Okay, let's take our Bibles and
turn back to Genesis chapter 15. Genesis 15. The word of the Lord came unto
Abram in a vision and said this, Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. Now obviously there was something
that caused fear to rise up within Abram. And Abram was moved to relate
that to the Lord, which the Lord already knew. He knew what Abram
was fearful, why he was fearful, but Abram would have to tell
the Lord about it. The Lord had promised Abram in
chapter 12, verse 2, that he would make of Abram a great nation. He said that unto Abram's seed
that the Lord would give the land of promise, that was in
chapter 12, verse 7. The Lord would show mercy, is
what he was saying to a people of Abram's lineage, people of
God's choosing, and he would show this kindness to them, they
would be of the family of Abram. And Abram heard these promises.
He believed them. And the Lord repeated that promise
in 1315. He said, for all the land which thou seest, to thee
will I give it, and to thy seed forever. Now, Abram had God's
word. He had the Lord's word of promise
and it was promise concerning children. He kept telling him
of his seed and children who would possess, first of all,
physically, naturally in time, that physical land of Canaan. But the Lord would bring forth
a son Isaac, Abram didn't know this, he had God's word on it.
But he was going to have a seed and through that son would come
the Messiah. And Abram knew that the Messiah,
who would be the seed of the woman, would come and the entirety
of God's elect would be from that seed of the woman through
the physical seed lineage of Abram's son, he knew. And the
spiritual Canaan, now there's a physical Canaan and that would
be their promised land in this life, but there was a heavenly
Canaan that would be theirs forever. And Abram knew the promise of
the Lord. He knew it. And so, when the
Lord admonished him, fear not. The Lord knew what Abram was
thinking. He knew that Abram was doubtful. Because he's about to ask Him.
We're going to read what he asked. And the Lord promised him, don't
be afraid, I'm your shield, I'm your exceeding great reward.
Now, here's Abram, his body being dead already, able to have children,
his wife is barren, and he pours out his heart to the Lord, verse
2 and 3. And Abram said, Lord God, what
wilt thou give me? seeing I go childless. And the
steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said,
behold, to me thou hast given no seed. And lo, one born in
my house is mine heir. So Abram, by faith, asked, he
sought, he knocked at the door of mercy and hope, And he was
crying unto the Lord out of his heart to the friend of friends
to ease the burden that he bore. He's got the Word of God, he's
got the promise. I'm going to give this to you and your seed.
You're going to be a great blessing to all nations. And notice the respect when Abram
spoke to him, Lord God Sovereign, Lord Jehovah. And then he asked,
Still surely believing. And this is what he asked. What is it that you give me? I have your word. What is it that you give me seeing
I'm going through this world without child? Abram's fear was
how shall you accomplish that which you've promised? I have
no seed. Abram knew that he would, he
just didn't know how. Lord, you're talking about a
seed and I'm going to be a promise, I'm going to be a great blessing
to all nations and my seed is going to inherit this promised
land forever. How? Abram was doing that which was
right and permissible. Scripture says, Psalm 142, 2,
I poured out my complaint Now that word complaint there
means meditation. I poured out my meditation before
him. I poured out what was on my heart. I was burdened. I was perplexed. I was troubled. I poured out my complaint before
him. I showed before him my trouble,
my adversity, my affliction, my distress. We're not to complain. That word is complaint, but it's
meditation. We don't complain because of
the Lord's good providence. But we absolutely have complete
liberty to lay our labors and our doubts and our fears before
him. We do. He wasn't complaining. He was
inquiring. He was pouring out the meditation
of his heart. The Lord said, come unto me.
All ye that labor, that is all you that are in weariness, exhausted
with toil and grief, come unto me all ye that labor, and are
heavy laden, heavy laden with a load, a burden, and I will
give you rest. I will give you refreshment.
And so here's Abram, casting all of his care, upon the Lord,
for he knew that the Lord cared for him. He was committing his
way unto the Lord, trusting in the Lord that he knew was going
to bring his promise to pass. He just couldn't see how. And even in his trusting the
Lord, and he was, Abram, like all of us, he exhibited the weakness
of the flesh and expressed the only thing that he could see. He could see what was around
him. The Lord's talking about inheritance. He's talking about
seed. He's talking about possession.
