Why We Believe - Justification By Faith Alone

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If you would, open your Bibles to Galatians chapter 1,

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Galatians chapter 1. We are in our Why We Believe series, talking about some of the essentials of the faith and important aspects of true

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Christian faith. And so we're going to go to one of the earliest letters in the

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New Testament, because it was such an important issue. A very short letter of the Apostle Paul to the church in Galatia.

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And this is a moment where the Apostle Paul is defending the true biblical gospel against error.

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And so this is, in particular, a very important work in the New Testament. All of it's the

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Word of God, all of it is God -breathed, all of it is important, of course. But this one in particular for our study today is vital when we talk about justification through faith alone or by faith alone in Christ.

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Here is where the Apostle gives us a defense of the biblical gospel and the doctrine of justification and it is against error early on in the history of the church.

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So, in Galatians chapter 1, verse 1, hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. Paul, an apostle, not from man nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the

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Father who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our

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God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen.

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I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

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But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

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As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be anathema.

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For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God, or am

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I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a slave of Christ.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together. Father, we come to you as your people,

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Lord, rejoicing over the salvation that you so freely given in Jesus, this gift of righteousness, the gift of eternal life, the gift of salvation that you've given.

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Lord, all of this is to your glory, all to your praise. Lord, we come to you and ask that you'd speak today through your word.

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Lord, you would challenge us, you would equip us, that you would bless the proclamation of your word, that you would speak by your spirit today.

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Lord, get the preacher out of the way. Allow people, please, Lord, to remember you and what they've learned from your word and to forget me.

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In Jesus' name, amen. So Galatians, very important, obviously. This is sort of a jarring letter.

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I mean, imagine now you're in the first century, you're in the church in Galatia, and you know, hey, everybody, we got a letter from the apostle

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Paul. Oh, that's great. I love when Paul writes to us. Paul's great, right? And okay, everyone sit down for church and do the standard opener.

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We're doing our worship. All right, let's read the letter. The word of God before the church, and you have, of course, the standard greeting.

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They would open up. Instead of saying, sincerely, Paul, at the end, they open up with the address, Paul, an apostle.

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And make sure you know, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised

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Him from the dead. All the brothers who are with me to the church of Galatia, grace and peace. And it's all, oh, isn't this wonderful?

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Paul is such a great guy. He's always blessing us, so much grace and peace. Paul loves us.

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He loves us. Always such a blessing to hear from Paul. And all of a sudden, he says, I am amazed.

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I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting him, deserting him, and here's the issue, who called you in the grace of Christ.

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There it is. That's the sum and substance of the issue in the letter of Paul in Galatians.

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That is the issue there. He opens up with grace and peace to you, and he says, what's happening in Galatia?

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You're so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Messiah, and are turning to a different gospel.

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Yes, there is the gospel, the biblical articulation of the gospel.

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And yet, there is an ability to desert the grace of God in the gospel and turn to a different gospel, and Paul makes sure it's clear there is only one true gospel, not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort, distort the gospel of Christ.

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Now, note, this distortion of the gospel of Christ is causing people to desert the true gospel, to desert the true gospel and to abandon grace.

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That's the issue. When we distort the gospel of Jesus Christ, when we add on things to the gospel, when we remove the giftedness of the gospel, we abandon grace, we distort the gospel, we desert it all.

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And he gives the warning here, and it's epic. The word there accursed is anathema.

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It's a very, very strong word to describe condemnation, eternal separation.

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Basically, he says here, these people who are troubling you, I wish that God would damn them to hell.

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That's what he's saying. He says, even if we, he adds himself into the mix here, even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be anathema.

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Here's Paul saying, if I come back to you and I preach this distorted gospel, a different gospel, then let me be damned.

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As we said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be anathema.

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Now, I think this is really important, and I feel like I can feel the heart of the pastor here as he's saying the very hard truth.

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As he speaks the truth in such a strong way, in such a confrontational way, he has to make sure they understand where he's coming from.

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Where's his heart? For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? That's the issue.

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You see, it's possible to allow error to infiltrate the body of Christ. It's possible to wave the hand at essential truths being deserted.

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It's possible to tickle people's ears and just make them feel better, right? Well, at least let's keep the crowd, right?

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Yes, there's things that are being denied that are essential, but if we could just gather a larger community, maybe we'll have time to work on it.

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The apostle Paul says in a devastating way, let me go to hell, let the angel from heaven that comes and preaches a different gospel,

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Moroni, go to hell. And he says, am I seeking to please men or God?

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See, that's the issue. You have to understand when the man of God comes and proclaims this kind of truth, with this kind of heaviness, you have to understand the motivation.

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Am I seeking the approval of man or of God? And so he tells them, here's the motivation. Am I trying to please man?

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If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a slave of Jesus. He's saying basically, here's my option in this case.

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I can go along to get along. I can allow for this distortion. I can allow for the abandonment of the gospel of grace.

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I can do it, but then I would be a slave to men and not to God. I've got two paths before me, and I need to make the decision always in truth telling like this.

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It will come down to this. Am I a slave to man, to his desires, to his liking me, to his passions, to his comfort, or am

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I a slave to Jesus? Keep that in mind in the days ahead. We're either slaves of Christ or we're slaves to men.

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This is, of course, a serious issue because this is some in substance of how a person is reconciled to God.

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Just consider this for a moment. When we think about what really matters, we need to think about two things at least.

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One, right God. We need to have the right God. If we have a false

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God, it doesn't matter where else, we're right. We've got the wrong God. We're worshiping an idol, something that doesn't even really exist.

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And then the gospel. If we have the right God and yet a wrong gospel, we have no way to have peace with God.

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You can have a church that historically, say, has a Trinitarian confession.

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They believe in only one God, three persons, one God, the triune God of Scripture. They can give the orthodox confession in defense of the triune

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God, and yet if they have a perverse gospel, Paul says, they are deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

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What does the apostle Paul here say about anyone, including himself, who perverts the gospel?

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He says, anathema. Anathema. So I'm sure you could have had people here in Galatia that were confessional in terms of they had the right perspective of maybe saying, well, this is who

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Jesus was, God in the flesh. They would have said all the right things, but for Paul, he says, here it is.

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You're damned if you abandon the gospel of grace, which is really what this is. And what's the issue in Galatia?

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The issue of justification by faith alone, apart from works of law. Even just this one thing, let's just add the issue of circumcision.

