Mike Bickle emphasizes the profound nature of God's free gift of righteousness in his sermon, explaining that many believers lack a deep understanding of this essential doctrine. He highlights that grace is not merely about receiving forgiveness but also about being empowered to live righteously and wholeheartedly for God. Bickle warns against the distortions of grace that lead to legalism and half-heartedness, urging believers to embrace the fullness of God's grace which includes confidence, gratitude, and a commitment to love God fully. He stresses the importance of understanding the legal aspects of salvation as presented in Romans, which assures believers of their standing before God regardless of their performance. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a deeper engagement with the truth of the gospel to combat confusion and distortion in the church.

Let's go to Romans chapter 3 Romans chapter 3 father we thank you for your word Lord we ask you again for living understanding we ask you for the light of your countenance to shine on our spirit We ask you to illuminate our understanding We want to feel the things that you feel About the salvation you have so abundantly provided we thank you in Jesus name. Amen Well, this is a session 2 in a 12-part series On the revelation of the gospel of grace tonight. We're going to look at the free gift of righteousness Now everybody knows That God has made available the free gift of righteousness But many believers don't understand it from a biblical point of view. They know the fact But past just the general sentence They don't understand why it's righteousness and why it's free and how it works And this is a critical doctrine in terms of understanding the grace of God Let's read paragraph a just a quick review of session 1 Jude said I found it necessary to exhort you to contend earnestly That you would proclaim the faith which was once for all delivered he's saying already within the first generation of Christianity they already had deviated from the original message verse 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed last week. We looked at this They doesn't mean that people didn't notice them in the meeting. It means their teaching was Distorted but the body of Christ did not know it was distorted They were turning the message of grace into lewdness Meaning they were saying they were preaching grace in a way that was empowering compromise And that very same thing has happened for 2,000 years and it is all over the body of Christ worldwide today the turning of the grace of God into lewdness Paragraph B the goals of this 12-part series We want to raise up messengers of grace that are not intimidated. They can stand bold with the truth Because the people speaking the distorted message actually are Intimidating people who are speaking the biblical message and you don't need to be intimidated Number Two we want people confident in the grace of God and by understanding what the word says they can be confident with no sense of presumption We looked at that last week and number three. We want them to understand the grace message. So they walk in victory over sin Paragraph C the foundational truth and understanding the biblical grace message is The first commandment Jesus said you shall love the Lord with all of your heart all of your soul your mind your strength This is the first commandment, which means it's the main priority to God It's the first priority the idea the foundational truth of understanding the grace of God God loves us with all of his strength and he wants to empower us to love him with all of our strength Any understanding of grace that is separated from that foundational reality will end up distorted Again, people begin to understand grace as a way that empowers them to live in a loose way instead of empowering them to walk in Love with all of their strength to give more and more of their self to the relationship they have with Jesus If you don't have that in your foundation your your view of grace will get distorted That is the biblical lens through which we understand the true message paragraph D Jesus defined loving God with all of our heart in the spirit of obedience is connected to that Meaning there's no such thing as loving God separated from the heart that seeks to obey him paragraph II Now the gospel of grace is distorted in two major ways again all of this is review from the last session first People try to earn the love of God Even believers who know better they know the teaching But when it comes right down to the practicality when they do bad they draw back from God Feeling Condemnation and when they do good they have more confidence Beloved that is legalism. That's a religious spirit we do not have confidence when we do well and Condemnation when we do bad we stand before God because of what he did not because of what we do And so we can't earn it fasting and prayer doesn't earn it giving money doesn't earn it obedience doesn't earn it But the second way that the message is distorted Is that people have a half-hearted response? When they hear the message of grace if it does not motivate them to be wholehearted They have not understood it and in both of these ways Trying to earn it or To not