God’s Gift of Rightousness

Because we’re doing communion
at the very end. So I’m already overdue. If you
would, we pick up in Romans chapter three where we left off last
week, but the break here is substantial. The transition is immediate and
because it’s so immediate, sometimes we might not get the substantial
nature in which the subject matter changes. The context here, as
you know, we’ve been talking about sin chapters one and two
are almost exclusively about that that carries into chapter
three all the way through verse 20. But all of a sudden, the
light dawns here in chapter three, verse 21, where Paul opens up
to the great subject of salvation in chapter three, verse 21, and
that will carry all the way down through chapter five, verse 21.
Here in this opening section, we see the means of salvation
justification by faith in verses twenty seven through thirty one.
We see the glory of salvation where boasting is denied in chapter
four. It opens up to an example of
salvation by faith using Abraham and the history of Abraham as
the example. Abraham’s justification. And
then finally, in chapter five, we see where Paul goes into the
effects of salvation with a life of peace with God. And that carries all the way
down through chapter five, verse twelve, where once again, Paul
uses a contrast from the Old Testament, this time with Adam
and the difference between Adam and Christ. It is a great section. I have thoroughly enjoyed, as
I hope you will pick up, I have thoroughly enjoyed just beginning
to open the books to this study. So where we find ourselves is
with Paul already having established this argument that the wrath
of God has been revealed that all are under sin, both Jew and
Gentiles. And what Paul will begin to do
here is expand on a number of these propositions that are posed
here, even in this particular verse. Since Paul has already
demonstrated that no flesh can or will be justified by the deeds
of the law, not because the law is faulty, the standard is perfect.
But no man can live up to the standard. Because of the weakness
of the flesh, because we are inherently sinful, no man can
stay the course. And so Paul returns and to a
deeper version of the great theme of righteousness here, the righteousness
of God. It again comes into focus where
Paul will do so again and again throughout the book of Romans.
This word righteousness in its various forms is used more than
60 times throughout the epistle, clearly a major theme. And this
passage is the core. One of the things. I feel sorry for is that I can’t
share everything that I read. Sometimes the quotes are so rich
and so good and so full that I would love to read them, but
they’re just too long. And such is the case with one
that I pulled today. But it was so good and I think
sets the tone for this book so well that I purpose to read it
in its entirety to you this morning. where he wrote this short section
is the center and heart of the whole book of Romans. It reads
like a solemn proclamation. It stands out by virtue of its
content, for it proclaims the fact that the one decisive, once
for all redemptive act of God, the revelation both of righteousness,
which is from God, and also the wrath of God against human sin,
which is the basis of the continuing revelation of the preaching of
the gospel has now taken place. It shows that the heart of the
gospel preached by Paul is a series of events in the past, not just
the crucifixion of Christ. The cross itself would have been
no saving act of God. But the crucifixion, together
with the resurrection and exaltation of the crucified, a series of
events which is the event of history. It attests the fact
that what we have to do with in the gift of righteousness
is nothing less than God’s costly forgiveness. Which is altogether
worthy of the righteous, loving, faithful God who does not insult
or mock his creature by pretending that sin does not matter, but
rather himself bears the full cost of forgiving it. Righteously. That is a beautiful
description. Of Romans 321 through 521. A beautiful description. If you would, Romans chapter
three. We’ll pick up in verse twenty one. Where Paul begins
with a strong contrast, but now apart from the law, the righteousness
of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets, even the righteousness of God. through faith in Jesus
Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified
as a gift by his grace through the redemption, which is in Christ
Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood
through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness
because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins
previously committed. For the for the demonstration,
I say, of his righteousness at the present time that he might
be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Paul has wrapped up his presentation
of sin, it’s not that he won’t return to that theme again and
again throughout. The epistle to the Romans, but
he has established fully and clearly that all are under sin. And if that was the message of
Romans in itself, then we are doomed. We are hopeless because
Paul built the case very clearly that all are completely sewn
up. Under these charges of sin and
sinfulness, but that isn’t the end of the story. And the light
does dawn here. And in verse 321, great hope
is given. The greatest hope in all the
world. The thing that man needs most
is the righteousness of God. And suddenly, Paul says, it’s
here. Look again at verse 21. But now,
if you want to look at the simple sentence here, it is very simple. But now, the righteousness of
God has been manifested. That’s the pure and simple sentence
that almost the entirety of this passage rests upon. Now, if you
wanted to append one little section to that and perhaps expand the
simple sentence, it would go like this, but now the righteousness
of God has been manifested, even the righteousness of God, where
Paul merely echoes that thought. It is the righteousness of God
and he echoes it for a purpose, which purpose we’ll see in a
few moments. But now. It was amazing to me and it often
is when I’m studying the degree and the length that some commentators
will go on some of the most simple words. But now, and there was
no little ink spilled on this particular discussion. One painted it simply that this
is an adverb of time expressing the contrast between two periods.
