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to a message that I'd like to share with you. I'd like to just let you know that when
I was a little boy God saved me and I've been privileged to know him and to walk with him for the bulk of my life and so it is a great honor to be able to stand and communicate who he is, what he's done, the promises, the truth that he's given us in his word.
So I count it as a privilege. I'm glad that you're here. If you will open your
Bibles to Romans. We'll be preaching from the third chapter but I'd like to take us first to the first chapter then we'll eventually make it to chapter number three.
There are, I don't know what what your belief system is,
I don't know what your mindset is, but I'd like to impress this upon you. There are three presuppositions that I'm going to preach from and if you hold others please understand where I'm coming from.
Okay, the first we'll find it in verses 19 and 20 of Romans 1. It says for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so they are without excuse.
There are two presuppositions we find in those two verses. One, there is a God. I will preach to you tonight based upon that fact there is a
God. Second, this God has made himself knowable. Okay, so if that's not the mindset that you're operating under I ask that you would shift and think about it in these terms.
Now let's rewind just very briefly back to verse 16, 17, and 18 and we'll find our third presupposition.
One, there is a God. Two, he has made himself knowable to us. And the third, verse 16, 17, and 18, the
Apostle Paul says for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
To the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith.
And then we take a turn for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
The third presupposition is we can either be pleasing to God or displeasing to God.
One, there is a God. Two, he has made himself knowable. And three, we can either be pleasing to him or displeasing to him.
The answer to that third presupposition is also found in the verses that we just read. How can we be pleasing to him?
Verse 16 and 17 tell us we are given his righteousness by faith.
He gives us, he grants to us righteousness. We don't earn his righteousness.
We don't deserve his righteousness. It is a gift. But if we don't want righteousness we can instead get wrath.
How do we get that? Well we don't have to do anything. That's who we are. That's what we do.
And so we can either be pleasing to God or displeasing to him. These are the presuppositions that you must understand in order to understand this message.
What is righteousness? Well righteousness is usually a church word or a legal word.
To be righteous in the sight of God is to be deemed right or having right standing in his eyes.
If you do not have right standing in God's eyes then you are unrighteous and you are under his wrath.
Currently as we sit under his wrath if you are not righteous. So the question is how can we become righteous?
We're given all of the answers to that in the text that we find tonight.
What Paul has done in Romans chapter 1 is he has given an explanation of the condition of the pagan
Gentile. You understand these are people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
These people are contrasted to the Jew in chapter 2 who does not act maybe like the
Gentile acts but what does he do instead? Verse 1 of chapter 2 tells us if you're there in Romans shift your eyes to verse 1.
Paul says to them therefore you have no excuse old man. Every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself because you the judge practice the very same things.
You see the Jewish reader who would have picked up Paul's letter to the church at Rome and began to think okay since I'm not like those people listed in chapter 1 then
I must be fine right? Like I'm of Abraham. I have the genetics of Abraham.
He is my father and so I must be righteous in God's sight. What Paul says is if you have the inkling that you're not like the individual found in Romans 1, oh who are you to judge old man?
You have no excuse because you do the very same things.
Wow. That puts every single one of us into the same category folks. The religious individual who thinks he's above the practices of the evil culture is not above the practices of the evil culture.
He has this evil in his heart. He has no excuse. He has condemned himself because he practices the very same things.
Isn't that what Jesus tells us as well? If you look upon a woman with lust you have committed adultery in your hearts.
If you look upon a man with hatred you have committed murder in your hearts.
Now to our text Romans 3 verse 19 through 26
I'd like to talk to you about that righteousness that we just referred to.
Paul says now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom
God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Let's pray. Father in heaven we're grateful to you Lord for this opportunity for this beautiful weather that you've given us tonight most importantly for the word that we can have access to then by it we might believe in your son
Jesus who you sent to save. Save us Lord tonight we ask.
Sanctify us. Speak to us the truth. We are your servants and we are listening in the name of Jesus.
Amen. We find three things regarding righteousness in this passage that I'd like to point out to you.
We find righteousness that is not fulfilled by the law but is fulfilled at the cross.
We find righteousness that is not revealed by the law but is revealed at the cross.
And we find righteousness that is not made obtainable by the law but it is made obtainable at the cross.
So we understand that righteousness is crucial that's when God looks upon us with favor that we have right standing in his sight.
It's something that every man needs but no man possesses. So how are we supposed to understand this righteousness?
Well think about it from the Jews perspective. They had the Old Testament. They had the
Hebrew Scriptures but the Hebrew Scripture left something hanging.