respond in a wholehearted way is to take the grace of God in vain In our last session we looked at that that Paul said you can receive the grace of God even be born again But not actually carry it or respond to it in a way that bears fruit That God ordained and you can end up taking the grace of God in vain receiving it in vain The Lord says I wanted the grace message to produce confidence in you Even when you fail and I wanted the grace message to produce wholeheartedness in you not half-heartedness In paragraph F Just to finish the review from the last session. We identified three responses to the grace of God that need to be corrected Number one the legalistic believer legalism teaches us That our commitment is what causes God to be committed back to us If we're more committed to God that he will be more committed to us The lukewarm believer is a very different problem They are looking to in the scripture to validate a lifestyle of half-heartedness they search the scripture for any verse they can find that will validate and Confirm them in not seeking God with all their heart Jesus addressed the lukewarm believer. He said I love you, but You hurt my stomach. He said I want to vomit you out of my mouth. He didn't mean you're repulsive He means when I look at you, I feel sick in my heart because I love you so much I have so much I want in our relationship that you are neglecting or just minimizing and paragraph three the very Common problem is that the believers not legalistic or lukewarm. They're just confused They don't know the foundations of the word So whoever presents a strong argument to them they go with it and the next day They'll hear a different view and they'll go with it. They're tossed like waves Tipping their boat over is what Ephesians 414 says every new wave that comes trips them They're always confused Beloved we don't need to live confused We can understand what the word says we can be rooted and grounded in truth Let's go to top of page two. So let's look at some new ground tonight first the subject of grace mercy and justice Now people often get get those confused Grace Speaks of receiving both God's undeserved love and God's undeserved power Now everybody knows that grace speaks of receiving God's undeserved love But that's only half a grace message It's also to receive his power His power to walk in victory over sin his power to be used By the Spirit to impact other people the Lord has used me in a number a number of times over the years when I was doing the worst that day and He used me anyway, and then my early years. I went Lord. I mean I was this a bad day But I led someone to the Lord and the power of God touched him I healed people and what was that about and the Lord says My power is as undeserved as my love is you don't deserve power He anoints us not for our sake but for the sake of the here we often think he anoints us Because he wants to establish help You know how powerful our ministry is in the Lord says no, and I'm not anointing you for you. I'm anointing you for them And I've told people I don't care How bad you feel take your hand out of your pocket laid on the sack the Lord will heal the sick not for your sake But the sake of the sick But it's not only that the power is undeserved in terms of impact of on other people If you only understand grace as free is the free gift of God's mercy and love You only understand half a message the grace message is powerfully rooted in the idea of having power to walk over sin To walk free from sin It's to be empowered the empowerment to walk wholehearted in love before God So people say I'm into grace So they draw back kind of chill out do nothing and the grace message is meant to empower them to pursue God with all their heart They're not operating in grace. They're actually receiving the grace of God in vain Now here's the evidence That you have received the grace of God in Truth and not in vain now don't judge somebody else use this for yourself to measure your own heart When you've understood the biblical grace message It produces confidence in you before God Even when you are in weakness, which is always When I really understand the grace message the biblical grace grace message I have confidence before God in my weakness that he receives me and loves me and that he will use me even in my weakness If you don't have confidence, but you have condemnation it means you've not yet understood the message and I'm not putting you down for that. That's not what I'm doing. I'm only and with enthusiasm saying there is a way to have confidence in our everyday life with God and it's Related to having understanding of the scripture There's nothing more dynamic than feeling confident before God whether you've done good or whether you've had a good week or a bad week The next thing that the revelation of grace will produce is gratitude We have gratitude Which is opposite of complaining often we'll get in a bad mindset We'll say God I've been serving you for years and this is all you're giving me in return And the Lord says you don't really know the score. Do you? You don't really understand how we relate to each other Because your dedication your faithfulness can never earn you more power or more love so when we