If you would you want to follow
along we're going to go to Romans chapter 4 Romans chapter 4 And I'll read verses 4 to 8 Hopefully a very familiar passage
of scripture I Have a sneaking suspicion though that most religious
people may not be as familiar with the Book of Romans as this
place here. Because there's a lot of doctrine in
the Book of Romans, a lot of good doctrine, sound teaching. And that's what people are not
itching to hear. But here we go, Romans chapter
four, beginning in verse four. For what saith the scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
His faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. And I've said it before, I'll
say it again, that is one of my favorite verses in all of
the scripture. Because that's what I want. But
Paul here writes in the first eight verses of chapter four
of two glorious things of the grace of God. The first thing
is the imputation of righteousness to the believer. But the second
thing is the one a lot of people don't pay any attention to, even
though they read it. And I saw this written in one
of Tim James' bulletins, an old one from the 70s. What he did
was he copied down and put it as an article what Gill says
about this. And I'm going to read it at the
end of the sermon. But the title's what got me, the title he put
up there, The Non-Imputation of Sin. Isn't that a glorious
title? The non-imputation of sin. That's my title, Paul. Better titles are made, I'll
borrow them. Don't matter. Paul has shown here that these
two works of God are now and have always been tied together. The imputation of righteousness
and the non-imputation of sin. Paul is writing here from the
Old Testament, quoting the Old Testament from the book of Moses
and a psalm of David to show us to be justified by grace and
faith. And that is all of grace. You can't look at Romans 4, folks,
without looking at Romans 3, because it's a continuation.
the chapter divisions, and I don't have a problem with it. But you
do need to look at Romans chapter three for just a minute. Verse
23, Paul wrote, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God, has set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare
his righteousness, not ours, his, Jesus Christ's righteousness,
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just. that God might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? Not mine, not mine. It is excluded
by what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law
of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. This is the context of Romans
4. Paul writing about justification and righteousness and the righteousness
of God. Jesus Christ's righteousness.
And then he comes up and he says, for what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God, that's verse three of chapter four,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Hmm. Paul's still referring to the
righteousness of Christ, not the righteousness of Abraham.
He already said, if Abraham were to be justified by works, he'd
have whereof to glory. There could be boasting, legitimately. But there is no legitimate boasting,
because you didn't do anything for God. He's done it all for
you, or it's not been done. That's the context of Romans
4. Paul gives us the example of God's work to Abraham and
David. Specifically, God's imputation
of righteousness and to teach us of the justification and grace and works. Now, if you look at this, The word imputation is used,
let's see, from verse three to verse 10, it's used seven times. In verse three, where it says,
counted unto him for righteousness, it's the exact same word as imputation,
as imputed. It's imputed unto him for righteousness.
And then in verse four, now to him that worketh is a reward
not imputed of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh
not, that believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith
is imputed for righteousness. It's all the same word. And blessed is the man, of course,
to whom the Lord will not impute sin. My. But he starts this way. To him that worketh is a reward
not reckoned of grace, but of debt. there's a difference between
works for salvation and grace for salvation. And Paul gets
very clear, I'm not gonna go there, but if you want to know,
look at the beginning of Romans chapter 11. He will tell you,
it's either of works or it's of grace. Because it's of your
works, you don't get no grace. And it's of grace, it's got nothing
to do with your works. That's the fact. Now again, I'll put in here,
we are certainly not against and we totally believe in works
after grace. He'll see to it you work. He'll
put in you both the will and to do of his good pleasure. But
that's not what Paul's referencing here. To him that works for righteousness
or justification, that's work. You're saying God owes you something. And the only thing that God owes
a human being ever, at the beginning of this book all the way to the
end, is the wages of sin, and that's death. That's all God
owes us. Because even our best deeds,
our righteousnesses, our good works, are shot full of hell. That's just the truth of it,
folks. It's shot full of hell. At best, they're filthy rags. That's my best deeds. That's
your best deeds. Go ahead and hold them up to
God. I still like what Daniel Park said about that, what Moose
Park said. He said, we are so depraved that not only do we
do these things because we think we can get righteousness from
God, we show them up and say, hey, God, look at me. That's depravity. That's depravity. Oh, but then there's the other
one, to him that doesn't work. Now it doesn't work for righteousness
or justification, but believes Jesus Christ. Oh, that's grace,
folks. That's grace. By faith believing,
guess what? Faith is the gift of God, not
of works. Ah, where'd that come from? lest
any should boast. And we believe, even after he's
given us his faith, the faith of God's elect, the faith that
Jesus Christ is the author and the finisher of it, we believe
only by the working of what? His mighty power. We don't even believe on our
own. Mason, I'd mess that up. It's on me. I do know the feeling of that
fellow that told Jesus Christ, said, Lord, I believe, help thou
mine unbelief. You understand, we still got
both in us now. Now the world, all the world's
got, all the natural man has, all the unregenerate man has
is unbelief. Even if he's doctrinally correct.