Well, that much is obvious. the very word now and that there
is a strong contrast. What is the contrast is not just
between a period of time, but between an understanding of salvation
in those periods of time, justification through works in the one and
justification by faith in the other. We’ll touch upon that
in a moment. It’s as if Paul says, as things
are now, suddenly. There is a way that things used
to be, but as they are now and Paul calls us. And this is a
frequent idea for Paul. Paul frequently wanted to call
people’s minds. Do you remember when? But now. In Ephesians 2, 12, he says,
remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, excluded
from the commonwealth of Israel. strangers to the covenants of
promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Second Corinthians
516, he said, therefore, from now on, we recognize no one according
to the flesh, even though we we’ve known Christ according
to the flesh. Yet now we know him this way
no longer. The gospel. He says, has been
manifested, it’s been presented at a particular time in history
and it changed everything. That’s what he says in those
two little words. But now. I appreciated particularly
the way one said it, he said, this is a wonderful and marvelous
contrast, but now between man’s total depravity and inability
to please God and God’s own provision of a way to himself. The epistle
has portrayed an utterly dark picture of man’s wickedness and
hopelessness apart from God. Now, after backing all sinful
mankind, Jew and Gentile alike into the totally dark, seemingly
inescapable corner of God’s wrath, Paul begins to open the window
of divine grace that lets in the glorious light of salvation
through the righteousness that God himself has provided. I’ll tell you what it reminds
me of this little word, but now this little phrase that so many
skipped over or so many wanted to make so academically cold
as to miss the point entirely. I’ll tell you what it reminds
me of. Turn, though, if you would keep your finger in Romans three,
I’m not going to dawdle very long. Ephesians chapter two. This is a perfect parallel. Ephesians chapter two. And you
want to talk about a dark picture, you want to talk about a desperate
situation, Ephesians chapter two, verse one, and you were
dead in your trespasses and sins. Doesn’t get any worse than that.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly
walked. According to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, Satan
controlled you and your entire life. Of the spirit that is now
working in the sons of disobedience among them, we, too, all formerly
lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the
flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath. even as the rest. But God, that’s
what it reminds me of. That’s the stark contrast. And
Paul essentially said the same thing in Romans one and two. You were dead in your trespasses
and sins. But God, Romans three twenty
one. But now. Look at verse four of Ephesians
two, but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with
which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions,
made us alive with Christ. By grace, you have been saved
and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. so that in the ages to come he
might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards
us in Christ Jesus. It was as bleak, as dark, as
hopeless as it could get, but God. It was as bleak, as dark,
as sinful as it could get, and Paul says in Romans 3.21, but
now. Back to Romans if you would. But now. The righteousness of
God has been manifested, we touched on righteousness briefly during
our initial foray into verses 16 and 17 of chapter one. We
have an idea of what righteousness is. This word used so often throughout
the book of Romans, as I mentioned, the original meaning of it was
what was customary. ultimately became almost courtroom
language, that which is right and just. And that’s the kind
of meaning that it essentially took on, ultimately referring
in various forms to judgment and lawsuits and trials and penalties
and satisfaction and all the rest, all kinds of courtroom
legal terminology. This word, and we looked at it
in a little more depth, but the word righteous or to make righteous
or righteousness, the state of being righteous or just, that’s
the gist of the word. As one said, the fundamental
idea of righteousness is that of strict adherence to the law.
