Before I get to my text in Romans
chapter 3, I want to talk to you for a few minutes about the
most horrible, most obnoxious, and most unreasonable thing in
the world, pride. I can't imagine a subject more
disgustingly repugnant to God Almighty than pride. Pride's
obnoxious to God. Nothing is more common in man,
and nothing is more obnoxious to God than pride. And pride
is just another word for a synonym for self-righteousness. Pride, self-righteousness. is the root of all envy and jealousy
that exists among men. Were it not for pride and self-righteousness,
there would be no such thing as envy and jealousy among us. Pride, self-righteousness is
the root of all strife and division that exists in this world. Were
it not for pride We're not for self-righteousness. There'd be
no such thing as strife and division among men. That's the root of
it all. That's the root of it all. Pride
and self-righteousness is the root of all heresy that exists
in this world. Every form of heresy has its
roots in pride and self-righteousness. And oh, how God hates pride and
self-righteousness. How we ought to hate it. Yet,
I repeat, nothing is more common to fallen man. This obnoxious
wild weed grows in the human heart constantly. Pride is sin. God's holiness
hates it. Pride is treason against heaven,
the sovereign God detested. Pride is rebellion against the
almighty. The whole of his holy being stands
against it, determined to crush it. And crush it he will. Crush it he will, either in mercy
to the saving of your soul or in judgment to your everlasting
damnation. But crush it he will. against
the black vice of our black hearts, pride, self-righteousness. The Lord God of heaven and earth
has made bare his holy arm throughout the ages to demonstrate how he
loathes it. When the heart of Lucifer was
lifted up with pride, he rebelled. And the angels that joined him
in war against Christ with him were cast out of heaven, reserved
in chains of darkness under the everlasting judgment of the great
day of God's wrath. Eve desired to be like God, knowing
good and evil. And Adam imagined that he should
be lifted up to the rank of divinity if he dared to take the fruit
and eat. The blasting of paradise The
sterility of the earth, the travail of women in giving birth, the
sweat of the brow with which every man must earn his bread,
and the certainty of death are all traced to this multi-headed
monster called pride. Remember Babel? There, men thought
they would build themselves a tower to heaven. Their men thought
they would secure for themselves all that they desired by the
work of their hands. They lifted themselves up against
God and attempted to set themselves above God. And because of the
pride and self-righteousness of the race, God filled the hearts
of depraved men with confusion and scattered them through the
earth. unable to properly communicate with one another in their confusion.
The God of heaven is determined, always determined, to stain the
pride of all glory and bring it into contempt. Listen to these
words we read just a little while ago. There is none holy as the
Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock
like our God. So talk no more exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of
your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge. He knows everything. And by him,
the God of knowledge, God who knows everything, our actions
weighed. The bowels of the mighty men
are broken and they that stumbled are girded with strength. You
remember Pharaoh? And his blusters, who is the
Lord that I shall obey him? Remember to the plagues that
his pride brought upon the Egyptians. Remember to his destruction at
the Red Sea by the hand of God, who's determined to destroy the
pride of all men. Thus it is that God deals with
men in their pride. Remember Nebuchadnezzar, the
mighty architect of Babylon? the great, great kingdom and
empire that he built, he was driven out to eat grass like
an ox, until his fingernails grew like bird's claws, and the
hair on his back grew like the feathers of an eagle. Remember
Herod, who in his pride refused to give God the glory, was eaten
with worms. You remember Sennacherib, who
came against Israel in the days of Hezekiah the king. And he
mocked the God of Israel. And God put his hook in the king's
jaw and let him out by the way in which he had come in. And
finally he was murdered by his own sons. At last, God will in
the last day blast with the blast of his nostrils and rebuke the
pride of man. Horrible as this evil thing called
pride is. horrible as it is, horrible as
it is. It's found in God's own, in us, the chosen, the redeemed,
the regenerate, the sanctified, the believing people of God.
What pride What self-righteousness still rages in our breast all
the time? David, that man after God's own
heart. I read about David and think
about David, and I always ask, God, make me to be something
like David. That man after God's own heart.
Outside our Lord Jesus himself, the most remarkable man described
in the book of God. Remarkable. But pride lifted
up his heart and he decided to number the children of Israel.
