Romans chapter 3, and I want
to begin reading at verse 9. The title of my message this
morning is The Plain Old Gospel. The Plain Old Gospel. And I don't
say this morning that I'm going to look at these verses and make
something simple out of them, make something plain out of them.
My task this morning is just to see the plainness that's already
there. And hopefully, when we leave
this morning, everybody here will understand, at least in
their heads, the gospel. The gospel. And we find it here
in Romans Chapter 3, the word gospel is not mentioned in this
chapter. But it's so very well defined.
It's so described. And that's what I want us to
see this morning. Look in chapter 3 of Romans, and let's begin
reading in verse 9. What then? Are we Jews better
than they Gentiles? No, in no wise. But we have proved
before, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin,
under the guilt of it, under the power of it, and if God don't
deliver under the awful eternal consequences of it. As it is
written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open grave,
open sepulchre. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asp is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swept to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their way. and the way of peace have they
not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Now you are saying, Bruce, I
thought you were going to talk about the gospel. This does not sound
good, and it does not, does it? But you know, brothers and sisters,
I am convinced of this. The reason this world does not
know the gospel They don't hear the good news. It's because they
refuse to hear the bad news. This is bad news, isn't it? But
this is what makes the gospel good news, because we've confronted
the bad news. In verse 19, Now we know that
whatsoever things the law saith, it saith 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, thank God, but now,
the righteousness of God without the law, without our obedience
to it, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
unto all and upon all of 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, an atoning victim through faith
in His blood, to declare his righteousness for the remissions
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. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law?
Works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. I want
to consider these verses that I've read with you, and really
I want to come here to verse 23 and verse 24 is the main verses
I want you to consider with me this morning because this is
the gospel. But he says here in verse 23,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Now, how would this man know this?
Well, let's consider some ways. First of all, this was a very
intelligent man. And he was a man that traveled
all over his own country. He traveled all over Asia and
other places in the world. And we can honestly say that
he knew this by experience. He watched men. He listened to
them and he come away with this conclusion, that I have not found
one man or one boy or girl that had never sinned and come short
of God's glory. He saw it out in the world. You
read the book of Acts and you see the experience that this
man had with the world. They tried to kill him. They
hated him. He saw the false prophets. that tried to undermine him and
the kingdom of Christ. And he said, when I look upon
the lost people, I can't find one man or one woman that isn't
an exception to this rule. They've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But you know, when he looked
in the church, even when he looked among his Christian brothers
and sister, he'd come to this same conclusion, even among them. There is not one exception to
this rule. Even believers, children of God,
still sin, do they not? That was the conclusion that
he came to. Read the letter that he wrote
to the church at Corinth and look at that letter that he had
to rebuke them for the awful situation that they were in.
Even Peter had fallen and didn't walk uprightly according to the
truth of the gospel, fell through a sudden temptation. So this
man reaches this conclusion because of what he saw. And let me ask
you this. Most of you now have lived quite
some time in this world. You work around people. You went
to school with people. You've observed your neighbors,
your children, your dad and mom. Have you found one person that
didn't sin and come short of God's glory? I had a dear mother. Bless her heart, she was so sweet,
one of the sweetest women I've ever seen in my life. My heart
still hurts today for how I treated her sometime and how I spoke
to her. The sweetest woman probably I've ever known in my life was
my dear mother. But you know something? She had
sinned. She had sinned and come short
of God's glory. This was this man's experience
as he looked upon other people. All have sinned. But you know,
it wasn't just his own personal testimony. We go back here in
verse 9. He says, this is the sad conclusion
I've reached from the Word of God. He says here in verse 9,
What then? Are we better than they? No,
for we have before proved. How did he prove? From Scripture.
that the Jews and the Gentiles are both in the same boat. They
are all under sin. And here in verse 10, he begins,
and this is what he says, As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. So it wasn't just his estimation
that all men have sinned. He said that's what the Word
of God teaches us. We don't have to go out into
foreign countries to try to find somebody that's innocent, do
we? There is nobody. Everybody is guilty. He is guilty. As it is written, there is none
righteous. And He goes here to the very
heart of our problem, doesn't He? He doesn't begin by telling
us what man has done wrong or what he has omitted to do right.
But He goes right here to the heart of a man. He says there
is none righteous. Down in the utter recesses of
a man's heart, his soul, here is his problem. That he doesn't
have that purity of heart. He doesn't have that holiness
of mind and spirit that God requires. That's his problem, isn't it?
