Let's go to Romans chapter 4 And we've been looking at the
three questions that Paul asked at the end of Romans 3 and And
we've been looking at the illustrations. He had asked a question and he
had illustrated it in chapter 4. And now we come to the last
question and he's going to illustrate it for us in chapter 4. And what he's declaring here
is that it's by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us through
faith that we establish the law. by the righteousness of Christ
imputed to us through faith that we establish the law. I've titled
the message, Why Through Faith? Why Through Faith? And you'll
see why I titled it that. Look at Romans 3.31. Do we then
make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. through faith. That's what he's
saying. We establish the law through faith. Why through faith? Look at verse 13, Romans 4, 13.
Because the promise that he should be the heir of the world was
not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through
the righteousness of faith. Why through faith? Because if
they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and
the promise made of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath,
for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it
is of faith, why through faith? That it might be by grace. To
the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, and not
to that only which is of the law, but that which also which
is of the faith of Abraham. Now, you've experienced this,
and most people you come in contact with that know anything at all
about the Bible, they use Romans 3.31 to mix law and grace. But most everybody's thought
goes along this pattern. They say that we by our will
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. By our will we believe on the
Lord Jesus and then we're justified by Christ when we believe on
the Lord Jesus. Then they say by our works we
go back to the law and we establish the law. We establish the law by the grace
of God giving us faith in Christ. And then His establishment of
the law is imputed to us. Christ's establishment of the
law is imputed to us through faith. It's by grace that we
even have faith. And it's by grace that He sent
His Son and His Son established the law and the establishment
that is so accomplished is imputed to us. That's the righteousness
that's imputed to us, what he established. That other message
that mixes grace and works, it's not grace at all. It's a lie. And it's actually not just error,
it's the lie that the devil would love for you to believe. Because
it puts it all in your hands. and makes you to glory, gives
you something to glory in. But we establish it through faith.
Now let's ask this question. First of all, why is it through
faith? Why do we establish the law through
faith in Christ? Romans 4.13. For, because the
promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to
Abraham or to his seed through the law. but through the righteousness
of faith. Now God made an everlasting covenant
promise to Abraham. He made an everlasting covenant
promise to Abraham. Some people try to distinguish
this word promise from the covenant, but that's what a promise is. With God, He made an everlasting
covenant promise. to Abraham and he made it to
his spiritual children. That's what he's talking about
here with seed. He's talking about his spiritual
children. Those would come from Abraham
that were God's elect and those that would be elect throughout
the Gentile world. He said he made an everlasting
covenant promise to Abraham and to all his spiritual children
that we would be heirs of the world. Heirs of the world, our
inheritance from God would be everything. Everything. And that promise is His covenant
of grace. It's His covenant of grace. It's
all of grace. Writing to Timothy, Paul called
it the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to
come. That's the promise. It's the
promise of having eternal life right now, by His grace, and
of having everlasting life for eternity, and inheriting all
things. Now Paul sums up what this promise
was over in verse 17. Look there. In the parentheses,
as it is written, it means it's in Genesis 17, God said, I have
made thee a father of many nations. And then in verse 18, He said
there, So shall thy seed be. See at the very end, God said,
So shall thy seed be. And then verse 19, it tells us
there that when this happened, at the end it says, Abraham was
about a hundred years old when this happened. Go over to Genesis
17, and I'll show you when it happened, and I'll show you what
God said. And when you read this, you have
to understand there are some things in this that were only
temporal promises, but then there's other things in it that was spiritual. We read in Genesis 17, verse
1, and God had already told Abraham this. He had already entered
this covenant. He's just more specific right here. He had already
told him, took him out and said, look at the stars. Can you number
them? Abraham said, no. He said, that's how you will
have children more than you can number. Well, right here he gets
more specific. He says Genesis 17.1, when Abraham
was 90 years old and 9, so he was about 100 years old. And
God appeared to him. Now look down at verse 4, this
is where he begins to really talk about the promise, the covenant
promise, everlasting covenant. God says, ask for me, behold,
my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many
nations. Neither shall thy name any more
be called Abram, but thy name shall be called Abraham, for
a father of many nations have I made thee. That's what it means.
Abraham means a father of many nations. I will make thee exceeding
fruitful. And notice the I wills in this.
