Pastor Steve Hopkins, in his sermon at Burnet Bible Church, discusses the theme 'Justified by Faith Without the Deeds of the Law' from Romans 3:27-31. He emphasizes the Christian responsibility towards modesty, urging members to dress in a way that reflects the righteousness of Christ rather than conforming to cultural norms. Hopkins clarifies that clothing symbolizes Christ's righteousness covering human sinfulness. He argues that church should not be about emotional recharge but about truth and spiritual growth. The sermon extensively covers the doctrine of justification by faith, asserting that a person is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Hopkins explains that faith is a gift from God and not a human work that could lead to boasting. He emphasizes that both Jews and Gentiles are justified by the same God through faith. The sermon also distinguishes between the roles of justification and sanctification, stating that true obedience to the law follows justification. Hopkins encourages the congregation to engage with historical and modern sermons for spiritual growth.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. Good morning once again. I can say that for four more minutes, and then we'll be into the afternoon. And I've been gone for how many weeks?

For two weeks now. So I have three hours of, well, I'm trying to cram down into two hours. A little bit of review here, which I think is always helpful. Before we stand for the reading of the Word of God from Romans chapter 3, a couple of things in a pre-message message. As I said before, at the beginning of each summer, I like to remind the congregation that we have a Christian responsibility concerning modesty.

And it's easy to move towards getting more conformed to the image of our culture rather than the image of Christ. And what we don't want to do as fathers and as husbands of co-husbands and fathers is to enable mental adulterers and allow our daughters or our wives to become stumbling blocks that enable mental adulterers out there in the world. One of the helpful questions that I think is good for women to ask is, is my entire more in line with my godly mother or the godless culture in which I live? Godly mothers are a good example. They're not out of touch.

They are not fuddy-duddies. They dress with purpose and they dress intentionally. They dress intentionally. What do I mean when I say they dress intentionally? They dress the way they dress for a reason.

And you can learn from them. Remember, as your mothers remember that, and your grandmothers remember that, clothing was invented by God. And people can say, well, weren't the first clothes invented, invented by Adam and Eve? Yeah. And what do they look at?

We're just going to cover what today we would call our private parts, right, with fig leaves sewn together. God makes for them coats. There's a difference between loincloths and coats, okay? There's a different mentality and attitude, but here's the main thing, simply put, clothing represents the righteousness of Christ. When God made clothes for Adam and Eve, He made them clothes that pointed to the righteous covering of Christ over the sinfulness and shamefulness of His people.

Adam and Eve covered just enough so that they wouldn't feel naked, but they were still naked. God made clothes to cover their nakedness. Ladies, when you go to the closet, you choose your clothing for the day. What's in your mind? Do you want to portray the righteousness of Christ in your dress?

You're preaching a message when you put clothes on. You're preaching a message. Are you preaching Jesus died for our sins and he lived a perfect life, His righteous covering, which the first clothing in Genesis, you know, were made for. That's what I want to preach today. I'm going to preach the righteousness of Christ covering the nakedness and the sin of mankind.

Or you can conform to the image of the world. Fashion is out the window for the Christian when it comes into conflict with the purpose of clothing, which is to show forth and preach to the world the righteous covering of Jesus. Okay, enough on that. People, one more thing very quickly, people go to church to get an emotional recharge today, not the purpose for church. We're not supposed to go to get an emotional recharge.

You've got to go to a church that's hip-hopping, you've got to go to a church that is swaying and moving and emotional and all these sort of things. And it's okay to be emotional, it's okay to sway and all of these sorts of things. But the purpose is not to get an emotional recharge. You know, if you continually need a recharge, maybe it's because you got a new battery. You know what I'm saying?

You have to constantly get a recharge. What we need is not emotional stimulus, we need truth. We need truth. We're transformed by the renewing of our minds and not emotional movements. It's okay to be moved emotionally, but I think we should be moved by truth and not external stimulus, but by internal renewal.

And then finally, I've said this many times, we have access to every sermon practically in the history of the world that's ever been recorded or written through the Internet. And I said, we really need to be accessing these things. We really need to be looking at sermons. Are we watching and listening to sermons? And I'm just going to ask for a show of hands.

In the last week, how many listened to a sermon or read a sermon off the internet? How many people did? Good. A lot of people did. OK.

