Gospel—C. Hendricks
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Let's begin the Gospel Meeting tonight by singing #10.
There's a savior on high in the glory. A savior who suffered on Calvary's tree. A savior is willing to save. Now, as ever, his arm is almighty, his love great and free. Number 10.
There is a savior.
On high in the glory.
Our Savior who suffered on power.
You'll be lying.
He waited something.
Patience for.
Us and.
Said I.
Receive.
As the one.
Salvation.
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It's great, our God and our Father.
A perishing world.
We ask thy blessing on the word here tonight. Thou knowest the state of soul of each one who is present. Many, probably most, if not all, have heard the gospel before.
But we thank thee for extending the day of grace to this very hour.
We know that soon the door will be shut. The gospel of Thy grace will be heard no more.
We thank you. That is still the day of grace. So we ask thy blessing not only here, but wherever the gospel is sounding forth tonight, we ask it in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Turn with me tonight to Romans chapter one, please.
Epistle of Paul to the Romans, Chapter One.
And verse one, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.
Called to be an apostle.
Separated unto the gospel of God.
That first verse of this epistle speaks of the gospel in probably the broadest, largest expression that we have. It's God's gospel, gospel meaning good news. It's the gospel of God. It originated from God. It comes from the heart of God, comes from God's purpose and will to save man. It's a message that is so wonderful.
That there's nothing ever been heard like it in this world before, That God, the infinite God that created all things, has good news for a Sinner.
One who deserves to be shut out from His holy Presence forever and doomed to an eternity in hell.
God has good news for such, for the ungodly, for sinners, even for enemies we read. Even for enemies God has good news. What a God this is. And Paul was called an apostle, and he was separated, set apart unto the gospel of God. Nothing more precious to proclaim, nothing more.
Momentous. Nothing more important than the gospel of God.
Which he had promised of four by his prophets in the holy scriptures.
Now that's referring to the Old Testament prophets, the Holy Scriptures. To the Old Testament Scriptures. They point forward to a coming Redeemer, to one who would to die, who came to die, who would pay the penalty for man's sin so that God might open the floodgates of His love and grace and welcome man back to himself. That's the gospel. It's God's gospel.
But it concerns a person. It centered the subject matter of the gospel is a person.
Concerning his son.
Jesus Christ, our Lord. It's about him. It's not about man.
It's not about you. It's not about me. We are the ones that are the recipients of the blessing.
When we repent and turn to God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but God's gospel is centered around the person and that person, his beloved Son.
Concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. Here was one that Pre existed before he became a man. But he's now presented here as the seed of David, David's son. David's son. He became a man of the seed of David according to the flesh. A true man down here in this world. But he's more than a man. He's declared to be the son of God.
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That's his deity. That's his eternal essential glory. The Son of God, Son of God, became the Son of Man. God became a man. This is the gospel of the grace of God, that God became a man. God came down from the lofty heights of that inscrutable glory where he dwelt in unapproachable light, a God that was unapproachable by a Sinner.
Has now made himself approachable by coming out of that essential light and glory, that unapproachable light.
And becoming a man of the seed of David according to the flesh. Who is it that took such a place? It's the one who has now declared to be the Son of God. How so? Declared with power according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead he went into death for our sins. This gospel explains that this epistle, the 1St 8 chapters of Romans, is the fullest.
Explanation and exposition that we have in all of Scripture.
Of the gospel of God.
Second to it would be the Epistle to the Galatians where he takes up a special.
Problem that was being introduced in the early among the early Christians and that was trying to put the Gentiles under the law. He deals with that also in this epistle. But the Epistle to the Galatians, he deals with it in a very full way.
Declared to be the Son of God with power, he said. He said, a man amongst men. He said, destroy this temple, and he was talking about the temple of his body. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
And when he did that, it was the unquestionable proof that he was all that he claimed to be. The Son of God, declared to be the Son of God with power, the power that resided essentially in his person. He raised himself. How could you do that if he wasn't God? Well, he was God, God the Son, and he came, the man Christ Jesus. Why did he become a man?
Because he came to save sinners. He came, came to save mankind. For God so loved the world of men and women and children and boys and girls, that He gave his only begotten son the only way that he could accomplish redemption, the only way that he could save man, was he had to become one of us. Sin apart. The only the only difference between his humanity and actually his humanity was the same as ours, except the state of it was different.
