And we're at the third chapter, and we're
going through from verse twenty-one to verse
thirty-one this evening.
We have eleven verses tonight, and if you
look at the notes that I've given you,
you will find that there are ten divisions,
and ten headings out of eleven verses.
You must not be missing much that's in
portion this evening.
So you have ten headings out of eleven
verses this evening.
I would say that this is one of
the richest and most thrilling portions of God's
Word that we're dealing with this evening.
And so we want to take time to
dig it all out while we're on this
particular plot.
I think I want to remind you of
some of the things that's gone before, just
to set the stage properly.
You remember when Paul was writing the first
chapter, when he had got through the introduction
and the salutation that he brought to the
saints at Rome?
You remember that he reminded them in verse
eighteen, For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men.
And Paul was just reminding these saints at
Rome that the wrath of God, let's again
remember that there is such a thing as
the wrath of God.
We like preaching on the love of God,
and the grace of God, and the goodness
of God, the wisdom of God, and the
power of God.
Some people don't like preaching on the wrath
of God.
Well, there is such a thing as the
wrath of God.
And Paul was just reminding the saints at
Rome that the wrath of God is revealed
openly against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
And then he went on to describe the
ungodliness and the unrighteousness that's in this poor,
miserable world of ours.
And it's really rippling with unrighteousness and ungodliness
this evening.
He points out the depths to which some
fell in the early days.
He says in verse 26, For this cause
God gave them up unto vile affections, for
even their woman did change the natural youth
into that which is against nature.
That's a horrible thing, isn't it?
We were talking about this on Sunday evening.
This is what you call scarlet sins.
Woman leaving men to go to animals.
Verse 27 is a horrible one.
Likewise also the men, leaving the natural youth
of the woman, burned in their lust one
toward another, men with men working that which
is unseemly.
You don't need to underline it too much
about Lurgan, do you?
But a lot of them in jail for
this some years ago.
Lurgan was not the only spot, you know.
Happens to be the only spot in Danger
Whippet where they were caught.
But in every town in the north of
Ireland, it's reaching this evening.
Oh, I know it upsets modest people.
This is Bible teaching you're up, and we're
teaching the Bible.
God knows best how to talk to you.
And so Paul lets this, the saints at
Rome, see that the wrath of God reveals
against this.
It brings out the unrighteousness and the ungodliness
that's lying under the wrath of God this
evening.
And then when he came to the second
chapter, he changed it around a little bit,
and he didn't deal with unrighteousness so much
as he dealt with self-righteousness.
Remember how I put it very forcibly in
the third verse of the second chapter?
He said, Thinkest thou this, O man, that
judgest them which do such things, and doest
the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment
of God.
You see, some people stand back and hold
up their hands in horror when they hear
about scarlet sins.
But even those sort of people may be
even worse in God's sight than the sexual
licentious fool.
Mind you, if you're in this meeting and
you're only an old religious philosophical hypocrite who
has rejected Christ for the last thirty years,
you're worse than any sexual fool that was
in this town.
Why, I tell you, friends, the Pharisee who's
in people...
Well, Paul was a Pharisee, wasn't he?
And when he got saved he said, I
am the chief of...
There's nothing lovelier, you know, in rejecting Christ
than acting the hypocrite.
The Lord Jesus said, Wiped sepulcher!
Full of dead men's bones and rottenness.
How can ye escape the damnation of hell?
And so Paul levels this up very carefully,
doesn't he?
Dealing with the unrighteousness that's in the world
and the self-righteousness.
And then when he began at verse sixteen
in the second chapter, he began to deal
with the empty, dead, formal religiosity of the
Jews.
He said in verse seventeen, Behold thou art
called a Jew, for thou art proud to
bear the name of Jew, and thou restest
in the law, that is, thou restest in
the law because you have it.
You rest in the proud fact that you
have the law.
And you makest thy boast of God and
knowest His will, and approvest the things that
are excellent.
How much the Jew had!
How much religiosity he had!
