The sermon titled 'Rejoice in His Righteousness' by Scott Brown discusses the theological center of the Bible found in Romans chapter 3. It addresses the weight of sin and offers answers for what to do with it. The sermon highlights ten reasons to rejoice in the cross of Christ, including the powerlessness of the law for salvation, the revelation of righteousness apart from the law, and the everlasting nature of righteousness. It emphasizes that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but believers are justified by God's grace. The sermon also explores the concepts of redemption, propitiation, salvation through faith, forbearance, and the demonstration of God's righteousness through saving sinners. Overall, the sermon encourages listeners to find joy in the mercy and grace of God.

Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 3 and find verse 19. I'll be reading through verse 26. Romans 3 19 to 26. This is the inerrant. It's all sufficient and it's the sweeter than honey word of God.

Praise the Lord for such a wonderful, truthful testimony this morning. Verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says it says to those who are under the law that Every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Let's pray. Lord, you have power packed this paragraph with word after word of what we ought to do what we must do what we must know about our sin and I pray Lord that you would come and and Fill our minds up with the knowledge of your will. And Lord I also pray that you would bless us with all of the blessings of rejoicing that these words would bring to our hearts in this congregation. Amen. Please be seated.

When we began our study in the book of Romans at the very beginning, I recall saying that right here where we are is the theological center of the Bible. Leon Morris says it's the most important paragraph ever written and I think that's true. We really are at the theological center of the Bible. And it really addresses the biggest thing. What will you do with your sin?

What will you do with the weight of your sin? What will you do with the reality of your sin? What will you do with the reality of your sin? What will you do with the troubles that your sin has caused? What will you do?

And here we find the answers. And of course, as you've heard many times, Paul is explaining why he's not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he starts out in Romans in the first 14 verses explaining what the gospel has done for him, and then He explains just the terrible state of mankind, mankind fallen, and he explains it in dozens of illustrations of the fallenness of man. But he's explaining why he's not ashamed of the gospel, and of course it's because God saves sinners. And you know, in these verses, the believer finds many reasons to rejoice, especially after hearing one condemnation after another in Romans 1 through 3 verse 18.

And so here we are in this section. You know, the redeemed are often afflicted with self-doubt, with loathing, self-loathing for their weaknesses, and sorrow over their sins, recognizing that they just don't get it. They don't get enough. They don't, they aren't enough. They're not holy enough.

They don't do what they want to do and they do what they don't want to do. And this is the dilemma that the true believer finds himself in, is there's remaining sin. And so there's often a heaviness in the Church of Jesus Christ in our hearts. This is why I need to go to the Word of God every morning to get my heart set right, because it's not right. But I pray that this would be an encouragement to this congregation, that it would be a source of joy as you think about your sins.

Before we came in here, I was praying with the men who were involved with the service. And I prayed that God would make any unbelievers who are here jealous. Jealous of missing out on such relief. Jealous of missing out on the love of God, the mercy of God every day, the mercy of God, the grace of God, knew every morning to counsel your heart that He's a deliverer, He saves sinners, He forgives sinners, And He's so good. So there is a Redeemer.

So I'm really hoping that on the one hand, there would be, Any unbelievers would feel so jealous not to have such strong consolation, not to have the heart strengthened by grace. In Hebrews 1.13.9, it says it's good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. That's my whole approach today. We hit the word therefore in verse 20. It indicates that there's a turning point in Romans in verse 21.

Look at your text. It says but now giving us, you know, further indication that this is a shift in the Apostles' argument. He is shifting from the condemnation, the falling short in every way, and he, of course, in So far what we find is that he's really talking in big picture of two great exchanges. And the first exchange he spoke about in the first chapter, exchanging the glory of God for the lie. But now, that's not the only exchange that man can make, and that is the exchange of our sinfulness for his righteousness.

This is a real exchange. It's a swap and It's such a wonderful wonderful blessing so Romans begins with condemnation and criticism and reprimand and denunciation and now We come with the righteousness of God. So I wanna give you 10 reasons out of this text to rejoice. I hope you take every single one of them to heart. Take them, sink them deep into your soul.