His humanity was holy, ours is sinful, and that's why he had to come. Had he been sinful himself that he couldn't have qualified to be a savior in the Old Testament they had to take a lamb that was out spot and without blemish, no defects whatsoever, to represent the impeccable holiness of the Lord's humanity.
He had to come though, and become a man.
In order to save man.
As one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Now, in order to be the mediator between God and men, he had to be able to lay his hand on God, and he had to be able to lay his hand on man.
In order to be that, he had to be both God and man in one person.
You see, the gospel of God is not just a way of saving man. It is God's way and the only way. There is no other way.
No other possibility for man to be saved outside of the gospel of God. God giving his Son and sending his beloved Son and to become a man.
So that he might bring us to God.
I wonder if there's anyone in the room this evening that is still at a distance from God, is still not saved. Or maybe you're not sure of your salvation. You can be sure tonight. God has demonstrated so wonderfully the proof of His love by sending the darling of his bosom, the son of his love, into this world to become a man, a servant. He may decide the form of God and took upon him the form of a servant.
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Was made in the likeness of men, made, as it says here, of the seed of David after the flesh.
But declared to be the Son of God with power.
He raised himself.
The power of God in resurrection displayed in that person.
Now only God could say. Only one who was divine could say though human to destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
He spake of the temple of his body. They thought he was talking about the temple that Herod had built. No, he wasn't talking about that temple.
He was talking about the temple of his body where God dwelt. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, because he had come in grace the first time he came. He came in grace not to impute sin to man, but to reconcile man to God. In order to effect this, he had to die. He had to pay the punishment and the penalty for sin.
Your sins my sins in order that he might bring us to God.
The Gospel of God is the gospel, the good news that originated in God himself, and it concerns and is centered around a person, his Son.
His beloved son.
Do you know him? Do you know that person?
Whom to know is life eternal?
And if you don't know him?
You're lost.
He said that he believed not. He said this to the Jews, if you believe not that I am he.
Ye shall die in your sins.
If you don't believe who he is.
Ye shall die in your sins. There's a poem that I often recite.
I learned it many, many years ago.
What thinking of Christ is the test?
To try both your state in your scheme, you cannot be right in the rest unless you think rightly of him.
As Jesus appears to your view as he is beloved or not, so God is disposed to you.
And mercy or wrath is your lot.
The real question for every Sinner to answer is the Sun question, one thinking of Christ.
Whose son is he? He asked the Pharisees.
And they said he's the son of David.
That was the true answer. He was the son of David. That's his humanity.
And then he quotes the scripture, which they knew very well, from the 110th Psalm, where Jehovah says to the Messiah, the Lord said unto my Lord, David says, my Lord, it's David Psalm, sit down on my right hand till I make thine enemies, the footstool of thy feet. And the Lord quotes that Psalm to the Pharisees. And he said, David called him Lord, How is he then his son?
And they could not answer the question.
How could he be David's son and David's Lord at the same time?
David's son, his man. David's Lord. He's God. God the son.
And this is what is called in Scripture the doctrine of Christ, God, and man in one person. If you don't believe that, you can believe everything else that's in the Bible, you're still lost.
That's the most foundational truth there is in all the scripture.
The doctrine of Christ, if you believe not that I am he.
He is Jehovah, He is the I am. He is the Sent One. He is the eternal Son of the Father, if you don't believe that.
He shall die in your sins.
Very solemn question.
Well, let's go on a little.
He writes in verse 7 to all that be in Rome, beloved of God called Saints.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he thanks God that their faith was spoken of throughout the world.
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He says in verse 11, I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end. You may be established.
And then he says in verse 13, I would not have you ignorant brethren, that oftentimes I purpose to come unto you.
But was hindered hitherto that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.
So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also, he hadn't been to Rome when he wrote this epistle.
And now he says verse 16, wonderful verse. I'm not ashamed.
Of the gospel of Christ.
For it is the power of God.
Unto salvation.
To everyone that believeth to the Jew 1St, and also to the Greek.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God.
In the first verse we read of the Gospel of God.
And in verse nine we read God is my witness, whom I serve with my Spirit in the gospel of His Son.
Gospel of His Son. It concerns the Son.
Now he talks about the power of God. There's power in the gospel.
There's power in the message when believed to set a soul free from sin.