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Let's just have everyone at least do that thing, right? Enter in that way. Circumcision. We've got to bring that over from the law into the new covenant.

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And Paul says, of course, at the end of this letter, he says, Christ has become of no benefit to you.

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Whosoever of you attempts to be justified by law, you've fallen from grace. You've got two paths there.

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You've got law or grace. And that is the fundamental problem with all man -made religion.

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You give me the God, different God, different religious texts, different rituals, all the rest.

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But every man -made religion will have essentially the same problem. And that is that they recognize the problem of sin, and that humans fall short, and that there's evil in people, and they try to overcome that problem that they have by being better, being more obedient, following this ritual, or obeying these rules, doing these things.

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And somehow, they can either make up for the evil that they've done, or they can have a righteousness that is somehow acceptable to their

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God. Ultimately, every man -made religion is a system of works.

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It's what I do to pull myself up. It's what I do to obey. It's what I do to satisfy the

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God of the system. But what separates biblical faith from every single man -made religion in the world is this issue, grace.

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This is the gospel of grace. Grace is a gift. It's something that God gives.

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You are the recipient of the gift. There's nothing that you merit for this salvation.

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Eternal life is a gift of God through what God has accomplished in Jesus Christ. What separates biblical faith from all other world religion is this issue here.

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Now, here's the thing. If you get God right, but the gospel wrong, you're lost.

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If you get the gospel right, in terms of it's a gift of God, but you have the wrong God, you're lost.

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These are fundamental issues. See, here's the deal as Christians. We have to, as Christians, maintain unity around the essentials of the faith, right?

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It's really important also that we learn to shut up when it comes to non -essentials.

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Amen? Yes? We can, as a church body, thrive with biblical love and unity.

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If we recognize the difference between adiaphora, the things that are on the outside, right, and we recognize the difference between that and the essentials of the faith.

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So, for example, some of my greatest heroes of the faith are not Reformed Baptists. Some of the men that I've learned the most from are not

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Baptists. We have some of my heroes as Presbyterians and others, giants of the faith, heroes of the faith, not necessarily

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Reformed Baptists. And I, that's a glorious thing to me. I love that kind of unity.

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Some of the people that we serve with around the world, the people that I love and I learn from and I call to ask questions are not in my camp in terms of Reformed Baptists, but these are people that I think are the giants, the heroes, they're men of God that I will never even begin to get close to in terms of ability and gifts and teaching and skills.

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But we have disagreements. So, for example, some of the people I work with on a regular basis and the people that I promote, they believe in something called infant baptism.

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We have members of our church body who are Presbyterians, part of a Reformed Baptist church, and I think that is glorious.

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I think it's glorious and amazing that we can keep the gospel central. We keep that thing central and we can work together and be unified and serve the

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Lord and love the Lord together, even over differences that we think are very, very, very important.

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They have an impact, but we recognize the difference between an essential of the faith, the gospel itself, and a side issue.

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There are Christians that have disagreements. I remember when I was in Bible college, I went to an independent, fundamental, separated

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Baptist Bible college. You have to say it like that. They made sure, like if somebody, what kind of church are you at?

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Independent, fundamental, separated Baptist. Very early on, made sure that I knew how to say that correctly. Independent, fundamental, separated

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Baptist church. I remember that in this crew, you weren't allowed to listen to anything that wasn't made by a

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Christian. I remember, I'm a big Elvis Presley fan. Any other Elvis Presley fans in here?

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Anybody? Yes? Good. Right on. Good. The rest of you are sinners. No, Elvis Presley.

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I used to listen to Elvis Presley gospel music. So like, How Great Thou Art, and Amazing Grace.

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I just didn't think there was anybody that sang it as good as Elvis Presley. Why is everyone laughing? That's just where I was.

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Okay? I've matured. Now it's Johnny Cash. But when

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I was in Bible college, if you, I would literally hide to listen to Elvis Presley gospel music because it was not allowed.

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They acted like it was an essential of the faith. If you listen to something not made by a

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Christian, you've apostatized, you're gone, you're out of the faith. One time, there was other rules as well in terms of like, how we're going to do this, what makes you a

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Christian. And one of the things you weren't allowed to do is go to movies. Not allowed to go to movies. And so of course, being the rebel that I was,

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I still went to movies. But it was funny. I went to the movie once, and it wasn't a bad movie. It was just, you know, going to the movies.

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You weren't allowed to go to the theater because theaters were bad. And I remember going to the theater, and I ran into some other people from Bible college at the theater.

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And they ran into me, and it's so funny because we were all like smiling and laughing, walking down the hall. They saw me, and all their faces dropped, like, oh no, we're going to get in trouble.

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And I was like, guys, I'm here too, right? And one time, I had a meeting with a pastor.

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I had a meeting with a pastor at his house. He was a great man. And he truly, truly was, he's still one of my favorite pastors

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I ever had. I went to his house just to hang out with him and just fellowship and do some discipleship. And he was mentoring me.

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I go to his house, and on his shelf, all VHS tapes, those were still a thing back in 96.

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And it was like Star Wars and other things. And I remember I looked at it, and I was like, pastor,

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I don't think you're supposed to have that. And he was like, I know, shh. You know, like, shh. And it was just one of the things, like, what identifies you as a

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Christian is if you follow these rules, do these things, you have to like these things and behave this way.

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And it can come down to something as people think is very serious, but like cigars.

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Should Christians smoke a cigar from time to time or not? I think it's sinful, and I don't think it's sinful at all.

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I'm not abusing it. What's that story someone asked Spurgeon, like when he thought he'd be doing it too much, and he says when he's doing it two at a time, like, then get me back.

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Then get back, I'm doing two at a time. And someone, a famous story, who was it that told

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Spurgeon, he was smoking a cigar, and he said, you know, brother, that's a sin. And then Spurgeon pointed down at the other guy's belly, he says, you know, that's a sin.

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So these are things that Christians do. Now we should have vigorous, loving debates over nonessential issues.

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One of the things that I love is Pastor James has debated someone

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I love and I cherish. I've been to his house, I've eaten with his family. I love the man, Doug Wilson. And he's debated

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Doug on issues that we think are very, very important, whether it's the text of Scripture transmitted through history, the

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Texas Receptus issue, you've got issues related to baptism. I mean, Pastor James has debated

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Doug on these issues. We're supposed to debate Doug before COVID stuff on two issues.