It's what he is. There is none righteous in his
heart. And that's our problem. We've
often been told we don't sin. We're not sinners by what we
do. Sinning doesn't make us a sinner, does it? We sin because of what
we are. You get down to the root of the
matter. There is none righteous, no,
not one. What's sin? It's called darkness. It's called darkness. And it
has filled our hearts. That's our problem. That's why
the apostle goes on here in verse 11 to say, there is none that
understands. There is none that seeketh after
God. Confusion, isn't there? There's
none that understands. You and I talk a lot today about
how we see around us now in our country, about how people's understanding
is getting so darkened. Have you ever seen a time in
your life when people's understanding has got so blurred even in moral
issues? I stand utterly amazed. I'd have never dreamed I would
have seen a day in my life where some in society would say that
it's okay. That it's even the law for a
man to go use the same restroom with our wives and our daughters. What's the matter with people
like that? The understanding is warped, isn't it? The understanding
is darkened. Society cannot discern even between
good and evil in the moral realm. And the old prophets said they
called good evil. And they call evil good. But in the spiritual realm, it's
worse than ever, isn't it? We've got people today saying,
what is truth? Is there even any truth? And
who can know the truth? And what's the problem? The understanding
is darkened. There is none that understands
it. A woman told me a few days ago,
and I'm amazed, she's the most honest lost woman I think that
I've ever met, and here's what she told me. She said, Bruce,
I don't know anything about God. I thought, boy, how unique you
are. Most people think they know a
lot about God, don't they? Until the Lord saves you, and
then you realize how ignorant you were. Everything you thought
about Him and the way He saves and who He saves, you had erred
in all of that. Why? Because there is none that
understands and therefore there is none that seeketh after God. And you know this is what creates
so much sometimes confusion and controversy among saved people.
We get to thinking we know something, don't we? And we disagree on
these Scriptures. We find some text of scriptures
and because we can't see them clearly, we just argue and fuss
with each other about it. And what's our problem even in
the church? A lack of understanding, isn't
it? We see it in us even today. And here in verse 12 he says,
They are all gone out of the way. They are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. We have turned everyone to His
own way. Notice how He keeps using these
words, all. All have gone out of the way.
There is none righteous. No, not one. He makes it clear
that there is no exception to this rule. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned everyone to His
own way. And what does that mean, we've
turned from God's way? And what is God's way? It's a
way of holiness, isn't it? It's a way of peace with God.
It's a way of salvation. But boy, we've turned from it,
haven't we? And turned to our own ways. And what ways is that? Death. Death. There's a way that seems right
unto men, but the end thereof are the ways of death. That's
our ways, isn't it? That's our way. And when God
saves a man, He has to beat him out of his old way and bring
him into His way. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. I bet you if we were righteous,
we could do good. But until we're righteous, we
can't do any good. Everything we do is sin. It's sin. There is none that
doeth good, no, not one. Here in verse 13, look at this.
Their throat is an open sepulcher. He mentions three things here
about the mouth. He begins with the throat. Their
throat, he said, is like an open, stinking grave. When I was a child, I was telling
somebody the other day, when I was a child, growing up in
my teenage years and even in my mid-twenties, if somebody
used some of these four-letter words, Somebody would stop you. Or if you used one of those words
around somebody else, it would embarrass you if it slipped out.
But now people can use those words as easily as they can breathe. All kinds of vulgar words. It's
almost like down inside the heart there's a stinking grave. And
when a man opens his mouth, the stink comes out. And the mouth
is like Mary's brother's grave. Lord, don't take that lid off.
He stinketh. He stinketh. And that's what
we see in here in Ben's mouth, isn't it? It's like an open sepulcher. And notice this about their mouth.
With their tongues, they have used deceit. They use their tongues
to deceive people. I'm just applying this to our
day. And have you gotten the phone calls lately saying, this
is the IRS and you owe us some money and you've got to send
it to us now? Have you got a phone call lately
said that your computer is tore up and we need to get on to it
to straighten it out? How many older people have been
deceived in giving their life savings to someone who has called
them on the telephone and said, have I got a deal for you? Deceit
is everywhere. And it's reached the point where
a contract signed and sealed and delivered is not enough to
keep you out of trouble. And what's the problem with that?