And to save that soul, power of God unto salvation, there is power in the gospel to take a drunkard.
Or a drug addict and to deliver them from that addiction.
From that drink or from that?
Habit of drugs or whatever it may be.
Sexual immorality, whatever it may be, there is power.
In the gospel to set us all free from sin.
And anyone who claims to be saved and continues on in sin, blatantly, flagrantly, could well question the reality of that salvation. Because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. What does it save us from? It saves us from our old lifestyle, Saves us from our sins.
Saves us from the consequences of our fins, which is eternal hell, eternal separation from God.
But it saves us, in a very practical sense, from sin and from going on in sin. It's the power of God unto salvation. It saves us.
Saves us from ourselves. Saves us from our sinful lifestyle, the evil that we've been going on with before we came to hear the gospel.
It is the power of God unto salvation. Man's power will not do it, but God's power will set us free.
If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty, the freedom wherewith Christ hath made you free, Paul says to the Galatians, and be not entangled again in the yoke of *******.
It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it.
That's our part. That's your part. That's my part. To receive it. To believe it.
To have faith in him.
To the Jew 1St and also to the Greek.
And there's a marvelous truth in the gospel.
For therein in the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed.
From faith to faith, that is on that principle of faith, and it's revealed to faith. It's revealed to those that have faith. God's righteousness in the gospel is that attribute of God, that perfect consistency of himself with all that he is in all his dealings.
He must be consistent with himself. How can God, a holy righteous God, save a Sinner?
How can he do it and be righteous in doing it?
I used to, when I thought of the gospel, I used to think of His love, His grace, His mercy, his compassion, his kindness, His forgiveness, and all those wonderful attributes.
But when I thought of his righteousness, his justice, His Holiness made me tremble, made me feel that I could never approach such a God.
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He's holy. He's righteous. His righteousness must exclude me. If he deals with me in righteousness, I'm lost.
Wonder of the message of the gospel is that God in the gospel proclaims his righteousness in the way of saving sinners and not in the way of sending them to hell.
And God said, soul to hell, it will be an expression of his righteousness, a demonstration of it.
But when he saves A Sinner that believes in Jesus, that's an expression of his righteousness in the way of saving a soul. How can he do that? Because of the cross?
Because the penalty for that soul sins have already been paid by the Lord Jesus on the cross.
It is in the cross of Christ we see how God can save yet righteous be.
So he says, therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Not now, not in the way of condemning A Sinner to hell. That's an expression of righteousness.
But in the way of saving a soul that believes in Jesus and justifying him.
Bringing him into a place of acceptance before himself.
What a wonderful message. What a gospel. What good news.
Therein is the righteousness of God.
Revealed on the principle of faith, not the law principle.
That was tried for 1500 years, 10 commandments. And when Israel was given the 10 commandments, they said all that the Lord hath spoken, we will do and obey.
And they broke the 1St 3 commandments before Moses ever got down from the mount with the two tables of stone in his hands.
And he broke those tables to pieces at the foot of the mount. He didn't carry them into the camp. It would have meant certain death and judgment for all of his real had he done so.
And he took their golden calf, their idolatrous worship, that they had concocted of their own mind, and he grounded to powder, and made them drink it.
And there was judgment that broke out in the camp when the law was given when they broke it.
But if the law had been carried in its pure form into the camp, it would have meant certain judgment.
Sometimes you talk to a person you know and you say how are you going to get to heaven?
Well, keep the law oftentimes that's the that's the answer I've received.
Do you know what the law says? Do you know the law? Well, 99% of those that I asked that question of if you would ask the question of which would not know it. They don't know what they are saying. They don't know the law.
The 10 commandments Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
The second commandment, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, anything in heaven or on earth, bow down to it, or worship it.
Now those first two commandments Israel had broken before Moses brought the law into the camp. The third commandment they also broke. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. They have made a golden calf, they had danced around it, they made another God, they made an idol. And they said, tomorrow is the feast of Jehovah, and attached the name of the true God to that idolatrous feast.
They taken his name in vain. 4th commandment was ceremonial. Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. The 5th commandment is Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.
The 6th commandment is thou shalt not kill murder.
The 7th Commandment. Thou shalt not commit adultery. The 8th commandment thou shalt not steal. The 9th commandment, Thou shalt not bear false witness.
