It says in this 19th verse of the 4th chapter, speaking
about Abraham the father of the faithful, and said, Being not
weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when
he was about a hundred years old. Neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb." Of course, we understand, I think, that
God promised Abraham a son, and Abraham waited patiently for
it, and come down to the fact that he was about a hundred years
old, and his wife was about the same age, or a little less, maybe. And he believed the promise. God said that he would not let
him go childless, but give him a son. So being not weak in faith,
he believed that God would do it in spite of the impossibility
as to human frailty. He considered not his own body
now dead, dead as to being able to bring about life through the
womb of Sarah, and she being dead, too. But he staggered not
at the faith. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised he
was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. was not written for his sake
alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. Turn with me for a few moments
here this evening for that fourth chapter of the Book of Romans,
and I'll read this twenty-fifth verse and try to make some comments. Who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification? speaking certainly of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was delivered, delivered unto the enemies, to
the Pharisees and the scribes, to Pilate, the high priest. They said, We
don't want you. Who do you want? The custom was,
at this time of the year, that we turn one of the prisoners
loose. Who do you want? Bar Abbas or Jesus? They said, We don't want Jesus. We want Bar Abbas. They said,
Well, Jesus is your King. They said, No, we have no King
but Caesar. We don't want him. He was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification. Raised again for our justification. means that it was a verification of our deliverance from the penalty
due us as sinners. It's a verification that we become
the recipients of his righteousness, which was freely imputed to us
who believe. But this morning we talked about
a risen Christ, a Christ who died and was buried and rose
again and ever lives on the right hand of the Father to make intercession
for those that have risen with Him. I told you about those disciples
who were on the road to Emmaus. Well, it was a risen Christ with
whom they accompanied during the forty days. He went in and
out. among them, a risen Christ, a
Christ that had lived and suffered and died and was buried, but
He rose from the dead. It was a risen Christ that accompanied
them for 40 days, in and out, a risen Christ. And I make mention of the fact
now is now. It is now with a risen Christ
that we have to do in the pathway of our daily journey from this
life to the life to come. A risen Christ, a Christ that
lived and died, was buried. and rose again and is alive. It is with a risen Christ that
we have to do even now. A risen Christ. Christ crucified,
buried, but risen from the dead. A risen Christ. So at every turn
of the way, resurrection meets us in the person of the Lord
Jesus and says to us, because I live, ye shall also live. Because I live, ye shall also live. In every
turn in the road that comes up to meet us, because I live, ye
shall also live. There is comfort and security
in that fact of the resurrection. It brings about a peace of mind
and a peace of conscience, a comfort, a help, a strength to enable
us to face life's darkest moments and difficulties that confront
us in this pathway from here to there. That because He lives, ye shall live also. Because He lives, I can't die. That is, I can't die the second
death. because He lives. I'm secure
in Him. I can't die the second death.
His resurrection, because I live, you live too. So I have no doubt
whatsoever that when I come down to the last mile of the way,
and I use I simply, I should say we who are Believers in the
Lord Jesus believe that He did actually, in His own body, pay what we owed, supplied our
want, provided our every need, clothed us in His own righteousness,
made us accepted in Himself, all of us, if we believe. if we believe that Christ rose
from the dead. We're secure, secure, and it's
not presumption. It's not presumption. It's based
on the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It's not presumption
to say the words of Christ, Because I live, ye shall live also. He said, I lived and I died and I rose
