Well, it's good to be back with
you again. And so thankful Brother David
asked me to come. And it's good to be with you. My daughter, Emma, was going
to come with me. And I was looking forward to
having her for a traveling partner. But she ended up having a job
interview today. And so she stayed for that. But I'm looking forward to being
with you this weekend. So let's turn to Romans chapter
three. We read here in verse 31, Romans
3 31. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. Now one of the subtleties of
Satan, and I believe this is even more subtle, far more subtle
than just flat out Armenian free will works religion. is to send
someone who preaches total depravity, unconditional election, limited
atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, but
then to bring the believer back under the law to trust his works
for sanctification. Recently I had somebody use this
verse to try to prove to me that the believer is still under the
law and must establish the law in order to be holy. Now, you
have to teach the opposite of what this verse teaches to make
it say that. The whole context of this passage
does not say that. Now let me say this from the
beginning, no believer has any desire to break the law. None
whatsoever. We delight in the law of God
after the inward man. And the believer is the only
one truly who does delight in the law. We see what it took
to establish the law. But we know by the Holy Spirit
and by the word of God that no sinner has ever established the
law. Not before conversion, not after
conversion. That's an impossibility for you
and me. And that's not the context of
this passage. Back up in verse 19, Paul in
verses 19 and 20 declared to us that the law was given to
give us a knowledge of sin and shut our mouths in guilt. Now
we know that what things soever 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. And then in verses 21 through
26, Paul tells us that the righteousness of God, the righteousness of
God is not manifest by our works under the law. It's not manifest
by our works, period. But it's manifest, the righteousness
of God's manifest by the faith and fidelity of our Lord Jesus
Christ himself. And his righteousness is unto
and upon all them that believe on him. Let's read this, verse
21. Now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested. Without our keeping of the law. It says, being witnessed by the
law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is
by faith of Jesus Christ, by his faithfulness. And we see
this clearly if we just read on. It says, Christ's righteousness
is unto all and upon 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. He set forth Christ. to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood. Now, he just said the righteousness
of God's manifest by the faithfulness of Christ. And he said here now,
he set him forth to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness. And here's what it means. Here's
how the righteousness of God is manifest in Christ's faithfulness. He showed us how God might be
just and how God might be the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. It's in Christ that this righteousness
is set forth, in Christ and him crucified. God's just. He's upheld the law. He's honored
the law by pouring out the wrath of the law upon his son in the
room instead of his people. And doing so, he justified his
people. Now, having stated these truths,
Paul shows us here three reasons that God saves through faith. Three reasons God saves through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I've titled this, Why Through
Faith? And I'm wanting to show you why
God saves through faith. There's three reasons given here.
Number one is to exclude our boasting. He says, verse 27,
where is boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? By what principle? Of works? No. but by the law of faith. Therefore we can conclude that
a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Now that's
the first reason to exclude our boasting. Why does God save through
faith? The second reason is that God
might justify both Jew and Gentile by faith. He says there, you
see the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing it's one God which shall justify
the circumcision, the Jew, by faith, and uncircumcision, the
Gentile, by faith. Now that's the second reason.
He did it that he might justify both his elect Jew and Gentile
through faith. And then the third reason God
saves through faith is that we might establish the law through
faith in Christ. Look here, verse 31. Do we then
make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. And if you want to make that
read a little more clearly, just put through faith at the end.
We establish the law through faith in Christ. Now, first of
all, God saves through faith to exclude our boasting. He said there, boasting is excluded
not by works, but by the law of faith. God will not share
his glory with anybody. The whole reason that God saves
sinners is that he might be given all the glory and all the praise.
He said through Isaiah, I'm the Lord, that is my name, and my
glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. God does all the saving in Christ
his Son, and he saves us through faith in his Son, so that he
that glories, let him glory in the Lord. Now, because this is
so, God will not allow his people that he saves to glory in ourselves. He's just not going to allow
one he saves to have any reason to boast in ourselves. He won't
allow us to boast that there was something in us for which
God chose us. You know, when Moses asked to
see God's glory, God told him that his glory is, he said, I'll
be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I'll show mercy
to whom I will show mercy. That's part of God's glory, to
save whom he will. So he won't let us boast in him
choosing us. He chooses whom he will by grace. He won't allow us to boast in
ourselves for being born again, for being created anew in the
righteousness and holiness of Christ. We can't boast in that.
Back up at Romans 2 in verse 29, he said he's a Jew, he's
a true Israelite, a true chosen of God, which is one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart
in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God. We have to give God the glory
for being born again. And we can be sure of this, God
certainly won't allow us to glory in making ourselves righteous.