Man's heart. Man's lips. He's deceived. And boy, you apply this to a
spiritual realm, it's nothing in the natural realm. What's
going on in the spiritual realm? Men are being deceived on every
hand. Christ said there would be men coming in His name that
they would deceive the very elect, if possible. One of the characteristics
of fallen humanity is his ability to deceive other people. And verse 13, the last portion
of it, the poison of asp, that hurtful and deadly poison, is
under their lips. I was watching the documentary
the other day and they've got these groups now that's going
into the records of these men that's been sentenced to death
and many of them in prison for years and they're finding that
many of them aren't guilty. I thought what a sad thing. I
wish these people with Black Lives Matter would concentrate
on that and stay off some of the foolish stuff they're on.
There's men been put in prison. There's men been put to death
who have been falsely accused. People have brought charges against
them. And just like he said here, it's
the poison. Tongues can ruin people, can't
they? Spreading evil things about your reputation. And boy, they've
killed a lot of people. Tongues have killed a lot of
people, haven't they? The Lord Jesus, when He was on
trial before Pilate, remember what happened to Him? They got
false witnesses that come up and bore false witness against
Him. So men would say, He ain't fit to live. Crucified. Crucified. The poison of ass is under their
lips. And here in verse 16 He said,
Destruction and misery are in their way. It's in their way. In the way of fallen man. And
he says here in verse 17, look at this, "...and the way of peace
have they not known?" Well, we've had so many poems written about
peace, haven't we? Songs sung about peace. People
want to sing them all the time. And yet there's no peace, is
there? It seems like every time a war quits, they say, never
again. We've got it solved this time.
And then another war. War is everywhere, isn't it?
War among the nations. War in our nation. War in our
community. War in our family. Do you have
problems in your family? Is there something of a war going
on in your own family and in our souls? There's war, isn't
there? And here's the problem. The way
of peace they have not known. We don't even know how to make
peace with one another, let alone with God. The way of peace have
they not known. You say, Bruce, I don't see much
of this. Well, you're not looking, dear soul. You're not looking
if you don't see what I've been talking about. But the reason
we don't see it more is for this reason. God restrains it. This world wouldn't be fit to
live in if God didn't restrain the wickedness of men. Do you
know that? Here's what the Bible says. Surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath
thou shalt restrain. It wouldn't do any good to lock
our doors and sleep in the basement. If God didn't restrain the evil
of man, it wouldn't be a safe society to live in. He said,
He stilleth the noise of the sea, and the noise of their waves,
and the turmoil of the people. He stilled it. And He says here
in verse 18, He tells us why men don't even care. You get
up and preach these things and people go off and say, what is
he ratting the raven about? I don't care anyway. And this
word right here tells us why. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. I don't care what God says. Who
is the Lord that I should obey Him? I just don't care. There's
no reverence for God. That's man's problem, isn't it?
So he goes off and goes his way and he'll perish if God doesn't
intervene. This apostle bore witness to
the truth. He saw it himself. He saw it
in the Word of God. And thirdly, there's another
one that bears witness to all have sinned, and it's our own
conscience. Paul's seen it. It's in the Word
of God that all have sinned. And when I examine my conscience,
I really don't have to examine it. Just listen to it. And there
it is. I cannot escape the reality.
I have sinned. Are you with me this morning?
You are with me, aren't you? What have we done? I mean, if
the question comes, have you sinned? And you say, yes, then
we should know something about what we have done. What have
I done that I have sinned? What have I omitted? You know
we can sin by omission as well as we can by committing things,
can't we? Committing sin is doing what
God tells us not to do. Doing what the law forbids. But
I tell you it's a sin to know to do good and doeth it not to.
I was in prison and you didn't visit me. I was hungry and you
didn't feed me and you sinned because of what you omitted.
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's the
first thing. The second thing is this, and
this must be confronted. Is there a consequence to sin?
Is there a consequence to sin? And look in verse 19. Look in
verse 19. Now we know that whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth might be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. What's the consequences of my
sin? I am guilty before the judge
of all the earth. And this word guilt means under
sentence, condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already. In chapter 1 in verse 18, look
at this. Here's another awful consequence
to our sin. Look in verse 18 of chapter 1.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The wrath of God is revealed
against what? All unrighteousness. Oh, somebody
said, that was just a little dye I told. Just a little candy
bar I stole. All unrighteousness. There's
no little white sins in God's eyes, isn't there? He's the judge
of the earth that knows all and sees all, and when He sees a
sin, His wrath is revealed against Him. I don't know how this works,
I'll be honest with you. I don't know how that creation,
beholding creation, reveals the wrath of God upon sin. I don't
know how it works. I just know it does. I've experienced
it myself. I have a dear friend of mine.