And yet he was far away from God.
He drew near unto God with his lips.
Oh, which is hot.
Far from God.
And so Paul levels things out in these
first chapters.
Deals with unrighteousness and self-righteousness and dead,
empty, lifeless, formless religion.
And when he gets into the third chapter,
he just took the time last week to
bring the whole world in guilty before God.
Look at verse nineteen.
Now we know that what things to ever
the law saith, except to them that are
under the law, that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty
before God.
That's where he was trying to get to.
You remember how he very forcibly put it
in verses ten, eleven, twelve?
There is none righteous.
No, not one.
There is none that understandeth the holiness of
God.
There is none that seeketh after God.
They're all gone out of the way.
They're all together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good.
No, not one.
The whole world guilty, it get it, before
God.
You know, we're all a pack of guilty
sinners.
Some of us are guilty sinners saved by
the grace of God this evening.
And some of you are guilty sinners hiding
behind fake leaves this evening and you'll be
damned if you don't watch.
And some of you are just guilty sinners
and you don't.
So Paul leveled things out.
Now, I want you to notice this.
That in the leveling of things out, he
touched one or two dispensations.
And dispensation just means a principle by which
God deals with men.
Well, we know that Adam, he was in
the dispensation of innocence.
He was made innocent.
He was an innocent creature, wasn't he?
Watch what this book says.
See verse 20 of the first chapter.
Paul just reminds them that the invisible things
of God, from the creation of the world,
right from the creation of the world, are
clearly seen.
That's a funny statement, isn't it?
Invisible things clearly seen.
Then he qualifies it being understood by the
things that are made, even his eternal power
and Godhead.
And so that in his innocence, Adam knew
all about the eternal power and Godhead, right
from the creation of the world.
That was clearly understood.
Then, of course, Adam fell, and you remember
all his offspring, they were born in sin,
by nature, they were children of wrath even
as others, and then they went on further.
Now, we must ever remember this, that primitive
man, primitive man knew God.
He wasn't a heathen, you know, or a
pagan, but if we have them, it's because
of what their forefathers did with the life
that they had.
So let's forget that.
We're always standing up for them.
It's the sins of the fathers coming down
onto the children of the third and fourth
generation, and a bit further now.
You see, here's what it says here.
Verse 21 Because that when they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were
thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened, possessing themselves to
be wise, they became fools, and changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image
made like to corruptible man.
You know, we're coming out of the age
of innocence, eh?
And into the dispensation of human government.
My, they really thought they were everything.
Real clever they did, possessing themselves to be
wise.
My, they became fools.
Became fools.
This is this old world, this is the
history of this old world of ours.
This is the Bible record of the history.
This is the true one.
And of course, when we come down to
that horrible 27th verse, we're right up the
days of Sodom and Gomorrah, aren't we?
Man was king after man, it was Sodom
and Gomorrah.
And we're into the age of human government
in the deep depths.
And then when we got to the third
chapter where we finished last week, verse 9,
19, now we know that whatsoever things the
law says.
We're into the dispensation of law.
You see, what I'm trying to get out
of this.
As he has faced these horrible things, he's
gone back to the creation, to the age
of innocence, eh?
Then come through the dispensation of human government,
dispensations in the past.
And our wonderful portion begins tonight with these
words.
But, but now.
Now this is different.
This is different dispensation altogether.
This is the dispensation of this.
Quite different.
People who don't like dispensation will teach them
just have to take it, whether they like
it or not, it's either.
But now, things are different now, praise God
they're different now.
But now, my, we're not under law tonight,
praise the Lord.
And we're not under human government either.
And we're not under innocence.
Now we could fall from that, couldn't we?
No, no.
It's not left to us anymore.
This is something different now.
This is the grace of God going to
do things.
Now watch what he says, very carefully.
He says in verse 21, But, but now,
in this dispensation, the righteousness of God, without
the law, is manifested.
You know that's a tremendous statement, isn't it?