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It was baptism and the text issue. Two issues and didn't, what's that?

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Yeah. Oh, pato communion, pato communion and the text issue, missed out on that,

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COVID destroyed that, and taco time, all that, over, done, COVID's over, right?

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But it's wonderful because listen, they can debate together and still serve Jesus together because they agree on the essential issues.

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The sweater vest dialogues are lovely. And they do those together, right? And you've got issues like with Dr.

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Michael Brown, strong, strong disagreements with Dr.

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Michael Brown on a number of issues, whether it has to do with the gifts, whether it has to do with reformed theology, the sovereignty of God.

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And you've seen our pastor, Dr. White, debate Dr. Brown on those issues publicly in a way that is loving him as a brother because we agree on the essentials, but we can debate those other things vigorously.

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And you know what I love is one of the most epic, epic defenses of the Trinity that I think has ever happened was with Dr.

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Brown and Dr. White, a very colorful debate. Here in town where they debated two men on a

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TV show, it's hours long, and it was absolutely epic. If you want to learn a bunch, just watch that one thing.

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There's an example of unity in the faith around the essentials and how God can use people, but you have to have unity around biblical faith.

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So many times people want to say, you know, Christians can disagree on things. Yes, we can disagree. We should disagree vigorously, lovingly with unity, but we cannot disagree over something that the

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Apostle Paul defines as an essential defining thing. If you deny the gospel, you are outside of the

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Christian faith. So this is one of those issues of essentials. God and the gospel are essential issues.

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We can disagree on things on the outside, but never on God and the gospel. Church history,

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I've mentioned this a lot this year, I think, over church history. Church history is filled with examples of giants that say amazing things.

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You can see people that you will read one page and you'll say, my goodness, that is amazing.

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That is amazing. Praise God. And you get to the next page and you go, whoa, what a face plant. Thank God we're not trusting infallible human beings in history.

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We're looking at Christians that God is developing and growing, but they are not inspired apostles.

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You have Christians in history saying glorious things and doing ginormous face plants. But throughout church history, the issue of justification through faith alone has been proclaimed throughout church history.

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It wasn't a novelty of the Reformation. I wanted to read you some things from church history. This is not our final authority, but I wanted to read you some things that are encouraging from church history coming from Christians.

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This St. Clement of Rome, we don't know exactly when he was born, but 101

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AD is the death letter to the Corinthians. Similarly, we also who by his will have been called in Christ Jesus are not justified by ourselves, or our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, nor by such deeds as we have done in holiness of heart.

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I think that kind of covers everything. That's stated really well. That sort of encompasses the whole thing, the whole of the

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Christian life. He says, but, this is what we're justified by, but by that faith through which

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Almighty God has justified all men since the beginning of time. Glory be to him forever and ever, amen.

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And another one from St. Basil the Great. Indeed, this is the perfect and complete glorification of God when one does not exult in his own righteousness, but recognizing oneself as lacking true righteousness to be justified by faith alone in Christ.

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St. Basil the Great, 330 AD to 379 AD, homily on humility.

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Another one, but when the Lord Jesus came, he forgave all men that sin which none could escape and blotted out the handwriting against us by shedding of his own blood.

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This then is the apostle's meaning, sin abounded by the law, but grace abounded by Jesus.

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For after that, the whole world became guilty. He took away the sin of the whole world as John bore witness, saying, behold, the

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Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, wherefore, let no man glory in works.

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For by his works, no man shall be justified. For he that is just hath a free gift.

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For he is justified by the bath. It is faith, then, which delivers by the blood of Christ, for blessed is the man to whom sin is remitted and pardon granted,

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Ambrose, 337 to 397 AD, letter 73 to Irenaeus, a layman.

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So many examples, another one, this is from, well, I'll give you the quote. They said that he who adhered to faith alone was cursed, but he,

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Paul, shows that he who was adhered to faith alone is blessed.

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Faith alone. I thought that was just a peculiar thing coming from the Reformation and it's heralded really throughout history.

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Homily on Galatians 3 from St. John Chrysostom. Another one from St.

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John, but he calls it their own righteousnesses, either because the law was no longer a force or because it was one of trouble and toil.

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But this he calls God's righteousness, that from faith, because it comes entirely from grace, from above, and because men are justified in this case, not by labors, but by the gift of God.

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We could go on for days. The doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone is something that you can see throughout the history of the church.

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You can see great things being said and you can see face plants. Praise God for his grace that takes away our sins and even our moments of bad theology.

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Amen? Some of you guys are like, thank you, God, for that. You ever think about that? Some of the stupid things you said when you were a baby

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Christian, you're like, praise God for your grace, even over my bad theology. So I wanted to point to three things today, one, two, three.

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Number one, the consistent message we see throughout the New Testament, throughout the

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Bible in fact, but specifically throughout the New Testament for today. And number two, Paul's explanation of the gospel.

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And number three, Paul's defense of the gospel against error. And then I want to answer one popular objection that you're going to hear each and every single time you proclaim justification through faith alone in Christ alone, either to Mormons or to Jehovah's Witnesses or to the apostate

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Roman communion. So let's get to it. Number one, the consistent message we see throughout the

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New Testament. Now, I don't really like doing this because it's easy to proof text, right?

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You see that often. You'll quote, you'll say, well, this is the truth and someone just proof text something just off out randomly somewhere.

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They grab it and they throw it out as though it's the answer. So proof texting can be dangerous.

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However, sometimes you need to provide the proof text to show a consistent theme and message.

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So let's just do a few. When we talk about the consistent theme throughout the New Testament regarding this issue of salvation, eternal life, justification, here's some texts.

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Ephesians 2, 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

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It is the gift of God, the grace and the faith. And of course, we know the rest, not according to works, lest any man should boast.

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Romans 10, 9. That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

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John 3, 15. So that whoever believes will in him have eternal life.

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John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only unique son.

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So that every believing one, everyone believing in him should not perish but have eternal life.

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What's the substance there of the message of Jesus about eternal life? Just read John 3.

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Ask yourself in terms of the gospel and eternal life and salvation in Jesus is what

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I believe matching what Jesus teaches in John chapter 3. Here's the Lord of glory,

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God himself in the flesh, telling us how a person receives the gift of eternal life in him.

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And the answer is trusting in him, believing in him, faith in him. John 3, 36.