And his pride was broken in the dust when 70,000 of his own people
laid dead at his feet. Hezekiah was a good king. But
pride caused Hezekiah to show the ambassadors of Babylon his
riches and his treasures. As a result of his pride, his
sons were made eunuchs to be slaves in the palace of Babylon's
king, Peter. Oh, what a remarkable man Peter
was. That faithful, faithful, faithful
servant of our God. When his heart was lifted up
with pride, he fell horribly. And his pride
was crushed, crushed to powder in Pilate's judgment hall. God
has spoken the most solemn, awful words of judgment against pride. Be wise, O my soul. and hear God. Pride goeth before
destruction, and an haughty spirit before the fall. People quote those words glibly. They quote those words and laugh.
They quote those words and in reference to a football team
losing a game or a great player missing a shot. Hear God and tremble. Pride goeth
before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. And high
look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is sin. The lofty looks of man shall
be humbled and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. He's talking about
the day of his grace when God's pleased to show mercy and the
day of his judgment when God's pleased to pour out his wrath.
For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is
proud and lofty and upon everyone that is lifted up. and he shall
be brought low. Behold, God says, I am against
thee, O thou most pride, saith the Lord God of hosts, for thy
day is come, the time that I will visit thee. We are all proud, self-righteous
creatures. It's the family disease of humanity
infecting all the sons and daughters of Adam from the heights to the
depths of society. We all think more highly of ourselves
than we ought to think. No exceptions here. We all think
more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. We secretly
flatter ourselves even if we don't speak it. We speak it too
much. But even when we don't, we secretly
flatter ourselves, thinking that we're not so bad as some. And
we really do have something that will commend us to the favor
of God. The wise man said, most men will
proclaim everyone his own goodness. Most men will proclaim everyone
his own goodness. We forget the plain statements
of scripture. In many things we offend all. There is not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. What is man that
he should be clean? Are he that is born of woman
that he should be righteous? They are all under sin. As it
is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Pride and self-righteousness,
the most obnoxious, horrible, unreasonable evil in the world. Ever since man became a sinner,
he's been self-righteous. When man had a perfect righteousness
before God, he didn't glory in it or cherish it. But as soon
as our father Adam fell and lost all righteousness in the garden,
he pretended to be righteous. Immediately after his fall, he
wrapped himself in his fig leaf aprons and began to defend himself. Pride and arrogance and self-righteousness,
blaming God for his troubles. who gave him the woman and the
woman who gave him the fruit. As it was with Adam, so it is
with us all. We all justify ourselves before
God and before men. And we will continue to do so
until God breaks us. And we will do so again until
God breaks us. God's servant, Job, That's the
one problem he had, the one problem for which he was finally confronted
and the one problem which he had to finally confess and repent
in sackcloth and ashes and open his mouth no more before God. Pride, self-righteousness is
born in us. And while we can to a degree,
we can to a degree, Control our lust. You don't hit everybody
you think about hitting. And you don't cuss everybody
you think about cussing. And you can control your murder.
And you can control your immorality. You can to a degree control your
lies and your actions of that nature. But our self-righteousness
will not allow us to confess our sins. and come to God for
mercy as guilty sinners until God breaks that pride and self-righteousness. Millions of sermons have been
preached against this pride and self-righteousness, but it remains
the number one evil by which Satan keeps sinners from coming
to Christ. It's not adultery. It's not murder. It's not theft. It's not lying.
It's not fornication. It's not a deviant behavior that
keeps you from coming to Christ. That's not what it is. It's your
pride and self-righteousness. One old preacher said a long
time ago, I scarcely ever preach a sermon without condemning self-righteousness. Yet I find I cannot preach it
down. Men still boast of who they are. what they've done, what they've
not done, and mistake the road to heaven to be one paved by
their own works and merits. Oh, God help us. Multitudes who
profess faith in Christ make him only half a savior. Perhaps
some of you. You would never be so bold as
to say that you don't need Christ at all But you're highly offended
when I tell you that your heart is as black and vile and corrupt
as hell. Why? Is it not because you trust
in yourself that you're righteous? I plead with you for your very
soul's sake, be honest. You think I know I'm not as good
as I should be, but then I'm not so bad as some folks. I go
to church regularly. I read my Bible. I'm nice to
people. I say my prayers. I'm sober.
