Alright brethren, let's turn to Ephesians 2 to begin with. Tonight I'm going to bring a
message from two passages. One is Romans 4 and the other
is James 2. But before we turn there, I want
to begin by looking Again at Ephesians 2, what we've been
looking at here in these couple of verses. We've seen here first
of all that salvation is by the grace of God alone. Ephesians
2.8 says, For by grace are you saved. Grace is unmerited. There's no cause in the sinner.
It's God's glory to choose whom He will, be gracious to whom
He will. All who are saved are saved by
grace. And then all who are saved are saved through faith alone.
For by grace are you saved through faith. Through faith. Just as every man is saved by
grace, they're saved through faith. Christ said, they shall
all be taught of God. And He said, and therefore, every
man that's taught of my Father comes to me. The scripture speaks
about Enoch and says he pleased God. He had this testimony that
he pleased God. But without faith it's impossible
to please God. The Lord Jesus said that those
that believe will not be condemned. He said but those that believe
not are condemned already because they have not believed on the
name of the Son of God that they might be saved. So faith, faith. And then we saw grace, salvation,
and faith is not of the sinner. All is the gift of God. For by
grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. Listen to James. Every good and
every perfect gift cometh down from above, cometh down from
the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning. And then we saw that no part
of salvation is of works, so that no sinner has any room to
boast. It says, not of works, lest any
man should boast, for we're his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus. God the Father chose his people,
not based on anything in us. When Christ came, we're not justified
by our works. The Scripture says, God said
of His Son, My righteous servant shall justify many. We read in
Romans 8.33, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies. Christ came to declare God to
be the just and the justifier of him that believes. And no
sinner can give ourselves spiritual life. We can't bring ourselves
to faith in Christ. That's by God the Holy Spirit.
We can't even boast that we keep ourselves. The Holy Spirit said
through Peter, we're kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. And then lastly,
we see that from God's Word here, it says that the believer can't
even boast of our good works. We can't even boast of our good
works because they too are by the grace of God. Where his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus under good works which God hath before
ordained that we shall walk in them. Believers shall do good
works because God before ordained, he before prepared, he before
predestinated that we shall walk in them. And God alone works
everything to equip and to bring His child to walk continually
in what we call the goodness of the good works. What makes
a work good? God wrought faith, repentance,
love, submission, fear of God, wanting God to have all the glory.
This is the goodness of a good work. And in every particular
work itself, God brings us to the time and the place where
he will have the work to be worked. And then God works in us to do
the work. So that by grace we do the work
God would have us to do. So there's absolutely no room
for a sinner to boast about anything, any part of our salvation whatsoever,
not even of our good works. Now, that being our introduction,
let's turn to Romans 4. Romans 4. Romans chapter 4. And let's begin
reading here in verse 2. Romans 4 verse 2. If Abraham were justified by
works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. Nobody is
going to glory before God. For what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God, And it was counted unto him for righteousness. It was imputed unto him. Alright,
now hold your place right there and turn over to James chapter
2. James chapter 2. And let's read in verse 21. James
2, 21. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works? when he had offered Isaac his
son upon the altar." Now we just read in Romans 4-2 that Abraham
was not justified by works or he would have were of the glory.
Now here in James 2-21 we read, was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar? I want
to read the next two verses to give you some context here. Now
look at verse 22. Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works, faith worked with his works, and by works
was faith made perfect. It was made complete. It was
made to be seen to be true faith. Verse 23 says, And the scripture
was fulfilled. This is so important. I want
you to remember this. We're going to get to this at
the very end and you'll see it more clearly. This is so important.