Not trying to embarrass anybody. But people will say, well, you're a pastor. You have a lot more time to do that. Yeah. And I do it all the time.

I have a lot more time to do that? Yeah, and I do it all the time. I have a lot more time to do that. But if you could just commit to, I'm going to listen to one sermon by one godly reformed pastor, either from modern modernity or from history, every week, the amount of growth that God might do in your life could absolutely amaze you. When I put on these guys, you know, my favorites are Sproul and MacArthur and Washer, right?

And then Spurgeon from history. And I read Calvin like, you know, more than any other reading. I read John Calvin and I read John Gill, you know, and Matthew Henry. I read them. But listening to these sermons is such an incredible blessing.

It's an incredible blessing. Put away the entertainment once in a while. So you know what? Instead of watching Bonanza or whatever it is, my kids like Benanzas, you know, there's hardly any good ones, but you know, or whatever it is, you know, let's put a sermon on. And with that, let us stand for the reading of the Word of the Lord.

We're going to read Romans chapter 3, verses 27 through 31. And Lord willing, we will work through a review and then through verses 27 through 31 this afternoon. So if you would read aloud verses 27 through 31. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law of works?

Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.

Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith, do we then make void the law through faith. God forbid, yea, we establish the law. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, oh mighty God, once again Lord, we just come before you humbling ourselves. God, high over all, praying that your name would be hallowed, O Lord, in this place today.

Praying that your kingdom would be advanced, O God, with power in this place today. Praying, O God, that you would grant spiritual insight to those whom you have given eyes to see and ears to hear this morning. And that you would grant your people understanding, O God, as we open your Holy Word, that your Spirit would do a mighty work and open up the understanding of our hearts, O God. For we ask it in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.

Let's be seated. We need, brothers and sisters, to review some of the things that we've learned thus far in our study of the Apostle Paul's epistle to the Romans, and especially some of the things we learned in our last session before we launch into our text this morning. Why? Because when we pick up with verse 27, especially when we get to verse 28, we're going to hear the apostles say these words, Therefore we conclude. Therefore we conclude.

And everything that the Apostle Paul has been saying to the people of God, to the beloved of God, from chapter 1 and verse 1 until chapter 3 and verse 28 is going to be brought to a conclusion. It's all going to be brought to a conclusion. Therefore we conclude. He's going to bring it to an obvious conclusion, the only possible conclusion, that a man, and this is the conclusion, that a man is justified before God. Remember that means that he is declared just in the sight of God, that he is given a right standing before God by faith without, that is to say, apart from the deeds or the works of the law.

And that, that is very good news for any person who's been paying attention to what the Apostle Paul has said thus far. It's good news, because until now, what have we heard? What have we been exposed to? What have we been hearing? The Apostle of our Lord, Jesus, has rendered all the world guilty before God.

Has that sunk in? Has that sunk in? I pray that it has. Man has no righteousness whereby he may commend himself to God, whether he's a Jew or whether he's a Gentile. Not one ounce of inherent righteousness, that is what he's born with, inherent righteousness, and not one ounce of merited or earned righteousness in his life.

Man has no righteousness and yet he must have a perfect righteousness to stand before the Holy Triune God of the universe. When a man is summoned to appear before God in answer to the law, which we all will be summoned, all that a man will be able to bring to the table when he meets with God is His sin and his guilt. His sin and his guilt. That's all we come to the table with. The Jew who possesses the law of God comes to the table condemned as a violator of God's law and worthy of divine and eternal wrath.

The Gentile who comes to the table to meet with God without the law, likewise comes to the table condemned as a violator of the law of God, written on his heart, because we all have a conscience, confirmed in his conscience, and worthy of divine wrath and eternal destruction. The law of God condemns all as sinners in the sight of God. The law condemns all the world and renders all the world guilty before a holy God in the sight of God. But the law, because the law reveals that all are violators of the law of God. That's what it reveals.

You look into the law of God and it reveals that you're a violator of God's law. Not in merely one, but in each and every point of the law. Every one of us has been a violator of every point of the law. There is none, the scripture says, that does good. There is none that keeps the law.