The righteousness of God, without the law, is
manifested.
You see, men were unrighteous, or they maybe
got onto the clean side of the road
that went to hell, and they were self
-righteous.
Or maybe they rolled themselves in empty bed
formalism, and they only had religiosity, and had
no life, no power, it was a form,
without power.
And all that just wouldn't do.
It was still under the wrath of God.
And what man needed was a righteousness to
meet the righteous requirements of a righteous Lord.
And grace turns it out to him.
The righteousness of God is revealed.
Manifested.
You see, this is the dispensation of grace.
Righteousness is something that can clothe the poor,
lost sinner and make him stand before God
just as if he'd never sinned at all.
For that's powerful, isn't it?
That's justification.
Righteousness and justification are co-equal terms.
It's very hard to say the righteous character.
You can say the justified one.
But watch this.
Now, the righteousness of God is manifested.
It says in verse 24, being justified freely
by His grace, by God's grace.
This righteousness, this justification, comes to every believer
absolutely free on the streams of God's grace.
And that's the dispensation we're in now.
It's the dispensation of the grace of God.
And the grace of God is handing out
the righteousness of God out of the garment
freely for every believer.
But we'll get it clearer in a moment.
Just watch the whole statement here in verse
21.
But now the righteousness of God without the
law is manifested being witnessed by the law
and the prophets.
You know, this is what the law...
And then he uses the word law.
He's using the ceremonial law.
This is what the ceremonial law was saying
all along, that there would come a sacrifice
one day that would so perfectly meet the
requirements of God that everyone who would place
their faith in that sacrifice would be perfected
forever.
Or, in other words, would stand in the
righteousness of God or, in other words, be
justified before the throne.
And that's what the law said all along.
If you're in any doubt about that, I'll
make you sure.
Just keep your finger in the place and
have a look at Hebrews chapter 10.
Hebrews chapter 10.
Now this is a wonderful portion.
Hebrews 10 verse 1 For the law having
a shadow of good things to come...
And when he uses the word law there,
you'll see in a moment that he's using
the ceremonial law, not the moral law, not
the Ten Commandments, the law of sacrifice.
For the law having a shadow of good
things to come and not the very image
of the things.
It wasn't the very image.
It was only the shadow of the image
that was coming.
Come never...
Oh, that's something you underline.
Come never with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually make the comers that
brought them thereunto perfect.
No, it couldn't.
Ceremonial law with all the sacrifices could never
make the comer perfect.
Oh, but it was a shadow of something
that was coming, a sacrifice that was coming
that would make them perfect.
Why, yes, it was.
Now just follow this through.
You see, the moment he says, come never
with those sacrifices, he begins to argue.
That's true.
For them, would they not have ceased to
be offered?
My, if you could bring a bull or
a goat or a lamb and place it
on an altar and it made you perfect,
you wouldn't need to bring it again, would
you?
Wouldn't it cease?
Because that the worship was one spirit should
have had no more conscience of sin.
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance
again made of sins every year.
For it is not possible that the blood
of bulls and of goats should take away
sin.
They were only shadows.
They were only witnessing to something.
That's all.
Now what, wherefore, just because of that, when
he cometh into the world, who is that?
The Lord Jesus.
He saith, The sacrifice and offering thou wouldst
not, but a body hast thou prepared me.
Who made him this body?
God made it.
He had no human father.
A body hast thou prepared me.
Then he saith this, In burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then saith I, Lo, I come in the
volume of the book it is written of
me to do thy will, God.
You know, God has something in his mind.
And here is the will of God.
Verse 10, we have heard it.
By the which will we believers are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all.
My, when that body was offered and we
placed our faith in the sacrifice.
My, we were set apart, sanctified, set apart
by the offering of the body.
Not by closing your eyes in the bathroom.
No, by the offering of the body of
Christ was I sanctified by the offering of
the body of Christ.
Jesus can't corrupt the scripture.
Never mind about who taught you something else.