And so it was a course, a life course that adhered to a standard. He goes on to describe it as
in these terms, he says, among men, it presupposes that there
is a law to which they must conform. It’s sometimes said that we cannot
speak of righteousness in God. And the whole argument goes like
this. It’s not that God conforms to the standard. God is the standard.
He’s the one from who this righteous standard flows. Now, The problem
is that it’s exactly as we’ve already seen Romans one and two. It’s precisely that righteousness
which we lack. Right, and I basically want to
call especially the kids to an understanding of that simple
truth. We cannot be good enough. We
can’t live good enough. If your parents are always telling
you, little Johnny, you know, you’re always messing up. They’re
right. And it doesn’t matter even if they don’t catch it,
because you know in your own heart, you’re not right. You
don’t do right. You do wrong things. You sin
because you’re a sinner, just like the rest of us. You’re in
a good crowd. Just like sinners, as we discussed
last week, we are anything but righteous. We’re called to do
right, but we find in ourselves the inability to do right for
very long. Sometimes we have a good, well,
we don’t even have a good day, do we? Sometimes we have a good
afternoon or a few good moments. We play kindly with our siblings.
We do the right thing. We do our homework when we’re
told to, as we’re told to, to the standard. Well, we don’t
even manage that very well, but we do some homework occasionally
pretty good. In fact, we don’t even do that.
We are anything but righteous. We don’t match up to God’s standard. We don’t measure up, right? And
because of the fall of Adam and Eve from that point forward,
we are inherently sinful. Everything that we do is tainted. It’s kind of smells like smoke,
if you will. Everything from the garden forward,
everything that we ever do from the time that we’re born. We
don’t have to be taught to sin, do we, kids? We sin. Because we were born, we sin
because we’re human. We have a complete inability
to please God from the moment we’re born. And that’s why the
reconciliation of God is so crucial. We need a savior. We desperately
need a savior and God has provided it. And that’s what makes the
whole plan of God so amazing and so important, as we’ll see
this morning. God has provided the righteousness that we need.
We can’t stand before a holy God because we are besmudged
with sin. We stink. We’re dirty. We lie. We’re sinners and we
absolutely need God’s help. But we’ll never make it to heaven
because we can never stand in front of a holy God. And that’s why God provided it. And he provided it by way of
righteousness. He gives us what we need. He
gives us the righteousness that we need. How? Well, we’ll see
as the morning unfolds. But this righteousness is called
the righteousness of God. It’s called the righteousness
of God because it’s his standard. After all, God sets the standard
for what’s right, right? So all God says to you is that,
look, if you want to come to heaven, that’s fine. All you
have to do is be as righteous as me. Oh, that’s right. All you have to do is be as righteous
as God, but it’s also called the righteousness of God because
it’s God that provides it. God is the one that provides
this righteousness. He doesn’t call us to live good
enough to rise to the level of God himself. He says, look, they’re
sinners. They are hopeless. They are utterly
incapable of rising to the level of the standard that I require.
They’re going to need help. And God said it. God sent help
in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ, who took our penalty,
died on the cross, lived a perfect, sinless life. And you say, well, how? How does
that give us righteousness? If we believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, God gives us the righteousness that we need to get into heaven.
It’s that simple. It’s as if I’m talking to children,
and I am. It’s that simple. God gives us the righteousness
that we need. I remember one time, and I can’t
remember exactly when because I’m old. I remember one time
using this illustration. Remember the guy in the wedding?
The king had a wedding. He wanted to throw a big fancy
party. You know, most of you ladies focused on the wedding
this last week. I know. I heard all about it.
