Charles Spurgeon introduced one of his sermons by reading a text and saying that he did not intend to do an exposition to the text, but he merely wanted to take it as a theme.

And so many people have taken that and believe that Spurgeon was not really an exegetical preacher.

That's simply not the truth.

But nevertheless, I'm going to read a text, take this as a theme, as background, for what is more of just a, as my daughter-in-law suggested at lunch, it's more of a research paper than a sermon.

But I hope that the logic of it will begin to dawn on you as we move through it.

I want you to turn with me to the book of Romans chapter 3.

I'll begin with verse 19 and read through verse 26.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law

so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world

may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified

in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law

and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace

as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation

by his blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins it was to show his

righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has

faith in jesus discussions of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Discussions of the subject of justice peer into the very essence of God and the relation of

his creatures to him. The grand scheme of the world is the revelation of God's goodness,

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