The scripture was fulfilled by this work Abraham did. The scripture
was fulfilled which said Abraham believed God and it was imputed,
counted unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend
of God. That's what we read in Romans 4, 3. Abraham believed
God and it was counted to him for righteousness. That was said
in Genesis 15, and then in Genesis 22, James is telling us here,
that scripture was fulfilled, which said, Abraham believed
God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he
was called the friend of God. All right, now, some of you have
expressed to me that you've had some difficulty with these two
scriptures. And so I thought since we've
been looking at Ephesians 2 and that we just reviewed, this would
be a good time to look at these two scriptures. God the Holy
Spirit inspired or breathed into both Paul and James. So what
they're saying here is of God. So they're not contradicting
one another at all. Now they're writing of one man,
Abraham. They're both speaking of one
man, Abraham. But each passage declares two
separate truths. Now Paul, in Romans 4, is speaking
of justification before God. God justified Abraham by what
Christ accomplished. God justified Abraham. Now listen
to this part, listen to this carefully. James is speaking
of God justifying before all, angels, men, before all to see. God is justifying that the work
that he's done for his child Abraham is genuine. That he has justified him and
that he's given him genuine faith and Abraham really believes.
God's justifying his faith as being from God. By what the work
that Abraham did. Paul is speaking of the justification
of Abraham's person. Of his person. James is speaking
of the justification of Abraham's cause. Of his faith being true
faith. Paul is speaking against works
being the cause of our justification from our sins before God. He's saying we're not justified
by works from our sins. James is speaking of those good
works before ordained whichever true believer shall walk in.
Paul is dealing with the self-righteous who trust in their own works,
their own law obedience for justification, going about to establish their
own righteousness. James is dealing with the self-taught,
the self-taught Gnostics who have true doctrine, they have
correct doctrine, but they've taught themselves and there's
no spirit working in their hearts so they don't bring forth any
good work. Now, here's what I want us to
get. Believers are justified from our sins by God. And that righteousness is received
through God-given faith. So God does all the work to justify
His child from our sins. And apart from our works, apart
from our works, But God makes it manifest, open, makes it to
be known that God has truly given us faith. That it's true faith,
that God did it. That God has justified us and
He's given us true faith. He makes that known, causing
us to walk in the works that God has before ordained. That's
how He does it. All right. Now Abraham's the
father of the faithful. So whatever however Abraham was
justified from his sins and however Abraham came to walk in this
what James calls this good work that he did. That's how all believers
are justified. That's how all believers are
brought to work walking good work the same way just like Abraham
was because he's the father of the faithful. He's the pattern.
He's the pattern. God shows us in him how he saves
and how he brings his child to walk in good works. Alright,
now here's our first point. Let's go back to Romans 4. Abraham was not justified from
his sins by his works. He was justified by God. And
the righteousness of Christ was imputed to Abraham through faith. It was charged to him. it was
counted to him through faith. So it's all, that's the case
of all who truly believe. Now look at verse 2. 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. See, he couldn't glory before
God because it says there, Abraham believed God. Where did the faith
come from? God gave it. He couldn't go to
God boasting in his faith. God would say, I gave you that
faith. What are you boasting about? He couldn't boast of any righteousness
he had worked out by his obedience to the law. Number one, because
he didn't have the law. And number two, because his righteousness,
whereby he did fully establish the law, was from Christ. His surety given to him by God. You say, how did he have Christ's
righteousness when Christ hadn't gone to the cross yet? Well,
that's what Paul's talking about up there in Romans 3. Look here
at verse 25. Christ is he whom God has set
forth to be a propitiation, a mercy seat, through faith in his blood
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past. You see that? So Abraham's in
the past before Christ came. But God could save him because
Christ was his surety. And Christ's going to go to the
cross for Abraham. And so God God passed over his
sin because of his surety. Now, Abraham couldn't be justified
by the law because Abraham, just like me, just like you, was a
dead sinner. That's where he started, in the
land of idolatry. That's all he was. Abraham couldn't
bring himself to God and would have had no desire to bring himself
to God, not the true and living God. God came to Abraham. Abraham's faith, like our faith,
was given of God. It's of God, not of us. For if
Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory, but
not before God, the scripture says. Remember what 1 Corinthians
1.29 says? That no flesh shall glory in
his presence. No man is going to be able to
glory in God's presence, but of God. Of God are ye in Christ,
who of God is made unto us all. Christ is made all to us by God.