He's not going to allow us to glory in justifying ourselves.
Isaiah 45, 25 says, in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel
be justified and shall glory. All his people, this is how you
know who God's people are, they're justified in the Lord and so
we glory only in the Lord for our justification. And God won't
even allow us to boast in our faith. By grace are you saved
through faith, and that's not of yourself. It's the gift of
God. Why? Lest any man should boast. God won't allow us to even boast
in our faith. But if we were justified by our
works, we'd have reason to boast, wouldn't we? He said there in
Romans 4 verse 2, if Abraham were justified by works, he hath
whereof the glory. But not before God. God's not
gonna He's not going to have his child bragging on ourselves. There's only one way man's boasting
is excluded. That's if God does the justifying
and he does all the saving. A to Z, he does all the saving.
And so he tells us here boasting is excluded through faith. And so that's why God saves through
faith. We conclude then a man's justified
by faith without our deeds to the law. Now secondly, God saves
his people through faith so that he might justify his elect Gentile
as well as his elect Jew. He says there in verse 29, 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, you see
there who does the justifying? It's God. It's one God who which
shall justify the Jew, that's the circumcision, and he does
it by faith, and the uncircumcision, the Gentile through faith. When
you see by faith and through faith, it both means the same
thing. He saves his elect Jew by faith, he saves his elect
Gentile by faith. Same way, through faith in Christ. But he does the justifying. Now,
God's elect, he has some people among the Gentiles. And he has
some people among the Jews. But if God justified us through
the works of the law, then you and me who are Gentiles couldn't
be justified because we never had the law. He never gave us
the law. So we couldn't be justified if
it was by the works of the law. How then are God's elect Gentiles
justified? Same way His elect Jews are justified. One God justifies His elect Jews
through faith and He justifies His elect Gentiles through faith.
Same way. Go with me to Acts 15. Peter
said this just so dogmatically and just so clearly here. I love how the Spirit of God
moved him to say this. You know, the Jews had, some
of them had come down and they were trying to bring these Gentile
believers back under the law. And listen to what they said
here, verse 5. It says, there rose up certain
of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it
was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the
law of Moses. Now, isn't that what folks Say,
that's what you hear folks say in our day. It's all right to
believe on Christ now, but you got to keep the law of Moses.
And they make it a requirement. They make it a requirement either
for righteousness. You don't really hear many say
that, but they make it a requirement in order for you to sanctify
or be in a co-effort to sanctify yourself, co-effort with Christ. But now listen to what he said
here. And the apostles and the elders came together for to consider
of this matter. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and he said unto them, Men and brethren,
you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts.
There's where this thing's important, in the heart. God that knows
the heart, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even
as he did unto us Jews. And he put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. By faith, that's
what holiness is, to have a heart purified. And God purifies the
hearts of his people when he makes Christ unto us sanctification. When Christ is formed in you,
and you're given a new heart, a clean heart, in the holiness
of Christ, brought to believe on Christ for your righteousness,
that's when you've been sanctified. Now watch what he says here.
Now, therefore, Seeing that God did this, he says, why tempt
ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which
neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Peter said, none
of us Jews ever kept this law. But, now watch this, here's exactly
what the Spirit's moving Paul to say in our text. But we believe
that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we Jews, shall
be saved even as those Gentiles. How's that? Through faith in
Christ. That's it, through faith in Christ.
It's by God's grace through faith. It's one God which shall justify
his elect among the Jews and his elect among the Gentiles
and he saves us both through faith in Christ. Not by our works,
through faith in Christ. The context does not change.
He hadn't changed the context at all when he gets to verse
31. And here's the last reason he
gives here. God saves through faith in Christ
so that in and by Christ, you and I who believe, establish
the law in perfection. When God imputes righteousness
to you, you know what that is? That's God saying you have established
the law perfectly. You're completely just before
the law. You've established it perfectly.
Look what he said. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law through faith. Now Paul faced the same charge
that every gospel preacher faces. They called him an antinomian.