He says, Lord, I go childless. And the steward of my house,
this trusted Eleazar of Damascus, he's the only one. He's the one
I've entrusted my estate to if anything happens to me and Sarah. There's no kids. We don't have
any children. And this Eleazar, he's the one
that has the responsibility of And this, you've given no seed
and lo, one born in my house is my heir. That's the only one
I got. You know why some may wonder
at Abram's questioning of the Lord. May we not rather consider
his questions to be founded or asked in faith. He was doing what he was doing
for the glory and honor of the Lord. He did what he did for
God's glory. Lord, you said, you said, you
promised this. And Lord, I don't have any seed. You've promised
a seed and there's no seed. And I'm going, I'm going childless,
getting older in this world. I have nothing other than this
steward. this administrator, who bears
the responsibility of my earthly possessions when I die. That's all I got. Oh, but in
mercy, the Lord comes to Abram in the moment of his need. And
Abram asked, and obviously he didn't ask amiss. The Lord said
you ask, but you have not because you ask amiss. You know what
that is? That's to ask for carnal gratification. That's what it
means. It wasn't to ask for God's glory,
God's honor, God's praise. That's to ask amiss. You ask
something and it's for your gratification, not for God's glory. The Lord
answered him. Hold your place and turn to 1
John 5 for a second. 1 John 5. 1 John chapter 5, verses
14, 15. 1 John 5, 14-15, and this is the
confidence that we have in Him. That if we ask anything according
to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth
us, whatsoever we ask, We know that we have the petitions that
we desired of Him. When we ask, we want to ask for
God's glory, for God's honor. And Abram, like all of us, he
desired to ask and he wanted to know the will and the way
of the Lord. And surely, he didn't know what
to ask for. How do you ask for something
that doesn't compute? A seed? I have no seed. A promise? I have a steward. That's the
only heir I have. And he didn't know what to age. He just said, Lord, here's my...
He just laid it out there. I don't have a child. But the
Lord knew how to answer. Verse four, and behold, the word
of the Lord came unto him saying, this shall not be thine heir,
this Eliezer, this shall not be thine heir, but he that shall
come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Abram would have a child. He'd have a child. He's going
to have a child that's going to come from himself. That's
going to be Abram's heir, a child, son. It's going to be Isaac. He didn't know that. We know
who it is. He's going to have a son, his only son, through
Sarah, who's past the age of childbearing. She's already gone
through menopause. And it's going to be a son born
picturing the only begotten son of the Father, the Lord Jesus.
It's going to be a picture. In this birth that's going to
be experienced by Abram and Sarah, when they're old and past that
age of having children, there's not going to be any glory. in Abram or Sarah on their part. They're not going to have anything
to glory in. Their bodies were physically dead. And it's going
to be a birth beyond human reasoning. It's going to be incomprehensible,
humanly speaking. And it's all going to be to the
honor of the Lord. Who could do this but God? It's
going to be a birth that sets forth the way that God saves
all of His people. James 1, 18, it says, "...of
His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should
be a kind of firstfruits of all His creatures." You think about
the birth or the rebirth of a child of God. I mean, what is there
within us that would be able to produce life. There's death. There's nothing here but it's
death. There's nothing here that can produce life, that can produce
righteousness, holiness, obedience. We're dead. We can't hear. We're deaf. We're spiritually
blind. We can't speak. The Lord said
this Eleazar is not going to be your heir. You're going to
have a child. You're going to have a son, and
he's going to come out of your bowels. And the scripture says
that having promised him, he had his word, but now he's going
to give him a visual. He's going to give him something
to look at that's going to cause Abram to rejoice in the magnitude
of the Lord's mercy and the Lord's wisdom and the Lord's power.
It says in verse 5, And he brought him forth abroad, and he said,
Look now toward heaven. And tell the stars, if thou be
able to number them. And he said unto him, so shall
thy seed be. Hadn't happened many times. And
I guess it's just because whenever I look up, and I'm sure many
of you can relate to what I'm about to say. There has been
a few times in my life when I could look up into the stars if it's
a dark night. And I can just see stars just,
I've never seen so many stars in all of my life. As a kid I
used to go out there and I could look up and see the Milky Way.