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He who believes in the son has eternal life. But he who does not obey the son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides in him.

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John 5, 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life.

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John 6, 40. For this is the will of my father that everyone who beholds the son and believes in him will have eternal life and I myself will raise him up on the last day.

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John 1, 12. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name.

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John 20, 31. But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Messiah, the son of God, and that believing, you may have life in his name.

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Acts 10, 43. Of him, all the prophets bear witness that through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.

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So we could go on and on and on, but I think you get the point. There's a consistent record and testimony of how a person receives salvation, eternal life, and the answer is faith, trusting in Christ.

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This is a gift of God. We could go on with this particular truth, just taking a scan of the entire

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Bible of all of the testimony of salvation as a gift of God's grace through faith and through faith alone.

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But I think one of the more effective things to do is to read the Apostle Paul, listen to the

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Apostle Paul, the inspired apostle, as he gives you apostolic, biblical testimony of what the faith really is.

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The Apostle Paul wrote the letter to Roman, the church in Rome, and in this letter,

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Romans, the Apostle Paul explains systematically the gospel. What I generally do as someone who is a new believer is

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I say, you need to get to know God's word. You need to be in God's word. Read John, the gospel according to John.

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Read Romans. You may like to do it a different way. That's how I like to do it. I think John is so intimate. It is so powerful.

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It is so beautiful, so filled with hope, and it is promise after promise after promise. It is just,

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I think, glorious. And then Romans is the Apostle Paul systematically explaining the gospel, and so let's go to it.

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Romans. What I'm going to do today is take us through the first couple of chapters of Romans to look at the

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Apostle Paul's unpacking of the gospel, first with the problem, then

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God's solution and what he's accomplished in Jesus and all the promises that it encompasses.

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So Paul's explanation of the gospel, which includes his explanation of justification through faith in Christ.

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First thing you want to see is in the first chapter, I'm not going to read through the whole thing right now, but just for context, because we can't just merely proof text our way through this, just for context, in Romans chapter one, the

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Apostle Paul starts off with this long address, seven verses long before he gets to a period, talking about how excited he is to see the saints who are there.

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He wants to impart some spiritual gift to them, but then he gets into the explanation of the gospel.

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Let's start in Romans one 16. He says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the

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Jew first and also to the Greek for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written.

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The righteous shall live by faith. The righteous shall live by faith.

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You'll live. You'll stand before God. You will not die. You will live by faith, but notice the

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Apostle Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation.

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So if the gospel is the power of God for salvation, a false gospel, a distorted gospel saves nobody.

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The true gospel raises people to life. It's the power of God to raise people to life.

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And the Apostle Paul says in verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth 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 perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made.

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So they are without excuse on Apollo gate juice.

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They are without an Apollo gear there.

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They're without. Thank you. I did it right. It's really hard to do this with like the

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Greek scholar guy right next to you. Okay. They are without a defense. They don't have a defense before God.

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Christians are supposed to have an Apollo gear, right? We're supposed to have a reasoned defense and answer a reply for everyone who asks us a reason for the hope that's within us.

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You had to do a gentleness and reverence as same essential word here. The apostle Paul says the unbeliever knows

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God so clearly, but there's such a rebel. They don't want to know God. They don't want them in their knowledge.

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They refuse. So they are actively holding down the truth about God, exchanging

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God for a lie. So they are before God without an excuse. That's everybody.

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Now we often don't like the implications of this. And so many people are dismissive of this.

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They say, what about the person out in the jungle never heard of Jesus? They're condemned too.

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Yep. But they never heard of Jesus. What are they doing out there in a jungle? Well, they have their gods they've created.

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Right. Their idolaters. They know the true God. They don't want the true God. That's a testimony of the apostle

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Paul there. All of humanity knows the true God. Every image bearer you will cross paths with knows the true

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God, but they don't want him in their knowledge. We are such rebels, so hostile to God, children of wrath, dead in our sins.

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We don't want the true God. Creation itself is constantly bombarding us with a message about God's existence.

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It is testifying continually about the true God. But people who are rebels against the king, they don't want that message.

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And so they switch the knowledge of the true God for a God made in their own image.

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A God that looks like them. Have you ever noticed that? That all of the false gods of mankind look like us.

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Right. They look like us. They procreate. They fight each other. They have wars. Right. They don't know certain things.

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They're human conceptions. Right. So all humanity knows the true God, switches him for a false god.

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And so of course we can go on here with the apostle Paul saying one of the displays of God handing people over to their sin is they exchange the truth of God for a lie, of course, but then they do what's unnatural.

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Men with men, women with women. So truly that kind of perversion is an example of God handing people over to their sin.

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And I think we can truly say is just as we're here, if we see a culture just receiving this lie of the distortion of pure sexual ethics, they believe it, they adopt it, they promulgate it.

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I think we can testify to that culture that you are a culture handed over to your sin. Therefore God gave them over to do what was against nature.

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And of course, the apostle Paul here says, this is humanity.

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They know the true God. They don't want the true God. So they're lost. They're dead. They're hostile to God. They're enemies of God.

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And of course, in Romans chapter two, the apostle Paul essentially turns now his finger towards the

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Jewish person that thinks because they're in the mere possession of God's law that they're okay.

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I've got the law of God. I'm Jewish. I can trace my ancestry back.

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It's been handed down to me. I've got the law in my hands. The apostle Paul, of course, in Romans chapter two says, verse one, therefore you have no excuse.

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Oh 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.

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We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, oh man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you'll escape the judgment of God?

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Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance, that because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when

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God's righteous judgment will be revealed, he'll render to each one according to his works. And of course, the apostle

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Paul explains as he goes on in verse 12, for all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law, for it is not the hearers of the law, verse 13, who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

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And of course, now the indictment in verse 17, but if you call yourself a

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Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent because you are instructed from the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and the truth, you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?

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While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

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You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor

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God by breaking the law, for as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the

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Gentiles because of you. So the apostle Paul here, of course, indicts a Jewish person in the first century that thinks because they're in the mere possession of the law that they're justified before God.

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Paul's saying, look, if you want to use the law to be justified, you've got to do it. So let me ask you, you're telling everyone don't steal, do you?

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You're telling everyone don't commit adultery because you've got the law, do you commit adultery? Don't you understand that if you want to use the law as a means of justification, you'd have to do it perfectly?