Even if he's doctrinally correct. All we've got is unbelief. Oh, but when God gives you faith,
he'll see to it you believe. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ
is gonna show himself to you so you know who to believe. He'll
do it through his word, he'll do it through his preaching. But not only the faith is the
gift of God and we believe by the working of his mighty power,
what is that? We are kept. by the power of
God through faith. You know what that is? Those
three things? That's grace, grace, and grace. That's what it is. Oh my. And even as David also describeth
the blessedness of a man unto whom God imputeth, I like this
part too, righteousness without. You understand why Paul said
here before, you know, you whosoever are under the law, don't you
hear it? Don't you hear it? Your works are of no account.
You can think you keep the law, but you don't. Because I don't
know a man alive except one, Jesus Christ the righteous, that
ever got past that first commandment, love the Lord your God with all
your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength. And you understand,
that's not just on Sunday. Lots of people get real holy
and real pious on Sunday. Sometimes you're just nursing
the hangover from Saturday. I understand. Not that I have
any experience with that in the last 30 years or so. But I was
a young man once. And I was unsaved at one time.
I know how I think. I know how they think. The thing
is, they don't know how we think. They don't. They don't get it.
People think we're crazy. I said a while back, you know,
why do you drive all the way up here? Pass hundreds of churches,
more than likely. That's 70 mile an hour I pass
them, as a matter of fact, coming up the interstate to get here.
But you know why? Because here I am free to hear
his gospel preached. And I don't know of anywhere
else where his gospel is preached. There's lots of people making
a pretense of it. Lots of people are making a lie
of it. More, many more are making a show of it. Some are sincerely
wrong and some are not so sincerely wrong. Some are not sincere at
all. But David described the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputed righteousness without works. I like that. I like that. What do you mean? Don't you have
to come to Christ? Yeah, you'll come to Christ.
Because you're only coming to Christ after he's found you.
You're only coming to Christ after you know who he is. After
he's revealed himself to you, in his gospel, in his word, oh
my. See, Paul writes that David gave
us an example from the scripture of grace, and that's what this
is. God imputeth righteousness without works. Without works. justified, made righteous, by
grace, freely, freely, by faith. And actually, that's from Romans,
being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. That's 3 in verse 24. In Romans
5 and verse 9, he says, much more than being now. We're going
to tell you the source here of justification. being justified
by his blood. The source is always Christ.
The source is always God. We are not the source of anything
except for our own sin. That's all we're the source of.
And that's still to this day. What is it? Much more than being
now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
him. Not through your works, not through
what you do with him, through him. We are justified by his blood. How's that possible? Well, the
payment of my debt was made by his blood. And if that's true,
I don't owe that debt anymore. And I can be justified, made
righteous, imputed righteousness without my works. Not without
works. Not without works. No, no, folks.