Yes, we are sanctified through the offering of
the body of Christ.
That's what this book says just now.
Now, I want you to get this read
back.
Verse 14.
For by one offering, or if you like,
for by that one offering.
Watch this read back.
He hath perfected forever them that he set
apart.
Ah, that's it, isn't it?
That's what the law was witnessing all the
time.
It was only a shadow.
When we look back through the ages where
the kings and prophets trod, we can see
their altars reeking with the sacrifice and blood,
but those types were only pointing to the
pastoral arm of God.
My, even the ceremonial law all the time,
that was so perfectly made before God that
everyone who placed their trust in a finished
work would be perfected forever.
Where would you get lost again?
Where would you get?
It's just because some of you don't know
what was done at the cross that you
get muddled.
We're not going to heaven on what we
do.
We're going to heaven on what he did.
Are you perfected forever or are you not?
Or is this book talking baloney?
You just answer, that's all.
I'm not trying to force you into it.
Just answer, that's the thing you've got to
do.
What does perfected forever mean?
It just means perfected forever, that's all.
So you see, the law was witnessing that
this thing would happen.
But here's what it says in our 21st
verse.
But now, in this dispensation, the righteousness of
God without the works of the Lord manifested,
being witnessed by the ceremonial law and witnessed
by the prophets.
I wouldn't need to take you through all
the prophets tonight, would I?
I think Isaiah 53 would do.
By his knowledge shall my righteous servants justify
me.
He would do it.
The one who was wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquities.
My, he would be able to justify many.
So that this righteousness of God in this
dispensation of grace is the very thing that
was witnessed by the ceremonial law and by
the prophets.
And praise God we are living in the
day when it's happening.
So that's the dispensation of grace.
So watch this.
Verse 22.
For even the righteousness of God We'll read
verse 21 again.
But now, in this day, the righteousness of
God without the works of the Lord manifested,
being witnessed by the ceremonial law and the
prophets.
Even the righteousness of God which is by
faith in Jesus Christ it can be or
of Jesus Christ.
So watch this.
Unto all and upon all them that believe.
How do you get this?
Through Mary, Virgin Mary, through penance, through sprinkling,
No, through faith in Christ.
That's the old protestant faith.
We believe with all our hearts, and I'll
persuade you before you get out.
That we are justified by faith alone.
No parlance, no penance, no Mary, no candles,
no priest, no pope, no purgatory, no work,
no religiosity.
By faith in Christ alone.
Amen.
Man, you're a dead lot, aren't you?
Ah yes.
Ah, this is it.
This is the manifestation of the faith.
This is it.
Now, let's just tidy it up a little
bit more.
We'll read from verse 21 again.
But now in this dispensation, the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets, even the
righteousness of God which is by faith of
Jesus Christ upon all and unto all them
that believe.
For there is no difference for all who
sin and come short of the glory of
God.
You see, as God is going to move
out in grace, where it would be grace
if He places one man before another.
Oh no, this grace must come out to
all because all have sinned and all have
come short.
You see, if we take the unrighteous crowd
well, all of the unrighteous crowd have sinned.
If we take the self-righteous crowd, well,
all of the self-righteous crowd have come
short.
So there is no difference from the law.
You see, if you were standing at the
waters of Fairhead and you were going to
jump over to Scottish Border Yonder, well, some
of you might jump further than others, but
you'd all come short a good bit.
And so it doesn't even matter what way
you jump or what you're getting about.
The whole world is guilty and all have
sinned and all have come short and that's
the grace of God.
It's coming fully out to the guilty world
and offering justification by the appropriation by
the appropriation of faith in Christ.
Sir, it's glorious, isn't it?
Only if I say yes.
But just because of the magnitude and the
boundlessness of the grace of God, righteousness that
we have in the throne and it's the
son before God, just as if I'd never
sinned at all.
The Old Testament prophesied, though your sins be
as stars, they shall be as white as
snow.
I'm being just as white as snow.
By faith in Christ our Lord, my will
never let that go.