There is none that seeks after God. There is there's none with understanding we went through all of this There is none that keeps the holy law and requirements of God No, not one and only according to Romans 2 13 we read the doers of the law are justified in God's sight and that's not me and that's not you and that's not any person who's ever lived and it follows since all our violators of the law of God all are condemned to by the law you're a violator of the law, you're condemned by the law. The law does not justify law breakers. The law condemns law breakers. And we failed, every one of us, in every point, to keep the law.

Therefore, as we read in our last session, by the works of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. Why? By the law comes the knowledge of our sin. It's a mirror that shows us our sin. And the more we look into the law of God, the holy law of God, the more we see of our sin, the more we see of our failure, the more we see also of the filthy rags of our self-righteousness, of our own righteousness, or perceived righteousness.

And the more we look into the perfect law of God, the more we are made aware of our inability to meet the law's demands for a perfect righteousness, and thus the justice of God in our condemnation. But praise God, We came to verse 21 and we read those comforting words, those wonderful words. But now, but now, but now the righteousness of God without the law. Look back at verse 21. Now the righteousness of God without the law, what does that mean?

That is apart from our fulfilling the demands of the law is manifested. It's revealed. Praise God. Only now did the apostle come to it. Only now, after rendering all the world guilty before God, before the tribunal of the triune, God does the apostle bring any relief to sin-weary souls.

But he finally brings it. Now the righteousness of God without the law, apart from our fulfilling demands of the law, the demands of the law is manifested, it's revealed. Now the apostle brings relief to sin-worry souls, to souls loaded down with the guilt of sin, with souls conscious of the just sentence of eternal wrath hanging over their heads. The bad news had to come before the good news. And the Good news, the glad tidings of the gospel message is this, there is a righteousness apart from the law whereby man may be justified in God's sight.

There is a righteousness apart from man keeping the law of God whereby we may be justified in God's sight. There is a righteousness that is acceptable to God. There is a righteousness that is alone acceptable to God, and that is the perfect righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ. The perfect righteousness of God's Son, Jesus Christ, apart from which every one of us remains under the just sentence of condemnation and eternal wrath. Praise God.

This is a righteousness, as we learned in our last session, that saves and does not condemn. Amen? It justifies and does not condemn. It saves and does not condemn. It is a righteousness which we'll look at more next week that is imputed to men, that is declared to the account of men, ungodly men.

And when? The moment that they put their trust in God's Son alone for their acceptance with Him, for their right standing with Him. That's what salvation is, having a right standing before God, being accepted of God. I grew up in independent Baptist churches. You need to accept Jesus.

Well, you need to be accepted by God. You need to be acceptable in the sight of God and that only happens through a work of God, through His work in regeneration and bringing us to saving faith. But again, this is a righteousness that's acceptable to God. It's a righteousness that covers both Jews and Gentiles alike. We learned why?

Because there is no difference. There is no difference. Praise God. Everyone who believes on Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, Every man, every woman, every child who trusts in the person and the work of Jesus Christ for their acceptance with God is justified in the sight of God. Freely justified in the sight of God by God's grace through the redemptive work of his Son.

And that's good news, amen? It's great news. And then in our last session we also went on to define our terms because we need to understand what Paul means when he uses these terms. It's also mixed up today, also messed up in the churches today. You ask me, what is justification?

They don't know. What is redemption? I don't know. What is faith? I don't really know.

Faith? Well, you know, everybody just kind of believes. Okay, well. But we found that these terms that are still misunderstood in the age in which we live, we found that the righteousness of God that the apostle refers to in Romans is not God's attribute of righteousness. Did everybody catch that?

He's not talking about God's attribute of righteousness imputed to us, to mankind. Not that attribute of God's righteousness imputed in unbelief, but he's speaking of – when he speaks of the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ, he's talking about the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our righteousness. Jesus is our righteousness. The righteousness of God that is imputed to believers the moment they believe is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, his person and his work, his person because he's the God man come from heaven to earth to die for our sins and to live for us a perfect life.

His work is what covers us both in his life and in his death. That's the righteous covering. The righteous covering in the Garden of Eden we talked about earlier when God closed Adam and Eve. He's clothing them in a picture of the perfect righteousness of Christ. Remember, He sheds the blood of an animal, you have to do that to make coats of skins to cover them, okay?

And that coat of skin, the coats of skin in which they are covered points to two things. The blood sacrifice of Christ and the righteous covering of his obedience. That Jesus not only suffered and died for our sins, but that he also lived his life perfectly for us. Both of those as a substitution in our place. Jesus died for us, but Jesus also lived for us.