And the 10th commandment is thou shalt not covet.
Or thou shalt not lust.
Thou shalt not desire what is not yours, whether your neighbor has it, his wife, his *** his ox, his field, whatever it may be.
Those are the 10 commandments.
There isn't a man or woman or boy or girl living that has kept them.
And all you have to do to break to come under the judgment of breaking the law is break one of them.
And most of us have broken far more than one.
Cursed It is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law.
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To do them, it's like A10 length chain. You're down in a pit and someone lowers that 10 length chain down to you.
And you grab the bottom and he starts pulling you up and one of the links breaks. Just one and you drop right back down to the bottom. You cannot get up by a chain that has links that will break.
And that last commandment, thou shalt not covet or lust.
Slays everyone of us.
Slays everyone of us.
So it's not by the law principle, but by the principle of faith. The righteousness of God is revealed on the principle of faith to faith.
It's not the principle of law now not works, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy.
He saved us by the washing of regeneration.
Renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Therein is the righteousness of God revealed on the principle of faith to faith, that is, as it is written, the justice.
Shall live by faith. That's a quote from the Old Testament ages position when he.
Is under law, not realizing that when he's under law, he's under the curse.
And he is under the sentence of death and condemnation.
For God now is introduced by grace, another principle principle of grace.
And faith, The just shall live by faith. That's quoted here in Romans one, it's quoted in Galatians 3 and in Romans it's the just you'll live by faith. Romans is answering the question, How shall man be just with God?
So he brings out God's justification, God's accounting us righteous, and God is righteous in doing that.
Imputing righteousness to us when in fact we are not righteous.
God is the justifier of the ungodly.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.
Christ died for the ungodly.
There is none Righteous. No. Not what?
But that's that makes us candidates for receiving the gospel, the good news, and lost. I'm undone. I'm not righteous. I'm ungodly. I'm a Sinner. I'm an enemy. I'm an enemy of God. That's what this book declares.
But God has good news for such the gospel is not sent to a righteous person, but.
To a Sinner.
To one that needs the salvation that God provides.
The just shall live by faith, Romans. The emphasis is on the justice. In Galatians the emphasis is on the just shall live by faith. Faith in contrast with works in Galatians works of the law and in Hebrews 10. The just shall live by faith. It's a life of faith in Hebrews that is before us, but it's quoted in all three in all three scriptures in the New Testament.
Taken from.
The Prophet.
In the Old Testament.
The just shall live by faith. You can emphasize it any way you want. The just to live by faith. The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. That principle.
And then he talks about the wrath of God. It's a solemn thing. That's not good news. Sometimes a person is asked to give the gospel, and he preaches on hell all meeting long, and that's not the gospel.
That's not good news.
The wrath of God is preached alongside of the gospel because if you reject the gospel.
You come under the judgment of God.
The wrath of God. It's revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
Who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Well, I don't want to spend more time in this chapter. The end of this chapter he deals with the Barbarian Gentiles.
And at the end of the chapter he says in verse 32 who knowing the judgment of God.
That they which commit such things are worthy of death. And he outlines a catalog of sins that are rampant everywhere today. AIDS, cancer, heart disease, all of these diseases of modern society. They're the result of sin. Man doesn't like to hear that. They're the result of a perverted lifestyle.
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Because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto all uncleanness.
He gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which were not convenient, and so on. And then he ends who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
So the chapter begins with the gospel of God. It's concerning his Son, Jesus Christ. It's the gospel of his Son.
He says I'm not ashamed of the gospel because the righteousness of God in the way of saving a Sinner that believes in Jesus is revealed in that gospel.
But he says if you reject it.
The wrath of God and the judgment of God will overtake you.
Solemn results of rejecting the gospel.
Now turn to the third chapter, where he deals with the Barbarian gentiles in chapter one and then in the first part of chapter 2.
He deals with the cultured, educated philosophers of the Gentiles.
And then he deals with the Jew, the most privileged of all.
And at the end he concludes in chapter 3 verse 19 he says now we know that whatsoever the law sayeth.
It saith to them who are under the law. That would be the Jew, that every mouth may be stopped Jew and Gentile, and all the world may become guilty before God.
So man is no longer on trial. The trial is over.
The sentence has been passed.
The judge says guilty all mankind, Jew and Gentile.