Now, let's get the hold of this because
it's deeper than that, you know.
I'll read it all over again.
But now, the righteousness of God without the
law is manifested being witnessed by the law
and the prophets even the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them that believe, for
there is no difference for all have sinned
and come towards the glory of God being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus.
You know, I want you to get this.
You know, I know that the grace of
God is a wonderful thing but the glory
and grace of God is this wonderful unbounded
ocean that brings out the righteousness and justification
that men have believed you know, it couldn't
flow except on a righteous foundation.
You know, a holy God just can't step
out of a holy heaven and get a
poor scarlet sinner and pat her on the
head or him on the head and say,
well now, it's a pity, I'll give you
all that gold, we'll forget all about it.
Oh no, oh no, oh no.
It wouldn't be just at all if he
did that.
My, you just get the judge on the
bench and the man is drunk in the
multi-cup and kills the child.
And you know the law of our land,
don't you?
Well, he just can't lean over the balustrade
of the court and look at this fellow
and say, well now, it's a real pity
I know you had a terrible night and
all that, we'll forget all about it.
It wouldn't last long, would it?
He wouldn't be justified.
He wouldn't be adjusted.
Oh no, but God adjusted.
So God had to deal with sin.
Sin had to be judged.
There had to be a foundation laid that
would keep him just and that at the
same time allow him grace to justify, to
justify the believer in Christ.
Yes, and the foundation was the redemption that
was made by our Lord Jesus Christ in
sacrifice at the place called Calvary.
All right, let the ground of it end
now, because it's a wonderful story when you
get it all.
You see, we're just sinners and God's a
holy God and yet in the dispensation of
grace, the grace of God is bringing out
to us a righteousness that will justify us
freely with the only trust in Christ.
But it flows out on the ground of
the redemptive work at the place called Calvary.
You see, we're being freely justified by His
grace through the redemption.
Oh, I know it doesn't cost us nothing.
We just put out the hand of faith
and we embrace the Saviour and immediately this
robe of righteousness that was woven on the
cross of Calvary becomes ours.
Jesus' blood and righteousness, my duty are my
glorious dress.
With flaming words in these arrays, without any
fear, I lift up my hand.
But that only comes to you on the
redemptive work of Christ.
My, what a work that was!
You see, we had to pay the price
of our redemption.
You see, we were captives of the devil.
You see, God just couldn't look down through
a window in heaven and say, well, let
them go.
I'm taking them home.
I'll keep them in the glory.
The devil will look up and say, you're
not righteous anymore.
You don't care about sin now, do you,
God?
So God had to deal with it.
And there had to be a price paid
that would satisfy the king.
Satisfy.
There had to be a price paid that
would shut the mouth of Satan forever.
Had to be a price paid that would
really bring me out of the kingdom of
darkness righteously.
And it was the redemptive work of Christ.
Oh, what a wonderful work this is.
You know, sometimes when I'm preaching on the
decks, I am the way, the truth, and
the life.
I point out to the people that we,
when we were born in this world, we
were born at a distance from God.
But we were born at a distance, way
in the kingdom of God.
Born in sin and shame and in iniquity,
children of God.
And there had to be a way made
back to God from the dark past of
faith.
And Jesus is the way.
We were not only born at a distance,
we were born in the dark.
We were born in the kingdom of darkness.
And we need light.
And truth is light.
And Christ is the truth.
But he is the best.
We were not only born in the dark
and born in the distance.
We were born pretty.
Christ is the light.
Yonder at the cross of Calvary, he poured
out his own life, laid it down in
drops of ruby blood, blood that sanctifies God,
blood that silences Satan, blood that saves.
It's on that redemptive work that the grace
of God brings us the justification that we
can embrace by faith in Christ.
Ah, but that's not all, sure it's not.
Ah, we're not half way there yet.
Let's get it all over again.
This is a portion you need to get
the whole thing.
Verse 21, But now, the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested, being witnessed by
the law and the prophets.