They called him a man who's against the law, he's anti-law. They
came and they got him that time when he went up to Jerusalem,
you remember, and they grabbed him and they arrested him, and
in Acts 21, verse 28, they cried out, and here's what they cried
out. Men of Israel, help! This is the man that teacheth
all men everywhere against the people and against the law and
against this place. They were saying he was against
the law. He was an antinomian. He hated
the law. And so Paul, knowing that's the
charge, he says here then, concludes, do we then make void the law
through faith? Are we antinomians because we
say that were justified through faith. God forbid. God forbid. And he uses that
strong language because no believer is against the law. We see it
took God sending his own son to establish the law. That's
how important the law is. above everything else, the reason
Christ came, even above your salvation and mine, the reason
Christ came is to declare the righteousness of God. He came
to manifest how God saves in a manner consistent with His
holiness. He saves in a way that's right. That's how God saves. That's
what He came to manifest. Our Lord Jesus declared the same
thing. Turn to Matthew 5 with me just
a moment. This is another one of those
passages that I've heard men use to say, see there, we're
still under the law. Look here, what Christ said in
Matthew 5 verse 17. Think not that I am come to destroy
the law or the prophets. Why did he say that? Because
they were calling our Redeemer an antinomian. That's what they
were calling him. And he said, don't think I came
to destroy the law or the prophets. He said, I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, and
you know when our Lord says verily, that means this is of utmost
importance. Verily, till heaven and earth
pass, one jot Our one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law till all be fulfilled. We all sin, all of us sin, and
every single sinner without exception is gonna die under the law. We're gonna have the wrath of
God poured out on us, every single one of us, either in Christ or
in ourselves. But God's law is going to be
fulfilled. It's going to be fulfilled. Now
Christ said he came to fulfill it. Now some men say, see there,
he didn't come to destroy the law, we're still under it. What
does fulfill mean? Now first off, He said he came
to fulfill the prophets too, and he didn't come to destroy
the prophets. If he means that we're obligated to fulfill the
law, then you and me are obligated to fulfill the prophets. No,
that's not what he meant. He came to fulfill the law and
the prophets. Now what does fulfill mean? This bottle right here is not
filled full. It'll be filled full if you put
so much water in it that you couldn't add one more drop to
it. That is fulfilled. Filled full. So you can't put
another drop in it. Christ Jesus the Lord. gave the
law perfect obedience. He filled it full so that you
can't put another drop in it. And he justified his people from
the law so fully. The law says there's nothing
else that can be added. Nothing else that can be added.
And he did the same thing with the prophets. Same thing with
the prophets. So Christ here is not saying
that we're under obligation to fulfill the law. Go to Romans
5. Here's what he's saying right here. Romans 5 verse 19. The same as it was by one man's
disobedience that many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. The law entered, why? Just the
same reason Paul said before, that the offense might abound,
that we might see we're sinners and guilty. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life. How? By Jesus Christ our Lord. By Him alone. Now, there's one
last thing. The Spirit of God moved Paul
here to use Abraham to illustrate this. So that we're certain,
without a doubt, what he means here is that we establish the
law fully through faith in Christ alone. That's how we establish
it. He used Abraham to declare it. Go back to Romans and go
to chapter four, and here's, we mess up if we stop at verse
31. We should just keep reading this,
because look at Romans four. Now he's gonna illustrate this
for us. He says here, what shall we say then that Abraham, our
father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham
were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before
God. For what says the scripture?
Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. He believed God. When it says
it was imputed to him for righteousness, it means he believed God and
God imputed to him that he had established the law perfectly. He had established the law perfectly. How in the world did Abraham
establish a law that was not given for 430 years. Couldn't have been by his works,
could it? How did Noah establish it? How did Enoch establish it? How did all those saints prior
to Mount Sinai, how did they establish the law? Because from
Adam to Moses, he hadn't given a law. How did they establish
it? Same way you and me sitting here
right now in the year 2019 established it, through faith in Christ. That's the only way. Now, sinner,
you sitting here, if you've never believed on Christ, listen. I
want you to hear this good news. Look at Romans 4, verse 23. It
was not written for Abraham's sake alone that it was imputed
to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." You believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust him. Turn from your works,
turn from your law obedience, and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And God will impute in the core
of your conscience and make you know You're totally, completely,
thoroughly righteous. You've established the law perfectly.
You know when a man will quit working? You know when he'll
quit trying to justify himself by his works? Hebrews 10 says
if any of those sacrifices would have justified them, they'd have
quit offering them. They'd have quit working. If
God justifies you, he's going to clear your conscience and
you'll quit working. You won't quit working because
you want to. You'll start working because
you want to work. You start working because you're grateful for what
he did to you and you just won't do anything the Lord will allow
you to do for him. But you'll stop working to try
to justify yourself before God and before man. You stop doing
that. Why? Your conscience will be
clean and you'll know, I'm righteous. I've kept the law. God tells
me I've kept The law. That means past, present, and
future. The law can never condemn me.
Never. And believer, that's why what
Brother David just read, by faith being justified, by faith we
have peace with God. Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
we have peace with God. By faith we have access into
this grace wherein we stand and we rejoice. We rejoice. Religion stopped being a burden
to you, didn't it? It started being something you
rejoiced in, because you got to hear about your Redeemer.
All right, brother. Thank you.