understand that and When we understand the magnitude of what he really gave us the real truth I could be faithful for decades and have very little impact in my Circumstances, but I've not received a bad deal from God. I've still received more than I deserved you could tell when a believer has Understanding of grace because they have gratitude. It's really easy to like I've the people don't respond Lord You don't anoint me things don't happen, right? What's the deal? Lord says you don't really understand how much I've given you and how freely I gave it to you I'm giving you a far better deal than you deserve. If all the information was in front of you you would understand that So there's times I don't like my circumstances But I want to keep myself in check and not do the how dare you God treat me this way like don't go there All that I've done Lord in my commitment don't go there Thank you. I'm getting a lot better deal than I deserve No matter what happens in my ministry my finances my circumstances, whatever But the third evidence of grace is we're motivated to be wholehearted When a person is searching the word to find out how to live in compromise and passivity. They're not being moved by grace. I See it all over the body of Christ. I Mean there's a lot of it in our own midst So the evidence of grace its confidence Gratitude and motivation to be wholehearted That's when you understand that you've understood the real message Now all three of those I want more. I'm not content with where I'm at on those three issues But I know that the more I understand the more Confidence gratitude and motivation I have the more I understand truth paragraph B Now The Bible distinguishes between grace and mercy Here in Hebrews 4 We receive we obtain grace and I mean we obtain mercy and we find grace. There's a distinction But grace is the bigger subject mercy is a subunit of grace And a lot of people when they talk about the grace message. They only mean the mercy message They confuse it They talk about the free forgiveness. That's the mercy dimension of grace Mercy is a subunit of grace in terms of a theme in the scripture we find mercy far more pronounced in the Old Testament and The word grace is far more prominent in the New Testament But grace includes mercy but adds the power to obey to it So and even when somebody says I'm into the New Testament not the Old Testament then they need to Understand grace as power to pursue God with all their heart because that's a New Testament doctrine. It's available the old but not as Universal and not in the same scope. It's available because we have the indwelling spirit now But let's look at these three words very simple Justice you might have to like read these on your own and because they're they sound so similar, but they're very different Justice is getting what we deserve. That's justice You know over the years people say it's not fair. I go. You don't really don't want fair. Trust me what they want is Fair on a limited basis. They don't really want fair because if they get fair, they're in trouble. I Don't want God to treat me fairly because if I get treated According to perfect justice on my own. I end up in a real bad place So people just imagine they want what's fair Because they don't really understand their own sin and darkness So justice is getting what we deserve. We don't want that the man went to get his portrait And he asked the artist does the portrait? Does it do me justice the artist said friend you don't want justice you want mercy Mercy is different Mercy is not getting what we deserve and God has crowned us with mercy and loving-kindness We deserve judgment even as believers Our obedience even our whole heartedness is so frail and so weak our prayer and fasting that some people Imagine it earns them something is so weak and That's okay. It doesn't earn them anything. It only positions them to receive more freely that which is freely given by God mercy is not Getting what we deserve now grace is getting what we don't deserve Again, you might have to get with a few friends and tease these definitions apart We don't deserve a dynamic relationship with God We don't deserve access to his heart. We don't deserve his indwelling spirit, but we get it. Anyway paragraph C Mercy Emphasizes the aspect of the free forgiveness I mean that's still a grace doctrine But it's the mercy department of the grace doctrine again a lot of folks that preach grace They really only camp out on mercy They don't go any further They end up with a distorted grace message and I'm only telling you that so when you hear it You can discern it and not be seduced by it Our goal isn't to try to Live 50 years as a believer Getting away with as much sin as we can that's not the goal Our goal is to encounter and engage with God as deep as we can We're not trying to get away with a dull spirit With spiritual boredom and distance from God. We're trying to find the way to encounter him more The grace element is the enabling power the enabling power to make an impact on people You know the one-on-one ministry or more, but most of our impact is one-on-one in the course of our life Most of our impact is not on a stage with a crowd it is one-on-one when you consider a 50-year ministry