Even the righteousness of God, which is by
faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no
difference, for all ascend and come short of
the glory of God, being justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to
be a propitiation.
Ah, it's different again, isn't it?
You see, this redemptive work, at the same
psychological second as it was being perfected and
finished, there was this work of propitiation up
across.
You know, the word propitiation just means a
sort of fine sacrifice.
And at the very moment that the Lord
Jesus was laying down the price of our
redemption and of the holy blood, at the
very same second, that precious blood shed was
making us satisfactorily satisfied.
God, God had to be satisfied first.
And on the grounds of respect to the
point that such unseemly, passionately great
fools bring in righteousness.
Amen.
Oh, that's good gospel preaching.
That's where I learned to preach from.
That's good old-fashioned gospel preaching.
That's what we need.
Oh, this is a mighty work.
Propitiation, unredemption, being the foundation whereupon the grace
of God pulls out, bringing this righteousness which
is actually justification to everyone that believes in
Jesus.
Wonderful thing.
I think I should take the time to
just point this out.
Verse 25, speaking of Christ itself, whom God
hath set forth to be a propitiation.
You know, it's wonderful to notice what God
did with Christ.
Well, if you go way back before the
foundation of the world, you'll find the Eternal
Son in the bosom of the Eternal Father.
And you'll find that the Father selected the
Son.
Oh, He was the Lamb chosen before the
foundation of the world, if you want it
in Scripture.
So that God selected Him for the job.
Then, when the fullness of the time had
come, God sent forth.
And then God set Him forth to be
this satisfying sacrifice.
And then God spared Him not.
That brings it together, doesn't it?
How God selected Him.
And then God sent Him.
And then God set Him forth.
And then God spared Him not.
The wrath of God.
And payment God can't quite demand.
First at my bleeding surgery time and then
again at mine.
God didn't only select Him and God didn't
only send Him and God didn't only send
Him forth and God didn't only not spare
Him, but God brought Him back from the
dead and took Him back and healed Him
at the right hand of the throne of
God.
Just to let everybody know He was satisfied
with Christ and the work of the cross.
Oh yes, it's wonderful, isn't it?
It's a powerful proportion altogether.
Let me make it all clear.
You see, He worked backwards with propitiation, the
sacrifice that satisfied God, and the redemption that
paid the price for my freedom.
That grace is flowing out through us upon,
bringing us the righteousness of God and we
get it when we trust the Saviour that
God has brought back from the dead.
But I want you to notice this.
Verse 25.
Whom God has set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in His blood.
To declare His righteousness for the remission of
sins that are part through the forbearance of
God.
You see, maybe the devil or some critic
would like to come along and argue.
Say, well this is all right, you know,
this is very nice, we can see it
all now, we see the propitiation in blood
and the redemption in blood and the foundation
laid and God satisfied and sat in silence
and all the leaves were saved.
How did God forgot one of the fellows
in the days that are past and no
sacrifice satisfied God then?
No, that's perfectly true.
But you see, the man and woman in
the age before the cross, and the ages
before the cross, as these sacrifices were placed
on the altar and the blood of the
sacrifice was brought in before God, their faith
was looking down through the shadow to the
day the substance would come and God was
putting them on trust.
It was as if they were giving God
an I owe you and the day will
come when it will be fully paid and
God's forbearance or toleration was there because He
knew that Christ would eventually come and pay
the price.
Dr. Irons, I've said, they were saved on
thought.
It's a lovely one, isn't it?
Ah, there's no difference.
They were looking that way to the cross
and their trust was yonder.
We're looking that way to the cross.
But it's the same look and it's the
same cross.
They were saved by faith in the cross
and God took the credit note as it
were and the forbearance of God let them
put up with them even when they sinned
in the cross.
You see, all this is bringing out this
to declare, I say, verse 26, to declare
at this time His righteousness, God's righteousness, that
He might be just and at the same
psychological second be the justifier of whom which
believeth in Jesus.