I'm honest. I'm moral. You're proud and self-righteous. That's what you are. And it is
your pride and your self-righteousness that keeps you from Christ. There's
only one cure for this pride and this self-righteousness. It is the knowledge of yourself by the revelation of Christ in
you. Oh, if God will be pleased to
reveal Christ in you. If God will be pleased to show
you his son high and lifted up as he did Isaiah, you will have
a knowledge of yourself like Isaiah had. And you'll cry, woe
is me for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and
dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips. Like the leper,
you place your hand over your mouth and cry, unclean, unclean. That's what I am. That which
our Lord condemns more severely than any other crime is self-righteousness. I wouldn't want to stand before
God and have to answer for murder or rape or adultery. But I'd rather answer for those
things at the day of judgment than for self-righteousness,
for hearing God's word, for having, as the Jews did, the very oracles
of God in my possession and in my pride and arrogance and self-righteousness,
despising it and trampling the Son of God under my feet. Self-righteousness
shall be punished with greater severity and eternal damnation
in the fires of hell than all other evils. Our Lord Jesus said,
to those who heard his word and saw his power, they saw his miracles
performed. They heard him preach. They heard
the son of God himself preach the gospel. They saw him heal
the sick, open blind eyes, unstop deaf ears, and raise the dead.
Just like you have. Just like you have. And our Lord
said, Sodom and Gomorrah will rise up in the day of judgment
against you. Nothing, nothing, nothing shall
have the fury of God's wrath in hell, like pride and self-righteousness. As if to put an everlasting stigma
upon pride, vanity, and self-righteousness in men, as if to hurl mire and
filth upon all human boasting and glorying, the Lord God has
declared that the only way He will save sinners is a way which
utterly excludes the very possibility of boasting in you. The only way he will save sinners
is a way which utterly excludes the very possibility of boasting
in you. Now, this is my subject this
morning, boasting excluded. Let's look at Romans chapter
three, verses 27 through 31. In these closing verses of Romans
three, God, the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to raise and
answer four questions by which he utterly excludes boasting
on our part and magnificently exalts his free grace in salvation. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law? Of works. Nay, 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 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. Yea, we establish the law. All right, here's the first question.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. Every sinner
who is justified by the free gift of God's grace, gladly acknowledges
that he has nothing of which to boast before God or man. Every sinner justified by God's
free grace gladly acknowledges that he has nothing of which
to boast before God or man. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. And this is the reason God's
done things this way, that according as it is written, he that gloryeth,
let him glory in the Lord. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory. God forbid that I should boast.
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ by which I am crucified unto the world and the world
unto me. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
Why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? Every saved
sinner gladly acknowledges he has nothing of which to boast
before God or man. We sang a few minutes ago, and
well, we might sing repeatedly, boasting excluded. Pride I abase. I am only a sinner saved by grace. That's true of every saved sinner
here and every saved sinner everywhere. Some of you spent your lives
in relative uprightness and moral decency and upper crust of society,
the kind of folks everybody want to run with. And many didn't. And here we are saved by God's
free grace. exactly the same way, by the
same righteousness, by the same blood, by the same grace, by
the same power, with no contribution on our part, boasting excluded,
pride I abase. Salvation is by grace alone,
through faith alone, in Christ alone. That means if you and
I are saved, it is not by anything we did and we have nothing in
which to boast. The only distinction between
saved sinners and lost sinners, the only distinction between
folks in heaven and folks in hell is the distinction that's
been made by God's grace, free Sovereign, effectual, irresistible,
saving grace. Where is boasting then? Oh, spirit of God. Every time
this horrible, evil pride and self-righteousness raises its
monstrous head in my soul, crush it with the hammer of your grace. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. This is Paul's second question. By what law? How is boasting
excluded? By what law? Of works? Hardly. Nay, but by the law of faith. The gospel of Christ is the law
or the doctrine of faith. The word law doesn't here refer
to mosaic law. It doesn't even refer to commands. Rather, it refers to regulation. It refers to that which governs,
that which directs, that which compels us. The law of faith
is the doctrine of the gospel. This is the law of faith. What
sayeth it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That's the law of faith. That's
the proclamation of the gospel. If you confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God's raised
him from the dead, you'll be saved. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness. That is not saying with the heart
believing we make ourselves righteous. But with the heart man believeth
with reference to righteousness. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. It's not saying if you confess
the Lord Jesus with your mouth, then that will save you. Oh,
no, no, no, no, no. It's saying with the mouth confession
is made with reference to salvation so that we confess with our mouths
what we believe in our hearts, that Jesus Christ alone is our
salvation and he alone is our righteousness. For the scripture
saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Shall not be ashamed. Now, most
everybody interprets that to mean that if you believe on Christ,
you won't be ashamed to confess Him. That's certainly true. If
you believe on Christ, you won't be ashamed to identify with Him
in believer's baptism. That's certainly true. If you
believe on Christ, you will not be ashamed to confess Him before
His foes. That is certainly true. If you believe on Christ, you'll
not be ashamed to bear witness of Him. That is certainly true.