again. I'll never die. And because I
lived and died and rose again, ye shall also live. It's with this risen life that
true faith connects us with Him from the very moment we believe
in Him who lived and died and rose again. Well, let's mention
some things here that have to do with the security of the risen
life. Now, this life that is ours in
Christ, the risen Christ, is not a mere life that comes out
of nothingness as the life of the first Adam. When God made
Adam, He made him out of nothing. He made him out of the dust of
the earth. So this risen life that we have
in Christ, is not made out of nothingness, but it is life out
of death. And in this life, the Scriptures
say, that this life that comes out of death is a fuller and
higher life than another life might be. It is more secure. The soil out of which the tree
of immortality comes is not the common soil of this earth. It's the mold of the graveyard. It's the dust of the tomb. This life is a life that no death
can touch. We'll die here. But at the same time, we still
have a life that can never die. We have a life beyond this life. We have it now. We must die. It's appointed unto man first
to die and then to judgment. We've all got to go back to the
dust unless the Lord comes first and takes us before we die. But apart from that, we're all
going to die this one death, which I told you the other night,
sister, it's a sleep. That's all it is. It's just falling
asleep in Jesus. We ought not to fear Him because
all of us like to sleep and all of us like to rest and none of
us is afraid of sleep. So that's what our death is,
that death there, that first death. It's a transition. We're going to be with Him. But
there is this life that comes out of His risen, his resurrection
life is a life that cannot be touched by death in any shape,
form, or manner. We're secure. It comes to us
from the risen life of him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died and
rose again and ever lives in the right hand of God, to hear
our prayer. and to make intercession for
us. This faith that connects us with Him, the risen Savior,
that joins us with Him, makes us a partaker of His resurrection
life. And it is so complete that His
resurrection becomes ours along with Him. We are risen with Him,
and with Him we have put on immortality. Immortality. That is, no end to it. No end to it. Secure in the Lord
Jesus Christ throughout the ages to come, throughout the worlds
to come, throughout the eternality of God Almighty. reign and live
with the Lord Jesus Christ, risen with Him, died with Him, lived
with Him, died with Him, buried with Him, raised again with Him,
a risen Christ, a living Christ, not a dead Christ. Don't run
over to Jerusalem looking for the tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you found it, what would you
find? It's an empty tomb. He's not
here. He's risen. A risen Christ is
who we deal with now. He said concerning His resurrection
life, He said that all power in heaven and earth is given
unto me." All power. He said that to his disciples. And the same power that is given
to me, he said, I give to you. All authority, all power. This
power he possessed when he came forth from that tomb. No more, like I told you this
morning, no more suffering, no more persecution. It is all over
with. Oh, my soul! The more that a
man dwells and thinks about, as I view it anyhow, The more
we talk about it, meditate on it, think about it, read about
it, dwell on our surety's resurrection, our surety's resurrection, that
he was dead and buried, but he rose again. The more we dwell
on that, the more that we're going to realize the life and
immortality which has been brought to light by his gospel. The more we dwell on that, we'll be anchored firm and deep
in the Savior's love. And when we read where it says,
Because I live, ye shall also live, it will bolster our confidence. It will give strength to our
weakness. It will help us in dark days
which lie ahead. We have to travel down lonesome
roads and walk these roads by ourselves without any help to
think and to dwell upon the risen Christ, that we're risen with him. And
we live now and shall never die and be with him forever and ever. Oh, the more we go to the empty
tomb and see for ourselves that He's not there, He's risen, the
more comfort we'll have, the more understanding we'll have,
the better servants we'll be, the more we will love Him. as we go to the tomb and see that it is empty and
see it for ourselves. He has risen. He is not there.