They had yet to see the fullness of God's work come to pass and so there was a disconnect in their mind.
Now Pastor Randall preached to us the other night that Moses preached the gospel and he absolutely did.
But it was at the cross that this righteousness was finally entirely fulfilled, entirely revealed, and entirely made obtainable.
God's requirements for righteousness are not fulfilled in the law. See verses 19 and 20.
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped.
Every mouth being stopped. What is that in reference to? No one is able to argue with God in respect to his righteousness.
Every mouth is stopped. How do we know? The law has proven it to us. We've all fallen short of it.
No one has kept it and so no one is able to argue with God and base his righteousness on his ability to understand, to know, and to keep the law.
No one. What does the law do? What is the law sent for?
If it's not sent here to fulfill righteousness, what is it sent here to do? It is sent here to establish guilt.
Does the law not establish guilt? Have you come face to face with the perfect law that gives liberty?
Does it not tell you that you are a sinner? Is that not what it says? When you look into the law it reveals to you that you are short of keeping it.
That's exactly what the law was sent to do. It does not convey righteousness. I didn't earn righteousness because I read the law and I did my best to keep it.
That's not what it does. There in verse 20 it says, through the law comes knowledge of sin.
That's what the law does. The law exposes my sin to me.
The law exposes to me the fact that I am short of the standard, that I am not righteous.
That's exactly what God sent it to do. First John 3 .4 says sin is transgression of the law.
When I break the law, that is sin. When I've broken God's law, that is sin. But if righteousness is not fulfilled by the law, then how is it fulfilled?
It is fulfilled at the cross, Paul says. Verses 24 and the first part of 25.
Train your eyes there again. And are justified by his grace as a gift.
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
You see the reality is this. If I'm going to be righteous or if I'm going to be justified, it's because someone more powerful and better than me has granted me a gift.
He has given me something that I did not earn. He gave it to me.
He gave me righteousness. I didn't acquire it. I didn't dig for it and attain it. It was a gift given to me by God himself.
That word propitiation, we heard it spoken of a couple of nights ago. Propitiation is a word that we don't hear very often, but it means something very, very simple.
Propitiation is something that renders one favorable. Something that makes something else favorable.
Well, what is or better said, who is that propitiation? What does the scripture tell us there in verse 24 and 25?
It is Jesus Christ who is the propitiation. He is the one that renders me, if I'm to be rendered favorable in God's sight, it is he who does it.
How did he do it? By his blood. His blood was spilled.
It was shed. The righteous requirements, the demands that God made were fulfilled when
Jesus spilled his blood at the cross. For us to be rendered favorable, it requires an atoning and effective sacrifice in the sight of God.
And you nor I had the ability to pay that price. We were ill -equipped and incapable of doing such a thing.
How are we supposed to gain this righteousness? What does it say in verse 25? This righteousness is to be received.
When you're given a gift, what do you do with it? You receive it. How are we to receive it?
By faith. We receive this gift by faith. What is faith?
Faith, according to Hebrews 11 .1, is the substance of things that we hope for and the evidence of things that we don't see.
Faith is wholehearted conviction in something that we cannot necessarily lay our eyes upon.
Wholehearted conviction in God's promises to be true, his ability to fulfill those promises, his desire to do that very thing, that he is good enough, that he is wise enough, that he is powerful enough, that he is loving enough, that he is gracious enough, that he is patient enough to fulfill his promises to me.
That is faith. Righteousness by faith.
We also see that righteousness is not only fulfilled at the cross but it is revealed at the cross.
Now righteousness wasn't revealed entirely fully by the law. Isn't that what verse 21 says?
Take a look. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested or revealed, made knowable, but how?
Apart from the law. Righteousness, listen, has been made manifest, made knowable, apart from the law.
Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. In other words, this was the message the entire time.
The message never changed. From Genesis to Revelation, this is the message.
God's requirements had been made known but made known apart from the law.
Galatians 3 verses 23 and 24, just listen, says before faith came we were held captive under the law.
Think about it folks. Aren't you glad to live on this side of the cross? Because before faith came we were held captive under law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
When was that? At the cross. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
You see the law performed a very specific, a very particular, a necessary role.
It is our schoolmaster to bring us to Jesus, to teach us and to train us and to show us how incapable of achieving righteousness we are.
It was necessary and by God's infinite wisdom He sent it to us. However, we were imprisoned until faith came.
Praise God we live post the cross. We're able to see it in its fullness. Why? Because God has become flesh and made
His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory. We can look to the cross.