We're in Christ by God and Christ has made everything to us by
God. God first came to Abraham and the scripture says that God
preached before the gospel unto Abraham. Saying, in thee shall
all nations be blessed. Go to Genesis 12. You see, Abraham
was saved the same way every sinner is saved. Look at Genesis
chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. God spoke to Abraham when he
preached the gospel to Abraham. He didn't speak of anything but
of his own works. That's what the gospel is. The
gospel is the declaration of God's works. Not our works. His
works. Look at Genesis 12 verse 1. It
says, let me get there. It says, Now the Lord hath said
unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house. That's where he was dwelling.
He was in his immediate father's house, but he was in Adam's house.
He was a sinner. dead in the land of idolatry.
But God came to him, and the Lord said to him, leave this
place. And he said, I will show thee,
I will show thee this land that
I'm going to give to you. And he said, and I will make
of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and I will make thy
name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. Now watch
this part. And in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. Scripture says he believed God
when he left earth. Hebrews 11.8 says, By faith Abraham,
when he was called to go out into a place which he should
have to receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out not knowing
where he went. He went by faith. He believed
God when God spoke into his heart. If you ever believe, if you ever
believe, it's going to be because the gospel comes to you not in
word only, not just the preacher preaching. It's going to come
in power, in the Holy Ghost in much assurance. Because when
God speaks in the day of His power we believe God because
He gives us much assurance. He makes us to see what He's
done and He gives us every assurance we need to trust Him so that
we can't do anything but trust Him. Now Abraham believed that
he and all of God's elect would be saved in this promised seed
that God promised. Christ Jesus, that's who the
promised seed is. That's what he believed. That's
what we believe. That's what he believed. Verse
3 here in Romans 4 is quoted from Genesis 15. Look at Genesis
15. There's where God gave Abraham
the gospel concerning his son. Listen to this. He's speaking
of the seed in whom and by whom redemption would be accomplished.
He said in Genesis 15-1, After these things, now look at that,
the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, now
look at what the word of the Lord said, Fear not, Abram, I
am thy shield. and thy exceeding great reward. The word that came to Abraham,
the word of the Lord that came to Abraham is that word that
was in the beginning with God, that word that was God. That
word came to Abraham in a vision, Christ himself, and listen to
what he declared. I'm thy shield. I'm thy shield. Isn't that the gospel? Christ
is our shield from divine justice. Christ is our shield from the
wrath and fury of God because we've offended his justice. Christ
is our shield from all our enemies. And he says there, and I'm thy
exceeding great reward. Christ is our reward of righteousness. Free righteousness. The same,
we mean the same thing when we say free justification. Christ
is our reward of free justification. He's our reward of the law being
fully established by Him, by what He's done. You say, well,
that's not a reward. A reward is something you work
for. Not with God. Not with God. With man that's
what a reward is, but not with God. Not with God. He said, I
have rewarded you Is that what he said? I've rewarded you double
for all your sins? Let me look that up. Isaiah 40. You can stay there in Genesis.
We're going to be there in a minute, but let me just see here. Now she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. That's our reward though. For our sins, he gives us double. He pardons us and makes us righteous. That's our reward. Alright, now
read Romans 3 with me just a minute. Hold your place there in Genesis.
We're going to come back later. But look here in Romans 3.21. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid we establish the law. What shall we say then that Abraham
our father as pertaining to the flesh has found? You see, Abraham
established the law. What a great example for the
Holy Spirit to move Paul to use Abraham and say, he's saying
there we're justified by God apart from our works of the law
and yet through faith we fully establish the law of God. What
then did Abraham find? What did he find? 430 years before
the law was given. without him doing any work according
to the law whatsoever, Abraham fully established the law. How
could you do that? How could you establish a law
not even having it? Through the one who did. Through
Christ. Through faith in Christ. That's
what he did. Now Christ told us this. He said,
your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he said, and
he saw it and was glad. He rejoiced to see my day. Abraham
saw Christ's day in the promise that God gave when he said in
his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Abraham
saw Christ in that promise. That was the gospel preached
to Abraham. He saw Christ in that. Let's look back there at
Genesis 15. Here it is. Later on, the Lord's going to
make it more clear. He's going to say, in your seed,
Abraham, all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed.
But here, now look, this is the beginning of that promise right
here. You know, when you first hear the gospel, you don't understand
it completely. You know that? You don't get
everything, but you get the fact that God's doing the saving.