They're true if you're a believer. Ten reasons to rejoice in the cross of Christ. The first is in verses 19 and 20 and that is that the deeds of the law are powerless for salvation. The deeds of the law are powerless for salvation. We've already read this morning that the purpose of the law was to convict us of our sins and to lead us to Christ.

That's why God gave the law. But while our eyes are open to our sin, the law can never cleanse us from sin. That's why Augustine said it like this. The law was given in order that we might seek after grace. Grace was given in order that we might fulfill the law.

There's a lot that the Apostle Paul is going to say about the law, but this is the first thing here. Spurgeon said it like this, All the law can do is show us our sin. The law is a mirror, and looking in it you can see your spots, but you cannot wash in a looking glass. If you want to be cleansed from your stains you must go somewhere else. The object of the law is not to cleanse but to show us how much cleansing we need to reveal our disease, not to find a remedy for it.

You know, this is a huge contrast between all the other religions of the world. All the religions of the world tell you you gotta work your way up. You've gotta do a few things. But Christianity really is by grace alone through faith alone. You know, I was talking with Mike Kennan last week at Men's Bible Study.

He was in, Kay was in Uganda. And he said that, you know, he's a medical missionary and providing medical care for people and he said that there's a woman that he was sharing the gospel with and she seemed to embrace the gospel, and she reached to her rosary around her neck, and she took it off, and she said, I don't need this anymore. I have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I'm not justified by the deeds of the law. I'm not justified by Flagellating myself and repeating this or that or doing this or that I'm not I'm not I'm not justified by going to church being a nice person You know walking old ladies across the street, you know, recycling, I'm not saved by anything but the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Hey, this is such good news. Praise the Lord. But that doesn't mean that the wrath of God is not revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. But you can live as old, I was gonna say as old as I am, you could live as old as Methuselah and you cannot justify yourself. No man or woman was ever good enough to justify themselves.

Ecclesiastes 720, for there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. David said, if you mark our iniquities, who could stand? He also said, do not enter into judgment with your servant for in your sight no one living is righteous. To the Corinthian church in 1st Corinthians 6 9 he said, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? So rejoice, rejoice.

The deeds of the law are powerless to save you. Second, the second reason to rejoice, righteousness is apart from the law. Isn't it interesting what Paul does? He says something and then he expands on it in the very next phrase. It's really remarkable.

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law, that's the phrase, is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So in other words, you see this word, but, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law. It's a contrast and there's this emphasis now on righteousness. You see this word over and over again. Paul uses it all the time, but here he uses it in verse 21, verse 22, verse 25, and also in, he uses the word just in 24 and 26, those are related words.

And righteousness is not, I just wanna make something really clear about God. The doctrine of God is so critical. The righteousness of God is not an attribute of God. It is the essence of God. And there's a very big difference.

One theologian says, the sum total of all that God commands, demands, approves, and himself provides is found in his righteousness. But this is righteousness apart from the law. What does that mean? Apart from the help of the law. In other words, it's a clarification, It's an expansion of what the apostles said.

You can't, again, it's a different way of saying you can't get righteousness. By keeping the law, you get righteousness apart from the law. We do not have it, we cannot manufacture it, We can't earn it. We need an alien righteousness. That's what theologians call it.

Alien righteousness. Yeah, there are aliens. There's an alien righteousness. It's the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Now Psalm 102 really builds out this theme of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Isaiah 43 25, I even I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake. I'm gonna elaborate on that later I hope. Now Micah 7, 19, He will again have compassion on us and subdue our iniquities You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea all this to sum up heevers 922 Without the shedding of blood. There's no forgiveness of sins.

It's apart from the law The Lord Jesus Christ died and his sacrifice, which is atonement, was apart from the law. He was the perfect keeper of the law, but salvation is apart from the law. Are you glad for that? I am so thankful for that, for all of us. Number three, the third reason to rejoice.

Are you rejoicing? You know, there are several more, we're only on number three. Righteousness is everlasting. This is verse 21. I think that he's saying this in the phrase being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

In other words, God has applied his righteousness since the beginning. It goes back, the righteousness of God is not revealed for the first time in Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God was revealed in the Old Testament, in the law and the prophets. This is code for the whole testimony of God in the Old Testament. And the Old Testament testifies to the righteousness of God.