We can observe that Jesus is a historical figure who came and performed the necessary work, that He is fully
God and truly God and fully man and truly man. You and I can see it. They only saw it in the distance.
Abraham and Moses, they only saw it in the distance. They only saw it by faith.
You and I see it in the same manner. We have the Scripture. We have the Spirit. This is how we understand who
God is. God's righteousness has been made known, but it has been made known apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
Think about this for just a moment. If you can, in your mind recall the sacrificial system that we see in the
Old Testament. What was that sacrificial system testifying to? What was it teaching the
Jew who observed it, who had to undergo these rites and these rituals to understand and to observe the blood that is being spilled there at the altar?
Why? Why is this blood being spilled? What is this doing? What is this teaching us? What is this showing us?
You see, they grasped that the blood was spilled because of sin, but they didn't understand the gravity of their sin.
Do you understand? They didn't grasp it in its fullness. They just thought, okay, the blood of bulls and goats, it will cover our sin and we'll be able to go to God and speak to Him.
No! The blood of bulls and goats does not fulfill the requirements for righteousness.
That's why they were sacrificed over and over and over again. It was going to require a greater and better sacrifice in order to satisfy
God's wrath for sin. When was that revealed?
At the cross. Take a look at verses 25, the latter part.
Paul says, this was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance
He had passed over former sins. It was to show
His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just. What does this teach us?
God showed His righteousness at the cross. Prior to the cross, what does it say
God had been doing? Look in verse 25. What had He been doing?
In His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins.
Does this mean that God just ignored sin and forgot about sin? Does it mean that God put it on the back burner and didn't consider it?
That He didn't care if people sinned, if there was sin, if you had unrighteousness? No, that's not what it means.
What was God showing us by His willingness in those times to pass over former sins?
He was showing us His divine forbearance. Isn't that what Paul says? In His divine forbearance
He passed over former sins. If you will, turn to Leviticus chapter 16.
We're going to see this displayed very, very clearly. In Leviticus chapter 16 we're given a picture of an event called the
Day of Atonement. This was a marvelous event for the Jewish people and God did something glorious for them by showing them their necessity for righteousness by prefiguring the work of Jesus.
We'll take a look first at verses 20, 21, and 22 of Leviticus 16.
Now the high priest was given some very specific instructions and this man was to sacrifice a bull before he was able to approach
God. This bull was to cover his sin. Now it came time to deal with the sin of the people, the nation of Israel, God's chosen people.
And God did something very unique. He said bring two goats. Not one goat, two goats.
And lots were cast and then in verses 20 through 22, look here, it says, and when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place in the tent of meeting in the altar he shall present the live goat.
See one goat was destined for sacrifice and one was destined to live.
He shall present the live goat and Aaron the high priest shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all of the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions, all their sins.
And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.
The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area. He shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.
What do we understand from these three verses? What did God do with the goat?
He is a scapegoat. Aaron was to lay his hand upon the head of the goat confessing the sins of the people on the head of the goat.
And where did the goat go? Did he go to the altar to be sacrificed? He did not.
He was sent out into the wilderness, away from the camp and out into the wilderness.
This goat performed a very particular purpose. He was revealing that God passed over former sins.
But that wasn't the only thing that God was doing. There were two goats. Take a look at verse 15.
Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people. One goat lives, one goat dies.
What does he do with that goat? He brings its blood inside the veil and do with the blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.
Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins.
And so shall he do for the tent of meeting which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.
What was required of the second goat? Everything. His entire life.
His blood was to be shed. Why was his blood to be shed? For the sake of purification. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.
There is no potential for purification. There is no potential for righteousness.
Which takes us a beeline straight to the cross, does it not?
Think about it. These Israelites in times past were viewing these goats being sacrificed.
What they did not fully grasp was that there would be one who would come and perform the task of these sacrificial goats.
The purification that was needed would be dealt with and handled and performed by a man.
They were able to see it, but not fully. You and I are able to see it fully because we live on this side of the cross.
Think about it for a moment. These people had a false confidence in their own ability.
Think about these Jews who would have gathered around this tabernacle to watch this atoning sacrifice take place.
Well, I can sin and I can bring my sacrifice to the priest and he's going to perform the necessary duties and I can be absolved of my sin.
We could see that as something essentially insignificant, but the reality is what they didn't fully understand was sin required death, but not the death of a goat and not the death of a bull.
A death of the man who commits the sin. The Jew didn't grasp it, at least not fully.
