteousness of God is not the righteousness of men,
it's not the free will of men, it's not the mustering up of
faith in men, it's not the persuasion of men, it is totally the work
of God in Christ. What is righteousness? It is
perfect satisfaction to God's justice. It's what Christ came
to accomplish as the surety and substitute of His people. Over in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse
21, it talks about how God, He, which is God the Father, made
Him, that's God the Son incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be
sin. That means sin, the sin debt
of His people was imputed, charged to Christ. God made Him to be
sin for us, for His people. And then Christ, who knew no
sin, sin did not contaminate him or sin did not enter into
him, but it was imputed to him, charged to him legally. The debt
of sin was laid upon his account, but he knew no sin. He had no
familiarity with sin in his mind, in his heart, in his affections,
in his will, in his conscience. He was perfectly clean. He was
the spotless lamb, but he was made truly guilty. He was condemned. He was cursed based on sin imputed. And Christ who knew no sin. Now,
why did he do that? In order that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. That's Christ's righteousness
imputed to his people, charged to his people. And that's a prerequisite
to entering heaven. I must be made righteous. Well,
he says in Romans 3.21, But now the righteousness of God without
the law, that is, without our works under the law, is made
known, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. The law
was the schoolmaster to drive them to Christ. The prophets
preach Christ. Verse 22, Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, Not faith in Jesus Christ here,
but the faith of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? That means
His faithfulness to meet all of the conditions for the salvation
of His people in washing away their sins by redeeming them
with the price of His blood, His death, and establishing righteousness
for them whereby God could be just and justify them. You see
that? Christ was faithful in all that
he did. Now that's, see, that's not talking
about our faith in him. We do have faith in him if we're
believers. God-given faith. But that's talking
about his work. his work to do what he promised
and agreed to do before the foundation of the world for his people.
And it's the righteousness, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. And it says it's unto all. Now
that's not even in the original, but what he's talking about,
I'm gonna preach this to everybody. Anybody who'll listen. There
may be some of you, you hear me talk about election or anything
like that, and you may say, well, I don't wanna hear him anymore.
Well, I can't preach to you. But I'll preach to anyone who'll
listen. Unto all. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. But listen to this, and upon
all. In other words, this righteousness
is imputed to all that believe. Now, our believing didn't impute
the righteousness. God did that before the foundation
of the world. When he chose a people, gave
them to Christ, conditioned all their salvation upon him, imputed
their sins to him and his righteousness to them. How do you know that
it's upon me? That believe, for there's no
difference. Verse 23, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. We're all sinners. But verse 24, being justified,
being declared not guilty, being declared righteous, freely, unconditionally,
without a cause, by His grace, unearned favor, undeserved favor,
through, based on what? Through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. You see, grace is free. Somebody said, well, we believe
in free grace. Well, there's no other kind. I know people
get confused and they try to mix grace and works, but Paul
said over in Romans 11, you can't do that. There's no other kind
but free. If salvation's by grace, if it's
by mercy, somebody said mercy is God not giving us what we've
earned and deserve. Grace is God giving us what we
have earned and what we, giving us what we have not earned and
what we do not deserve. So if it's grace, don't be talking
about what you work for, what you earn, or what you deserve.
It's freely, and it's through, but now grace is not free in
the sense of something that had to be done. In other words, Christ
had to do something. God has to be just. Well, what
did he do? Well, it's through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. Now, Romans 5.21 states this. It says, For as sin brought death,
that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
We call our media ministry and our evangelistic ministry, reign
of grace ministries. That's the verse that it's based
on. Grace reigns through righteousness by Jesus Christ, our Lord. Well,
look back here at Romans three, look at verse 25. It's talking
about redemption by Jesus Christ, whom God, verse 25, hath set
forth. And that word set forth means
foreordained. See, this was ordained before
the foundation of the world, folks. It's not an afterthought. One of the things that's mind-boggling
to all of us, if you read the Bible and accept the Bible, is
that everything is well within God's planned order, God's sovereign
purpose, even the sin and fall of man. And yet God is not the
author of sin. Now, I don't know how to explain
that to you, but I know that's what the Bible teaches. And I
had a preacher in town who, he heard me say that one time and
he wrote me an email and he said, I cannot believe that you believe
that God ordained the fall of man. Well, I wrote him back and
here's what I said. I said, well, I can't believe
that you believe that Satan sneaked up on God and took him by surprise. Well, now you know better than
that, don't you? The ways of God are so high above us that
we cannot fathom. And as I always say, wrap our
minds around His sovereign purpose. God works in mysterious ways. And that's true. The depths and
the riches of the ways of God. You see, we're so limited. We're
finite in our thinking. And they're just things that
we just have to stand back and look in amazement and say, well,
God is God and we're certainly not him. You know, the Bible
says back over in Deuteronomy, in the book of Deuteronomy chapter
29, this is where Moses was reading the law to the people. And here's
what he says in Deuteronomy 29, 29, listen to this. He says, the secret things belong
unto the Lord our God. You know what the secret things
are? Things that God has not revealed to us. It may be things
that he can't reveal to us because of our limitations. And he says,
but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children
forever that we may know or that we may do all the words of this
law. And of course we know Israel
failed. But what are we talking about today in salvation? We're talking about the gospel.
You say, well, if God, there's, you know, people will reason
this way. Well, if God chose a people and passed by others,
then it doesn't matter what I do. If he chose me, I'm going to
be saved. If he didn't, I won't. That's the secret things that
belong to God. That doesn't belong, you're not
God. You know when a person thinks like that, they're trying to
play God? That's the secret things that belong to God. Only God
knows. He knows who's gonna be saved.