Oh, we ought to be comforted by the great and wonderful truth
that we are risen with Him, risen from the grave with the Lord
Jesus Christ. true faith, and only true faith,
which is a gift of God, by the way, only true faith will connect
us to the Risen One, true faith, the gift of God. And true faith
is this, it might not mean as much to some of you as it
does to others. But to have a good scriptural
understanding of what true faith is in the Risen One will be of
great help to you as you travel down this highway
to death. You've got your pencil, you write
it down. True faith is the acknowledgment of the entire absence of all
goodness in us. That's what true faith is. The
acknowledgment of the entire absence of all goodness in us. of the cross as the substitute
for all of our want. The Bible says there in this
fourth chapter, it says, Not to him that worketh is a
reward, not reckoned of grace, but of death. That's a good verse. Now, to him that worketh, that's
a reward, not reckoned of grace, but of death. But to him that
worketh not, him that worketh not, faith is the acknowledgment
of the entire absence of all goodness in us. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly." His faith is counted
for righteousness. Now, faith does not save us. Faith is not our physician. Faith
is not even our medicine. Faith only administers that which Christ has done for
us, but does not save us. But in a sense, faith saves us
because it owns and believes in the salvation, the complete
salvation of another. owns that Jesus Christ is the
only Savior. Faith owns that, recognizes that,
and believes that. Now, faith saves because it owns
the complete salvation of another, not because it contributes anything
to that salvation. The whole work of salvation is
of the Lord Jesus Christ, not ours. It's his from the start
to the finish, from the beginning to the end. It's his. Faith does
not believe in itself. Faith believes in the Son of
God, and it's this faith that connects us to the living Christ. Faith, I've said this many times,
faith is like the beggar. It receives everything but gives
nothing. The song of faith is not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy
hath he saved us." Now, it's Christ and Christ alone
from first to last, beginning to end. Now, we believe in the
second coming of the Lord Jesus. We believe that when he said
to his disciples, If I go, I'll come again. receive you, take
you with me. Where I am, that's where you'll
be. We believe that he's going to come again someday. The end
of all that we see now is going to come to an end. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the conqueror of death, deliverer of the captives from
the prison house, he's going to come for his people. Everything
in this world now has to do with His people, His people. That's
His main concern. His people are His object, and
He's going to come for them and take them away from this world.
And I believe that. I believe that He's going to
come again, because He said He was going to come again. So I
have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to come just like He went. He went away, He said, Marvel
not. I'm going, but He said, I'm going
to come again. And He's going to come for His people. Now,
I believe that. Christ is coming again in glory and majesty as
Judge and King. Now, that's true. But we're not
justified by the Second Coming. We're not justified by His Second
Coming. We're justified by His First
Coming. We're justified by his doing
and his dying. That's what justifies us. We
believe in the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
the second coming don't justify us. We believe in his ascension,
that he died and he went to the grave and he came forth from
the grave and eventually, finally, at the end of so many days, he
departed from this world. Now, we believe in the ascension
of Christ, that He went back to heaven and He's on the right
hand of the Father, makes intercession for us. But our justification
is not connected to His ascension. Our justification is not connected
with His second coming, nor is it connected with His ascension. Now, we believe in the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus, and I've tried to read and to establish the
fact that because He was resurrected, we shall be resurrected, and
because He lives, we shall live also. We believe in His resurrection,
yet our justification is not connected to His resurrection.
I'm telling you this, the blood and the resurrection are two
different things. The blood is death, but the resurrection
is life. where it says He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification, and was raised again for our
justification, that's the verification that all is well, that our sins
are gone. He raised us to show, give open
proof that the Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the grave and accepted
by the Father with an accepted work, that His work was finished
and accepted by God. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again to verify that we are accepted and we are justified. His resurrection doesn't justify
it, His blood justifies it. It's His blood. The whole Bible
is about the blood. It's the blood of the crucified
one that justifies us. The moment that we believe in
the Christ of God living for us, dying for us, being raised
from the dead for us and the ramifications in between, the
moment that we believe that, that's when we're justified before
God. Resurrection doesn't justify
us. So we believe His resurrection,
yet we're not justified by faith in it. The resurrection was no
more, no less than a visible, seen pledge of a justification
that was already accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ on the
tree, justified by His person, justified by His work, and justified
by His blood. resurrection of life. The Lord
helped us to see this. But it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him. He is talking about Abraham
and he is talking about David. Not just them alone, but for
us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him. that raised up Jesus our Lord
from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. Well, I'll tell you here this
evening, as wicked as I am, I believe in Him. I believe that the Lord
Jesus is my surety. And he died, he lived, he died,
he was buried, and he rose again, and he ever lives on God's right
hand to make intercession for me. I believe the whole scheme,
plan, or whatever you want to call it, of the salvation of
God was accomplished by him and him alone. And I didn't have
anything to do with it. Even my believing is of God. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. But that believing is that which
the Holy Spirit produced in me. So it leaves me standing before
God like a beggar. I have added not one penny to
God's salvation. It's all of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ with all my heart. It's not to Abraham only, but
unto us also if we believe on him. Do you believe on him? I believe most of you do. I believe
all of you ought to. Well, the Lord help us. consider
ourselves dismissed with the word of prayer.