My, this is a wonderful thing, isn't it?
You see this propitiation that Christ made and
shed blood and this redemption that Christ made
and shed blood, this thing that silences Satan
and saves believers that satisfies God.
My, it allows God to amend the just
God and God will hit and yet at
the same second it allows Him to be
the justifier of them that believe in Jesus.
That's the easy way back.
Are you one of them?
You don't need to get muddled in that
bit, do you?
Do you believe that the Prince and Saviour
are put ahead?
Do you believe that baptism by a merchant
saves you?
No, go to hell.
It's them that believe in Jesus.
That's where your faith is.
It's your faith on a work that satisfies
God and that has made you perfect forever.
Tell me that.
Or are you trying to work your way
to heaven Are you?
It's a great pity of you for your
works are no good.
It's sinners that get justified by faith.
Now this is not something that I feel.
I don't feel justified.
Indeed I feel very unjustified at times.
This is not something that I have a
feeling about.
This is a truth that is clearly taught
in Romans chapter 3 and that I personally
and wholeheartedly believe.
I don't have any feelings at all.
My dear friends, I think it's wonderful.
You know, sometimes I have to do this
for the young believers.
Say that poem.
It's worth twenty holes to me.
It's not worth a thousand to you for
it's mine.
No, it's mine.
See, I own it.
It's mine.
I possess it.
I hold it in my hand.
If I try all night and it rains
all night and everybody in our house is
down in the dumps it won't become ten
shillings for my fee.
It will be a pound at the end
of a miserable week.
And if I sing to the morning riff
and the birds are singing all around me
and the sun is splitting the trees and
everybody's happy it will never become five pounds.
My feelings have nothing to do with it.
It's a settled thing.
Settled.
And I just know whether I cry or
whether I laugh it's a poem.
If I give it to a tramp on
the street with no shoes in his feet
it's a cringe.
If I could give it to the queen
upon the throne and she would accept it
graciously it would only be a poem.
This is not a feeling thing.
No.
This is a truth.
I believe that the moment I put the
arms of my faith round the Christ who
died and ruled the clans I'm justified by
faith.
I have the right to...
And neither the devil nor demons can do
a thing about it.
It's a powerful thing.
It's what you call getting saved by grace
through faith.
It's what that is.
It's wonderful, isn't it?
Let God be just and the justifier.
I want you to get this bit.
We're past verse 27, it's all questions and
we'll come back to it and we're at
verse 28.
Therefore, because of all this we have been
hammering out we conclude that a man is
justified by faith without the deeds of the
law at all.
Oh, the Roman church should take this and
paste it up above the altar.
Do them good.
My, we conclude, we conclude we Christian believers
conclude that a man, black, white, red, yellow
lame or illiterate that a man is justified
by faith without any deeds at all.
Wonderful.
Not your work, dear.
Nothing that you can do.
It's his work.
I'm resting on a finished work, I think.
All the service.
Thank God he didn't let me do a
thing of it.
I would have most surely appointed him.
Winston McKendrick used to say if God said
you hadn't waged anything against faith I think
you would do it wrong.
I would.
Ah well, praise his name.
You have nothing to do with me, come
and try.
All to him I owe.
Him that left the crimson stain who washed
it white as snow.
Now, when Paul gets all that off his
chest and that's really wonderful then he begins
these interrogations.
I hope you've been following the notes.
I didn't care just to follow them like
that but they were there for your guidance.
You did notice the dispensation of grace and
you can get it easy when you go
home.
And then this manifestation of righteousness and re
-appropriation by faith and the redemption of Christ
and the propitiation of blood and the toleration
of God in the days that are past
and then the declaration of this great truth
that he's still just and the justifier and
then this conclusion of the saints we conclude
that the man was justified by faith without
the deeds of the law.
And we come to these interrogations of Paul.
We go back to verse 27.
He says, where is boasting then?
No use of boasting that you're a Baptist,
is there?
You could boast that you were a Baptist
of the deepest die and then go to
hell at the end.