He chose them. You don't know it and I don't
know it. That's why he tells me to seek the Lord. He commands me to repent, to
believe, to believe the gospel. He commands me to believe his
word, to study his word. He commands me to believe in
Christ. That's all I know. That's all
he's revealed. He hasn't given me the secret
things. and he hasn't given them to you. And if we start operating
our lives here on earth by those secret things, we're trying to
play God. And my friend, you'll end up damned and condemned. That's exactly right. You seek
the Lord. The revealed things belong to
you. You're responsible for what God reveals, not for what God's
hidden. And the command of the gospel
is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
but believe on Him as He's revealed in the Word, the Word of God.
We'll go back to Romans 3.25. So whom God hath set forth or
foreordained to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, the
propitiation is the sin-bearing sacrifice that brings satisfaction
to God's justice. All for whom Christ died on that
cross shall be saved. That's God redeeming grace. You
see, the gospel doesn't tell people that God loves everybody
and Christ died for everybody, now it's up to you. That's not
in the Bible. The propitiation is satisfaction. Look at verse 25, "...in His
blood." That's His death. Christ's death brought satisfaction
to the law. God imputed the sins of His people
to Christ and imputed His righteousness to them. That righteousness which
is worked out through His blood to declare His righteousness
for the remission passing over the forgiveness of sins that
are past, that's talking about the Old Testament believers,
through the forbearance of God. God did not destroy His people. He forbore them. He acted in
forbearance, having in mind that Christ would come and put away
their sins and establish righteousness, that prerequisite for their entering
salvation. And he says in verse 26, to declare
I say at this time his righteousness, not ours, not yours, his righteousness,
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. You see that? That's God's redeeming
grace. And that's what the Bible's all
about. That's what it's talking about
all the way through. Over in the book of Galatians
chapter four, it talks about in verse four, listen to this.
But when the fullness of the time was come. Now what is the
fullness of the time mean? It means in God's ordained time. When God ordained it before the
foundation of the world that this time would come about, when
that came, God sent forth his son, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says, made of a woman.
Remember back in Genesis 3 in verse 15 how Christ is called
the seed of woman? That's His humanity. That's His
sinless humanity that was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary
by the Holy Spirit without the aid of man. Christ is God in
human flesh. His name shall be called Jesus.
for he shall save his people from their sins, Matthew 121.
Matthew 123, his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being
interpreted God with us. The word made flesh, he was made
of a woman. He had to be God and man in one
person in order to die for the sins of his people. He had to
be God because only God can create and give life. He had to be man
because only man can die. And this person who is both,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the mystery of godliness. Salvation,
godliness, comes by this person, God manifest in the flesh. And
so he sent forth his son, made of a woman, his son, that's his
deity, made of a woman, that's his humanity, made under the
law. That is all of the conditions
and responsibility and requirements of salvation for the salvation
of his people were placed upon him. He came under the law. He became accountable for their
sins. He became accountable for their
debt. He became responsible for the
justice of God to be satisfied for them. And how did he do it? Verse five of Galatians four,
to redeem them that were under the law. to pay the price, the
redemption price. And what was the redemption price?
His blood. And what is the outcome of his
blood? To declare the righteousness
of God. Righteousness was established
by the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God laid
upon him the iniquity of us all. Who's the all there? All who
come to faith in Christ, not all without exception. And so
Christ redeemed his people with his blood. Those who were ruined
by the fall, having been chosen before the foundation of the
world, but ruined by the fall, they are redeemed by the blood. And it says in verse five, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. We're brought into the
family of God by the adoption of grace. And then we're gonna
talk about this next time, but look at verse six. And because
you are sons, Now notice it says, not in order to become sons,
but because you are sons, are children of God by God's electing
grace and by God's redeeming grace in Christ. God chose us
in Christ, God redeemed us by the blood of Christ. So because
you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts. crying, Abba, Father. Now that
refers to God's regenerating grace. That's gonna come next
week. That's the new birth. And so
we see that God, that's a prerequisite to enter the kingdom of heaven,
to enter salvation. So the redeeming blood of Christ,
he redeemed us with his own precious blood. Think about this. You
know, when Christ did that great work, on the cross. It wasn't
simply a token. It wasn't simply an attempt. It was and is the salvation of
His people. Listen to Hebrews chapter 1 and
verse 3. It speaks of Christ, who being
the brightness of His glory, the brightness of God's glory,
the effulgence, the fullness, and the express image of His
person the person of God, and upholding all things by the word
of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins. They're purged. Now, if your
sins are purged, you cannot be sent to hell. God cannot hold
them against you. Romans 8.33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea rather
is risen and is seated at the right hand of God ever living
to make intercession for us. And that's what he says here
in Hebrews 1.3. By himself, not in cooperation with us, but by
himself purged our sins, sat down. That means the work was
finished on the right hand of God. That means the work was
accepted of the majesty on high. Hebrews 10, 14 says, for by one
offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's
the offering of Himself to redeem us from our sins. So we have
two prerequisites that I've already spoken of. God's electing grace
before the foundation where He chose His people in Christ, conditioned
all of their salvation on Him, and God's redeeming grace whereby
Christ purged the sins of His people, satisfied justice, and
brought in everlasting righteousness. Next time we'll talk about the
third prerequisite, which is God's regenerating grace. You
must be born again or you cannot see or enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you. you