But also Grace is that enabling power in order to walk wholehearted before God Second Corinthians Paul says my grace is sufficient. My strength is made perfect He's not saying my forgiveness is sufficient He's saying my empower my empowering of you to not compromise under pressure is sufficient because he was being persecuted and the Lord's appears to him and says Paul my Grace my empowering of you is sufficient where you don't have to draw back and compromise Some people read this verse My grace is sufficient and they think of my forgiveness is sufficient Paul wasn't talking about needing forgiveness. He needed strength and empowering so that he could stand strong in difficulty now paragraph t the grace message It always presupposes. I Mean foundational to the great Matt grace message. We don't deserve it We Can't earn anything by what we do But we can position ourself to experience more We don't earn it when we do it. I Mean think about it Prayer Again, this mysterious equation where people think if they pray they earn God's favor So I tell I have conversations so you sit in a room and tell God what he tells you to tell him and Somehow you earn power Think about it Your enemy mistreats you and you bless your enemy and somehow you earn access to God because You're not have bitterness towards your enemy. You don't earn anything by those things So I give somebody a little bit of money So I think that a little bit of money earns me access to the throne of God and Exchange with God's heart. That's impossible I don't care how much money you give you could never earn and countering the heart of the Genesis 1 God never Again, we do these things prayer fasting blessing our enemies forgiving our Forgiving our enemies serving these Sermon on the Mount activities In no way if you analyze them truthfully could they ever earn Encountering the throne of God not possible So I go without a hamburger at lunchtime and tell God what he tells me to tell him Beloved the throne of God accessing his heart is so much more powerful that could never earn me that privilege But prayer fasting does position me to receive and feel more Our prayer and fasting doesn't earn us But it positions us to receive more. I mean even our eternal rewards. I pray a little bit Give a little bit of money bless a few enemies Over the course of my life when I stand before God He'll give me golden riches far beyond anything that my little deeds could have ever deserved even our eternal rewards are such Heightened expressions of Jesus as well what he gives us is so much more than what our obedience ever could have deserved It is grace from A to Z is my point The reason I emphasize that people get tripped up by prayer and fasting and obeying and serving imagining that they're These little units of investment these little portions of investment into the relationship with God somehow earns The glory of God and access to his throne not possible and the eternal rewards What he will give us For the little we gave him is so exaggerated in its difference So even if Which you should biblically in receiving eternal rewards, you still don't imagine you've earned them It's like you give him a dollar and he gives you a million forever. It's like wow Keep giving me the dollar and I'll keep giving you a million. I mean, it's not comparable. So Romans 11 verse 6 Paul said if it's by grace if we understand the freeness so exist so abounds towards anything we could earn It's by grace. It's no longer by earning it whenever Paul uses the word works Almost every time in Romans. He means earning it Works is used in the Bible in a different way than earning God's love Like in James chapter 2 You don't know our faith by our works works in that context James 2 just means we're obeying God But in the book of Romans Mostly works is used in context of trying to earn God's favor because the Jews were trying to earn his favor. So he uses the word works in that context Let's look at Roman number three Roman number three the theme of the book of Romans is the righteousness of God and The power of it in our lives the righteousness of God and the power of it in our lives The reason I'm saying this The only way we will get a firm foundation in the grace message is by grasping Some of the book of Romans chapter 1 to 8 So when you read Romans 1 to 8, which we're going to work through the key themes of Romans 1 to 8 in this series It's critical that we learn the main themes. You don't have to know every verse and every phrase Some of the phrases are difficult and complex But the main themes are clear in and not so difficult to understand So what you are wanting to conclude in your own heart I'm going to understand Romans 1 to 8 or even particularly 3 to 8 But the reason I say 1 to 8 because chapter 1 and 2 are foundational to understanding chapter 3 And I have a bit of this written out for you We won't go into the detail In In this in the session tonight But I want you to get familiar With Romans 1 to 8 because if you didn't become somewhat familiar, I don't mean a scholar somewhat familiar you will be So anchored in truth Nobody will be able to seduce you by an empty argument You will be grounded in truth There's no place like Romans 1 to 8 Where the gospel is