Well, the king wanted to throw this big fancy party, much like
what we just saw, and all of a sudden in comes in this scraggly
bum, really. Comes in this scraggly bum wearing
his clothes because he didn’t think that he needed the wedding
garments that the king wanted to provide. He had them all ironed
and pressed. They even had the right size
for the guy. Here’s the jacket. Just put it
on. And the guy didn’t want it. What
it is is an illustration of us. We think that we’re good enough
to get in in the rags that we’re wearing, right? Never. It’s not
going to happen. God gives us the garments for
the wedding. God gives us the righteousness
that we need to get into heaven. Pictured. In Matthew, 22 is a
wedding feast. We need God’s righteousness and
God provides it. Paul says in verse 21, But now,
apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, and
it’s not like God just now arrived at his own righteousness. It’s
not like God just now established the standard for heaven. It has
always been the pure standard of righteousness patterned after
God himself. It’s always been that way from
day one. All Adam and Eve had to do is
obey. Not just day one. Not just for
a month or so as they avoided the apple on the tree. They had
to obey God perfectly their entire lives. That’s all they had to
do. Perfect attitudes, perfect behavior, perfect demeanor. You
say, well, that’s impossible. Well, we know that now looking
back, what did they make it a week, a month, a year? Who knows? Not
very long. Righteousness had already been
the focus for Israel that was already the standard they knew
of God’s righteous standards, the law they knew of God’s holiness. And of God’s just dealings with
men, they knew that God tended to punish sin and tended to reward
righteousness. But they also knew that because
of the hundreds of years of human effort, they knew they knew that
in order to live perfectly according to the law, it was an impossible
task. They just it was hopeless. And
Israel itself had almost given up. They hadn’t yet thrown themselves
on the mercy of God. And so they had begun to create
little corners to cut ways that they
could soften God’s law and God’s standard. But the whole thing
left them completely short of God’s righteous standard. And
that’s where the gospel came in. Because we have no ability to
live up to God’s righteous standard. God stepped in and said, look,
here’s a new revelation. I’m going to uncover something
to you that’s been hidden that you didn’t understand. You didn’t
quite get. You didn’t know. And he brought
the news that humanity most needed to hear how Do we get this righteousness? How do we get that jacket? How
do we put on that clothing of righteousness? How do we meet
that divine standard? That standard had been promised
by the prophets, as we’ll see. But what Paul is saying here
right off the bat is all of a sudden a new understanding, a new revelation,
if you will, of how God was operating had been uncovered. to all mankind. I want to look a little deeper
at this passage. We may not make much more headway
this morning, but as you begin to look at Romans chapter 3 verse
21 through 26, what is essentially the core of this news of salvation? What Paul gives to us here in
these opening verses is Matchless qualities of God’s bestowed means
of justification. I know that’s big and long, especially
for the kids. It’s basically these qualities
that inform us of the nature. What is this righteousness like?
How does it work? How do we get it? And once we
have it, what does it do? How does it unlock? heaven for
us. Look, first of all, back again
at Romans 321, the righteousness that saves sinners, and we’re
all sinners, we all need it. The only way in is by righteousness.
Paul’s already established that fact, and he says, but now apart
from the law. Apart from the law. And the idea
is that here is that man no longer has to look to living up and
according to a standard of righteousness that somehow he has to accomplish
on himself. We can’t do our homework perfectly.