The doctrine of justification of faith was not invented in the Reformation. The doctrine of justification by faith was invented in Genesis 3.15. It goes all the way back. And Job understood that his unrighteousness was his greatest problem in Job 9,2. He says, truly, how can a man be righteous before God?

Abraham understood it in Genesis 15,6, and he believed the Lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness. David understood it in Psalm 143 2 do not enter into judgment with your servant for in your sight no one living is righteous." Malachi said, the son of righteousness will arise bringing healing in his wings and what will happen? You'll go out with joy like a stall-fed calf. Have you ever seen a stall-fed calf kicking, kicking through the pasture? It's such a neat thing to see.

In Daniel 2, 4, Daniel said that the Messiah came to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness. This righteousness that was communicated from the beginning in the Old Testament is an everlasting righteousness. In Psalm 119 verse 142, David says, your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. You know, I just finished reading Isaiah again recently. Isaiah 11, he's an everlasting father.

24, five, everlasting covenant. Chapter 26, everlasting strength, chapter 35, everlasting joy, chapter 45, everlasting salvation, chapter 54, everlasting kindness, chapter 56, everlasting name, chapter 60, everlasting light, and that is all part of an everlasting righteousness. It's everlasting. You know the law discovers the disease and the gospel comes in and gives the remedy. So the fourth reason to rejoice, all have sinned.

Well that sounds like bad news. It actually is bad news, but that's the good news of the bad news. In order to have the good news you have to hear the bad news and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Of course what does all mean? It means all, everyone.

And it does not mean that you simply miss the mark. It does not mean that you just lack. It means that you miss the target. We covered this, I believe, in the last time we were together, in the last part of chapter two, where it's very clear that every part of man is fallen, and there is none righteous, no, not one, and that every part of our being has been tainted with sin. It isn't just that we fall short and don't quite get it, it's that we miss the target completely.

We don't have our own righteousness, we must have an alien righteousness. And our lack came from Adam. You know there are There are two kinds of sin that we experience. There are sins, specific sins that we commit. We sin particularly, right?

There are things that we do and think and say. But Those are sins. But there's another problem. It's actually our greater problem. It's called sin.

It's called original sin. It's that tainting of everything. And, you know, all have failed the test. You know, in gymnastics, you get a score from one to ten in in God's eyes if man was a gymnast, he would get a zero. But Jesus Christ, you know, got the perfect score.

All have sinned. You know, we just had a father-son retreat where we were trying to cast a vision for manhood. You know, somebody called it gender-affirming therapy. That's exactly what it was. We were talking about what it means to be a man.

But you know, in the whole corpus of writing about men and women in the culture, you know, some say that women are the superior gender. They're morally superior. That's not true. Women are not morally superior. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

All are under the wrath of God without Jesus Christ. You know, when I was a young man, I remember pastors talking about this whole matter of our inability to satisfy the righteousness of God. And I grew up in Southern California and about 26 miles off the coast is Catalina Island. Now I'll never forget my pastor was talking about, you know, about, you know, if all of us lined up, you know, at the beach in Southern California and we were going to jump to Catalina Island, you know, how far would we get? But we wouldn't get very far, you know, we wouldn't get hardly close at all.

And then I was hearing John MacArthur and he was talking about, he gave the illustration, if you're standing at the Grand Canyon, the edge of the Grand Canyon, and you try to jump, and your group is going to try to jump to the other side. He said, all will jump and all will be equally dead. That's exactly right. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You know, you cannot be a Christian until you come to the place where you realize you're hopeless And that brings you to despair it's the despair that brings you to salvation It's the fact that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and the despair that that should strike in the heart of every person that brings a person to rejoice in Jesus Christ In Christ alone, but in Christianity, you don't you don't upgrade your score through effort You get a zero Hate to say it I You get a zero.

Ha. Hate to say it. I mean, frankly, you know, how sanctified can you get according to a perfect standard? I mean, I'm pretty confident I'm probably 10% more godly than my fellow elder, Terrent Moody. I'm pretty sure I'm like around maybe 9 or 10% more godly than him.

But the problem is that the standard is so high, you can't even tell the difference between the two of us. Because actually we are both at zero And we need the righteousness of Jesus Christ in that you know in the body of Christ no one stands taller than the other and Frankly, you know the weakest Christian in a church is hardly different in all than the most godly. It's true. Because all have sinned, even the women, and fall short of the glory of God. Jesus Christ, he said that, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. It's really all you get in a church. The fifth reason to rejoice, not only that we're all sinners, but that we are justified by His grace. Verse 24. Being justified freely by His grace.

You know, look at justified, that's one word. Freely, that's another one. By his grace. Hey, this section is so dense. The language is so dense with the doctrine of salvation.

You know, it's like every third word is this massive $100 theological term. And now you've got three of them right here. Justified freely by his grace. Well, justified is a judicial act, declared righteous. Freely.

Salvation is free. You know, I don't know how many conversations I've had with people who they, they want to believe, but they don't believe that salvation is free. They think that they have to do something first. They think they have to feel something first before they can be saved. But this is called the free offer of the gospel.

You don't have to become something to be saved. All you have to do is to believe and receive and repent and by faith accept the promises of God and then know that you you've determined to follow Him. But salvation is free. But so often, you know, people say, I just don't know if I feel it enough. You'll never feel it enough.

You'll never have enough faith to be saved. Faith grows. And it's by his grace. But it's justified freely. Freely, freely, he uses an interesting word, Dorian, it's a Greek word, it means without cause.

In other words, there's no explanation for it. You can't explain why this guy has been justified and forgiven you can't explain it Because it doesn't make any sense There's no explanation for your salvation. Oh, you know, maybe you think, there's Joe over there, he's such a good person. God, I think God would like him. I think God could save him, because he's just so good.

This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Freely, it doesn't make sense. Without cause, no explanation, no reason at all. And of course grace, you know this is a word that Paul uses over a hundred times in his writings. That word charis, it's such a beautiful word.

There's some children that are named charis. I always am so happy to meet a charis because it reminds me of these wonderful things. We should never confuse justification and sanctification. They're two different things. Justification is a judicial act that is done where one is declared righteous.

Sanctification is a progressive action of God in the soul to cleanse the mind, to renew, and to bring obedience. But they're very, they're distinct, but they're actually never separate in the Christian life. Here's an illustration from John Bunyan. I'm gonna read, I'm gonna quote him. It's talking about how, what happened, a realization that happened to him when he was saved.

And it actually addresses the person who says, I just need to feel something. He says, when God showed me John Bunyan, I no longer confessed I was a sinner. I confessed that I was sin from crown of my head to the sole of my feet. I was full of sin. And then he was walking in the cornfields one night and he was wrestling with the fact that he knew he was a sinner and he opened to Philippians 3 verse 9 where he read these words, that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

That's how God saves sinners, it's by His grace. Not because He thought you were just such an amazing person, because he doesn't know anybody like that. Six reason to rejoice. We were purchased out of slavery, verse 23, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That's another big ticket word, redemption.

And it has to do with a ransom being paid. You can picture someone on a slave Block being getting ready to be sold and someone buys that slave off and sets them free. That's the picture of redemption. You know, we see this type of thing even today, you know. Hey, one of the, one of the, I heard that the second greatest source of money for the Taliban is ransom money.

And just a little, just a little while ago, there was tremendous controversy over James Foley, who was captured by the Taliban, and they demanded $132 million for his release. And they killed him. But this is ransom. There was nobody to buy him back. And I'm not here to raise that whole issue of whether you should negotiate with terrorists like this.

But I'm just saying this matter of redemption is very modern. You know, we have, you know, there are people, there are Americans in the world today that are under ransom calls, and they're in foreign countries. But the beauty of the gospel is that anybody can be ransomed by Jesus Christ. He has enough money and he does ransom sinners. He doesn't let you die in a foreign country.

He pays all that's necessary. The seventh reason to rejoice. Wrath is swallowed up, verse 25, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood. I'm using the language wrath being swallowed up because the word propitiation assumes God's hatred for sin and sinners. And This has been demonstrated, of course, in history, through the flood, through the incineration of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin.