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How are you doing? It's a challenging thing to talk about, and of course, when the apostle

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Paul indicts all of mankind, all of humanity in Romans 1, under sin, fall, and rebelling against their creator, and he indicts the

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Jew who's in the possession of the law with the fact that they don't actually do what's in the law, it leads to maybe despair to someone who's reading this.

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Despair. If I'm in one of those two camps, whatever will I do? And so, the apostle

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Paul in Romans chapter 3 gets to this beautiful section. I'd love to read it all, but I don't have time today, so let's just get to the substance, the punch.

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3, 9. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both

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Jews and Greeks, that's everybody, are under sin. As it is written, here's where the apostle

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Paul, and you'll see in most of your Bibles and your translations, this will be broken out, because he's quoting from the

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Old Testament. This is not a novelty from the apostles in the first century.

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They're telling the same story as has ever been told. And so, in Romans 3, 10, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one.

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No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside.

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Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave.

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They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

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Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.

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There is no fear of God before their eyes. We're going to stop there for a moment, because the indictment here is upon everybody,

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Jew and Gentile. You're all in the same place, all under sin. So, if the problem for the

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Gentiles is the same as the problem of the Jews, all under sin, then what's the solution?

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Because Paul's indictment on all of humanity is this, none is righteous, no, not one.

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No one understands. No one seeks for God. Useless, does not do good, not even one, open grave, poison of asps, feet swift to shed blood, and no fear of God before their eyes.

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That's you. Embrace it.

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You will never understand the gospel of grace until you embrace Romans 3 as that's mine.

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That's me. And I think this is actually just, this is my explanation.

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I think that's the substance of the problem. When you have a religious person that is trying to somehow, even with adopting

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Christian terminology and even the Bible in their hands, if they've distorted the gospel, the reason they will pile on the idea of their own righteousnesses or their own obedience is because they don't understand the fundamental problem is that you are a sinner at war with God.

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You are a hater of God, a child of wrath, an enemy of God, hostile towards God.

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You are not good. You are non -God seeking. You are lost. You've fallen short of God's glory.

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There is no way back except by God's grace through Jesus. The glory of the gospel is that God has done something for people that do not deserve him.

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The glory of the gospel is that we are wretches at war with God and it is an incomprehensible

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Christian truth that the creator of all things entered into his own creation with a creation that was at war with him.

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We were not looking for God. We hate God in ourselves. The glory of the gospel in the incarnation is

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God enters into humanity to save those who hate him, don't want him, rebels, not righteous, not

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God seeking. Now, here's the thing. You understand the gravity of your brokenness to sin before God.

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You will climb to God, to the gospel of grace. You will say, I need your grace.

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I need your love. I need this gift. I can't do it on my own because I am worthy of judgment.

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And of course, the apostle Paul says in verse 19 of chapter three, 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.

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Wait a minute. Let's pause there for a second. I thought the law was just for Israel.

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It says here, 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.

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The whole world held accountable to God's law.

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It's by the way, we talked about, I think it was last week or the week before last, when I talked about God judging nations, historical judgments.

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What do you see in, of course, the Old Testament, even in the first five books of Moses, when

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God is telling Israel, don't engage in any of these abominations, any of these perversions.

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He lists homosexuality and bestiality. He says it's for these very things that he is actually displacing and uprooting these other pagan nations because they're engaging in these sins.

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He's still judging the pagan nations according to his own holy law and character.

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And Paul says this, the law is given, are you ready? To shut your mouth.

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Shut it. You can't flap your gums, you can't respond back when you are guilty according to God's law.

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The law shuts you up. And I think one of the great, he's a friend of mine, he is so sweet. He really is truly more lovely than you think he is.

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He is really, Ray Comfort, it's so fun hanging out with him. The first time I went to his place in California, it's actually like 10 minutes from Disneyland, which is perfect.

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You see Ray Comfort and Mickey Mouse, it's awesome. But when you go there, he takes you through this entire tour that he's such a nerd.

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He has the whole thing planned where he's like, oh, Jeff, let's do the tour. And he has this joke thing set up all around the facilities where at each station he tells a certain joke and he has props and stuff.

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So it's just, it's lovely, it's wonderful. But he does, I think, a good job of exposing an aspect of this, and you've seen it probably, right, where he's on the street hunting in beach or wherever.

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He says, have you ever loyed, right?

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And he'll say, you have? What's that make you? And someone says, a liar, right? Have you ever stolen anything, irrespective of its value?

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Like someone says, yes, so what are you, a thief, right? He says, have you ever had lust, right?

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And he explains what Jesus says. So he does a wonderful job of challenging people on just the 10 commandments showing that each one of us is guilty before God as judged with our mouths shut because we're all even just using those.

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Say, you're a liar, you're a thief, you're a murderer, right? You can go down the list and say, you're not going to make it past three of the 10 commandments.

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What does a just God, what does a just judge have to do with a criminal in his universe?

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He has to judge you. So if you're a lying, thieving, adulterous, covetous murderer, where should you go?

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To condemnation. And that's the point. The law shuts you up. It doesn't save you.

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It does expose your sin. It shows how you've fallen short. And so Paul says, next part, verse 20, for by works of the law, here it is, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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The law doesn't justify you. The law is good, very good, please believe that.

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But the law and the life of a sinner exposes my guilt before God. It shuts my mouth.

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It shows me how I've fallen short. And Paul says, as he explains the problem of human sin, here it is, the law shutting your mouth before God, he says, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

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You cannot be seen as righteous in God's court. You cannot be declared righteous before the judge on the basis of the law.

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It shows your sin. It shows it. Now, Paul says, after this horrifying message, up to this point, not really encouraging, right?

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Let's lay out the problem. Here's the foundation. And by the way, I think we're onto something.

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How many of you have you heard someone preaching the gospel, but they never mention the problem of human sin?

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There's no brokenness over sin. All they do is they present Jesus as this really loving friend, like,

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Jesus is a friend of mine. Jesus is my friend. Right? He just wants to be your buddy and your friend.

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He's just there to help you and wants you to be so happy. And if you just let him into your life, you have this wonderful experience.

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It'll be this wonderful romance between you and Jesus, right? Let my feet, like it's a, you know, it's just this emotional experience.

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And it's like, do you want Jesus? It'll make you feel so good. If you would just say this prayer, he'll come into your life.