Jesus passively dealt with the justice of God in the place of sinners. Remember I always say passive like this on the cross. He just laid his arms out and he let them nail him to the cross and he suffered and he died and he bore our sins on that cross. He bore our sin debt and he suffered and died as our substitute, passively submitting to the penalty due us and paying the penalty in full in the human suffering of an eternity of hells man could not pay for. Not even one of the sins, not even the least of our sins.

In his death, Jesus' death, the death of the God man, atonement was made, full atonement, can it be as the hymn just said, hallelujah what a savior, full atonement for all those for whom he died. Full satisfaction was made to the justice of God. Full satisfaction was made to the justice of God. Full satisfaction was made to the wrath of God, do His people, but also in His life. In His life, Jesus lived for us.

As I said in our last session, God didn't just send his son, his eternally begotten son, straight from heaven to the cross, did he? He didn't just send him straight from heaven to the cross. Well, all you gotta do is go and die for their sins. Okay, so straight from heaven, go to the cross, die for their sins, be resurrected, you know, on the third day, 40 days later a sin, and it's all accomplished. No, he had to live, he had to live a perfect life in our place as well.

He had to fulfill the law in our place that we could not fulfill. He had to live a perfect life of obedience in accordance with the law of God that we failed to keep at every point. Jesus had to live a life of perfect obedience in our place and he did, fulfilling the demands of the law for perfect obedience. He died in our place to satisfy the justice and wrath of God do us and he lived a life of perfect obedience to the law of God in our place in his life." When Paul speaks of the righteousness of God, that's what he's talking about. This is what he's talking about.

And this righteousness of God, which is by faith, is unto all and upon all them that believe." Do you believe this afternoon? The righteousness of God comes to man by faith, by believing in the person and the work of Jesus. And then we define faith, both what faith is and what faith is not. And we decided, we concluded faith is not a work. If it was a work, then you could boast of it and say, well, I performed this work that was acceptable to God.

I had faith and the guy next to me didn't and God accepted by faith as a work and it was a my work is good and his work is not good and so my faith is accepted and I can boast about it. I mean we're all given the same grace right? Like I said last week everybody wants a communist God or a few weeks ago they want a socialist God he distributes his grace freely sprinkles it out over all of the India and China and in Africa and the United States and then everybody you know has equal access to the gospel everybody has equal access to the grace of God and some people just use their grace better than others. Wrong. Wrong.

No. Faith is not a work. If it were, then man could boast that he was saved by something that he did and he could say, I use the grace that God gave me better than the person next to me. No. Our text this morning tells us that boasting is excluded.

Faith is the gift of God as we read in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 in our last session. Faith is not something we exercise to gain God's favor. Oh, you have faith? Okay, you've gained my favor. That's not what faith is.

Faith is not a work that makes us acceptable in God's sight. Faith, listen to me, and if you're taking notes, write this down. Faith is God's work in us. Faith is God's work in us. Faith is God's work in us.

He works that faith in us. Remember we looked at the hymn? I know whom I have believed. I said, you know what? They sing that even in United Methodist churches, but they don't understand because the hymn says what it says I can't understand how that faith was created in me The hymn writer understood it but people who sing it today in many churches, they don't understand it Faith is a work of God in His people.

When the Apostle speaks of the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ, he's speaking of the means by which we lay hold on the righteousness of Christ. Faith is the means by which we lay hold on Christ, our righteousness, and it is a work of God. It is a work of God. It's not man's work. It's the work of God in man, not a work of man before God to gain His acceptance.

We didn't do anything. We're passive in our salvation. We're passive. Why? We have a corrupted will.

Remember we went through that. We've got a corrupted will. A corrupted will only chooses that which is against God. All the faculties of man were corrupted at the fall and we don't have something, some spark of good in us. That's what the deists teach.

Everybody's got a spark of good and we just got to fan into flame. Wrong. Wrong. No. God did everything.

Salvation is of God from the beginning to the end. Man is passive in the work of salvation. Why? He's dead. When the apostle speaks of the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus, he's speaking of the means by which we lay hold on the righteousness of Christ.