And there'll be some of the old dead
Baptists go to hell if I'm not in
faith.
I'm telling you.
You can never bluff me and I won't
allow you to.
While I'm here I will clear my search.
You can't tell me that a man and
woman mix up professional faith for 30 years
and is never once inside a prayer meeting
nor never paid one.
What sort of life did you get?
Thank God I didn't get it.
Some of you old dead Baptists will go
to hell.
I hope you're sure about this.
Mind you there's a crowd going to be
outside the door one day and they'll be
shouting through this closed door Lord!
Lord!
I'm not going to use that word.
We have eaten and drank in thy name
and in thy name we have done many
wonderful works and have built churches.
In thy name we have cast out devils.
You just make your calling and election sure,
that's all.
That's all.
Don't go boasting.
Don't go boasting about anything, only this.
God forbid that I should glory save in
the cross.
My Lord Jesus Christ, I have nothing else
to boast about.
It was at the cross the sacrifice that
met God's requirements was made.
That silenced the devil forever and laid the
foundation whereby grace brought unto me the justification
that I received when I placed my trust
in the blessed Lord Jesus.
That's good gospel preaching, isn't it?
I hope you'll learn it.
But most things it's excluded by what law
of works may but by the law face.
Now I only trusted Jesus.
That's all.
I can remember the day of the poor,
lost, down-and-out, care-deserving sinner trembling
in my shoes knowing that I was a
reptile scarlet, doomed creature and with trembling hands
I placed my faith around the blessed Christ
who died and rose again.
And there and then I was as justified
as I am now.
It wasn't my preaching that did it, you
know.
No, the soul that was saved did it.
And that's the soul that was as well
justified as I am now.
Friend, if you're just saved you're not as
long saved as I am now but you're
as well saved if you've got the salvation.
That's it.
Now it's this faith that excludes all those
things.
And then verse 29 it says Is he
the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also the God of the
Gentiles?
Yes.
Of the Gentiles also.
Seeing it as one God which shall justify
the circumcision that's the Jew by faith and
beyond circumcision that's the Gentile through faith.
It's just faith.
That's all.
Then it comes to a great question.
Do we then make void the law through
faith?
Was the ceremonial law no use?
Was the moral law no use?
Do we make it void?
Bringing in this dispensation of grace and faith?
He says, no, God forbid.
He says, we establish the law.
Why, that's great.
You know, Paul was a great preacher.
You see, here's what he's doing.
You see, the law, if we take the
Ten Commandments so often I've done that.
We just take the Ten Commandments 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
and the tenth one is, thou shalt not
covet.
And every one of us just stands guilty
before God.
Why, we covet every sort of thing, don't
we?
I don't need to go into it, you
would only smile.
But we've all coveted.
Therefore we have broken the commandment of God,
therefore we're guilty before God.
But if we go into the ceremonial law
and all the rest of the moral law
remember in the Old Testament if a man
gobbled sticks on Sunday the penalty was death.
There was no use of the congregation turning
their back on him.
That didn't meet the penalty at all.
It was no use of them calling him
this, that or the other.
No, they must stone him to death.
And you know, the whole sum and substance
of moral and ceremonial is this.
The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die.
Now that's the penalty.
Well, we established the law for Christ died.
Oh yes, there's a death, all right.
And in that death there was that propitiation
toward God.
There was that redemption that paid my redemption
price.
And on the grounds of that finished work
grace was flowing like a river to me
and bringing the righteousness of God to every
soul that will believe in Jesus and the
moment you believe you stand before God just
as if you'd never sinned at all.
Now really, he's only starting with that yet.
Next week he goes into it in plainer
details.
And goes right through chapter 4 and right
through chapter 5 and into chapter 6 and
7 and 8.
Oh, I tell you, we're on a subject.
You follow on and the Lord will teach
you.
Let's bow together.
Blessed Lord Jesus we bow at thy feet
and the wonder of this great truth that
really fills our hearts.