And that's what he got here. Watch this. Verse 2. Abraham
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. You've given
no child. That's what he's saying. You've
given me no son. And lo, one born in my house
is mine heir. And he said, I don't have an
heir. You're telling me that I'm going to be a blessing to
all the nations and you're going to make a mighty nation of me?
I don't have a son yet, Lord. Now look at what the Lord said.
And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall
not be thine heir. Now here's the promise. But he
He, this one Son that shall come forth out of thine own bowels
shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad
and he said, now you look toward heaven. And Abraham went out
there and man that sky was full of stars from one side to the
other. Full of stars. In that desert
he could see everywhere far and behind him everywhere. Stars. And he said, look now toward
heaven and tell the stars Thou be able to number them. And he
said unto him, So shall thy seed be. Now here he means children.
So shall thy children be. Alright, turn over to Galatians
3. Galatians 3. In Galatians chapter 3, I just,
this is floating my boat really on a high sea. Galatians 3, I
want you to see this. In Galatians 3, the Holy Spirit
tells us what Abraham saw. What Abraham believed. Rather,
who he saw and who he believed in that promise. And then the
Spirit of God says it's the same blessing. It's the same thing
that we see when He gives us faith to behold Him in this promise. Now look, Genesis 3, 8. Genesis
3, 8. The Scripture, foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen, that is the Gentile, through
faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee
shall all nations be blessed. There's that promise. That's
what he said. In you, in this seed that's coming
forth shall all nations be blessed. So then, watch this, so then
they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Those that are of faith are blessed
to see what Abraham saw. We're blessed to see what Abraham
saw. You always hear preachers saying,
well now they didn't see things as clearly as we see them. The
scripture says, we're blessed to see what Abraham saw. Alright,
here's what he saw. Verse 10, as many as are of the
works of the law are under the curse. For it's written, Cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them, but that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God it's evident. For the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not of faith.
You see that? The law is not of faith. You
can't live by the law. The just, those justified by
God live by faith. and because the law is not of
faith. But the man that doeth them, the man that wants to be
justified by the law, he shall live in them. He's got to do
them. He's got to do the whole law. Now look at verse 13. Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. For it's written, Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on the tree. This is how we're justified.
This is how we're made righteous. Christ was made a curse for his
people. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. And Christ was made a curse for
us. And He bore the penalty, the
curse, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. He bore our
stripes that God's elect deserve. Alright, now watch this. That
the blessing of Abraham, that the same blessing given to Abraham,
which he saw by faith, which he got received through faith,
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. That doesn't mean that
we might receive the Spirit through faith, that we might receive
the promise that the Holy Spirit reveals in our hearts, and we
might receive it through faith. You understand that? That the
promise, he makes the promise, like he did to Abraham. He came
to Abraham, he gave him life, he revealed this promise that
in his seed in Christ, Abraham was going to be justified. And
so were all his children, his true children, his elect, were
going to be justified. And so, Christ came then. The blessing came to Abraham
before Christ came. for the transgressions that were
passed in Abraham's day, and then Christ came, this text says,
Christ came and he was made a curse for us, for it's written, cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing that Abraham
was given way back there might come on us Gentiles through Jesus
Christ as well. Just like it came to Abraham.
That we might receive the promise that the Holy Spirit reveals
through faith. that we might receive it through
faith. Now brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Though
it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man dis
and nulls or adds to it. He's saying just in our everyday
way we do things, if you make a covenant with somebody, that's
it. You don't add to it, you don't
take away from it. It's done. The contract's done. And he says,
now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not
into seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which
is Christ." God made the promise to Christ. And when he made the
promise to Abraham, he said, Abraham, he that comes from your
loins, he's going to be the one in whom my people are blessed.
And that one he was speaking of is Christ. He's the one God
made the covenant with before the foundation of the world.
And he says here, Verse 17, and this I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, it was confirmed
to Abraham of God in Christ. God said, in Christ, in this
seed that's coming through your loins, Abraham, I'm going to
justify my people. I'm going to make my people righteous.
Alright, that covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ,
the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul. It can't touch that promise.