But the word translated here, ashamed, is found many times
in the Old Testament Scriptures, or rather the phrase, shall not
be ashamed, because we believe on Him, found many times in the
Old Testament Scriptures. Here, it is given ashamed. In
the Old Testament, we're told that if you believe on Christ,
you'll not be confused. You'll not be confused. You won't
be fuzzy in your mind about this. If you believe on Christ, you'll
not be confounded. You'll not be confounded. What
men say and do will not confound you. If you believe on Christ,
you'll not make haste. If you believe on Christ, you'll
not be put to shame. Not be put to shame now. or ever,
not even before God. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon his name. He's rich to all who
worship him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord, whosoever shall worship God as he is, shall
be saved. The law of faith The gospel of
God excludes all possibility of boasting. The law of faith,
the gospel of God teaches us that our election is unconditional. God didn't choose us because
of something good in us or something good he foresaw would be in us,
but rather he chose us because he would choose us. Our redemption
was accomplished by Christ at Calvary. We don't contribute
something to it. It was done at Calvary. Righteousness
is the work of God given to us in Christ Jesus. The new birth
is by grace alone. It is a resurrection from the
dead. We don't contribute anything to it. Faith itself is the gift
and operation of God. One of the hymn writers put it
this way. Why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there's
room? While thousands make a wretched
choice and rather starve than come? T'was the same love that
spread the feast that gently forced me in. I love that. The same love that spread the
feast that gently forced me in, else I had still refused to taste
and perished in my sin. All God's gifts of salvation
are gifts of grace. But we must hold on and hold
out and persevere. Yes, you must. But perseverance
in faith. is the result of God's preserving
grace. We are kept by the power of God
through that faith that God gives and sustains in us. The same
law of faith, the same gospel of God that excludes boasting,
throws open the doors of mercy to sinners everywhere. The veil
to the holiest has been rent in two and says to sinners everywhere,
come and welcome. Commonwealth come you sinners
poor and wretched weak and wounded sick and sore Jesus ready stands
to save you full of pity joined with power Where is boasting
then it's excluded. I look at verse 28 Here's the
inspired conclusion That he is and must be drawn from all that's
been written in this chapter and through these three chapters
and throughout the book of God Therefore we conclude Therefore,
we draw this logical, reasonable, necessary conclusion. If all
that I have said thus far is so, then we must conclude that
a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Every sinner who trusts Christ
is justified before God, righteous before God, holy before God,
without sin before God, by faith. By faith. Now let's see what
the book says about that. Look back in chapter 3 here in
verse 3. For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? Hmm. What a strange statement. The faith of God. Do you know
how many times you'll find that statement in the Word of God?
The faith of God. One time. Right here. I have
always read it like this, and I have always read it to you
like this. The faithfulness of God. And I do so, and have done
so, because faith of itself involves faithfulness. All who have faith
are faithful. But there's another word that's
translated faithful. This is the word faith. The faith
of God. How can the faith of God be made
of none effect? It can't be. It can't be. Well, what's this referring to?
If God has faith, in whom does he have faith? If God has faith,
what does he trust? If God has faith, where is it
spoken of? Turn over to Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1. I was talking to Brother Todd and
I last night, or yesterday afternoon, while I was working on this message,
and we chatted a little bit, and I asked him those very questions.
And I turned to him and said, You remember Ephesians 1 verse
12? And he laughed, he said, that's it? That's it? What's he talking about? That
we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in
Christ. God, the triune Jehovah, trusted
Christ as our surety before the world was. And nothing is going
to make the faith of God of none effect. We are justified by the
faith of God. The faith God put in His Son,
our Mediator, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
We're justified, we're told, by the faith of Jesus Christ
in verse 22. The Jews mocked him and said
many things concerning him by which they attempted to belittle
him. But what they said was the very
thing that he himself had revealed and declared. He saved others
himself he cannot save. They made another statement.