And I will make thee I will make nations of thee, and kings shall
come out of thee. And now watch this, and I will
establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after
thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be
a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. and I will give unto
thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger,
all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I
will be their God." Now Paul declares in our text this is
God's everlasting covenant of grace that was made to Abraham
and to his spiritual children. A lot of that that he said applied
to naturalism. He had a lot of children that
were not God's elect. And every temporal promise that
God made, he fulfilled to them. Because that temporal covenant
was a picture of the everlasting covenant. And everything in the
everlasting covenant, God fulfilled. But that everlasting covenant
is to Abraham and his spiritual children who are God's elect.
And Canaan here, Canaan was never an everlasting possession of
Abraham's and it wasn't an everlasting possession of the children of
Israel. Canaan here is a picture of heavenly Canaan. of that world
to come. This is that new heavens and
new earth, that new Jerusalem that John saw coming down out
of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband. Listen to some
scriptures. 2 Peter 3.13, this is true of
believers. We, according to the promise,
look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
That's the promise of God to us. There's going to be a new
heavens and a new earth. where everything is the righteousness
of Christ. Look at Hebrews 11 and verse
8. It says, When you read by faith, this
is not temporal now, we're talking about something spiritual. By
faith, Abraham, when he was called, when he was in Ur of Chaldea,
he was called to go out into a place which he should have
to receive for a temporary inheritance. He obeyed and he went out, not
knowing where he went, but watch this, by faith he sojourned in
that temporary land of promise. That word sojourn means He was
just passing through like a visitor. As in a strange country, like
he was just visiting. He wasn't looking at that land
as if that was what God was telling him was going to be his forever.
He was dwelling in tabernacles, that's temporary dwellings. He
wasn't putting down any roots. And he did it with Isaac and
Jacob who were the heirs with him of the same promise. Those
were the spiritual children, the spiritual seed. He had another
son named Ishmael. Ishmael wasn't the spiritual
seed. Isaac and Jacob. We're talking
here now about this covenant promise God made with Abraham
and his spiritual seed. Look here, why did he just sojourn?
Why did he consider it a strange country he was just visiting?
Verse 10, because he looked for a city which had foundations
whose builder and maker is God. He looked for that heavenly city.
He heard God and understood by faith that God was talking about
spiritual things. Verse 13 says, And these all
died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen
them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. This
earth wasn't their inheritance. They were looking for a new heavens
and a new earth. Now go back to our text. So we're talking
here about an everlasting covenant of grace that God made with Abraham
and he made it with his spiritual children. Now look here in verse
13. This promise that God made and
that's what the gospel is. It's a promise. It's a promise. It was not made to Abraham or
to his seed, verse 13 says, through the law. It wasn't made through
the law but through the righteousness of faith. Now, God didn't make
this promise to Abraham and condition it, make a condition that Abraham
had to fulfill the law by his works. That was not what God
did. If He would have done that, then
it would have been a covenant of works instead of covenant
of grace. He didn't say, now I'm going
to make this promise to you, but it's through the law. You're
going to have to go and you're going to have to fulfill the
law. And if you fulfill the law, then I'll let you live. That's
what the law said. Do and then you can live. That's not what God told him.
God promised Abraham, I will establish my covenant between
me and thee and thy spiritual seed. I will make it an everlasting
covenant and I will give by free grace, I will give the land of
heavenly Canaan for an everlasting possession. All this was a gift. God said, I'm going to establish
it. And then we know it wasn't given through the law either
because Abraham didn't have the law. The law was not given for
430 years later. So God didn't make this promise
to Abraham through the law, and Paul showed us earlier. that
it wasn't through circumcision either. Because at the time God
made this promise, Abraham wasn't circumcised. And that's what
Paul told us back up there earlier in the chapter. He said that
circumcision was a reminder, a fleshly reminder to Abraham
of the righteousness of the faith that he already had when he was
uncircumcised. So God had already circumcised
his heart and made this promise in his heart. Just like when
He regenerates you and me and makes this promise, this covenant
promise, we hear His promise through the gospel. Now what
is the righteousness of faith? So if it wasn't through the law,
it's through the righteousness of faith. What is the righteousness
of faith? Listen very carefully. The righteousness
of faith. is the righteousness established
by the faith of Christ and given to His people through faith in
Christ. The righteousness of faith is
the righteousness of Christ establishing the law, Him establishing the
law in perfect righteousness. and then His establishment of
the law in perfect righteousness being imputed to those for whom
He did it, for His people. And that's through faith in Him,
through believing that He really fulfilled it and that He really
is the one who established the covenant that God made with us.
See, when God made that covenant, instead of God saying, Abraham,
I'm going to count on you now to fulfill the whole law, And
that way you're going to be the father of all these children.