So for anyone today to put himself under law is to put himself on the ground of still being under trial. Trial is not on any longer. The trial is ending. Man is found wanting, Jew and Gentile, with and without law. He's condemned. He's lost. He's guilty. The whole world is guilty. Before God, every mouth stopped.
You accept that indictment. Do you accept that? If you don't, if you think that you can by works of law gain a righteousness which will be acceptable to God, you are under the deception and delusion of Satan.
Man tried it for 1500 years, the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees, Did not Moses give you the law? And none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?
An infallible witness there and then Stephen, speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit, says, who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.
Two infallible witnesses, says that man, 1500 years of testing.
Has failed to produce a righteousness which God can accept.
So on that ground.
Man is lost.
Now the time comes, that having been proven.
For the gospel of his grace, the gospel of God's sovereign grace to be revealed, the gospel of God, the heart of God told out.
God, as it were, says to man, you don't have a righteousness which I can accept. I have one that I will give to you.
My son.
I will put you in him before me, so that when I look upon you, I see you in Christ.
He now becomes the righteousness of every believer.
And God is righteous in doing that because of Christ's death on the cross.
God could not do it. He could not be righteous in doing it had Christ not died.
And paid the penalty. Let's look at those verses that developed this.
The end of verse 19 says all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law, by the works of the law, shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law tells me what is sinful.
The law says murder is sinful, adultery is sinful.
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Stealing is sinful. Lying is sinful. Covetousness is sinful.
Disobedient to parents is sinful.
Turning away from the only true God is sinful. Idolatry is sinful.
Taking the name of the Lord in vain is sinful.
By the laws, the knowledge of sin.
Now nine of the 10 commandments are embodied in the New Testament.
And the Christian when he walks in the Spirit, he fulfills the law.
What the law required and could not produce.
By the principle of law is produced by grace working in the heart of the Christian.
Under the power of the Holy Spirit.
Nothing wrong with the law.
The law is holy and just and good.
Absolutely perfect. Perfect rule for man to live by.
But man being a Sinner is condemned by it.
So God comes out in grace now.
Verse 20 Again, Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the laws the knowledge of sin. But now now that that's all been demonstrated and proven, and man has come out as utterly sinful and condemned by the law principle now the righteousness of God without the law altogether, apart from the law.
Is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
You read the prophets, you read especially Isaiah. It says he speaks of my righteousness is about to be revealed and that's Christ.
Witnessed by the Law and the prophets, God says I have something better.
Something better for you?
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 short of the glory of God. No difference whether you are a barbarian gentile.
Or a Greek Gentile. Or a Jew. No difference. You're a Sinner, Sinner before God, all in the same state of condemnation.
No difference but this righteousness of God.
Is now operating in the way of justifying the Sinner that believes in Jesus, and it's unto all.
The work of Christ is of such value before God that every man, woman and child in this world could be saved. He just turned to Christ. It's not a limited atonement that the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross. It's for all. For God so loved the world, all mankind, that he gave his only begotten Son. So the salvation of God is available to all, none excluded.
None excluded, it is unto all, but it is only upon all them that believe the benefit of it only reaches to the one that receives Christ by faith.
That's all that we have to do.
It's not a work of the law. It's faith. It's trusting God. It's receiving Christ by faith.
The just shall live by faith, not by works.
By faith.
It is unto all, and it is upon all them that believe, for there is no difference.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Being justified, being declared righteous by God.
You, me, I who am not righteous.
God says when you receive my son.
I consider you righteous.
I declare you so.
Being justified freely.
By his grace.
How can he do it?
Well, the source of it is Grace.
The basis of this justification is his precious blood which he shed on the cross.
That answered to God for all of our sins and the means by which we get it is faith. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So the source of the justification is the grace of God. The ground of the justification is the precious blood of Christ, the work of Christ, and the cross.
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And the means of getting it is faith on our part.
The just shall live by faith.
Faith who being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, there is the foundation.
The redemptive work of Christ accomplished on the cross, where he died for our sins, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.
God is setting forth a meeting place between God and man, this propitiatory sacrifice.
Where he answered to God for all our sins.
Bore the penalty for my sins.
Bore the judgment that my sins deserved open the way for man to come back to him.
It's by grace, and God is setting forth as a mercy seat, a meeting place between himself and man.
Through his blood.