systematically presented? Well chapter 1 verse 16 and 17 is the theme of the whole book verse 16 The gospel is the power of God Right there tells you that Receiving the free grace of God is meant to empower us to obey God right there The power of God not just to heal people the power of God to walk right with God The point of the gospel is to empower us to walk right with God after we receive Free acceptance and then empower us to work together with him to bring his glory out to the nations It's power for salvation Now when you read the word salvation think of freedom from the penalty and the power of sin Salvation is not just freedom from the penalty of sin hell Salvation is freedom from the power of sin to walk in victory with a vibrant spirit Well verse 16 tells us the theme the power of God verse 17 tells us the the main truth That gives us access to the power So verse 17, he tells us how we can walk in that power and how we can receive it he said well in the gospel that empowers your heart and Empowers your ministry to partner with the Lord At the foundation the righteousness of God is Clearly revealed and made known to you and they manifest to you. In other words you you've received it So the Central idea is that the righteousness of God Has been revealed to us and we've received it and it's changed the way we think about life Now a lot of people talk about grace But they don't understand the issue of the righteousness of God and how they receive it and therefore they'll get confused when they think deeply on grace So the power of verse 16 rests upon the understanding of the gift of righteousness in verse 17 paragraph B I've already said it Romans 1 to 8 and in some ways I would say Romans 3 to 8 But again chapter 1 and 2 gives us a foundation for chapter 3 So in this session, I'm including Romans 1 to 8 It's the most comprehensive presentation of the gospel Romans 1 to 4 and I realize you won't get this hearing it once but I must say it anyway but as you Dialogue and talk about it with other people get a small group three four of you Work through these ideas say them back to each other challenge them see If the Bible really says these things but Romans 1 to 4 Establishes that's what we're looking at tonight just ever so briefly But I want you to know the first four chapters We're guilty Everybody's guilty before God everybody apart from Jesus without Jesus. We're all guilty Romans 1 to 4 makes that clear and We're unable to deliver ourselves from the penalty or the power of sin We can't get free from hell and we can't get free from sin in our life Romans 1 to 4 says that real clear Romans 5 to 8 Tell us how to walk in victory and we're going to look at just the main themes of Romans 5 to 8 in the series and I Trust that you'll be able to understand them clearly and be able to say the main themes Let's look at this in more detail Paul talks about three types of people who imagine they're okay before God He says Romans 1 18 to 32 the immoral man He's in trouble without Jesus. He's guilty a Lot of immoral people don't think they're in trouble with God. They really don't And it's I'm not as immoral as that guy The immoral person is in trouble with God without the free gift of salvation Romans 2 1 to 16 Paul changed the subject He goes it's not only the immoral guy. The moral man is in trouble with God then Romans 2 17 3 8 The religious man, he reads his Bible night and day, but he's not born again. I'm talking about a devout Jew or whatever there's Devout men even in the Christian tradition of history. They're not yet born again They're in the ministry Got a PhD in theology they're religious and The sense of they read the Word and their whole life is about God, but they're not born again Paul says that guy's guilty, too So when you're witnessing to an unbeliever whether they're immoral Moral, but they don't have a religion or they're very religion religious They're not born again. They're in trouble with God. That's Paul's point then he goes on Look at the next one chapter 3 verse 9 to 20 he goes by the way if I missed anybody They're in trouble too But these categories are very systematic and they're very helpful because one time I'm witnessing to a religious man that's not born again the next time a good guy who's moral and the next guy a real immoral man and Paul has an answer for each of them Now put a little asterisk by Romans 3 21 to 31 put it like a star You don't have to the guy next to you is not doing nothing put a star for him. No, don't don't I'm kidding Here's my point these verses these 11 verses 21 to 31 They are the clearest statement of the salvation of God in the Bible Whatever you do, you must understand Romans 3 21 to 31 you must I Want to highlight that because Paul says the immoral guys in trouble without Jesus the moral guys in trouble without Jesus the religious guys Trouble without Jesus everybody's in trouble without Jesus. Here's how you get Jesus verse 21 to 31 Now here's the problem with these 11 verses They're written in legal language Justification the propitiation for our sins Redemption their legal terms the reason because the way God saved us is through a legal exchange Before in his court in heaven and it would take just a little bit of effort The