Instead of doing that, God made this promise with Christ, his
son, before the world was made. And just as Abraham, God said,
you're a father of all these elect children. Well, that was
a picture of Christ. God said to his son, you're going
to be the father, the head of all these elect people. And you're
going to go and you're going to fulfill that law. You're going
to establish my law in perfect righteousness by laying down
your life for them. And then your righteousness. I'm going to regenerate them.
I'm going to give them faith. And they're going to believe
that you've done all this I've promised. And I'm going to impute
your righteousness to them. And that's how I'm going to make
them righteous. That's the righteousness of faith. Go over to Galatians
3.16, I'll show you that. He made this promise with Christ
as the head of his elect to establish the law and righteousness, to
establish all God's covenant promise for Abraham and for all
God's elect. Look at Galatians 3.16. Now Abraham,
now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not,
and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which
is Christ, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, that means before
God ever made this covenant with Abraham, He'd already made this
covenant with Christ. and before the world was even
made. And that covenant that was made before of God in Christ,
and then God made it with Abraham. And Abraham had this promise
from God, because that covenant was made of God in Christ to
Abraham. It says the law, which was 430
years after that, the law was given 430 years later, that law
cannot disannul that it should make that promise
of none effect. It can't disannul God's covenant
promise. The law could not do it because
if the inheritance be of the law, it's no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. You see that? So according to
God's promise, the righteousness of Christ was imputed to Abraham
and it's imputed to us who believe on Christ. Look at Romans 4.19. Romans 4.19, 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.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. And therefore, it was imputed
to Him for righteousness. You see? You see there? He didn't
look at Himself at all. And that's a beautiful picture,
isn't it? God shows us, don't you look at you. Don't look at
you. He takes a man that's a hundred
years old, his wife's a hundred years old, her womb's dead, and
he says, now I'm going to give you children. And through these
children, Christ the seed's coming, and He's the one you're all dependent
on. And then God even told him, now you take Isaac and you go
up to the mountain and you sacrifice him to Me. Abraham believed God. He believed God. Brethren, get
this good news now. Think about this. But what I'm
telling you here, what this means is, you that believe on Christ,
you are Christ. You're His seed. You're His children. And you're Abraham's children.
Because you're God's elect. And listen to this. If you be
Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. Heirs according to God's promise. What does being heir mean? The
Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God and if children, then we are heirs. Heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. Everything that belongs to God,
He is going to give to His children. He has given it all to Christ
and we are joint heirs in everything that belongs to Christ. You know
what Paul concluded from that? He said, don't glory in men. Don't! Don't! Don't! Be fearful of men and
be fearful that you're going to... fall away in poverty or
that whatever God's got predestinated for you is not going to come
to pass. Don't glorify men. Don't exalt men by being fearful
of men preventing you from getting what God's promised for you.
That's to glorify men when we're fearful of men. We exalt them
more than we exalt God. And you know why He said don't
do that? He said because all things are yours. Everything
is yours. Everything is yours. Brother
Henry used to say, everything in this world is mine, everybody
else is just paying taxes on it for me. Everything is yours. Life, death, the pastor's God's
guilt, Whatever good comes your way, whatever bad comes your
way, everything is yours. And you are Christ's and Christ
is God's. So Paul said, do we then make
void the law through faith? People say, oh, you're an antinomy
and you're telling people that they don't have to keep the law. No, I'm telling you, you can't.
That's why God had to send His Son. No, we don't make void the
law through faith. We don't bring the law down at
all in any way. We do not dishonor the law by
telling sinners they can keep the law. We establish the law
fully through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ who established
it for us. Alright, let's look at this next
thing. We establish the law through faith in Christ. Why? Why must
it be through faith in Christ? Verse 14, Because if they which
are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise
made of none effect, because the law worketh wrath. For where
no law is, there is no transgression. We don't make void the law through
faith in Christ. No, no. That's how we establish
it. Christ established it. We establish
it through faith in Christ. We don't make void the law through
faith in Christ. But if we say we believe on Christ,
and then we go back to the law and we try to establish the law
ourselves, faith is made void. We make faith void. And we make
the promise of no effect. So here's your option. You're
either going to believe on Christ and establish the law, and faith is going to be in effect,
and the promise of God is going to be in effect, or you go try
to establish the law by yourself, and faith is made void, and the
promise is made of no effect, and go to Galatians 2. I'll show
you what else. And what he's saying here, this
is the great offense of what he's saying here. Verse 19, he said, I through
the law am dead to the law, that I might live under God. I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless I live, but it's
not even I that live, but Christ lives in me in the life which
I now live in the flesh. I even live that by the faithfulness
of the Son of God steering me and directing me and guiding
me. The very one who loved me and gave himself for me. Here's
the offense. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. If I say I can fulfill the law,
and I taught you, you could fulfill the law, I'm saying there was
absolutely no reason for God to send His Son. And I'm making
Christ's blood vanity. Faith and works cannot be mixed. Faith and works cannot be mixed.