To declare, I say, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that have passed. That is, he passed over the sins of the Old Testament Saints, didn't bring them into judgment. He looked forward to the cross. He knew he would send his son, and he knew his son would pay the penalty for their sins. So he he passed over the sins of the Old Testament Saints, those who believed, those that looked forward in faith to a coming Redeemer, and now that that Redeemer has come.
And died on the cross, and shed His precious blood, and rose again from the dead. From on the third day. God is now declared righteous, and having passed over the sins of the Old Testament believers.
Then in verse 26 he says to declare at this time right now his righteousness, that is his consistency with himself in justifying the Sinner.
That he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
In the act of justifying the Sinner that believes in Jesus, God shows himself to be righteous in doing that because of the work of Christ.
That's the foundation of it.
Now, having said this, he says where is boasting then? Does man have anything to boast of? Has he done one single thing to contribute to his salvation? No.
Absolutely none.
Where is boasting, then? It is excluded. By what law of works? Nay, no, But by the law of faith, the principle of faith.
Those two don't mix.
Works in faith are mutually exclusive. You're either going to get saved by doing something on your own efforts, or you're going to say I'm bankrupt, I'm lost, I can't do anything. I'm condemned on that principle. I flee to Christ, and in faith I receive Him as my Lord and Savior.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law of works, Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude, here's the conclusion of the whole matter, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. It amazes me that Christendom is so largely under law when we have clear verses like this that says a man is justified by faith altogether, apart from the works of the law.
Is this just for Israel?
The law was just given to Israel, you know, it wasn't given to the Gentiles. Is this?
Good news of the gospel just limited to Israel. No, he says. He's he the God of the Jews only.
Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. This is too good to limit to just a part of humanity. It's for everyone. You and gentile, boy and girl, man and woman, no matter what color of skin you are, is for all.
Seeing it as one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith, or on the principle of faith, in contrast with the principle of works.
That they were under when they were under law.
And the uncircumcision the Gentiles through faith. Faith is a means.
So it's faith that the Jew had to learn. It's the principle of faith that I'm blessed, blessed by now. And the Gentile too, that it was through faith that he was blessed by.
Then he asked the question.
Do we then make void the law through faith?
God forbid, no. Yeah, we establish the law.
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How do you establish the law? By faith?
Well, let me answer that question by starting and saying the way you you void the law.
Is to put yourself under it, break it, and then say I'm not condemned by it.
The one that does that, and that's what everyone does.
How you going to get to heaven? By keeping the 10 commandments? Do you keep them Well? No, but I try. Well, they doesn't hold out any kind of blessing or promise of blessing to the Trier. It holds it out to the doer. The man that doeth these things should live by them.
So if you try and fail, you're under the curse and the condemnation of death.
The last.
So the man that puts himself under law and breaks it and says it doesn't condemn me, he's the one that makes void the law through faith, but the one through, He's the one that makes void the law, but the one who establishes the law.
And he does it by faith. As the one that says, I cannot keep it. It will only condemn and curse me. If I try. I've tried and failed and failed and failed. I flee now to Christ. I accept him by faith. I own the law, condemns me and curses me and slays me. I flee to Christ, and by faith I'm justified. I confirm the law by faith.
Establish it.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yeah, we establish.
The law.
So the laws established.
The laws, holy and just in good but applied to a Sinner like me can only kill me.
Can only condemn me, can only curse me.
That applies to every man, woman and child in this world, none excluded. There was only one that kept it magnified the law and made it honorable, a blessed Lord himself.
What shall we say then?
Chapter 4. That Abraham our father is pertaining to the flesh hath found.
For if Abraham were justified by works.
He hath whereof to glory, but not before God. Now he's bringing Abraham forward here, because.
He's dealing with the Jews, the Jewish believers, and they were still tending to cling to the law principle.
So he says Now how did Abraham get justified? How did he come into blessing? How was he accounted righteous?
Was it by something he did?
For if Abraham were justified by works.
He hath whereof to glory, but not before God.
But what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. God took him out in Genesis 15, and he showed him the stars of heaven. And he said, socialized seed be He had no seed at all from Sarah his wife.
And at the end of this chapter it says he considered not his own body, now dead, being about 100 years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
But he was strengthened by faith, and he believed in the God of resurrection, the God that brings lifeout of death.