That it should make the promise of no effect. It can't touch
it. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it's no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. You see, how Abraham was saved,
who Abraham saw, who Abraham believed, who Abraham trusted
in, the one in whom Abraham established the whole law of God, when as
yet he did not even have the law of God, That's how every
believer is saved. And that one is Christ Jesus.
Paul said the same thing in our text in Romans 4. Through faith
we established the whole law, he said. And he said, and that's
what our father Abraham found. That's exactly what he found.
Not by his works, but by believing God, God imputed righteousness
to him. He said, you're righteous in
my son Abraham. Now, Abraham, look back at Romans
4 just a minute before we move on. Abraham did what faith does. He had faith. God gave him faith
and he did what faith does. He believed that God could and
would do that which is humanly impossible. You know when men,
you'll hear fellas and they'll say, I just cannot believe, and
they'll say something about our gospel that they can't believe,
because they say, you really believe that there's a man seated
in glory? You know why they can't believe
that? It's humanly impossible for one of us to do it, for a
sinner to do it. But faith believes that which
is impossible with men. That's what faith believes. How can I be just with God and
God remain just and yet have mercy on me? That's the great
mystery of the gospel. That's what humanly is impossible. With men it is impossible. But
with God, He's done it in His Son. By sending His Son to bear
the sin of His people on our behalf. Now look, this is what
is written of Abraham. Look at Romans 4 and verse 18.
And we'll read out to the end of the chapter. Who against hope
who against hope, against what would you normally hope in if
you were just hoping according to the flesh, who against hope
believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations
according to that which was spoken. He said, so shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed God. 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 God
the glory. You know when you believe God
can do something that just seems impossible? That's giving God
glory. That's what that is. That's what
it means. It doesn't mean he went along
and said, oh, glory to God, glory to God. He might have done that.
But what it means is, by him believing God could do what was
humanly impossible, he gave glory to God. You want to glorify God? Believe Him. Believe Him. That's what he did. Now look
at verse 21. And being fully persuaded that what he had promised,
he was able also to perform. That's how you glorify God. And
therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness. He believed
God. He didn't work. He didn't do
anything to try to make himself righteous. He believed God. And therefore, through faith,
it was imputed to him for righteousness. In other words, God gave him
the righteousness that had been ready made and ready worked out
and accomplished for him by God from eternity in Christ his surety. He said, here's your righteousness. You're righteous now. in Christ,
through faith, apart from works. Now, verse 23. Now listen to
this, you who don't believe, listen to this. It was not written
for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. It wasn't for
his sake alone. But for us also, to whom it shall
be imputed, if we believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord
from the dead. if you stop working and believe
Christ. And he said, this righteousness
shall be imputed to you who was delivered for our offenses and
was raised again for our justification. Now let me ask you a question.
It says, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord
from the dead, what does it mean to believe that God raised up
the Lord Jesus from the dead? Does it mean just believe the
fact that he did it? No, it's to believe that the
reason He raised Him up from the dead is because Christ fully
satisfied God. He successfully finished the
work of declaring God just and of justifying His people so that
the grave couldn't hold Him. Death couldn't hold Him because
He conquered death for His people. And so God, being satisfied with
him, raised him because he purged all the sin of his people. Now
listen carefully. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to you when you believe that through faith
in Christ you have established the whole law of God and are
righteous in Him so that you stop going about to establish
your own righteousness. When we believe that Christ has
fulfilled the law and established it and magnified it and honored
it in my room instead, in my place, so that now I cease from
trying to establish my own righteousness, that's when we've really been
brought to believe on Christ. It's through faith in Christ
that God imputes to the believer the righteousness, the free justification
already wrought by Christ For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confessions made unto
salvation." Isn't that wonderful? The righteousness which is of
the law says, if you want to come to God in the law, somehow,
this is what you're going to have to do first of all, you've
got to go back to your mother's womb and be conceived without
sin. That's the first thing you've
got to do. And then from the womb, to the tomb in every thought,
word and deed, you've got to keep that law. And God will receive
you. But the righteousness which is
of faith, it doesn't say, oh, it's too far, it's out of my
grasp, I can't get... No, it says, it's near you. It's in your heart and it's in
your mouth. He that with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. No work in there, is it? With
the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Abraham believed
unto righteousness. He believed God and God gave
him the righteousness Christ had worked out for him. And with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. God does all
the work. He does all the work by Christ.