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Would you just let him into your heart? And people are like, yeah, I'll give him a try. Like Rick Warren saying, you know, give

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Jesus like a 60 day or 90 day trial in your life. Garbage. It's garbage. Here's how

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Paul preaches the gospel. Let me level you. Let me make sure you understand that you are incapable of saving yourself, that you're wretched before God, that you are hostile towards your creator.

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You are dead. You are lost. You are not righteous. You are not worthy of God. Take your legs off.

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That's how we start. Maybe that's the problem. So many churches full of false converts, false professors, because they never had a revelation of their sin to begin with.

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They thought they were basically all right. Basically all right. You hear those old stories, right?

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When Jonathan Edwards was preaching sinners in the hands of an angry God, people were terrified.

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They were weeping and screaming and wailing. They say in those revivals, which were true revivals, there was such a revelation of sin and the holiness of God that people would just be found like wailing in the dirt over their sin.

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And you say, oh, like when Whitfield would go through or Edwards would go through and they'd preach the gospel, the biblical gospel, they said like the communities like very shortly after started changing.

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They'd closed down the brothels in town. The community started seeing light and justice and righteousness because there was true transformation.

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You have some of these crusades that come through town in the modern time. They'll preach these messages of Jesus wanting you to be happy.

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They'll say, we had 35 ,000 converts last night, 35 ,000 new believers in Phoenix, right?

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We're done. Phoenix is over. It's going to be a Christian civilization, right? And it's like, what happens to, nothing, nothing.

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Where people truly converted, where their hearts changed and challenged over their sin, I think that's the issue.

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Now, here's the thing. The bad news is there. But Paul says in verse 21, but now, thank

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God for those two words. It's bad news. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

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There's the important aspect apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

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The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

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The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

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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.

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You realize that's kind of stuttering in a way. What he says here in terms of justified by His grace as a gift, it's essentially, it's a gift gift.

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It's a gift gift. What is this like? It's a gift gift. Justified by His grace, which is a gift, as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

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Redemption is purchasing something out of slavery, taking something and buying it, owning it now, taking it out and redeeming it through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by, what's the word?

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Faith. To be received by faith. If this was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance,

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He had passed over sins, 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.

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Now here's, here's the issue. You got to get this. This is huge and no other human religion can respond to this.

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You got to get this. This is the knockdown. Take the legs off of human religion. Show the idolatry. Show the false

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God. Because human beings recognize that in human courts, judges must be, what?

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Just. They must do what is right. They're not allowed to show personal favoritism.

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They're not allowed to simply gloss over things. They have to be just. Well, here's a problem.

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In human religion, when man -made religion has a false God and they recognize the problem of human sin, you've got a problem.

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How is that being dealt with in a just way? Now, in man -made religion, you've got a problem of a

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God who is good, to whatever degree, and you've got humans who have fallen short or they're sinful in some way.

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Now, in those man -made religions, the idea is somehow through ritual or training or obedience, somehow you get right with God through obedience, getting better, somehow, and God is supposed to say to you, okay, you've done better, you're looking better,

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I'll let you go. We're fine now. What's the problem?

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Where's the justice? If we are sinners before a holy God, if God is truly good and people are sinners, how is, say the

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God of Islam, simply letting people go? You're guilty, you've committed sin and crimes, but I'm just going to let you go.

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Based upon you trying to be better? That's a problem. But this is solved in Scripture right here in this moment.

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Pay attention, brothers and sisters, because it's huge. It's the glory of the gospel. We have this gift, we're justified by his grace as a gift in verse 24.

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Through Christ, God puts him forward as a propitiation by his blood. In Jesus Christ on the cross, we have the father giving to Jesus the wrath that is deserving, that we deserve.

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It's a full diversion of wrath. The wrath is due to his people, and it swerves the other direction.

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It moves away from the people of God, and it's fully exhausted in Jesus. He receives the justice that we should have received, and here's what

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Paul says. 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.

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God displays in the cross something that no man -made religion can touch, that God is a just God.

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You know why? God didn't simply let you go. He didn't simply overlook your sins.

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God doesn't say, I'll choose to ignore it. God actually says, all of it is real, all of it is serious, all of it is severe, and I will give you my son to receive the penalty that is due.

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He does not let it go. He does not just ignore it. He does not turn a blind eye.

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The just God of the universe gives what is rightfully yours to Jesus, and Jesus exhausts it.

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It's finished. So that God may be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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On the basis of Christ's work, God can say, are you ready? Your guilt is punished, and Christ is the righteous one, and so God declares you righteous in his court, because you're found in Christ with his righteousness.

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How do you stand before a holy God? As a gift by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.

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Because Jesus absorbed the full justice and wrath of God in your place, your guilt is taken away, and Jesus gives you his righteousness.

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You stand righteous. Not because you are. There is none righteous, not even one.

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But how does God declare you righteous? Because you have the righteousness of another, the righteousness of Jesus.

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That's what Paul says. And here it is. Are you ready? This gets right to the substance of it all. Verse 27, then what becomes of our boasting?

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It is excluded. By what kind of law? By law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

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And here it is. Verse 28, chapter 3. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

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Faith, apart from works of law, is faith over here.

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Faith by itself. Faith alone. And the apostle says, we maintain, him, the other apostles, the early

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Christians, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

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Here is sola fide, in the mouth of the apostle. And this is where people get jammed up.

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I love how the apostle Paul, he's had this conversation, so you see the arguments coming up, he's already addressing them.

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The person says, oh, yeah, so you're not justified through works and obedience, so it's just through faith, through faith alone, apart from works.

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And so what? We don't need the law? We're just anti -gnomian? We just do what we want? And of course, Paul says, verse 31, right after it, do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

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By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. Why? Keep reading.

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Romans chapter 6, he explains, because all who have trusted in Jesus have died with Christ and been raised with him.

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You're now alive from the dead, so now you obey Christ. You pursue righteousness because you're no longer dead.

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Those who are in Christ, justified by faith apart from works, are those who uphold the law of God.

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By the way, you need to understand that, especially in our day, so many people have taught that justification through faith alone means the law is now irrelevant.

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Paul says, right after saying we're justified through faith apart from the works, the law says, do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

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By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. Next one, chapter 4.

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I'm walking you through his argument, context, explanation.

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This is important. Then Paul, I think, delivers the knockout punch in chapter 4.

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This is glorious. This is glorious. It's something so powerful, and it's so incomprehensible to human minds in terms of the graciousness and the power of it, that someone like Joseph Smith, Jr.