The means by which we lay hold on his person and his work is passive obedience and his death, his active obedience in keeping the law of God perfectly in our place. We didn't do anything. God did everything. Salvation is of God from beginning to end. We are dead in trespasses and sins, and dead men don't respond to anything." Can we grasp that?

Dead in trespasses and sins doesn't mean sick in trespasses and sins, it means dead. And dead men don't respond to anything. They need a powerful, almighty Savior to say, last rest come forth, to make the grave close, fall off. Faith is the gift of God's grace, not of works, or a man could boast. Faith is the instrument or means by which we lay hold on Christ and his works.

Faith comes from God. Remember we read John 1 13 last week. Those who believe in the name of Christ were born not of the flesh nor of the will of a man but of God. It's a new birth in Christ. Faith is trusting in Christ in his works, not ours for our acceptance with God.

Faith is placing our trust in Christ and what he has accomplished for us in our place in both his life and in his death. Faith is trusting in Jesus' righteousness, not ours, not ours. And of course, Ephesians 2, 8 through 9 tells us it is by grace that we're saved through faith. And it's not of ourselves. Why?

For it's the gift of God. And I made the point in our last session, it's not that grace is the gift of God. That's what people say, well grace is the gift of God. Of course, Grace means the unmerited love and favor of God. If you study the text, you find out that what it's speaking of there is that faith is the gift of God.

Grace is the unmerited love and favor of God, whereby the gift of faith is given to sinning man. Then we looked at what it means to be justified in God's sight. To be saved is to be justified in God's sight. How many remember what justification is? What does it mean to be justified in God's sight?

If I ask you right now, Write me down a definition for what it means to be justified in God's sight. What would you say? To be justified in his sight. Well, we looked at the Greek and we looked at the Latin. We looked at the Greek word used throughout Romans in all the New Testament and found that it means to be declared or pronounced just.

Has everyone got that? It's a pronouncement of being just in the sight of God. It's not that you're made just. See, that was the Roman Catholic error. The Roman Catholics, as you'll remember, used the translation back in 405 AD, translated by Jerome of the Greek into Latin, and he mistranslated the word justification to mean made just.

But The New Testament was written in Greek, not in Latin. And the Greek word that the apostle Paul used, remember, Brother Eric just said earlier, only the Greek, only the original languages are infallible, right? And the infallible word of God says, you're declared just in the sight of God, not made just in the side of God. And for 1, 100 years that went on in Roman Catholicism. So Rome then has to declare, because they're off track, they have to then have a system of works added to faith to become just and remain just in the sight of God, which is an impossibility.

We are saved by works. Christ works. That's a quote from R.C. Sproul. We are saved by works.

Christ works, not our own. Okay, so the Reformers corrected all of that in the 1500s, 1600s. The word Paul used means to be declared or pronounced righteous, not to be made just or righteous. Men are declared just in God's sight even when they are yet sinners. We're going to look at that next week as we get to chapter 4 and verse 5.

But righteousness is declared to the account of the man who has faith in Christ as soon as he repents and trusts in Jesus alone for his salvation, for his right standing before God, for his justification in God's sight, his right standing before God, and in no work or righteousness of his own, because man has no righteousness of his own. Again, faith is not accepted in the place of righteousness. Faith is the instrument by which we apprehend or lay hold on the object of true and saving faith which is Christ and His righteousness." You know what? Do we get back to a reformed understanding of the Scriptures? This nation will continue to plummet.

There's been a great revival of reformed doctrine. I praise God for it. It's unbelievable what's happened over the last 40 years. We're moving back to, you know, you remember the original Baptists, right? The original Baptists back in Canetuck and original Baptists, James Boyce writes the systematic theology.

They're all reformed doctrine. We moved away from it. In the late 1800s, if you wanted to go and learn something at a Baptist seminary, you had to go to reformed Baptist seminary. Then we moved away from it. And I've said it before, you can look at the graphs and the charts.

You can see the plummet of America. When we moved away from reformed doctrine, we moved away from the truth of Scripture. When we moved to a more Arminian type of view of Scripture, we were plunged into humanism and thus where we are today. We also reviewed propitiation and expiation. How many remember the definition of propitiation?

Raise your hand if you remember a few. You see why it's so good to review these things? How many remember the definition of expiation? Okay, a few? Okay, so we'll go through that again real quick.

I said when you think of propitiation, think what? Who can say it? Satisfaction. When you think propitiation, think satisfaction. It's the most important word in Scripture.