God works within his people to bring us to believe on him. And
through the faith God gives, God counts us righteous in Christ.
Listen to what is said of Abraham. Joshua 24 3 says, I took your
father Abraham from the other side of the flood and led him
throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave
him Isaac. He said, look unto Abraham your
father and unto Sarah that bear you. I called him alone and blessed
him and increased him. He didn't call those others out
of her, he called Abraham and Lot. And he blessed him. For what saith the script, Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. So,
this is our first point. We see God justified Abraham. God did it. He did it by the
finished work of Christ through faith in Christ who stood as
Abraham's surety. Abraham was not justified from
his sin by his works. Alright, now let's go to James
2. James 2. Here we read verse 21. Was not
Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered
Isaac his son upon the altar? Now the works that James is speaking
of, let me say this again. These are works that God foreordained. He foreordained. He ordained
these before. Which God works in his child
by his grace whereby God makes known that the faith he gives
to his child is genuine faith. This is God manifesting. This is God holding up his child
and saying, look what I've done. This is my work. I've done this. It's not the sinner doing something
to justify himself as having faith. and to perform in, it's
God doing it in the center to say, I've done this. Let me show
you something. I just saw this before I stood
up here to preach. Look at 2 Corinthians 5. I'll
show you something. 2 Corinthians 5. Paul says, We're, in verse 8,
he says, we're confident and willing to be absent from the
body and to be present with the Lord. We're confident and we're
willing to be absent from this body and present with the Lord.
He says, verse 9, wherefore we labor that whether present or
absent we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the
things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether
it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men..." Well, look at this next phrase.
"...but we are made manifest unto God." We're made known unto
God. God knows what He's done. He knows the work He's done.
the work he's accomplished, and he makes it known before all
what he's done, his work. So in Judgment Day, the works
we're going to be judged by, we're not going to be standing
there boasting of what we've done. That's what the self-righteous
will do. They'll be boasting of, when did we not do these
things, Lord? Didn't we do many wonderful works?
Didn't we cast out devils? And the believer will be standing
there going, Lord, when did we do any of these works? The one
who will be boasting on the believer's side will be God. Because God
will be saying, I worked all these works in you. Look at this
believer right here. I worked these works in him.
I did it. Isn't that what the scripture
says? Paul said, brethren, Be careful to work out your salvation
with fear and trembling. Whatever you're doing in the
church house, outside of the church house, amongst your brethren,
outside of your brethren, whatever you're doing, do everything with
fear and trembling because it's God which worketh in you both
to do... What is it? To will and to do
of His good pleasure. It's God working in you. He's
doing it. He's going to manifest these
works. Now let's just look at this for a minute. Was not Abraham my father justified
by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Let's
go to Genesis 22. I won't have time to go through
all this but we'll just touch on it. Genesis 22. God said Abraham believed God.
That's what God said. He wrote it in the Scriptures
and He said Abraham believed God and it was counted to him
for righteousness. It was imputed to him for righteousness.
That was in Genesis 15. I can't remember if I showed
it to you or not, but anyway, that's where it was. Now here
we are in Genesis 22. And by this work that God before
ordained for Abraham to walk in, God's going to manifest that
that Scripture is true. You know, James says here that
scripture was fulfilled. It said Abraham believed God
and it was counted to him for righteousness. How was it fulfilled?