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in the 19th century perverted this text and added words to it because it doesn't fit with human religion.

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And here's what Paul says in Romans 4, verse 1. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh?

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For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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Let's pause there for a moment. Here is the apostle Paul challenging at the heart.

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You want to be a child of Abraham? You want to inherit the promise of the offspring and what

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God was going to do through Abraham to bring Messiah, to bring salvation to Jew and Gentile all over the world?

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You want to be a part of that faith? You think you're Abraham's descendant? Okay, let's go to the heart of it all,

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Abraham. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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Now this is huge. I fear that many Christians, even, haven't gone back to check

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Paul's work. When the apostle Paul is quoting from Genesis 15, 6, have we gone back to look at that section of scripture, or just assumed?

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The apostle Paul is referring to the section of scripture where God makes this covenant with Abraham, a promise to Abraham.

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He makes this astonishing claim to Abraham, and all it says is Abraham believed

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God. It was credited to him as righteousness. It was accounted to him as righteousness.

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And then there's this, it's not a long section, you can go back and read it later, Genesis 15. It's the section where God has this ritual played out of cutting a covenant, but the odd thing about this moment is instead of two parties walking through these parted animals, you have something different happen, and a sleep falls on Abraham.

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So he is totally passive in this moment. He gives nothing, he participates in nothing.

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God says, I'm going to do this, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to accomplish this. Abraham believes

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God, and then, sleep. Right, deep sleep.

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And you have this moment where God is swearing by himself, I'm going to do this.

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I'm going to accomplish it. I'm going to bless. I'm going to give. And what's Abraham's role, and every

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Jewish person worth their salt should know this, what's Abraham's role in the whole section?

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What's he doing? What's he accomplishing? And, remember this, when did this take place in the history of redemption?

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Was it before Moses or after Moses? Long before Moses.

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Hundreds of years before the law was given. Abraham believes God, and it's credited to him for righteousness.

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If you want to be a child of Abraham, if you want to inherit these blessings, Paul's point here is you need to have the same faith as Abraham.

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And the question is this, if you are truly a Jew, truly a

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Jew, does your faith match the father of the Jews?

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Does it match? Because it says that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him, credited to him as righteousness.

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And so, Paul's whole argument is summarized here, pointing to the father of the faith, and here's what he says.

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Verse 4, Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly.

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Some translations say the wicked. His faith is counted as righteousness. This is simple enough.

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It's simple enough, isn't it? If you're working for justification, for salvation, if you're working for it, then what you get when you work is a wage, right?

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If you're laboring, you get a wage. I say it all the time, and I hope you've caught it. If you worked for two weeks, and you walked into your boss's office, and he had a big box on his desk, it smells like Christmas, it's wrapped up with a bow, and he said,

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I have a gift for you, something special. It's a gift, all by my grace. You'd be excited. What am

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I going to get? My wage and a bonus? Like, what's going to be in there? What am

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I going to get as the gift? What's the bonus? What's the thing that I don't deserve? And you opened up the box, tear it open, look at the bottom, and it's your two -week paycheck.

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You'd be upset, because you'd have to say to your boss, excuse me, you use the word gift, and you use the word grace.

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This is a wage. I worked 40 hours a week. There's 80 hours of labor.

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What's in there is what you owe me, pay me. What that is not is a gift, it is not grace.

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And that's what Paul says there. To the one who works, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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Here's the point I wanted to tell you. In the Joseph Smith translation, Joseph Smith didn't like that, because in his system, you can't have

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God justifying wicked people, declaring wicked people righteous. That makes no sense. Well, without Christ, it doesn't make any sense.

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So he changed the words, whereas Paul says, the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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Joseph Smith changed it to does not justify the ungodly, because it doesn't work.

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And here's where Paul goes for the next knockout punch. First, he gets him with Abraham, and then he goes to David.

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These are the superheroes of the Jewish faith. These are our heroes, Abraham and David. And so Paul goes for the jugular.

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I'll give you both, Abraham and David. How is Abraham justified? He believed God. It was credited to him as righteousness.

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And just as David, verse 6, also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

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Stop. What happened there? David speaks of the blessing of the one to whom

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God counts righteousness apart from works.

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Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the

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Lord will not count his sin. What do we have here in this one little section? Paul, come back now. This is huge, because this is your walk with Jesus.

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This is what God does in the saved. It says, David speaks of the blessing of the one to whom

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God counts righteousness apart from works. So what do you have there? A positive reckoning or counting positive.

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Righteousness apart from works. God counts you righteous apart from works.

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And then we have our lawless deeds forgiven, our sins covered, and our sins not counted against us.

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So you getting it? Think of yourself and your walk with God and you being in Christ.

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God counts you righteous apart from your works, and he does not count your sins against you.

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So you stand not guilty, not counted your sins against you, and counted positively righteous.

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Two ways of crediting. Not counting and counting. And how is it happening?

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Through faith. And here's the powerful, powerful section that you have to see.

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In verse 9, is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?

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For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him?

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Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

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He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

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The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father

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Abraham had before he was circumcised. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

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For if it is the adherence of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

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For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression. That's why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherence of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

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As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. So think about the timeline here.

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Abraham believes God has credited to him as righteousness. He's counted righteous.

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But the question, ready? Here it is. What did he do? What did he do? Were there any rituals?

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Any works? Did God look into Abraham's life and say, you've got this all together.

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You seem like you're really doing well. And based upon that, I'm gonna count you as right. He believed

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God, it was credited him as righteousness. Hey, brothers and sisters, it was before circumcision. And it was hundreds of years before the law was given.

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So if you are a child of Abraham, you need to have the faith of Abraham. If Abraham is truly your father in the faith, do you share his faith and how he was justified and counted righteous?

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Because he came to God with empty hands. He came to God and had nothing to offer.

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And God counting him righteous through faith was before any work on his part.

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It was before circumcision. It was before the law was given. And so brothers and sisters, do you share that kind of faith?

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Paul's whole argument here is this is how God has always justified.

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It's how God has always saved. And I wanted to give you one more point for today on this, and then we're gonna continue next week.

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And it is this. What's this business of justify? Is Paul's context legal?

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Is it courtroom? Is it in terms of God declaring righteous? And for that, same book.

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Go to Romans 8, this powerful section, verse 31.

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Here's what he says. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

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He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is

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God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died.