He's an artist. I have some of his paintings
in my house. And I've seen enough of that
man's paintings that when I go up to somebody's house that I've
never been in and I see a painting hanging on the wall, I say, that's
Marvin Stoniker's painting. Without seeing his name on it,
I recognize it. And when you look at this vast
universe, What do you say? That's the power of God. That's
the wisdom of God. He's did that. And He fills it. And somehow or another, when
we come to that realization, boy, there's this realization
also. I've sinned against God. And
His wrath is upon my sins. I was reading a little book.
A little girl, one of my grandsons, friends had the other night and
I was reading it. And it talked about just cultivate
a relationship with God. Just cultivate a relationship
with God. And as I read and looked at that
little book, I found no place, no place that talked about our
essential need, our problem that we're facing with God. How can
I have a relationship with God if His wrath is upon me? How
can I have a relationship with Him if I'm guilty before Him? I can't love Him. I can't serve
Him. I can't know Him. And this is where the Bible says
that we're at. And then you're looking at the
third thing. Look here in this, in verse 20. Look in verse 20
of Romans 1. For the invisible things of Him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that we are without excuse." We're without excuse. No man
will stand before God and be found guilty and say, yes, but
I didn't know. I didn't know. He is without excuse. Every individual
is without excuse. Let him be born and live in the
jungle someplace. But he has sinned. And God's
wrath is upon that man's sin. And he is inexcusable. Chapter
2. Look at this in chapter 2. He
said, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that
judgest. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doeth the
same thing. But we are sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth against them which commit such
things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which
do such things, and doeth the same, that thou shalt escape
the judgment of God? And look what he says over in
verse 16. In that day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. There's
going to be a judgment, isn't there? What's the consequences
of sin? Guilt. Wrath. Inexcusable. And we've got to face the day
of judgment. There's consequences to sin.
I know this generation don't like to hear this, brothers and
sisters, and you know they don't either. They want to live and
die without facing any responsibility for what they are or what they've
done. But God has appointed a day in which He's going to judge
the world in righteousness. Let that come home to my heart
and to your heart. A day. When Nebuchadnezzar set up that
big image out in the valley and told everybody to bow, you know
there was only three guys that didn't bow to that image? There'd
have been a bunch of them that would have not have bowed. There'd
have been a bunch of them saying, I'm going to the house. But there
were some consequences. They looked and there was a furnace
setting up on the stage. You bow or we burn you. There's judgment. for those who
sin and die in their sin. Third thing, chapter 3 and verse
20, I just read it to you. And boy, this is the awful dilemma
that we find ourselves in. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. Here is the dilemma that we find
ourselves in, having sinned against God. in and of ourselves, we
cannot deliver ourselves from our condemnation. The best thoughts,
the best deeds, the best words that we can speak cannot remove
the guilt and the wrath and the condemnation that is upon us
because of our sins. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know?
These for sin cannot atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. I've got eight grandbabies. If I gave every one of those
grandbabies up for dead, that won't atone for one of my sins.
If I gave myself, that won't atone for one of my sins. Here's
the dilemma that I find myself in, and you too. We're in trouble. We've got ourselves in trouble
by sinning against God, and we can't deliver ourselves from
that awful situation that we've gotten ourselves into. When you
and I realize what we've done in the past, when we consider
our present helpless situation, and when we look ahead to death
and the judgment and eternity, our case is absolutely hopeless. Ain't this a good place to introduce
the Gospel? And here's the problem, brothers and sisters, and you
know it. You know this is the problem. Men, preachers in the
pulpit, will not take time to lay a foundation for why the
gospel is good news. People don't want to hear that.
It bothers them. It upsets them. Just get to the good news. There's
no good news until we've heard the bad news. And here's where
we introduce the gospel. What is the gospel? What is it? Look in verse 24. Boy, here it
is. Here it is. In verse 24. These first two
words. Look at this. Being justified. Isn't that wonderful? Being justified. Do you know what that word means?
It means to render just. Innocent. Righteous. To accept
as just and treat with favor. to pardon and clear from guilt,
to absolve or acquit from guilt and merited punishment, and to
accept as righteous." Isn't that wonderful? If you had a dear
friend that you had treated illy, I mean, you had really abused
your friend, and he'd come to your knowledge of what you'd
done, and you went to your dear friend, and you said, oh, my
friend, I'm an awful person. Look what I've done to you. Look
what I've done to your reputation." And that dear friend says, I
forgive all. Fellowship is restored. I'll
never bring this up to you again. Wouldn't that be wonderful? If
you valued a friendship, it would. How much more when we think of
God that we've sinned against. How we've assaulted Him. How
we've grieved Him. How we've threatened Him with
our sins. How we've tempted Him to damn
us. And now we humbly go to Him and we say, Oh Lord, I'm a miserable
sinner. I've sinned against You. And
what does He say? I justify you. I clear you of all charges that
was against you. I forgive all your sins and all
your iniquities. Isn't that wonderful? Look what
He says in chapter 4. of Romans and verse 1. Look at
this. Chapter 4 and verse 1. This is
amazing here. What shall we say then that Abraham
our father, as pertaining to the flesh, is found? For if Abraham
were justified by works, he hath world to glory, but not before
God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness. God gave him righteousness. Now
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
death. But to him that worketh not, what could he do? But he
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted
for righteousness, even as David describes the blessedness of
the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without work, saying,
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven. and whose sins
are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin." Isn't that wonderful? He justifies
the ungodly, the unrighteous sinners. In chapter 8 and verse 33 of
this book, he says this, Who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is it that accuses us? The devil? The world? Our own
conscience sometimes? But who can justly lay anything
to the charge of the person that God has justified? And in Romans
chapter 5, verse 9, he says, being justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath. Now isn't that wonderful? The
wrath of God was revealed against our sins, and now we're saved
from wrath. We're justified. And chapter 8 and verse 30 says,
those whom He justified, them He also glorified. What a good
hope. And chapter 5 and verse 1, He
says, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. What a wonderful word. What would
it mean to you to leave here this morning and God had given
you the assurance that I have justified you? I have forgiven
all your sins. All your insults have been covered. I'll never hold it against you
again. You're not condemned. You're not guilty before me anymore.
I'm even a father to you. And I'll be merciful to you.
Wouldn't that be wonderful news? Only if you've been guilty. Only
if you've sinned and come short of His glory. Only if you've
had some apprehensions of His wrath been upon your sins is
this good news. Notice this word again. This
is a wonderful little verse. Being justified. Look at this.
Freely. Freely. This word freely here
in chapter 3 and verse 24. Being justified freely. This word means voluntarily.
God justifies you voluntarily. Not required by justice. It's
not anything God owes you. It's not anything that you merited.
You cannot justify yourself. It's freely granted without claim
or merit. Another definition said a free
gift, a present, that which is given without compensation and
equivalence. That's the only terms by which
God justifies a man, freely. Isn't that good news, brothers
and sisters? That's good news, isn't it? Look at the next word,
being justified freely by His grace. Freely by His grace. What is grace? Well, grace is
free, isn't it? It's free in the heart of God.
And this simply means that He justifies those whom He justifies
freely Without even considering them, He just does it freely.
But grace says this. He's not obligated to justify
anybody. Grace can come by us and see
us in our misery and pass right on by. Can it not? Brothers and sisters, let's be
honest with this. Let's look at this. How many
men, how many people in our own neighborhood, Do you believe
knows the Lord? And every one of them is in the
same boat you're in. But what has He done? He's passed
them by. Whatever degree that He's dealt
with them and showed them the truth about their self and sin,
He's not justified them as it. Most people that I know, and
I see them in the obituary, they're dying. I say, if the Lord didn't
save that man in his dying hours, He died unjustified. He died
guilty. What was it then that compelled
God to justify you freely? What's the difference between
you and somebody else? Is it not His grace? He's passed
by you and He stopped and He's looked upon your misery and He
says, I'm going to justify you. I'm going to forgive all your
sins. I'm going to cleanse you from all your iniquities. Grace
is uncaused in the creature. The cause of grace lies wholly
in the giver. Grace can never be obligated.
It has no debts to pay. It owes no man anything. Grace
is free to pass us by and leave us or stop and save us. Being justified freely by His
grace. You say, Bruce, that's a humbling
thing. That's a sobering thing. Boy,
it is, isn't it? It is a sobering thing. But I tell you, it's good
news if you're here this morning and you find yourself justified.