God fulfilled it. How did he fulfill it? He proved
Abraham. He had given Abraham true faith
and Abraham really believed him. And he proved it by this work
he had ordained before to be done. Now look at verse 1. It came to pass after these things
that God did tempt Abraham. and said unto him, Abraham, and
he said, Behold, here am I, here I am. Now, tempt means this was
a trial, a trial to prove Abraham's faith, to make his faith known
before men. God's going to hold him up as
a trophy of his grace. Now, Verse 2 says, And he said,
Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for
a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell
thee of. Now understand this. This is proof to us, brethren,
that these works that God's talking about that justify our faith
as being genuine, they're not works you and I go around looking
for to do to prove, look at us, we're little sunbeams. That's
not what they are. Because God came to Abraham and
this work that God told Abraham to do, do you think this work
would have ever been something Abraham would have dreamed of
doing? No. No, no way at all. this is the
boy this is the son God first of all it's Abraham's son his
only son and secondly it's the son through whom God said the
Messiah is going to come Abraham would have never never imagined
in a million years that God would consider it a good work to take
that boy up on this mountain and sacrifice him on an altar
but God said God called him to that work. You see God calls
us to these works. We don't like when we enter these
trials. We don't know what God's doing. But he does. And he's
doing it for a purpose. He's doing it to manifest what
he's done in us. What he's done. Look at this
now. He went up there because Hebrews
said he had counted that God was able to raise him up even
from the dead. He believed God. He believed God. All right now. And you know think back to this
is not the first work he did that manifest he believed God.
I told you before he left her because he believed God. That's
what the scriptures say. We just read there Romans 4 he
staggered not at the promises of God everything he did he was
trusting God. And so there's a lot of things
that could be used, but this one's used because it pictures
Christ so much. So as you see here how much it
pictures Christ, just remember that whenever God brings us into
a trial and to persevere in faith, to walk in submission to Him
and obedience to Him, to fear God and desire for Him to be
glorified, these are the good works. When He does that, Be
sure, you can be sure he's teaching us Christ along the way. Because
everything here pictured Christ. That's what he's teaching Abraham.
Alright? And we see by what God's done
for us in saving us to the uttermost and saving me. He raised me from
the dead. I know he can raise my son from
the dead. That's what Abraham's thinking. So we can sacrificially
do whatever it is God calls us to do because God's already provided
everything for us. He's going to provide all for
us. So he went three days. Three days. Hawker says that's
a picture of Christ being... Isaac being under that sentence
of death for three days is a picture of Christ being under the sentence
of death for three days. Look at verse 5. And Abraham
said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I the
lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. Hear that? He said, we're going to go up
there and we're going to worship God. Remember we saw Sunday that
these good works are worshiping God? He said, we're going up
there and we're going to worship God. And he said, and we're coming
again to you. Me and the boy, we're coming
back. We're coming back. He believed God. Now look, how
did he justify he believed God? Look at verse 6. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son,
and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both
of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son.
And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the
lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went
both of them together. The works that God's before ordained
are works we shall do by His grace, trusting that God will
provide. That's right. Do you believe
God? Why not? If you don't believe God, why
not? God does what He promises. God provided Himself as the Lamb. He did. God was in Christ reconciling
His people to Himself. Abraham didn't say, well, I believe
God. This is what James is saying. Faith without work says, oh,
I believe God's sovereign. I believe He can raise this boy
from the dead. I believe God can do that. God
has dot all your I's and cross all your T's with all your doctrine.
And then say, but I'm not going to go up there and lay Him on
an altar. We don't really believe He's
sovereign, do we? Alright, but Abraham, verse 9, let me... So
they went, they came to the place, Abraham built the altar, and
he laid Isaac on the altar. Verse 10 says, And Abraham stretched
forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the
angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven. This is Christ,
the angel of the covenant. And he said, Abraham, Abraham.
And he said, Here am I. Now listen to what he said. And
he said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything
unto him. For now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from
me. God knew this before. God knows all things. He knew
this before. But two things. One, he's speaking in the infirmity
of Abraham's faith to assure Abraham, to comfort Abraham's
heart, saying to him, you know Abraham had to be in some terrible
straits here. He's about to kill his son. And
he said, Abraham, I know you believe me. He comforted his
heart. But the other thing is, he says, now I have made it known. I've made it known that you fear
me. So that right now me and you,
why did he make it known? So that me and you could sit
here and look at this and understand what he means when he says, when
I've worked faith in somebody, I'm going to bring forth good
works in them. To justify that the faith I've given, the work
I've done is genuine. It's genuine. Now we know it.
We wouldn't have known it had Abraham not done this, right?
Now we know it. Let me tell you what he said
in Deuteronomy 8 too. