Finding Purpose- Romans with Kenny Jones: 6

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. . Join us on Finding Purpose, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living.

For more information on the ministry, please visit online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Let's listen to guest speaker, Pastor Kenny Jones, as he leads us through Romans, teaching us how to be a Christian without being religious. Turn over to Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter 3. And tonight we are going to be closing out chapter 3 and we're going to be looking at the last 10 verses, verses 21 through 31. But tonight what I want us to do is I'm going to really spend a majority of our time this evening by looking at verses 21 through 26. That's what we're going to be spending a lot of our time tonight. And tonight it is a very important message because what we see as you have studied in your small group and prepared for this week is that tonight's message is all about Christ.

It is all about Jesus Christ. You know, the last couple of weeks we've been hitting some hard ground. We've been hitting a lot of rough terrain in the sense that Paul has not let up off the gas on his message that God's wrath is being revealed upon sin, sinners. He's been clear.

He's been concise every single part of the way. He started that journey in chapter 1 verse 18 and he just ended it in chapter 3 verse 20. And so tonight what I want us to see is I want us to see the beauty of King Jesus. I want us to behold the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. I want us to see the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ because like I said just a moment ago, as we've been plowing the field, it's really good to get to some good news right now because it's been hard. But tonight men, have you ever heard the expression, the light comes on? The light comes on with somebody? Have you heard that expression before? Like when you're explaining like a truth or a problem or a situation to somebody and when they finally understand what you're talking about, the light comes on.

They understand what you're getting to. Men, if there's ever been a light that needs to come on tonight, it's now. I mean that wholeheartedly and a light most importantly that just doesn't stop here but it goes from here to your heart and is the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here's what I want tonight for us to see because this is what I've been praying for the last week as I have been preparing this message. Number one is this, there are a lot of you in here who think you know Jesus but are far from him. There are a lot of people in here that have heard the name of Jesus but have a misconstrued idea of who Jesus is.

I mean that. I did before I came to Christ. The second thing I want us to see through that is I want you to see Jesus. I'm praying for some of you tonight or maybe those who are watching online or are listening to one online. I pray that what you hear from my mouth is nothing of Kenny Jones authority or something that Kenny has made up. It is from God alone who is the author of our salvation. That's what I want you to see tonight.

Here's the second thing I want you to see. That if you are in Christ, if you are a believer, if you are a Christian, my prayer for you is that you are going to be humbled and you are going to see the glorious grace of the gospel. Because when you are reminded of a major truth, when you are reminded of something as significant of eternal value of the gospel, men, it humbles you to the core of who you are.

Your feet go right out from underneath you faster than you realize and that is a good thing if you are a Christian. Because a humble state is the right state of a believer. And so when you realize again just the power of the gospel of God, I pray that you are going to have more and deeper affections for Christ. A deeper joy, a deeper hope for the message of Jesus. For the hope that is laid up for you. And so that's my prayer. Those are the two things I have been praying for. And so like I said, if you have your Bible tonight, let's look at what Paul says, how we are to be made right before God.

How do we do this? How do we are made right before a holy God? And tonight what we are going to do is walk through four points together and we are going to unpack this truth that Paul lays out for us in chapter 3. So before we get started though, we need to ask the Lord's help. Because this is no light truth. This is not an easy thing to talk about.

It's easy in the sense of it's good for our ears to listen to it. But what we find here men, I was looking at a couple of faithful Bible preachers. There are guys who spend months on these five verses, these six verses.

And we are going to hit it in one passing way tonight. And so hold on, I'm going to hold on, but my prayer is tonight that we are just going to see the glorious good news of the gospel. And how we by Christ alone are made right to have the righteousness of God all because of Christ. But we need to ask the Lord's help. So if you will let's pray and ask Him to lead us in His time in the Word. Father God, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for the message of the gospel.

Thank You for sending Christ. Thank You Lord by Christ alone through faith alone. Lord that we are declared right. That we have been justified by our faith.

And this is not of our own doing. This is a gift of God. So Lord I pray tonight for those in this room who don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Lord help them now. Grip them by in their heart by the pricking of the Spirit. Help them to see Jesus. And come to a saving faith in Christ. And Lord I also pray for the believers in here. Lord that they will see how glorious You are and have a bigger view of who God is. And Lord that they will be reminded once again what they have been delivered from. So Lord we pray all these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Let's look at our first point. Our first point as you see in your outline is the Bible points to the righteousness of God through faith. It defends the righteousness of God through faith. Look with me in verse 21. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

What we have seen over the last couple of weeks like I said in my introduction. Is Paul has made a clear case for us to see. That there is no one on the face of the earth who is born righteous. There is no one perfect. Remember that we could summarize what Paul has been saying from chapter 1 and verse 18 through chapter 3 verse 20.

With the term total depravity. No one seeks after God. There is no one who is righteous.

No one is born perfect. And so no one as we read there in chapter 3. No one is righteous.

No not one. No one understands. No one after seeks God as Paul says there in chapter 3 verse 11. We are all sinners. But here comes the light of the gospel. And what Paul wants us to see here in verse 21. Is that the Bible has been talking about how the righteousness of God is going to come by faith.

So Paul wants us to take. He wants to go back to the Old Testament. He is defending what he is talking about with scripture.

But first we need to understand the key term here. He says the righteousness of God. The Greek word means justice or justness. It is a righteousness of God which is the source or the author is a divine righteousness. It means to have the approval of God.

It is also a judicial approval. A divine approval. When you take a step back and you realize what the term means to have a divine approval.

You also need to see a major point here. With the term righteousness of God. To have the approval of God. God has to be the author of the approval process. Which means God has to deal with God's wrath.

How does this happen? Paul says right there in the top of verse 21. But now. He is now making the transition for the Roman Christians to see now is the time of the new covenant. When Paul says but now. He is pointing to the present time. That Jesus has come to the earth and the old covenant has passed away. And Paul is pointing to Jesus as the way for man to have this divine approval. And it is important for us to see this truth and to see the equation. Because think back to what Paul has been talking about. Especially to his Jewish readers.

Because they would be saying here at this moment. An objection would be coming to the service Paul. We are the heirs of the promise. We have the circumcision.

We have the law. We are saved. Well Paul says even in 2 Corinthians as he is quoting Isaiah chapter 49. He is going back to the Old Testament to point to Christ. He there in 2 Corinthians even says as he echoes here in verse 21. In a favorable time I listen to you.

In the day of salvation I have helped you. Paul as well as Isaiah is saying the day of salvation has come through Christ. And so when we look in the second half of verse 21.

He is continuing to counter the claim. Because the Jews again are wanting to go back to the Old Testament. They are saying their salvation is solely based because they have the law. They have the circumcision.

But men as we saw in chapter 2. The Jews didn't follow the law. They broke the law.

They can't keep the law. It is just like a broken plate. This is the idea of the Jews. You know if you have a chipped plate.

It doesn't matter how the chip how big it is or how small it is. It is still a broken plate. Men it is the same idea for the Jew. They broke one law.

They broke all of the law. And the Old Testament prophets men. Paul is getting to have been pointing to the Messiah. They have been pointing to the Messiah. That the saving righteousness of God is not coming through the Mosaic covenant. But it is coming through the New Covenant. It is coming through Christ. Even Jesus said this when they were in the beginning of his teaching ministry.

He said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them. But to what? Fulfill them.

But to fulfill them. Think about what he talks about there with the law and the prophets. The bare witness to it. He is talking about Isaiah 9. When we see the picture of the coming of Emmanuel. We see in Jeremiah chapter 31. We see in Ezekiel 37 that there is going to be a new covenant. Who is going to give us a heart of flesh.

He is going to take out that heart of stone. He is talking about one of the minor prophets. Habakkuk chapter 2. Who there in Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17 is quoted there. That the righteous shall live by faith. This is what the prophets have been talking about. And so verse 21 is important for us. They are saying because Paul is saying the Old Testament. They are saying that Jesus is coming and he is coming now. What Paul is saying. Now he has come to declare the righteousness of God. The Gospel is here now. And Romans 3.21 shows us that Jesus came to save sinners now. Which men already does something for us to see. And verse 21 alone.

Now right out of the gate. Paul smashes every man made religion. Our hearts are idle factories.

We produce one after another. Especially the idol of saving ourself and our own merit. But when you see what Paul is saying here.

What he is saying is look guys. This is what he is saying to the Roman Christians. For hundreds of years before me.

God had a plan of salvation through Jesus Christ alone. That is what he has been saying. And guess what? Everyone in the Old Testament is talking about it.

Everyone is talking about Jesus. It is just like I know you have been there before. It is like when you throw a party. And someone says hey did you hear what happened at the party? But you weren't invited.

Flip it around. For the Roman Christians there. And even for those Jewish brethren there that Paul is writing to. They are raising the Egyptians. Paul is saying this listen.

The party is at your house. It is right at your footsteps. But you failed to see the celebration. But now. But now Jesus has come.

And men don't fall into that trap. Don't fall into the idol of thinking. That we can save ourselves.

That some way in our own merit. That that is going to get us in a right standing before God. What Paul says here in verse 21.

He is laying the groundwork for us to see. The Bible. The Old Testament is pointing to the Messiah. It is pointing to Jesus Christ.

Which naturally leads us to our second point. So we understand the righteousness of God. That it is a divine approval.

But since it has been manifested. It has been given to us by God. How do we get it? How do we gain divine approval? It comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith.

This is the mechanism. This is the means by way we gain our righteousness of God. Faith is belief. It is trust. It is confidence.

It is a persuasion. It has come to trust. And our faith as it says in verses 22 and 23. Is in Christ Jesus. In Jesus Christ. And notice the word therein.

That is a key word you need to see there. In fact you need to underline it in your Bible there. Because the preposition is showing here that it is not in our own merit. It is not in our own faith. It is not saying because we believe we have simple faith. That is what gets us into heaven.

No. You see here that what Paul is saying here is that laying a hold of Christ. That Christ alone is the object.

Is the object. Is the way we are declared righteous. Righteous.

Excuse me. It is all through the work of Christ. Paul is not saying here because some general faith. That is what gets us to be made righteous.

No. Paul is saying it is faith in Christ. He is also saying it is not obeying the law. That the law is not what is going to save. What Paul is saying here is faith in Christ is outside of us.

It is outside of us. It has to come from above. And because through the power of the gospel. Through the power of the Holy Spirit. Generates in our hearts the ability to believe. It is all through the power of God. That allows us to be able to have faith. And to believe in Christ alone. Amen. It is October.

I have been saying over the last couple of weeks. We celebrate the Protestant Reformation. And we should because there we see men like Martin Luther. We see like William Tyndale. We see John Calvin. We see all those guys.

But here is what they were facing up against. The Roman Catholic Church would teach this. That faith comes through baptism. That when you are baptized. That is what grants spiritual life. I mean that is false. It is absolutely false doctrine. There is nothing special if there was water behind me. Filled in that tank right now.

There is nothing special about the water. What we need to see that grant spiritual life is faith. Faith in what? Jesus Christ.

And Him alone. Faith is a gift of God. Paul writes this in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing.

It is a what? It is a gift of God. The whole again going back to verse 21. Everything has been pointing now to faith in Christ. Paul says in Galatians chapter 2 verse 16. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law. But through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus. In order to be justified by faith in Christ. Not by our works of the law. But because by works of the law no one will be justified. Galatians 2 verse 16.

Again back in Galatians. With the scripture imprisoned everything under sin. So the promise by faith in Jesus Christ. Might be given to those who believe.

He even says in Ephesians 3 12. In whom we have boldness. Access with confidence through our faith in Him. Men we need to see an important truth here. We need to make sure that we are not trusting in anything else. I know I just said that just a moment ago.

But men I'll say this. It doesn't take you long to turn on the TV. To go on YouTube.

To listen to the radio. That there are so many false pastors out there. Men that are saying that they are preachers of the word of God.

That have no idea who Jesus Christ is. And I mean that. I mean that wholeheartedly. What Paul is teaching us here is the exclusivity of Christ. What he is saying here is Acts 4 12. That there is salvation in no one else. No other name under heaven is given to be saved.

It is all through Christ alone. I was on the great application YouTube not recently. Looking at listening to a sermon. I know you all watch YouTube. And it is amazing what comes up in your search history. And I was watching this thing on John MacArthur. And I noticed of all the things under John MacArthur. Was an interview by Larry King and Joel Osteen.

You are talking about polar opposites there. John MacArthur to Joel Osteen. But even when you begin to listen to Joel Osteen. When Larry King was pushing him about faith in Christ alone. The exclusivity of Christ. That only through Jesus can we be saved. Over and over again. Joel Osteen was just saying, I don't know. I don't think that is right. I mean he claims to be a pastor.

I was recently had someone at our house doing some repair work on our internet. When I was sharing the gospel with him. Even this guy as I gave him a card to come to Capitol. It was amazing for him to quickly say. You know your God is good. My God is good. And when I began to press him about Jesus.

He said yeah. He is good. Your Jesus is good. My Jesus is good.

What a. That's heresy. But you know what the reality is.

So many people believe that. Your God is good. My God is good. Let's all get along.

No. What we see here men. Is that it is faith only through Jesus Christ alone. It is all only through Jesus Christ alone.

That we are declared right before God. It is Jesus. It is Jesus who. As we know in Matthew 1 21. When the angel came to Mary.

She said she will bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus. For he will save people from their sins. It's John 14 16. Jesus said to him. I am the way and the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. It's all about Jesus. It's all about Christ.