Propitiation is an anger word, but it actually means that anger has been pacified, a hatred has been soothed. There is real guilt, there's real sin, And God doesn't just look the other way from sin. He deals with sin. He deals with his anger. Justice, God's justice doesn't say sin doesn't matter.

You know, God doesn't say that your sin doesn't matter. It matters. David, you know, calls the heaviness of it like the fever heat of summer. Your sin is real. And Jesus is not saying sin is inconsequential.

What he's saying is that his wrath has been satisfied by the blood of Jesus Christ, because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. The wrath is real, God is angry. The Bible says he is angry with the sinner every day. Don't tell people God's not angry. That is not anything close to part of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, no.

God is angry, and when you share the gospel, people need to know that God is angry with them and his wrath will fall upon them everlastingly in damnation. This is from Jonathan Edwards sermon on the justice of God and the in the damnation of sinners. If we consider the infinite evil and heinousness of sin in general, it is not unjust in God to inflict what punishment is deserved. Because the very notion of deserving any punishment is that it may be justly inflicted. A deserved punishment and a just punishment are the same thing.

To say that one deserves such punishment and yet to say that he does not justly deserve it is a contradiction. Every crime or fault deserves a greater or less punishment in proportion to the crime itself. If any fault deserves punishment then so much the greater the fault, so much the greater is the punishment deserved. But what what this word propitiation means is that God absorbs the wrath in himself, he absorbs it in himself and he neutralizes the wrath towards sinners. He's like, that's why I called, he's a wrath absorber.

He absorbs the wrath that we deserved. You know, it's like, you remember the tsunami many years ago in South, in Indonesia. It was terrifying to watch those pictures. The waves were coming and just washing everything away. But when it comes to propitiation, it's like the tsunami is rolling unhindered to destroy everything in its weight and all of a sudden an earthquake breaks and all the water falls into the chasm and the wrath is absorbed in this case into God and his wrath is pacified.

Some translations render this word expiation and there have been objections to using the word expiation instead of propitiation. Because the word expiation doesn't include the concept of God's anger. It's just God's forgiveness. It isn't just that God forgives sins. His anger is appeased.

We were saying about that this morning. His wrath has been appeased in Jesus Christ. And so this is God's opposition and how. His opposition was manifested. It was set forth.

His opposition was set forth on the cross by His blood. That's what God did. That's how God's wrath was appeased by the shedding of the blood of his own son. It's displayed on the cross. The word, a word elsewhere is translated mercy seat.

But it's the blood of Jesus Christ that pacified the wrath of God. Your works do not pacify the wrath of God. You can't be good enough. We're gonna have the Lord's Supper pretty soon. You know, you can't get good enough to take the Lord's Supper.

You can't be nice enough, happy enough to take the Lord's Supper. Ephesians 2.13, But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near By the blood of Christ God purchased us with his own blood Acts 20 verse 28 We were purchased with blood It is not with the blood of goats and calves, but with the blood of his own son. The eighth reason to rejoice. Salvation is through faith, Through faith. It isn't that our faith saves us, we need to get this clear.

Your faith doesn't save you. That's a good thing because your faith fluctuates. You're not saved except through faith. Faith is an instrument of salvation. Faith is like a vehicle, but it's not the salvation.

It's Jesus Christ and his blood that saves. Horatius Bonner wrote a book called Everlasting Righteousness. It's really a vindication of the justice of God and salvation, but here's how he explains this, Matt. How does faith, it's really important to understand how faith works in this because there are times people say, well I'm not gonna take the Lord's Supper, my faith is low. Horatius Bonner, faith is not our savior.

It was not faith that was born in Bethlehem. It was not faith that died on Golgotha. It was not faith that loved us and gave itself for us. It's not faith that bore our sins in its own body on the tree. It's not faith that died and rose again for our sins.

Faith is one thing, the Savior is another. Faith is one thing and the cross is another. Let us not confound them nor ascribe to a poor imperfect act of man that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God." He says, faith knits us to the infinite worthiness of him whom the Father delights, and so knitting us presents us perfect in the perfection of Christ. You know, we sang a song this morning that was written by William Calpert or William Cooper, however you want to pronounce his name. God moves in mysterious ways.