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More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

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And of course, you know that hopeful section there at the end, we're more than conquerors in Christ.

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Nothing's gonna separate us from the love of God. You know that section. But my point here in pointing to this is this. Paul's context is charges, condemnation, and his whole point is this.

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If God is for us, who can be against us? Who's gonna bring any charge against God's elect? God is the one who declares righteous.

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Can you imagine walking into God's courtroom trying to bring charges against somebody that God has already declared righteous? That's the point.

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You're not condemned. You were already declared righteous. The context for Paul is clearly forensic, legal courtroom.

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God is the judge. We're the guilty ones. We're condemned. God is the one who justifies.

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No charges, no guilt. Counted righteous. Sins washed away.

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Not counted guilty. How? Through faith. And through faith alone, apart from the works of the law.

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We have to come to Christ in the same way all

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God's people have always been saved throughout redemptive history. Through faith.

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We're recipients. We receive. We don't accomplish. We don't build up enough righteousness in ourselves to be acceptable to God.

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And what I wanna show you next week is Paul's defense of this gospel against error.

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And then of course, to address the popular objection, James chapter two. And explain that context.

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James chapter two is actually one of my favorite sections of scripture. It's actually powerful and amazing.

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But I'm gonna challenge you on this. Have you understood the gospel in the way it was just presented by the apostle

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Paul in Romans, regarding your fundamental need, your brokenness, your sin, your rebellion against God.

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And your need to be reconciled to God through Christ. Have you understood your true sin problem?

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Have you understood your need for Christ and your only hope is through the redemption that he's provided through faith?

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Have you come to God as the person who is trying to please

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God to somehow appease him through your good deeds? Have you come to God thinking that if you obey just enough or behave well enough that he'll accept you?

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Or are you coming to God as somebody who simply has your mouth open to receive living waters and your hands open with nothing in them?

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Now pause for a moment, because I think most of us, if we know the gospel, we understand that. I wanna try to get you.

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I'm gonna get you. I hope I do, because it's something I had to be challenged with myself.

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I think we many times as believers who recognize that at the start. I'm a sinner, I'm lost, I'm not righteous.

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All I have is Christ and I'm saved. I have eternal life. I'm forgiven in Jesus alone.

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He's all I have. He's my only plea before the father is him and his righteousness.

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And I think most of us at a fundamental level as Christians understand that's how I'm saved,

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Christ and him alone and I've got nothing to offer. If I was ever to stand before the father, when I stand before the father, my only plea is

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Jesus, his righteousness. Now, here's where I hope I get you. And I hope you heal.

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Oftentimes as we're sanctified in the Christian life and we start walking with Jesus, somehow that changes.

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Because the spirit of God now indwells us, we're God's children, he's challenging us, he's convicting us, we're super aware of our sin now because now we have new hearts, we hate our sin, we love

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God's law, we long for Jesus and more of Jesus, we wanna be intimate with God, we wanna worship

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God and glorify God and God is challenging us. He's showing us our sin and he's purging us and making us more like Christ.

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All of a sudden there's like this switch that flips in the mind of the Christian where they went from understanding that their only hope was

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Jesus and their only righteousness is his and it's only through faith whereas we practically live in relationship with God as though his pleasure in us and our pleasure of him was based upon our daily obedience and our own righteousness.

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As though in Christ, the love of God, his pleasure in me is somehow based upon my being sanctified perfectly this last week, right?

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Oftentimes, how many times do you have a face plant at 10 in the morning and you're grieved over that sin?

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Whether it was anger or bitterness or jealousy or some crazy random thought that flies across your mind, you fall to your face like, father, please forgive me and for the next six hours, you live sort of like sulky like, oh,

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I've betrayed God, I'm an awful believer, he hates me now. Like as though your walk with Jesus daily as a justified person, not condemned is like the rose, right?

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He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. As though daily as a believer, my peace with God is somehow based upon my performance as his child.

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Now, brothers and sisters, if you're in Christ, you're gonna be sanctified. If you're in Christ, you're gonna long for obedience.

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But that life of sanctification is a life of being sanctified, being transformed.

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And do not, brothers and sisters, misinterpret the challenging work of the

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Holy Spirit in your life where God is showing you your sin and causing you to love his law.

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Do not misinterpret that as somehow now you need to be distant from God because you are not perfect or righteous enough.

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Your righteousness is and will always be the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, every single moment.

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So what we ought to do in those moments where we are being convicted by the Spirit of God, we're caused to hate our sin, is not live for the next six hours sulking over the fact that we blew it or we sinned, but we should be rejoicing that we are not condemned in Christ and the

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Spirit of God is showing you your sin because here's the deal. Unbelievers don't grieve over their sin before God.

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Believers do. So in reality, when the Spirit of God is convicting you as a believer over your sin, you should be caused to rejoice.

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God is causing me to hate my sin. That should actually be joy. When I fail and fall as a

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Christian and you will, it's a life of sanctification, we should be caused to rejoice, not spend two days in depression over how terribly we failed

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God. Your righteousness is and always will be the righteousness of Jesus alone through faith.

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Paul says in that same book, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus.

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus. You see, here's the deal.

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The doctrine of justification by faith alone and Christ alone cannot just simply be this thing that's like hung over you as a banner.

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It's just this theological truth out there. It needs to be something that actually gets roots into your heart, grows legs on it and starts walking around your life.

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That sounded kind of weird, didn't it? That sounded scary. But you know what I meant, okay.

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Get it into you. Let it get real in your life. I despise the reformed community when it just gets into the heady out there.

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It's just these abstract concepts, right, that doesn't lead to like a more joyful life, a life of pleasure in God, a life of graciousness and humility.

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These truths are supposed to transform. Don't allow them to just be out there as banners. Let them be things that are deep within you that change you.

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The doctrine of justification by faith alone and Christ alone should make you a daily joyful believer.

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Daily. Isn't it wild? You first get saved and it's like six months of bliss. Like you're like, I'm saved.

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I love the Lord. He loves me. I'm never being lost. And all of a sudden, the life of sanctification and conviction happens and now you're like this humdrum.

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You're like the Eeyore Christian, always sad, always depressed. What happens?

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Because when you were first saved, you really believed it. You believed how simple that gospel was.

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You couldn't believe how gracious God was. So get back to it. Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless the word that went out today that it would change us, challenge us, move us to obedience and love for you.