The God that brings lifeout of death.
He says in verse four of our chapter 4. Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
We all know what that principle is. Everyone of us that has a job, we work for our employer. When we went to work, we were interviewed and we got the job description of the job we were to perform and we agreed we would perform this job, we would do these duties and the employer agreed to pay us a certain sum for it.
So he owed it to us. After we had worked a week or two weeks or three or four, whatever the payment period was, we received a check from the employer. That was the principle of law, principle of works. We all know what that is. That's the way the world operates. It does not operate on the principle of grace. It does not like grace.
It feels comfortable with the law principle.
But on that principle, what he's showing here in Romans is we're lost.
Everyone of us on that principle.
Verse five he says to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness. That is, he's hell to be righteous before God by faith.
On that principle, failure.
Not works.
This is very humbling to man.
He doesn't like it. He doesn't like grace. It's a very humbling to man. There's nothing more humbling than grace.
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Makes absolutely nothing of Maine, nothing of you, nothing of us.
Everything of God.
Nothing more humbling than grace.
I was remember talking to my instructor at college after I gotten saved and I sat before him some of these principles and he looked at me and he was in a religion where a religion of works, you have to do something in order to to gain God's acceptance. And he said I don't want that. I don't like grace as you explain it. I want to do my part.
I don't want to owe it entirely and altogether to another.
You see, that's attacking the pride of man. The pride of man is the heat. He thinks that he is not altogether bad. I used to tell my mother after I got saved and she was delving in a very, very false, cultish religion.
And justice delving into it, she didn't get into it, thankfully. And she said, you mean there's nothing good in us? Nothing, I said, That's exactly what the word of God says. We're always an unclean thing in all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in his sight. There's none to do with good. There's none righteous, not so much as one. The 14th Psalm says the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand.
That did seek after God. What did he see? They were all together become corrupt. They are all turned aside. There was none that doeth good. No, not one.
God saw the wickedness of man was that he was, that it was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Such is man.
How can he be saved only by the grace of God?
Only by the wonderful provision that the God of all grace has made.
And they sent out the gospel of God.
The good news of God.
I don't know. I don't know if there's anyone in this room that isn't saved tonight. I think everyone that I see has heard the gospel before, I believe.
You may have heard it 1000 times. Doesn't mean you're saved though.
You have to receive it by faith, and only God knows. Only God really knows if you've done that.
But you can't fool him. You can fool yourself. You can fool your parents, you can fool your brethren, but you can't fool God.
Because all things are naked and opened under the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
And he knows if there's faith in your soul or not, the just shall live by faith. If you don't remember anything else I've said here tonight, remember that verse that just shall live by faith. Faith is the principle upon which your soul will make a link with God.
Faith is the hand that reaches out and lays hold upon what a God of love provides.
And without that link, you're lost, lost, lost.
Forever.
But he's given the offer, he said. All things are ready. Come.
I sent my son. He died for you. He rose again the third day.
He showed himself to be the Son of God.
All that, he claimed.
He was delivered for our offenses. That's how this 4th chapter ends and he was raised again for our justification.
Therefore Chapter 51 being justified by faith.
We have peace with God.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access.
By faith into this grace wherein we stand, the believer is seen standing in grace.
The only way we can stand before God is in grace. We can't stand there on the basis of our having done one single thing towards our salvation. It's His work, from beginning to end, altogether and exclusively, that makes nothing of us. I realize that it makes everything of God.
That's God's gospel, and it's the only way of salvation.
And then it ends that that that second verse of Romans 5 ends and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
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Romans 3 says all of sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 5 To the Christian, to the justified man, to one who is justified by faith and has peace with God in his standing in grace. He's rejoicing now in the hope of the glory of God, that glory which he has come short of.
He's now rejoicing in the hope of it. Is that your hope? Is that your hope tonight?
If you don't have that hope, then you haven't come into the good of the gospel.
The wonderful gospel of the grace of God.
That's closed by singing #33. Nothing either great or small. Nothing Sinner. No. Jesus did it. Did it all long, long ago. It is finished. Yes, indeed. Finished. Every job center. This is all you need. Tell me, is it not?
Nothing either great or small.
Nothing Sinner. No Jesus.
Where he from his life be thrown.
Straight and I.
Everything was.
Fooled.
His right.
I Christmas you're sending.
Minister.