He also wrote, there is a fountain. Cooper was actually saved while he was in an insane asylum. And he was walking in the garden of that insane asylum and he found a Bible lying on the bench. And he opened it up and he read John 11 about Christ raising Lazarus from the dead and he thought, he's so compassionate and then he went into his room and he opened his Bible and the Bible opened to Romans chapter three verse 25, right where we are. And he read, whom God set forth as a propitiation through his blood.

And here's what he writes, he says, I saw the sufficiency of the atonement he had made, my pardon sealed in his blood and all the fullness and the completeness of his justification. In a moment I believed and received the gospel, my eyes filled with tears and my voice choked with transport and I could only look up to heaven in silent fear overwhelmed with love and wonder. And he read Romans 325 and he said, I immediately received the power to believe. I saw the complete sufficiency of Christ. I received the peace of the gospel.

And later he would write, "'There is a fountain filled with blood "'drawn from Emmanuel's veins, "'and sinners plunged beneath that flood "'lose all their guilty stains.'" Calpurg struggled with depression his whole life long, became a dear friend of John Newton who helped him through a lot of it. But his constitution was melancholy, and he struggled with it, and then he wrote some of the most wonderful hymns of comfort for the church, because he needed it. The ninth reason to rejoice, forbearance, Because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness. That he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Sins previously committed, I think he's talking about looking back over the sins of the Old Covenant, where God passed over the sins of the Old Covenant in a sense.

Forbearance means self-restraint. It was the self-restraint of God. And he's actually speaking of the Old Testament saints who were justified by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Bible makes that very clear that Old Testament saints were justified by the sacrifice of Christ, even though Christ had not been sacrificed, They looked forward to end hope with him. Read Hebrews 11, it's all about that.

You know, and a list of a dozen Old Testament saints who had faith and they believed and they were justified by faith. That Romans four really elaborates on this. And then the 10th reason to rejoice is that he saves to demonstrate his righteousness. You might think, you know, God saved me for me because he loved me. That's only part of it.

God saves sinners in order to magnify the glory of his grace. He wants to show how gracious He is. He wants to show how kind He is. He wants to show how patient He is with sinners. He wants to show how He would take undeserving people and make them part of His family forever.

And he would do nothing but pour out rivers of living water on the undeserving. God wants to glorify his own grace and his beauty and his mercy. And yes, God does love his children, but he doesn't only save us for us, he saves us so that everyone would praise Jesus Christ, his son, and everyone would give thanks to God for how magnanimous, how wonderful, how kind he is. He's demonstrating his righteousness, that he is the just and the justifier. You know, he is just, that's bad news, but he is the justifier, that's the good news.

He provides the justification that you don't have. With one hand he condemns and with the other hand he provides the sacrifice to cleanse you from all of your unrighteousness. He is just and and the justifier. You have a problem in that you are damned and he reaches out his hand and he provides the atonement for your damnation. So, rejoice.

Rejoice, the deeds of the law are powerless for salvation. Righteousness is apart from the law. Righteousness is everlasting. Rejoice. All have sinned.

Rejoice. We are justified by grace. Rejoice. We are purchased out of slavery and wrath is swallowed up and salvation is through faith and forbearance is the reason he has not destroyed us. And he saves to demonstrate the greatness of his loving kindness towards sinners.

So if you're suffering under the weight of condemnation from the accuser of the brethren, I'm here to say, think about these 10 things and rejoice. God is so kind to save sinners. Are you one of those who are who's saying oh Lord thank you, thank you for relieving me of my greatest trouble? Or are you are you hardened in your heart still after hearing it so many times or are you jealous are you jealous of the freedom and the joy and the consolation that some people in this world have because they repented of their sins and they turned to Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me?

Lord, you've given us many, many words, many beautiful words to help us to understand the greatness of your mercy. We thank you for your mercy, oh Lord. I pray that you would help all of us to live in it today and also that we would grant the same mercy to one another that you've granted to us. Amen.