At the cross, God revealed that his requirement for righteousness is nothing less than unblemished perfection in his sight, unattainable by man.
Nothing less. This is what righteousness looks like. Back to verse 26 of Romans 3.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time. God revealing his righteousness at the present time.
Why? So that he might be just. What does it mean that God is just?
It means that he has a standard and a law and when that law is broken, a penalty will be paid for the breaking of the law every single time.
There is always a penalty to pay and no one skates. We do not get off free.
No man gets off free at the cross.
When Jesus was punished for your sin, when Jesus was punished for my sin,
God was revealing his justice. Because if God would crush his own son, what would he do to you?
If God is willing to crush and mar his own son, what would he do to me, the sinner?
This revealed that God was letting no one off scot -free. That he is love, amen, yes, but also just and never without flaw in the sense of justice, but perfect justice.
That's who he is. He cannot deny himself. He cannot go back on himself.
He is 100 % just, 100 % love, simultaneously.
That's who he is. If he would crush Jesus, who would he not be willing to crush?
We see that righteousness is not fulfilled by the law, but it is fulfilled at the cross.
We see that righteousness is not fully revealed by the law, but it is fully revealed at the cross.
And thirdly, we see that righteousness and the requirements for it are not made obtainable by the law, but they are made obtainable by the cross.
You see, the reality is, verse 22 and 23 tell us, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
There is no distinction. You see, anyone who, in the first couple of chapters of Romans, who tried to put themselves into this category, create some type of an excuse for themselves,
Paul has eliminated every opportunity for excuse. He puts everyone in the same category, for all have sinned.
There is no self -distinction. The law exposes our sin.
We're all in the category of sinner, both Jew and Gentile. None have attained to God's righteousness, but the requirements for God's righteousness are made obtainable at the cross.
This is the best news we've ever heard. And since His justice was revealed at the cross, and since the requirements to fulfill
His righteousness were met by Jesus at the cross, God can give
His righteousness to whoever He chooses and be just in doing so. Why?
Because the price has been paid. He is still just when
He grants to me righteousness. How so? Turn to Isaiah.
I feel it important to read the entire passage, chapter 52 and 53.
We'll read verse 13 of 52 down through the end of chapter 53.
Isaiah 52 and verse 13, I ask you to behold the man upon the cross.
Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, in his form beyond that of the children of mankind.
So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall suck their mouths because of him.
For that which has not been told them, they see. And that which they have not heard, they understand.
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the
Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent.
So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence.
And there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the
Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring.
He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.
By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.
What do we see? We see the requirements for God's righteousness poured out upon the cross.
Let me ask you, could you have met the requirements to satisfy the righteousness of God?
Could you be deemed righteous in God's sight based upon your merits? Could you have undergone the punishment, the penalty, and come out on the other side considered to be righteous?
What happened? Do we understand the depth, the weight of the wrath of God?
Did you see the words that were used to describe what happened to his body on the cross?
He was marred. Who marred him? The Father. He was stricken, afflicted, pierced, crushed, wounded, oppressed, cut off, crushed, put to grief, poured out his soul, and bore the sin of many.
Could you do it? Could you have done it? It took somebody better than you.
It took somebody more able than you. It took somebody willing to do this for you.
Only Jesus could perform the necessary work. He did it at the cross.
It wasn't achieved by way of the law. It was fulfilled by Jesus. The entirety of the law was fulfilled.
Not abolished. Fulfilled. Completed. When Jesus said, it is finished, what do you think he meant?
I've done everything. I've completed every task that my father sent me to complete.
Here's the reality, and here we'll close. In God's infinite wisdom, he has chosen to grant righteousness to all who will believe.
Think about it now. It's a gift. An unearned gift.
He's chosen to grant righteousness to all who will believe. We see a good example of this when the
Philippian jailer approaches Paul and Silas. He sees something remarkable.
Something that draws his attention in a way like he'd never seen it prior. He recognizes that there's something unique about Paul and Silas, and Paul preaches the gospel to this man, and his response is this, sirs, what must
I do to be saved? What is Paul's response? Believe.
Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. You and your household.
And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who were in his house, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.
Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
Have you rejoiced that you have believed in God? Sir, madam, young man, young woman, do you believe in the work of Jesus on your behalf?
If so, God has promised to grant you righteousness. If you do not believe, then you are under his wrath, and the punishment that was upon Jesus upon the cross has not been applied to you.
You will undergo the punishment yourself and never be considered righteous in his sight.
Why? Because you don't possess what is needed. So don't.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Amen?