That's good news, isn't it? He's given you something you
could never earn, you could never merit. You do not deserve it. He's freely done it and He's
done it because He's a God of grace. That's it. The discovery by the creature
that He is an object of divine grace. works in him the utmost
humility. For the receiver of grace is
brought to know his own absolute unworthiness and his complete
inability to attain worthiness. Yet he finds himself blessed
by another principle outside of himself, the grace of God,
the grace of God. And look at this, right quickly,
and I'll hurry right quickly. Being justified freely by His
grace, look at this, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. The Lord redeemed us, didn't
He? He redeemed His people. He redeemed them by merit, by
price. He redeemed them by power. John
Gill had a wonderful statement, and I don't think I could have
said it any better. I hate to read this paragraph, but here's
what John Gill said. You won't get as much out of
this as I did because I had to just sit and look at it and look
at it and look at it. I'll read it slowly. Maybe it'll sink into
your heart. He said, and I quote, Redemption
supposes a former state of captivity to sin and Satan and the law
of God. in which God's elect were by
nature, and is a deliverance from it. It is of a spiritual
nature, cheaply respecting the soul. Now it's respecting the
soul. And it's plenteous. This redemption
is plenteous. It is complete, and it is eternal. This is in and by Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. He was called to it by God His
Father, and was sent to effect it. He had a right unto it, and
being the near kinsman, no one but Him could do it. He was every
way fit for it, being both God and man, and has by His sufferings
and death obtained it. Now as all the blessings of grace
come through redemption by Christ, so doeth this wonderful blessing
of justification. And it comes after this manner.
Christ, as a Redeemer, had the sins of all His people laid upon
Him, and they were born by Him and taken away by Him. The sentence
of the law's condemnation was executed on Him as standing in
their legal place instead. And satisfaction was made by
Him of all offenses which they had committed. Isn't that wonderful? We committed it. He suffered
for it. And he made satisfaction. Which was necessary that God
might appear to be just in justifying all of them that believe. Nor
is this any objection or contradiction to the free grace of God and
a sinner's justification, since it was by grace that Christ was
provided of the Father. It was by grace that he was sent
and parted with heaven and to work out righteousness. It was
grace in Christ that compelled him to come and give himself
a sacrifice and to obtain salvation and righteousness. Not for angels,
but for men. Not just for men, but for sinful
men. And not for all men, but for
the elect of God. Whatever this righteousness,
salvation, and redemption caused, it was all free to us. Ain't that wonderful? Through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And I'll close with this.
This is the last portion of good news. The last portion. If I told you this morning that
such a salvation could be had, That such a justification was
available. God justified the sinner. And
then I told you something that you might be able to do to obtain
it. You'd probably say, man, that's
good. I'm going to start doing it. If you told some man, God
will justify you if you'll walk from here to California. You
know there'd be people doing that. They'd put the sack on
their back and take a couple of parachutes and they'd head
off to California. If you told a man you could start crawling
from here to Madison, Indiana, and then you would be justified.
There'd be people doing that. And when they got there, they'd
say, man, what good news, I'm justified. If you could tell
somebody, give your body to be burned, and when you do, you'll
be justified. You'll be dead, but you'll be
justified for all eternity. You'll be in heaven with God.
And you know what? Some people douse themselves
with gas and set themselves on fire. And they'd say, man, that's
good news for me. I ain't going to perish forever. I'm going to be justified. But
I'm not coming here this morning to tell you that. And here's
the good news. This justification, this salvation,
doesn't come by you doing any works. It doesn't come and say, I'm
obligating you to do this or do that. Here's the way this
comes to us. Here's the way we're justified
through the redemption that's in Jesus Christ. By simply, with
all our hearts, believing on the Son of God. You say, Bruce,
that's just too easy. That's just too easy. It's impossible. Do y'all know how easy it is?
It's impossible, apart from grace. And you won't do it, except you
shut up and can't do anything else. And then you look outside
yourself to the Son of God who redeemed you by His death upon
the cross. That's what He tells us here.
I read it to you there in verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight. But now the righteousness
of God is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all, and upon all them that believe." When a man believes
on Jesus Christ, the very instant he believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ, this justification comes all the way from heaven. from
the Father Himself, and it comes to you. And this righteousness
comes out of heaven, the righteousness of Christ Himself, and it covers
you. It's upon you. And you ain't
lifted a finger to do anything but look out of yourself to Him.
Isn't that good news? That's wonderful news. When you find yourself justified,
when you find that all charges have been dismissed, all guilt
is gone, all sin has been forgiven, and iniquities have been covered,
and the wrath of God is removed, and now the Judge is your Heavenly
Father, then, then you can love Him. Then you can worship Him. Then you can serve Him, and live
every day with the good hope that when your life is over,
He's got a place in heaven in the Father's house for you. Have you ever heard such good
news in all your life? I haven't. I've been studying
this now for over 40 years. I've never found any news like
this. The old Scott Richardson said, when I heard the good news,
and since I've heard the good news, I haven't heard any bad
news. There's no bad news, is there? If we're justified. God bless His Word. Let us pray.