He said there in Galatians 3.18, If the inheritance be of the
law, it's no more of promise. And God gave it to Abraham by
promise. You can't mix faith and works. You can't even tell
a sinner, believe on Christ and you're justified by Christ, but
now you've got to go back to the law and keep the law. You
can't even do that. That's mixing law with grace.
That's what those Judaizers did when they came down there and
they said to those believers that already believed on Christ,
already been made perfect in Christ, and they came to them
and they said, but except you're circumcised and keep the law,
you can't be saved. Same thing. If we profess to
believe on Christ and yet we continue attempting to establish
the law by our works, we reject God's Son, God's promise, and
faith is made void and we're under the wrath of God. Look back at Romans 4.15. Because the law worketh wrath.
The law worketh wrath. Judaizers, and I don't mean just
those people called Judaizers in the book of Galatians, I'm
talking about Judaizers that are alive and well today in First
Baptist churches all around this country. Judaizers today teach
that once you believe on Christ, then you must bring the law back
in for sanctification. For sanctification. Abraham did
not establish the law by believing God, and then by Abraham going
and circumcising himself. It wasn't a co-effort. It wasn't
partly by Abraham believing God, but now he was made holy by circumcision. No. No. Peter did that on one
occasion. I'm sorry I had you turn. Go
back to Galatians 2. Peter did that on one occasion.
Peter, remember, all he did when he saw his Jewish brethren come
in, he got up from a table with Gentiles where he was eating
barbecue, pork, and got up and went and sat over at that table
with the Jews. And this is what Peter said to
him, Galatians 2.17, and this is what happens when men say,
well, you're justified by Christ, you're made righteous by Christ,
but now you've got to be sanctified by keeping the law. Here's what
they're doing right here. Galatians 2.17, if while we seek
to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners.
And what he's talking about, if you'll read the context, he's
talking about what Peter did when he got up and brought the
law back in. He went and sat with those Jews. He was saying
there was something to the law that we have to keep. And so
Paul says, if we're saying we're justified by Christ and then
we're found sinners, bringing the law back in, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? He's saying, did Christ work
that in our hearts? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I destroyed the law or fulfilled
it or it became dead to me through faith in Christ. But if I build
it again, what happens? I'm making myself a transgressor. How do you know that's true?
Because I through the law am dead to the law that I might
live to God. When that Jack Ruby jumped out
and he shot Lee Harvey Oswald and he killed him, what could
the law say to him? What could the law say to him?
What could the law of this land do to him? What could the law
of this land do to Lee Harvey Oswald when Jack Ruby shot him
and he died? Not a thing. You know what the
law can do to God's people who believe on Christ? Absolutely
nothing. It actually bears witness with
Christ and says, oh yeah, they've done everything I require. Go over to Galatians 5. Let me be reading something to
you while you're sitting there. Listen to this. Romans 4.15. Now you have to think about this.
It says, where no law is, there is no transgression. Paul said,
I'm dead to the law. There's no law. The law of Moses
has nothing to say to those God has brought to believe on Christ.
Nothing. You're dead to it. You died to
it when Christ died, when you were crucified with Christ. You
died to the law. Christ died unto sin once. The
law can't execute you but one time. And we died then. We died unto the law then. So
there is no law for the believer. And where no law is, there is
no transgression. You remember? He said, The Lord
said the Lord will not impute sin when there is no law. God
will only impute sin to somebody if you've been made sin by a
prior act. Now if you go back to the law
after you claim to be justified by Christ, you go back to the
law, now there's transgression. You're under the wrath of God
and God will impute sin to you. But if you believe on Christ
and you look nowhere but to Him and trust you're righteous in
Him, There is no transgression because you're dead to the law
and the law can't say anything to you. And God will not impute
sin where there is no law. He just won't do it. He will
not do it. God won't impute sin where there
is no law. We've established the law in
Christ. We're robed in the righteousness
of Christ through faith. And that's the same thing as
saying we have no law. or that there is no law to condemn
us. Well, what about sanctification?