And I would look at that Milky Way And I thought, how can there
be that many stars up there? And I'm just seeing a portion
of the sky. I can't see it all. I'm just seeing part of it. And
here's Abram. He's just, he's got God's promise. This is what the Lord, you're
gonna be a blessing. I don't have any kids. I'm gonna
give this land to you and your seed I go childless. My wife's barren. I've got an
administrator. That's all I got. I want you
to look up at the stars. And if you could, count them.
Count them. That's going to be your seed. And so here, Abram looks at that. He looks at the heavens, and
he beholds the magnitude of those stars. and realizing that those
shining bodies of heavenly stars are just innumerable. You can't even tell them apart. You lose your place. And here
He is, the Lord, to say, this is going to be like your seed. A people everlastingly known
and loved. chosen in the beloved. And what
a blessing. And surely Abram was made to
think the God who spoke these stars into existence. He can do whatever he wills. In the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, God has promised And God shall
do as he said. His counsel is going to stand. His counsel is going to stand. When the Lord told him, he said,
you look up at those stars. And you number those stars if
you can. So shall your seed be. So shall thy seed be. So shall
thy seed be. That's going to be as the magnitude
of your seed. And the scripture said, and he
believed in the Lord. He believed in the Lord. And he counted it to him for
righteousness. Now, this blessed verse of scripture
is one that the Spirit of God has been pleased to thoroughly
explain in the New Testament. The Lord had preached the gospel
to Abram. The Lord preached the gospel
to Abram. Galatians 3.8 said in the scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel unto Abraham. saying, in thee shall all nations
be blessed. Now, preaching the gospel to
him, according to Romans 1, the gospel is concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. It's concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when God told him, so shall
thy seed be, he knew, he knew. This is concerning the Christ.
This is concerning the Messiah. The Messiah is going to come,
and he's going to come through my lineage, through my son, and
he believed God. He believed him. He believed
in the Lord, and he, the Lord, counted it to him for righteousness. Now, turn over to Romans 4. I'll try to keep this simple. Lord willing that we might all
hear what the Lord says and understand by the revelation and understanding
of the Spirit of God. Romans chapter 4 verses 1 to
5. Romans 4. What shall we say then
that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has
found? What did Abraham find? What did he understand? What
was he made to know? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. 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." Now, the Spirit of God moved
on Paul to say, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted, or that
is, it's reckoned or it's imputed. That's the same words for righteousness. Now, I've got just a couple of
questions that I plan to answer and then try to sum up and understand
what this justification by faith actually means. Number one, what
is justification? You know we've said this, I've
looked at it, I've said it, I've defined it and do you know I
want to hear it again too right now. I want to read what I've
got written down right here. I want to hear what I wrote down
because I've tried to look this up and this is justification. It is the act, it is an act of
God's free grace whereby the Lord freely pardons the sinner,
declares that sinner just before the law. No record, no record. Okay, understand justification
means there's no record. Justification is an act of God's
free grace whereby he freely pardons, justifies the sinner,
declares him just, notwithstanding that sinner's own personal unworthiness
and transgressions. And this justification by the
Lord is done with the full understanding of what that sinner is in himself,
and Almighty God delivers that sinner from the guilt, the dominion,
and the punishment that is due to sin, and accepts the sinner
totally in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that sinner is counted, is
reckoned, are imputed by the grace of God to be the possessor
of this justification. Here is a sinner in Adam a rebel
against God but chosen in Christ that sinner saved by the grace
of God born from above is in Christ accepted, just, justified. So justification, but to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
justifieth the ungodly. You know, you think of those
three words, justifieth the ungodly. And knowing what justification
is, no record. No record. You say, how can you
put those three words together? God says, it's so, that justifieth
the ungodly. Standing before you right now
is a man born in Adam. Born in Adam. with the very presence
of sin that was mine from Adam's transgression, mine by my own
personal rebellion, my own personal choice. Here's a man that you're
looking at that is a sinner in himself worthy of death. But there's a new man here. There's
a new man, a new creation, who in Christ is holy, and sinneth
not, one that believes God, he believes Him. And there's a constant
war going on. But that new man is there, justified
before God. So I know what justification
is. But listen, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted. Genesis 15, 6 says that he believed
in the Lord and he counted it for righteousness. Galatians
3, 6 says even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted or imputed
to him for righteousness. James 2, 23 says Abraham believed
God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Those words
are interchangeable. They mean the same thing. What
do they mean? Now we do know, many times I
say this, just say impute, charge to the account. Let me tell you
what this counted, reckoned, imputed word means. It's a word that deals with things
as they truly are. As they truly are. Let me just
give an example that maybe we can understand. If a person reconciles
or reckons his bank account. And after reconciling
the bank account based on his records that he keeps every month,
based on the bank's records, all the deposits, all the withdrawals,
everything's been looked at, all the numbers have been gone
over, and it has been established It has been counted. It has been
reckoned that there's a hundred bucks in that account right now.