Satisfaction made to the justice of God, by God, in order to appease the wrath of God. And that by Jesus' atoning sacrifice for our sin, debt on the cross. And I said, when you think of excretion, think what? These are biblical words, you need to know what they mean. Anybody?

Removed, very good. Think removal. How old are you? Twelve years old. We got someone on the front row 12 years old that's got it nailed.

Removal, okay? And that in account of Jesus' work on the cross, our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west. Do you remember how we went through the book of Leviticus? We went back to the book of Leviticus and I showed you on the day of atonement, two goats. Remember?

Two goats are brought in. The first goat, slit his throat. Why? Propitiation. Propitiation.

Satisfaction made to the justice and the wrath of God. The second goat is brought in, both of these by the way, the hands of the priest are laid upon the head of the goat before the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, annual one every year, atonement. The hands are laid upon the head of the goat white in order to confess the sins of the people. Not the Amalekites, not the Philistines, not the Girgashites, right? The sins of the people of God.

You know what that doctrine is, it's called limited atonement. It's one of the points of the five points of Calvinism, the most difficult for anybody to take in, that Jesus didn't die for everybody's sins. He died for the sins of his people. He didn't die for the sins of the Philistines and the Amalekites. Their sins were not placed upon the head of the goat.

So on the Day of Atonement, two goats are brought in. The sins of the people of God are symbolically laid on them by the laying of the hands of the priest upon the goat's head, and the one is slain. Propitiation. He becomes the object of wrath, pointing to Jesus who will become the object of God's wrath on the cross. The other one is sent to wander in the wilderness, where toward the east, pointing to Christ to come signifying that our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west.

That's expiation. That's expiation. I love going back over these things. It's just such a, my kids probably most of them know because they've heard me I've gone over and over and over and over again it's good to review these things. So finally in our last session because we came to the place where the word propitiation was first introduced by the Apostle to the readers we also went back and looked at the instructions given to Moses on the mount concerning the annual sacrifice of atonement from Exodus chapter 25.

You might want to write that down. If you want to look at this later, I hope that you will. So we looked at the first place where we see the word propitiation in Scripture. How many remember where that is? So it's in Exodus, back in the Old Testament, and chapter 25, and it's where the instructions are given to Moses concerning the mercy seat.

And when we look at Exodus chapter 25, we find the mercy seat, that word, the mercy seat, when it's translated into the Greek, the same word is in the Greek, hilisterion, which is translated in our English New Testament, propitiation. He is the hilisterion. He is the propitiation. He is the mercy seat for our sins. Did everybody remember that?

Jesus is the mercy seat and what is the mercy seat? We looked at the mercy seat when the instructions were given to Moses and here's what the mercy seat is. The mercy seat is the lid that covers the Ark of the Covenant. How many remember we talked about that? It's the lid that covers the Ark of the Covenant, okay?

The carved out cherubim and cerebin are there, carved out over it, But the mercy seat is where the high priest goes on the annual day of atonement and takes the blood of that lamb or that goat or that bullock and sprinkles it upon the lid. That's the mercy seat. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, okay? He is the object of God's wrath for our sins. He takes that blood and he sprinkle it upon the mercy seat.

Hylisterion, propitiation in the New Testament, and what's inside the box. What's inside the box? I may remember, I've got a few people that remember, inside the box the Ark of the Covenant, a lot of stupid movies have been made about it, inside the Ark of the Covenant, underneath the mercy seat, that on the day of atonement the priest would sprinkle the blood on, and let me just back up here again, the high priest, the high priest with a rope tied to his ankle, because if he violated even one of the commands of God concerning the sacrifice, God would strike him dead and nobody would go inside there. They'd have to pull him out with a rope by his foot, okay? When he's in there, he's making atonement.

He sprinkles the blood on the mercy seat, The propitiation in the New Testament for our sins. And underneath the mercy seat, inside the box, inside the Ark of the Covenant are three things. Number one, the Ten Commandments written with the finger of God and tablets of stone. The commandments of God that Jesus Christ alone kept perfectly in the place of his people, substitutionarily for us, okay? It's just like in his death.

What else is in there? A clay jar With what in it? With some of the manna that fell down from heaven. That manna. That manna which points us to Jesus who is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man eats he will never die.