They drew it directly from the words of our Lord in Psalm 22. He believed God. Jesus Christ, the God-man, was
obedient unto death all the days of his life, even unto death
as our substitute, because he believed God, and were justified
by the faith of Jesus Christ, and were justified by faith in
Christ. You're the children of God by
faith. in Christ. Being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. We receive and experience this
blessed grace of God by faith alone, believing God. not by something we do, not by
some work of ours, not by a decision we make, but rather by the faith
which is the gift and operation of God through which we receive
all the bounty of God's grace. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. All right, here's the third question,
verse 30. Is he the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing
it as one God which will justify the circumcision by faith and
the uncircumcision through faith. Jew and Gentile are only distinctions
in the flesh. Jew and Gentile are only distinctions
in the flesh. Male and female are only distinctions
in the flesh. Rich and poor are only distinctions
in the flesh. Religious and irreligious are
only distinctions in the flesh. Barbarian and Scythian, bond
and free, are only distinctions in the flesh. Learned and unlearned
are only distinctions in the flesh. You understand that? They're
just fleshly distinctions. But Christ is all and in all. To all God's elect, be they Jew
or Gentile, Christ is all and He's in you all. The triune Jehovah,
our covenant God in Christ, is God of all His elect, both Jew
and Gentile. Chosen in Christ before the world
was now, what does that mean? That means that God the father
is the father of all his elect without distinction Without distinction He's my father and he's your
father He's your father and he's your
father, without distinction. But I, Brother Don, I just, I
don't know anything. I don't do anything. I'm not,
I'm not used to anybody. If you're Christ, God's your
father, just as surely as he is Christ's father, without distinction,
without distinction. God, the Son, is our Savior,
the Savior of all His elect without distinction. Just as fully, just
as completely, just as entirely as He is of one, so He is the
Savior of all. God the Holy Spirit is the comforter
of all His elect, the seal of grace in all His elect without
distinction. so that every believing sinner,
every child of God has all God's salvation, all God's grace, all
God's goodness in its entirety, all the time, without any qualification
on your part. Our salvation is called the common
salvation. Not because it's common to everybody,
it's not. Some folks here have it, some don't. But those who
have it, it's common to us all. It's the same salvation. All
have Christ in all his fullness so that he is made of God unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. All our wisdom, all our righteousness,
all our sanctification, and all our redemption. Where is boasting
then? It is excluded. Now, look at
the last lines of this 30th verse. Why does the Spirit of God tell
us that God justifies the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision
through faith? Is he telling us two different
things? No, no. Why does he use two different
words? Well, the simple answer is that the words are used interchangeably
throughout the scriptures. These two distinct prepositions
are used interchangeably, just as the words in English, by and
through, are used interchangeably. We use the word for and because
interchangeably. But the two words are used distinctly
by divine inspiration. So I'm made to think there's
more to it than just the idea that these two words are used
interchangeably. The preposition by and the Greek
word for which is translated refers to the origin of justification
in the experience of grace. Justification does not originate
in faith. Oh, no, no, no. A thousand times,
no. It originates in eternity with God trusting his son. It
originates in Christ accomplishing our justification. What do you
mean then that by refers to the origin in the experience of grace? You know nothing about your justification
You cannot know your justification before God. You cannot know your
redemption and righteousness before God by the obedience of
Christ except by believing and Justification in your soul peace
in your conscience arises from faith in Christ But I repeat,
faith in Christ is not the cause of our justification. That wouldn't
exclude boasting, but promote it. Our justification was accomplished
by Christ. God justifies us through faith. And the preposition through,
like the word translated through, refers to the channel by which
justification freely flows into our souls. You take a water hose and wash
off your lawn or I mean your parking lot or your sidewalk.
And somebody asks, well, what'd you wash it with? And you say,
a hose. No, you washed it off with water.
The hose was the channel through which the water flowed. Faith
is not the instrument by which we are made righteous. Faith
is the instrument through which grace flows into our souls, declaring
that we are righteous in the experience of grace. Where is
boasting then? It is excluded. Now you'll see
Paul's last question, the fourth question, in verse 31. Do we
then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law. This free, God-given justification
by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, doesn't
set aside God's law. It's the only thing that establishes
God's law. It's the only thing that establishes
God's law. Most people read the commandments
and they say, We sincerely keep the law. We do the best we can to keep
the law. We obey the Sabbath day. We keep
the commandments. And when they do that, when they
do that, if that's your thinking, let me tell you what you do.
This is what you do with God's law. Let's get that out of the way.
It doesn't mean a frazzling thing. It doesn't mean a frazzling thing.
No. Oh, no, no, no. Those who pretend
to live in obedience to the law set aside and nullify God's law
as far as they're concerned. They make it nothing. But the
sinner who with nothing to offer God brings Christ establishes God's law. Because only by the obedience
and death of God's own Son could God's holy law be magnified and
made honorable. And by Him, by His obedience
and death as our substitute, He magnified and honored God's
law. infinitely more perfectly than
it could possibly have been done by the obedience of all men to
all eternity. For this man is God in our flesh
whom we trust. All who seek righteousness by
the law make void the law. All who trust Christ alone for
redemption, righteousness, and everlasting salvation establish
the law. Now I see God can be just and
justify me. Oh, may God give you grace now
to trust his son and establish his law. in your
own soul, in the sweet experience of His grace. Boasted excluded. Amen.