Which leads us to our third point gentlemen. When you look at verse 24. When you realize that it's through Christ. That we are declared righteousness. We are declared righteous. We realize pretty quickly it is a gift of grace. It is a gift of grace. Paul now moves to see that our justification there in verse 24.

Listen along with me. And are justified by his grace. As a gift through the redemption. That is in Christ Jesus. It is in Christ Jesus.

Amen. Paul now moves. And look at the order there through our justification. God is the one who pronounces his justification to the believer.

And notice what he does here. He does it at the beginning of their walk not at the end. Which nullifies any works based or law based righteousness.

To give you an example of this. If you go back to Exodus chapter 20. You will find that before God gives the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel. First he reminds them that they have been delivered from Egypt. Grace is given then the law.

And that is what we see here. He pronounces their justification at the beginning of their walk with Christ. There when they come to faith in Jesus Christ. Being justified as being declared right or righteous before God.

William Hendrickson helps us to understand verse 24 as this. Justification may be defined as that gracious act of God. Whereby on the basis solely of Christ's accomplished medatorial work. That he declares the sinner just.

And the latter accepts his benefit with a believing heart. Paul writing to Timothy excuse me Titus in chapter 3 verse 5 echoes this. He says he saved us. Not because of our works done by us in righteousness but according to his own mercy.

By the washing of the regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. And all of this is a gift of God's grace. Grace the definition of grace is undeserved favor. I love how John Piper defines it as God's grace is both the inclination of the divine heart.

To treat us better than we deserve. Grace and the Greek is a gift of blessing, favor, kindness, loving kindness. It means to be inclined favorable of the Lord's favor. Freely extending himself to his people. Men without grace we cannot come to God because grace is the essence of the gospel. Acts 20 verse 24 Paul says this as he's talking to the Ephesian believers.

He says but I do not account of my life of any value nor precious to myself. If only I may finish the course of my ministry that I have received from the Lord Jesus. To testify to the gospel of the grace of God. I mean grace is a gift and we see this in verse 24. And when this justification happens when the grace of God is given to us. Here is what happens. Here's what happens to this justification. Number one we see that our sin is imputed or is transferred to Christ. And this happens through justification. The second thing we see here is that we are then transferred Christ or righteousness or imputed to us. It's a legal transfer. It's like saying for example like taking the debt that you incurred and now someone comes and transfers your debt to their name to their credit. And Jesus is the one who's done this.

And it gets better man. Look at that word there of redemption. Or the accomplishment of Christ Jesus. Redemption means that the payment of the ransom from guilt. Punishment from the power of sin. And all of it. All of it goes right back to being in Christ Jesus.

All in Christ Jesus. Men we love to be strong. We love to work for ourselves. We love to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. We don't like to show emotion.

But men when we lay all of our cards down here on the table. We realize that it's all because of and unless we are in Christ we are lost. We stand condemned. We have no hope. But here right through Christ we are restored.

We have hope. We are justified all through Jesus. What a marvelous act of the loving kindness of God how He has given to us. He has given to us Jesus. John Stott in his book of the cross of Christ says it best. He says if we are looking for a definition of love.

We should not look in a dictionary. But we should look at Calvary. We should look at Calvary. And that's exactly what we should do. Because men realize look what's happening there.

Look what's happening. We are justified by His grace. And it's a gift to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

And here's the beauty of it men. All can come to faith. Anybody can.

Through all who believe. It's open to anybody. It's open to me. It's open to you. And this is the free gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It goes back to what we have been saying over the last couple of weeks.

To see the gift of God's grace. So often we think there's no way God could save me. I'm too far gone. Have you heard that before? I've heard that many a time.

I've heard that from people before that have said, listen you don't know my past. You don't know what I've done. You don't know what I've said to my wife. What I've done to my children.

What I've said to my co-workers. You don't know my childhood. You don't know my teenage years.

You don't know my college years. You hear it time and time again. But what we see here is that the gospel is the grace of God being extended to us. Unmerited favor given to us.

And it all comes through God. Not from ourselves. Because like Paul says, we wouldn't save ourselves. We wouldn't pursue the things of God. It's not in our inclination. We're not born from day one coming out of the womb going, you know I could really take a dose of Jesus. No, we don't have that. Paul's saying here this faith that we have, it's outside of us.

It's outside of us. And we need to understand how glorious and how good and how sweet the gift and the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ is. It's humbling to us men. Which leads us to our fourth point. The cross is the means for our righteousness. Look with me in verses 25 and 26. Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. To be received by faith. And this is to show God's righteousness.

Because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net.