legal language is not so hard. I have I think enough right here on these simple notes Where you can understand it? But it's legal because the problem of our salvation is a legal problem in God's throne God's court That's the issue if we don't understand That we have a legal problem and a legal solution to our problem we won't understand grace Now some people think oh the word legal that sounds like a technical word. I'm not good at legal. I Will never understand it stop It's 11 verses you will understand it It's not that big a deal We have a legal problem in the throne of God our sin. We're sinful. He's holy We can't encounter him There's a legal solution God did not overlook our sin. He paid for it so therefore Whether we're feeling bad or feeling good. We're secure in his presence It's a legal exchange The understanding of this is what gives us security and assurance and confidence So take a little time again, we're not going to break it all down tonight, but I'm gonna leave you with more notes Then we're going to cover But say before God I'm going to understand Romans 3 21 to 31. I'm just going to it's not that big a deal to work through a few technical terms and again, the reason the terms are legal because the problem and the solution is a legal problem and a legal solution if you don't Understand that phrase I've said a couple times Later on in the notes. I break it down a little bit more though. We probably won't get to it tonight Notice Romans 4 Paul says By the way, Jewish people who love your Old Testament. This is Paul the Jew of all Jews The Hebrew of Hebrews the Pharisee of Pharisees so to speak He says you think what I'm preaching is not Old Testament truth He said let me take two of the main guys Abraham and David I Mean you don't get any higher on the list of Old Testament guys than Abraham and David I mean you might throw Elijah in there and you know have a good argument, but Abraham and David's top of the list He said Abraham was saved by faith Before the law David was saved by faith after the law, but both of them were saved by faith before Jesus came. Why do I say that? Some people say well in the Old Testament were saved by works No Abraham before the law of Moses David after the law of Moses, that's why Paul chose us to they were both saved by faith without earning it Before Jesus came now what they did They offered animal sacrifices Which were a prophetic picture of the Messiah who would be the sacrifice in the future? So they offered animal sacrifices. They were saying God Take away our sin by shed blood. We don't understand it all but that's how you said to do it We know we can't earn our salvation. So we'll do it the way you tell us then Jesus came He said I am the Lamb of God or John the Baptist said he's the Lamb of God and he fulfilled all those Old Testament pictures Abraham and David They were so excited when Jesus Offered himself as a lamb because that means all of those Old Testament sacrifices are now made good when the Lamb of God offered himself Jesus would not have come Killing those animals in the Old Testament would not have would not have helped those guys It was always looking to the Messiah who would give them free salvation Salvation in the Old Testament is as 100% free as salvation in the New Testament And people get confused by that Romans 4 makes it really clear paragraph see I'm all gonna mention this briefly Before Paul tells us about salvation in verse 21 to 31. He gives us the answer You know that passage verse 9 to 20 in chapter 3 where he says everybody's in trouble That paragraph is a very very important paragraph It's the doctrine of our total depravity It's the doctrine that we're all sinners and we're all in trouble Yes, the immoral man the moral man the religious man But in verse 9 to 20 Paul says we all are depraved by the nature. We receive the day We were born physically We were born with the sin nature. We have natural depravity We deserve the wrath of God by our orientation of Resistance rebellion to Jesus's leadership. The reason that passage is so important There's so much confusion about sin today even in the church Everybody agrees that all have sinned The problem is we have such a shallow view of sin That it's more it's not that we all have sinned. We've all rebelled continually against God. That's what sin is. That's the truth That's what he says verse 9 to 20 What we really Emotionally say all of us have struggled through the years a little bit and nobody's perfect Chuckle chuckle chuckle and so the problem with understanding grace is we have such a shallow Understanding of the depravity and depth of sin that's in us So we talk about Innocent children, how could a good God let innocent children die? Those innocent children. Nobody is innocent. Everybody's born with sin and hostility in their heart towards God so even believers go I Can't trust the God that lets innocent children die as though there's a segment of the human race. That's innocent There is no such group now my comment my point now is not to Break down how God allows that to happen. That's not my point my point to say there is no innocent group. They don't exist They're cute little guys But they're depraved And when the little guy grows up You'll see