It's not that kind of antinomianism. It's not without works. It's
without my works. The works been done over 2,000
years ago right around there. There was work done. But I didn't
do it. There was work done. Christ did
it. There was blood shed. But it's
not my blood. It's his. And I am justified
by his blood. Saying this, blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. I've said it
many times, I'll say it again. It's not, blessed is the man
who does not commit sin. Because pretty much that man
would be blessed. There was only one. And that man was blessed,
and that man is blessed. The blessed Lord Jesus Christ,
he's the only one that ever went through this life without committing
sin. But blessed is the man to whom
the Lord will not impute sin. I like that, I like that. Now,
very clearly, Paul tells us in verse seven, he's not talking
about people who don't sin. Your life goes around. See, God
saved you, now from here on out, you gotta take care of your own
sins. You gotta confess them. Well, you do confess your sins.
You are to confess your sins. And he's faithful and just to
forgive us our sins. Why? Because he ever liveth to make
intercession. But it's not my confession to
a man or to even Jesus Christ. Uh-uh, it's his blood. It's his blood. I'm justified
by his blood. But they are, you understand,
believers do commit iniquities. And they're forgiven. And they're
forgiven. Believers do sin. And their sins are covered. They're
covered by His blood. But God, and this is a glorious
statement, the non-imputation of sin. God does not impute sin
to a believer. I've committed it, but God doesn't
impute it to me. Oh, you're trying, I'm going
for a technicality, Walter. No, I'm not. I'm going by the
word of God. He says, blessed are those whose
iniquities are forgiven. We got iniquities. What? Blessed are those whose sins
are covered. We got sins. Then he says, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. You know the glorious
thing about that? Because of Christ's blood, because
of God's grace, because of the faith, the life that he has given
us, God does not see your sin, if you're a believer. God does
not see my sin, I'll make it personal. Remember what I read back just
a little while ago? To declare, I say it at this
time, his righteousness, the righteousness of God. that he
might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. How are you justified? He imputes to you his righteousness
and he does not impute to you your sin. Oh my. By his grace, we're justified.
By his faith, we are justified. And by his blood, we are justified. You can't have all three. Oh,
yes, I can. All of a sudden, oh, we're justified
by faith. If you believe hard enough, you'll
be justified. No, no, no. Faith is his gift. And you believe
by the power, his mighty power. And his blood was shed. for the
sins of many. God does not impute sin to the
believer because God laid every sin of every believer on his
side. He doesn't impute sin to you
because Christ paid for your sins. There's a debt, there was
a debt, but that debt's gone. I don't owe that debt anymore.
You don't owe that debt anymore if you believe. It's paid, but I didn't pay it. It's paid, but you didn't pay
it. Jesus Christ did. And I'm gonna
tell you this, he paid it long before I was born. And look at
Abraham and David. He paid it long after they was
dead. People don't want to talk about
that sometimes. No, no. He paid, the good shepherd did
lay down his life for a sheep. And guess what? That was sheep
that had passed on, like Abraham and David, and that's sheep like
us who believe Christ today. That debt is gone, and I don't
owe it anymore. Guess what that is? That's grace,
folks. That's grace. Now that the dead is gone, as
far as the east is from the west, God said, I will remember their
sins. What? No more. No more. That's grace. That's grace. By His grace, by His blood, by
His power and might and work, we believers have no sin before God. Before God. I'm not saying we don't sin,
but we have no sin before God. And guess whose side matters
in this deal? It's not yours and it's not mine,
it's His. It's His. and the non-imputation of sin
to the believer is a glorious manifestation of God's sovereign
grace. I like that. There's a different
debt now. That debt's gone. I've thought of this song. Ode
to Grace, How Great a Debtor. Daily I'm constrained to be.
Now Gatsby's got a little bit different within our verse and
our song, but the same thing. Let that grace, Lord, like a
fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. I like that, I do. John Gill wrote this, and this
is about Romans 4, a blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin. excuse me as He God does not to those whom
he justifies in Christ and By his righteousness for the sins
of such he has laid on his son as their surety And he has bore
them, took them away, having made full satisfaction for them,
so that these persons will never be charged with them. There are no charges against
the child of God. They now appear before the throne
without fault and are blameless and irreprovable in the sight
of God. And, therefore, must be eternally
blessed, happy. For he will never think of their
sins anymore to their hurt. He will remember them no more.
He will never reckon them to them, but equip them from them,
justify, and accept them. Wherefore, they must be secure
from wrath and condemnation, and they enjoy much peace and
comfort now, and happy thereafter, or hereafter, in Christ Jesus. Like I said, Paul carries this
on to Romans 5, 9, talking about being justified by his blood.
Well, there's a source. There's a source. You understand,
without shedding of blood, there's no remission. Without shedding
of blood, there is no freedom. Therefore, though, with shedding
of blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, there is freedom from
sin in God's sight. What did it say? I always like
this. For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath wear of the glory, and these four words,
but not before God. I'm going to tell you something.
I am a sinner, but not before God. Oh, I'm getting cocky now, I'm
getting bold. No, I'm bragging on my Lord. The only reason,
and this is the truth of you. You are not, if you believe Jesus
Christ, if you know him, if God has saved you from your sins,
that's what it means. You are not a sinner before the
eyes of God. Oh, I can be antinomian that
way. Yeah, it didn't take the law to put me there. Took grace,
took grace, took grace, and it took work. You understand, people
say, well, y'all don't believe in work. Yes, we do, just not
our own. I don't believe in my work, I
know too much about it. And I don't trust my thought
processes when I'm doing good things. But there's work, yes there is.
Blessed work. Perfect work. Holy work. Gracious work. But it's not of
mine. Not one single jot or tittle
of it is mine. I didn't keep the law, but Christ
did. I didn't love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength,
but Christ did. And guess what? That's been imputed
to me too. That's his righteousness. He
did everything right. And here's the tough part, folks.
He didn't leave anything out. I got a hard enough time trying
to do something right, Walter. But I leave a lot of things undone.
And you ought not leave the other undone. Therefore with Christ's blood
there is freedom from sin in the sight of God Almighty It
is by his blood that he is our righteousness It is by his shed
blood that believers are forgiven all iniquities and sin And it's
by Christ Jesus himself that though we sin daily hourly and
minutes every minute of the day those sins are not imputed to
the believer. The non-imputation of sin. I
like that, I do. What about today? What about
tomorrow? He shall not impute sin unto them. And that's the
blessed man. That's the blessed man. That's
the happy man. I didn't send you a song verse
today, Walter, because I was gonna sing it. I'm not gonna
sing it, I'm gonna read it here. I would sing it, but I don't
know the tune. It's one of them ones I don't know. But here it
is. Join every tongue to sing the
mercies of the Lord. The love of Christ our King let
every heart record. He saved us from the wrath of
God and paid our ransom with his blood. What wondrous grace
was this? We sinned, and Jesus died. He wrought the righteousness,
and we were justified. We ran the score to the extreme,
and all the debts were charged to him. I read that this morning,
and I really liked that. One of these days I'm going to
find out what that tune is. But here's the thing, folks. Praise God from whom all blessings
flow. He's done it all. And he's done
it for you. He's done it for all his sheep.
You understand, a lot of things come to head when Jesus Christ
died. When that good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep,
and he did. And after that, he told him,
other sheep I have that are not of this fold, them I must bring. You know why? Because he shed
his blood for them. He's gonna bring every one of
his lost sheep in. And there's gonna be one fold, and there's
gonna be one shepherd, and God will not impute sin to a single
one of them. Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for this time. for your precious word, your gospel, the work,
oh, the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, who did everything according
to the will of the Father, you. We ask, Lord, that you'd be with
us, be with Paul and Walter as they come to preach your word. Help us to live in this world
believing you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.