We can’t obey our parents perfectly all day, every day. Just ask
your parents how they did it. Everybody wiggled in their seat. Second Corinthians twelve or
three twelve says this. Therefore, having such a hope,
we have great boldness in our speech and are not like Moses,
who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel
would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
But their minds were hardened for this very day. At the reading
of the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because
it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses
has read, a veil lies over their heart. But whenever a person
turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now, the Lord is
the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, behold as in a mirror the glory
of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory
to glory, just as the Lord the Spirit There were countless thousands
of people throughout the history, all trying to live according
to a standard. And it was an impossible standard,
and that was God’s point. God wanted them to throw themselves
at His mercy and say, it’s impossible. I can’t live that good. I need
your help. That’s the whole purpose of the
law. What Paul says here is this way
into heaven. It wasn’t by man’s obedience
to a law, it wasn’t man living according to a perfect standard
all day, every day for his entire life, it just wasn’t. As one
said, Paul is declaring that the righteousness of God gives
to believers is entirely apart from any obedience to law. Even
God’s own revealed law, it’s not that we live according to
the law perfectly before we come to salvation, before God gives
it to us as if we earned it. It’s not that even after, by
God’s grace, we come to know the Lord Jesus, that then we
start living. Now we can really live up to
Ten Commandments. No, it’s not according to that. God’s righteousness is in no
way based on human achievement or anything man can do in his
own power at all. There isn’t anything that we
do to contribute to our salvation. There isn’t anything that we
do beforehand, before God gives it to us that allows us to lay
claim to having earned it. There isn’t anything that we
do to add to it. There isn’t anything that we
do after we have it in order to pay God back at all. It’s not according to law. It
is a part completely apart from the law that Paul says there’s
a there’s another quality of God’s. Justification, what God
wants to give us this righteousness. There’s another quality that
we need to. We need to attend to because
it’s absolutely matchless. There’s nothing like it anywhere
in the world. The righteousness that saves sinners is able to
impart what the law cannot. But secondly, it is the long
declared plan of redemption. This isn’t new. It isn’t like
God said, well, let’s scrap that whole plan, let’s go to plan
B, let’s try this on the people of God. Not at all. Look at verse 21. But now, apart
from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. God’s given us all that we need
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. That little phrase, the law and
the prophets, basically points to the totality of the Old Testament.
That in those scriptures, They spoke of Christ. They spoke of
this great plan of redemption. They spoke of the way of salvation
that was always the way of salvation. It was always the way of the
righteousness of God. People just didn’t put two and
two together. They just did not understand
the great message of salvation. Now, what Paul is going to do,
and I’m just going to take you on a thumbnail sketch. In fact,
I’ll give you some verses if you want to jot them down and
read ahead. That’s fine, too. What Paul is going to do throughout
the course of the book of Romans is sketch out this very proof
that according to the law and the prophets, this salvation
by means of the righteousness of God has always been the way
of salvation. It’s not new. Romans, chapter
four. Paul brings up Abraham and introduces
a lengthy discussion about Abraham and how Abraham believed God
And that was righteousness to him. God accounted him, counted
him righteous because of that faith. Romans, chapter nine in
Romans, chapter nine, verse twenty five. He brings up Hosea. I will
call those who are not my people, my people. It is always been
God’s plan of redemption. And the way of salvation has
always been by the righteousness of God. Romans 10, 16, he enters
into a lengthy discussion, 10, 6 through 13, pardon me, enters
into a lengthy discussion there. Romans 10, 16 through 21, Romans
11, 1 through 10, Romans 11, 26 through 29, Romans 15, 8 through
12. The law and the prophets, Paul
says repeatedly through all of those sections, repeatedly testified. That salvation was always according
to the righteousness of God. This isn’t new. This is God’s
plan of redemption. It just now has unfolded or manifested. Many of you have watched the
flowers bloom, and that’s exactly what was happening. It’s a good
illustration. It’s exactly what was happening
before their eyes is the flowers of salvation were blooming and
suddenly people began to understand as God made it clear to them
that this long declared plan of redemption, it wasn’t new.
They just began to understand it by God’s grace. There’s a
third matchless quality of God’s bestowed Righteousness, it is
the righteous or pardon me, the righteousness that saves sinners
is able to impart. Number one, what the law cannot.