how much hostility he has towards God So maybe they should say why would God let cute little bet guys die now I can understand that but nobody's innocent but that's a strange doctrine in the church because We have taken the view of our culture That people aren't really sinners they're Struggling and they're mostly innocent and that's a complete wrong view and we'll never understand grace until we understand The trouble we're really in because the hostility is real Even the cute little guy when he's little you don't see the hostility But when they grow up, they surely show it every single time in the church today I'm not making a big point about this It's real popular today to call sinners the unchurched Heard all the time heard it for a couple decades kind of a new term last maybe 20 years Well the unchurch Need to be loved. It's true. They are unchurched. They need to be loved, but they're sinners They're lost They're enemies of God But they don't think they are Because we're relating to them as though they're struggling and they're innocent and we'll never make sense Of presenting the gospel to them till we understand the truth of how God sees them We don't want to call them sinners That will offend them That offends them. They will never ever understand salvation. That's the power of our gratitude I was a sinner in trouble with God and he freely forgave me because of what he did to Jesus That's the basis of my confidence That's the basis of my gratitude. I Don't mind if you call them unchurched But the Bible calls them sinners Says they're lost and they're enemies of God and when that hits them How dare you say say your troubles deeper than you think? but there's one that has an answer that's greater than you think and He'll give it to you freely if you will receive it. I don't need that man's help There you have it. There's the problem surfacing now I'm good enough as I am. Ooh, the problem is getting deeper I'm not following his leadership. The hostility is complete But we just think they're unchurched Look at top of page three Let's just look at this ever so brief to kind of leave you with something to study on your on your own The core truth of the grace of God is the righteousness of God is given to us Now Paul puts book ends to begin Romans 1 and at the end of Romans 3 because that Immoral man that moral man that religious man that everybody else that's that's included He puts on both ends of explaining those three categories of people He puts the core truth. It's the revelation of the righteousness of God. That's their answer Paul Is tenacious about this revelation and the gospel of grace is rooted in this truth the most remarkable thing It's that it's the righteousness of God Beloved you received a quality of righteousness as a free gift that can never ever be improved The day that you were born again You received Righteousness that God can't improve because it's his a Million years from now. You will not be more righteous in God's eyes than the day You're born again with a ton of sins still in your life The day you were born again You are as secure in God's presence as a million years in the resurrection Because the righteousness you receive freely is The quality of righteousness that God himself possesses even God can't increase it God is not more righteous than the righteousness. He gives his own people. That is remarkable. I just can't get over this I got a feeling I'm not supposed to get over it paragraph B We'll look at this more later, but I just want to highlight it This Righteousness that we received has two expressions there's an imputed righteousness and There is an imparted righteousness Now they kind of rhyme so they're not so hard to get The day you were born again you received imputed righteousness, which means on your legal account in heaven God put 100% righteous forever He wrote it the offense is gone. The debt is paid. You're righteous forever. It's imputed. It's a legal term It's put on your account when God looks at you He sees a hundred percent eternal righteousness on your account and he relates to you based on that account So when you're having a bad week God still relates you with an open heart. It says you're mine forever There is nothing hindering me from embracing you Again our own compromise keeps us from being able to experience it and feel the power of it But God's offering it and he never wavers and what he offers and how he relates to us. That's imputed Imparted righteousness is that righteousness to get worked out in our character? So the day I'm born again imputed righteousness 100% Imparted righteousness. Well, I don't have that much in my life and over the years That which is imputed becomes imparted our character changes over years. But the point I'm making is this He gives us Imputed righteousness in order to put us in a position to give us imparted righteousness So our life would be righteous in our character is the point. It's what he wants He doesn't give us imputed righteousness So we would go on living in sin and not caring about it now, I'm gonna end with paragraph C We'll pick up. I'll kind of redo the notes and we'll pick up with some of this next week as well I've already gone too fast Because we have to get this if we don't