What else is in the box? Aaron's rod that budded, a dead stick that comes back to life and produces almonds you could pick off and eat, signifying Jesus who will die for the sins of his people and rise again the third day and live forever. That's what's in the box, my friends. And on top of it is the mercy seat where the blood of the sacrificial animal is sprinkled upon it, pointing to Jesus, who is our propitiation, the propitiation for our sins. He is our mercy seat.

He is the propitiation for our sins. He is the satisfaction made to the justice and the wrath of God. Do His people for their sins for everyone who believes on His name, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness, His righteousness. Look at the text for the remission of sins. To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness, that He, God, might be just and the justifier of Him that believes in Jesus.

To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness, Christ's righteousness, that He, in verse 26, God might be just. Why is He just? Because He punishes all sin, and at the same time be the justifier of ungodly people like us which believe in Jesus. Why? Because He punished His Son in our place.

Everything, all the Old Testament shadows point to Jesus. So I wanted to review this in some detail this morning before moving on to the actual message which is only two pages. You just got 12 pages. So I wanted to bring that in because the force of what the apostle is teaching the readers of Romans in verses 27 through 31 is lost apart from it. Now he will lay low the pride of man.

Now he will dig a grave and bury the pride of man. Why? Because what he's saying now is this, considering all that I have proven unto you this very moment, where can there be any boasting for man? Where is boasting then? Where is there any grounds for boasting?

It is excluded. That Greek term, by the way, it is excluded, means to be shut out. There's no entrance available for it. The door has been, as it were, shut and locked against boasting. Boasting is excluded.

How could there be any grounds for glorying when salvation and when justification before God is clearly a work of God which man contributes nothing to? If we contributed something to, well then we could boast and we have something to boast of and be, you know, commend ourselves before God. But Paul is saying, after all I've proven from the Scriptures and after answering every conceivable objection, how could any man possibly boast that he's done anything to contribute to his salvation? All boasting is necessarily excluded. It has been shut out.

By what? By the law of works? It says here, no, but by the law of faith. And here it's not talking about a law in the sense of laws that we obey or disobey. It's talking about a principle, okay?

By the principle of faith, it is excluded. Calvin comments here, to teach us this would not have been enough. It was necessary that the Holy Spirit should thunder loudly. I love Calvin's boldness. In order to lay prostrate our loftiness, our boasting.

Boasting is beyond all doubt excluded, for we cannot adduce anything of our own which is worthy of being approved or commended by God. Both are here annihilated. Amen? And then these words that end all possible future controversy on the matter, verse 28, therefore we conclude. Oh, I love that sound.

I mean, I don't like it that he's crying, but I love to hear babies in the congregation. Therefore we conclude, this is the conclusion of the matter. There's no other debate on it. All objections to the contrary have been answered, and here's the conclusion, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. That's how justification works.

Your version may say, apart from the works of the law. It's the same thing as saying alone. Remember? The same thing that Martin Luther said 500 years ago at the time of the Reformation, justification is by faith alone. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

And that's for everyone. Is He the God of the Jews only? No, He's also the God of the Gentiles. He's the God of all men? Yes, he's the God of all men.

There's one God, the Shema Israel, right? Hero Israel, the Lord our God is one God. All men are justified by the one and only triune God in the same way, whether we're Jew, whether you be Jew or Gentile, whether in the Old Testament times, the New Testament times, or any time. Man is justified by faith. It is the Reformation doctrine of the solas.

Justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, right, In Christ alone. That's what the Scripture teaches according to the Scriptures alone, both the old and the new, by the way. And lest any conclude that the laws now become void as we close because of faith, verse 31. No, it's not set aside. The law is not set aside because men are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

It's only after a man has been changed from within by the regenerating power of God's Spirit And God has justified that man at his sight through the gift of faith that a man may now establish the law Before a man is saved. He has no interest in the law ever any interest in obeying God Sanctification that is growth and holiness Conformity to the character of Christ comes after justification. Now we who have been justified freely by the grace of God and given the gift of faith can begin to truly keep the law of God, not in perfection, but progressively as we're conformed day by day more and more to the image of our blessed Lord Jesus. Amen. Let's pray.

Father, we do thank you for your word. Your word is truth. Oh God, that we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds by Your word this day. For we do ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.