That's what the word impute means. It's imputed to us for righteousness. That means this is the way it
is. It does this to charge to the
account. This is so This is counted. This is reckoned. It means that
beyond a shadow of a doubt, according to the proof of all the facts,
there's a hundred bucks there. They're not just wishing there
was. They're not just hoping that it's there. It's there.
The bank says it's there. They say it's there. The numbers
prove it. It's done. It's a done deal.
That is spiritual imputation, reckoning. counted or accounted. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith, his faith
proves that that man's righteous. His faith is not what made him
righteous. He's not justified because of
his faith. By faith, it is declared to be
so. He's got from above something
that God has given him and it proves it. You hear me say all
the time, how can a sinner know that they have a part in the
justification of God being justified? What proof is there? He that
believeth on the Son half life. Faith did not make him alive.
Faith proved it. Faith reckoned it. Faith accounted
it. Faith imputed it. It's a word
that means these things are so. All those words prove one truth.
that the Lord justified Abram by grace as he does all of his
people. Justified him according to God's
good pleasure to show mercy and compassion based upon the life
and death of the Lord Jesus Christ on their behalf. Establishing
their righteousness and their freedom from the guilt and the
penalty of the law by his shed blood. And then in the fullness
of time, in closing, God grants faith to believe that God accounts
them, reckons them, that they are accounted to be justified
before Him. This is the only way we know
it. As I said before, faith does not justify us. Faith believes
it. It is by faith that we spiritually
grasp hold of it. How do I know? How do I know
that I got a part? I believe Him. I believe Him.
I believe God. And they're justified apart from
anything that they could or would do in order to merit that justification
of salvation. They're justified by grace. They're
justified by the grace of God. They're justified by faith in
that they know it. Faith is the only way that a
sinner can know it. You can't see faith. They're
justified, the scripture says, by works before others. That's
the only way others can see that new standing in Christ. So they're
justified by the grace of God. That justification is based upon
the blood of Christ, justified by blood. They're justified by
faith, which is that which teaches it to the sinner. I believe him. I believe him. You can't see
faith, but you can see my works. You see what I do. That's why
the scripture says, faith without works is dead. That's what James
says. He's not saying something differently than Paul the apostle. Works is the evidence of it.
and we're justified by our words. Abraham believed God. He had
hope against his understanding, took God's side against himself.
I heard somebody say that the Bible says that a whale swallowed
Jonah and he was in the belly of the whale for three days.
He said, If the scripture would have said that Jonah swallowed
the whale, it would have been so. How can that be? God said it was. He believed
God. Almighty God told Abraham, you're
going to have seed. It's going to come out of your
bowels. I want you to look at the stars.
You see those stars? You look at those stars. Number
them if you can. So shall your seed be. And Abraham
believed him. Somebody said, that's foolishness.
No, well, it might be foolishness to you, but I believe you. And
it was counted, it was reckoned, it was proven to be by him believing
God that that man was justified before God. May the Lord bless
these words to our heart, God's glory and our good, amen.