How do we walk? Well, how did Abraham walk without
the law? That was not his rule of life.
Once and for all, I wish this religious world could understand,
the law of Moses is not the believer's rule of life in any shape, form
or fashion. You can't learn what you need
to learn from the letter of the law. All you can learn from the
letter of the law is you're guilty. That's it. Well, what about sanctification?
How are we to walk? We walk by faith. That's what
Scripture says. We walk by faith. What does faith
do? It looks to Christ. We walk by
faith looking to Christ. And brethren, we're constrained
in the heart by the love of Christ. Paul called it in Galatians,
faith which works by love. We're constrained by Christ's
love for us working in the heart through the Holy Spirit. And
the Holy Spirit is making us walk by Him. We walk by the Spirit
and by the fruit of the Spirit. And look what it says here in
Galatians 5.22. This is what Paul was trying
to teach these men that wanted to come back under the law. The
fruit of the Spirit, this is what the believer walks in right
here, is love, and joy, and peace, and longsuffering, and gentleness,
and goodness, and faith, and meekness, and temperance. Against
such there is no law. That's the rule we're under right
here. And this is the fruit of the
Spirit that He works in us and makes us walk by and walk in.
And there's no law against this. And where no law is, there's
no transgression. Look, what about our sinful flesh? They that are Christ have crucified
the flesh. with its affections and its lusts. When? Paul says it over and over.
I was crucified with Christ. My old man, the body of sin has
been destroyed. We need to stop looking at things
like we look at things and start trying to look at things like
God looks at things. God says, you've already come
into judgment before me, believer. You've already been executed
under the sentence of the law. Your body of sin has already
been buried. And you are dead to me. And I
don't even remember that old man anymore. All I see is this
new man who's walking in love and joy and peace and long-suffering
and gentle and goodness and faith. In fact, if you go back and read
Romans 4, it says, I just read to you, Abraham didn't stumble.
He didn't stumble. He was strong and unbelieved.
You go back over there and read when God said, I'm going to make
you a father of many nations. Him and Sarah laughed and said,
how's that going to be possible? God didn't see that. Christ already
put that away as His charity. All God saw was somebody who
was strong in faith and didn't stumble at all. Because He walked
by the fruit of the Spirit. And look what He says. And our
old man's already been crucified. Verse 25. And here's the conclusion
of that. If we live in the Spirit, And
we do. We're no longer in the flesh,
Paul said. We're in the Spirit when we've
been born of the Spirit. And if we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk in the Spirit. That means let's don't walk by
the law. Walk in the Spirit. Alright,
lastly. I've got to hurry. We establish
the law through faith in Christ. Why? He says in Romans 4.16,
it's a faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise
might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of
the law, but to that which also is of the faith of Abraham. We
establish the law through faith in Christ only by God's grace. God gives us grace. He regenerates
us. In fact, God chose us by grace.
Christ redeemed us by grace. The Holy Spirit regenerates us
by grace. And God gives us faith by grace. We don't have a thing to do with
it. Our fleshly sinful will has nothing to do with it. God even
has to give you a new will. so that justification, sanctification,
glorification, and eternal salvation is all by the free grace of God
in Christ freely given to us through the Holy Spirit, through
faith. And God saves by grace through faith so the promise
might be sure to all the seed, to all those children He made
His promise to. If it was by the law, you and
me who are Gentiles, God didn't give us the law. The law didn't
apply to us. We weren't under that covenant.
So if it was only through the works of the law, you and I who
are the elect of God, who are Gentiles, we couldn't have been
saved. We'd have never been saved because we didn't even have the
law. God didn't give it to us. But it's through by grace, through
faith, now it's sure to all God's elect. His elect Jews who were
under that covenant of works and His elect Gentiles who never
had it. We all are saved by God's grace
and we all walk by faith. And because that's so, Abraham
is the father of all God's elect spiritual seed, whether they
were natural Jews, naturally his children, or whether they
were not. He's the father of all who believe. Now, how does
this apply to you sitting here who do not believe the gospel?
Who do not believe Christ? Look at Romans 4.23. It 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 the offenses
of those who believe and raised again for our justification.
You believe on Christ, renounce yourself, your will, your work,
your worth and trust all into the hands of Christ. And this
promise that God has made will be yours. You will be an heir
of all things. And God will not lose one of
his children because Christ is satisfied. He will not lose one. Amen.