Number two, it is a key feature of the long declared plan of
redemption. But thirdly, it is exclusively received by believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you hear me, kids? The way
that people are saved, the way that they get this righteousness,
the way that they’re able to put on this coat that allows
them to walk into heaven is to place their faith in nothing
else but the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn’t a faith in God in some
general terms. It isn’t a faith in goodness. It isn’t a faith even in the
Bible in itself. It’s a faith in the message of
the Bible, which is a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe
what Jesus did. We believe who Jesus was and
we place our faith in Him. And because of that, and only
because of that, we are allowed into heaven because what God
gives us in exchange is that perfect righteousness. He says,
look, I I determined that you measure up, not because of you,
because of Jesus and what Jesus accomplished. Look again at verse
21, where Paul says, But now, apart from the law, the righteousness
of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets, even the righteousness of God. And remember, I told
you that Paul recharges here. He wants us to remember that
the whole discussion is about the righteousness of God. And
he does so for this purpose. He says the righteousness of
God has been manifested, even the righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ. Paul wanted to recharge, I believe,
in order to honor the Lord here. He says, listen up, pay attention. Here’s why the righteousness
of God is so crucial, because the righteousness of God is only
available through the Lord Jesus Christ and faith in Him. Paul,
what he does here, divulges the way that we appropriate this
righteousness of God. It’s as if it’s there and waiting
and available to each one of us, and it is. How do we get
it? We believe. It’s not enough just
to hear about it. It’s not enough just to know
the whole story and God’s plan of redemption. God has broken
into the course of history and he’s fulfilled his plan of redemption
with the great news of the gospel that if we don’t ever take it
in, His great plan of the gospel summarized in second Corinthians,
he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that
we might become the righteousness of God in him. That’s great news. But if we never believe it. If
we never believe him. If all we do is hear it and admire
it and think about it and consider it and kick it around. That doesn’t do anything for
us. The only way that it becomes helpful to us is if we receive
it by faith. We believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ died on the cross. We believe that he is the only
way for salvation. As one pastor said, the righteousness
of which God is the author. is more particularly described
here is a righteousness which is of faith by means of faith
on account of faith. Faith is not the ground of our
justification. From time to time, you’ll hear
people say, oh, he’s a man of great faith. Maybe, but if that
faith I’ve heard people say that of all kinds of different religious
people, If it isn’t the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the object
of his faith, it’s no faith at all. None. The righteousness
is through faith. As it is received and appropriated
by faith, and it is not a faith in general, it is no mere confidence
in God. It is not simply a belief in
the scriptures as the word of God, but faith in Christ, a faith
of which Christ is the object. And unless a man receives and
rests on Christ alone for salvation and receives him as the son of
God who loved us and gave himself for us, he does not have the
faith. Of which the apostle speaks here.
Did you understand that there’s nothing you add to with Christ,
there’s nothing that you have to believe in addition to the
Lord Jesus Christ, it’s not that you even believe about him, that
he existed. You believe that you’re a sinner.
You believe that you’re absolutely desperately in need of a savior,
first and foremost, and the only one there is that can meet that
need. The only one that has actually lived it and done it is Jesus
Christ himself. And you place your faith in nobody
but him. It’s not Jesus in your church,
it’s not Jesus in your parents, it’s Jesus Christ and in him
alone. That righteousness that we need
so much is received and appropriated by faith. Faith that is offered
to us. Jesus comes to us and he says,
believe in me. There is salvation in no one
else. Acts 4.12 For there is no other
name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must
be saved. John 3.16 For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in
him shall not perish. It’s not just faith in a general
sense. It’s not just believing. Certain
stories of the Bible, it’s faith, it’s trust that Jesus Christ
has done it and can save you and will save you. It’s that
simple. Simple enough that a child can
understand it, right? There’s a fourth matchless quality,
and I’ll close with this. The righteousness that saves
sinners. Is able to impart what the law cannot, firstly, it is
a key feature of the long declared plan of redemption, it’s not
brand new, it’s not news, not in that sense, it is the long
held standard of salvation. The righteousness that saves
sinners is exclusively received by believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and when I say exclusive, there’s no other way but faith. There is no other object of our
faith but the Lord Jesus Christ. There are not two ways to heaven.