get this We will be vulnerable To every argument about grace that comes blowing like a wind across the lake We'll go well, I think I'm secure, but I still feel condemned And I don't know if I have to live righteous. They said Jesus did it for me So I don't think I have to or something like that. I don't know how this works and this legal book Well, it's not really legal book the book of Romans chapter 1 to 4 is legal and just working through a few of the terms It's critical, but let's just end with C what Paul does in Romans 3 21 to 31, that's the Passage I told you to put a star by or put a star on your neighbor's notes Paul elaborates on the way of salvation But here's the key He emphasizes how God's justice is involved that's why the language is legal in those 11 verses because the subject of God's grace is Rooted in the subject of legal language because it's the issue of God's justice But when we understand the justice of God it has three Impacts on our life very simple, but I want you just to get a 1 2 3 So you really are motivated to get this clear? When I understand that it's all about justice that means another man the innocent one Jesus became guilty So that the guilty one me became innocent So when God looks at me? he sees the debt Jesus paid and the Imputed righteousness on my account. So when I'm having a bad day, I'm still secure when we understand the legal exchange that we were actually The innocent one became guilty so that the guilty ones became innocent He paid our debt in a legal exchange before the throne of God. So no matter what mood you're in you can be sure Nothing ever changes from God's point of view. It's a legal exchange. That's where your security is So everybody could be saved the most immoral man I Mean the most perverse man ever He accepts that gift of righteousness. He gets all the innocents as a free gift Nobody is outside of the boundaries In all their perversion because an innocent man paid the whole debt Everybody can receive the gift whoa So we had talked to a guy he goes now I'm real bad Say it's not about how bad you are. It's about a man that paid the whole debt. What are you talking about? What man paid my debt? What are you talking about? number two When we understand the justice Then we have confidence even when we're having a bad week in bad month. We have confidence with God and number three and finally We'll end with this Because it's a legal exchange Exchange that's why there's only one way of salvation Jesus See there's a lot of talk About all the world religions being the same. They're not the same. There's a lot of talk That says that how dare you Christians say you have the right way and we have we're all wrong And you guys are the ones that are right? The answer is this There's only one man Who is innocent who became guilty If there's another man that was innocent that became guilty and took our debt then there's another way of salvation There isn't another one. It's an issue of justice It's not an issue of whose religion is nicer. It's nothing about that So I talked to other people they go how dare you say you have the right way I go Do you have a man in your religion? Who was 100% obedient thought word indeed 100% of his life and Then he took your place and The wrath of God crushed him. Do you have that guy? No Case closed. There's only one There is no other way of salvation. It's impossible but understanding the justice dimension is What gives us the confidence and the clarity on these issues and Again as we unfold it more unpack it more we'll see how the gospel of grace is so rooted in these fundamental truths Amen, we're gonna end with that Let's stand. We'll pick up next week We're gonna work our way a little bit through Romans. We're not going to be real detailed just broad strokes My goal is 12 weeks 12 sessions you will feel comfortable with Romans chapter 1 to 8 you'll feel comfortable to teach it 3 or 4 people in a Bible study that you meet with on a regular basis If you don't have one of those ask the Lord to help you get one We'll get a couple 12 year olds. I'll be happy to listen to you. It's how I started with a group of 12 year olds They didn't listen that well, but they were happy to come We're gonna respond to the Lord for just a few moments Then we're gonna have just a short time a question and answer Again, just get ready. We're gonna be there and over there. We'll about 10 minutes from now if you need to Take a break real quick. Go ahead and do that But make sure you come right back in if you would like prayer this next 10-15 minutes. Go ahead and come on forward You said man, I want to get a hold of this in a greater way Or maybe you have prayer that for another issue just come stand on these lines We're gonna worship it. I'm gonna ask a number of you to come up and just begin to lay hands on Lord We love your word We want to understand the gospel of grace He's Jesus Jesus Just a few more of you go ahead and come on up and let's go ahead lay hands on folks ask them what they want to receive from the Lord Oh Oh I Don't deserve what you give So grace Oh Fully pleasing you I don't deserve what you give Grace I don't deserve what you give I Don't deserve what you give To I don't deserve what you give I Oh Oh You