Fourth, the righteousness that saves sinners is freely available
to all. That’s what the passage says. Going into verse 21 and 22. But
now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all
who believe. And what Paul has specifically
in mind here is the same people group that he had to begin with.
The Jews and the Gentiles. He says, look, there’s no distinction
anymore. There’s no distinction in determining
that you’re all sinful, you’re all sinners, you’re all part
of one of those two groups. And likewise, salvation remains
open and available to all, to any person, any people group.
And the one condition, the one condition that there is Is that
we must believe we must place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just as there is no distinction. Between God’s judgment of Gentiles
and Jews as being sinful and in need of God’s saving grace.
So there is no distinction from individuals from either camp.
You’re in one camp or the other. You’re either a Jew or a Gentile.
There isn’t another group. There’s no distinction of either
camp. If you place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God
gives to you the righteousness that you need to get into heaven.
God looks at you as if you bear the righteousness of Christ.
And there’s nothing stopping you. There’s no longer anything
between you and God. Kids, I want you to think about
that one thing. That as you were born, You were
born a sinner. You don’t need me to stand up
here and prove it to you. You can think of a thousand things
right now if you think about it, all the ways that you’ve
disobeyed, all the bad things that you’ve thought about your
sister, right? You’re a sinner. And when I say
that, I’m not telling you anything that we haven’t already realized. We’re sinners, too. And that’s
why God moved and that’s why God sent his son to pay the penalty
on the cross, because he knew we needed help. We desperately
needed help. The help is available and all
you have to do is believe. Place your faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you shall be saved, that’s
what the scripture says. Let’s pray. Father God, what
great news. What great news this is, this
message of salvation. And Lord, we could and perhaps
we even have muddied it up and made it difficult to understand,
but it’s a message. It’s a message that kids can
understand. We use words like justification
and righteousness, but the bottom line, father, is that we are
sinners and we needed your help and you provided it. You said
a savior who paid our penalty on the cross. And all we must
do is to place our faith in that great Savior. Lord, we thank
you and we praise you. For the privilege to know that
we are saved and we pray for any in our midst today. That
are wrestling and perhaps don’t know. Salvation is available. Forgiveness is available. The
remedy for their sinful condition is available. And it’s available
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask your blessing on the Lord’s
table. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen. You take your Paulistans and
stand before we come to the table and sing in the cross alone our
glory. In the cross alone I glory, Recognition
laying down, Greatest treasures count as worthless. Standing next to heaven’s crowns,
Standing next to heaven’s crowns, In the cross alone I glory, ever
reaching for the cross, pressing on and laying hold on. that for which my Savior died,
that for which my Savior died. In the cross alone I glory, nothing
of my own to give. Call me that which Christ has
offered, For my soul that I may live, For my soul that I may
live. In the cross alone I glory, holding
fast the word of life, toiling not in vain but being poured
out as a sacrifice, poured out as a sacrifice. Never will I seek the glory that
was never meant for me. Always heavenward reflecting,
all to Jesus to receive, all to Jesus to receive. In the cross alone I glory, Nothing
of my own share, Only that which Christ has offered, For my soul
that I may live, For my soul that I may live. If you are visiting with us for
the first time, you are not only welcome, but if you profess faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you’re at peace with all those
other churches that you’ve been in, you are admonished to partake
with us and encouraged to do so by us. If you are a young
person, and even if today you said, man, that’s good news,
that’s too good to be true. It’s not too good to be true,
it is true. The Lord Jesus died for sinners. And salvation is
available for all who place their faith in the Lord Jesus. If that
sounds great to you, please talk to your parents. And perhaps
even the next time that we have the Lord’s Table, maybe you can
join us to the Lord’s Table. But today we would ask that if
you haven’t made a profession of faith yet, if you haven’t
talked to your parents and the elders, that you would just abstain
and wait until a later time. Bye.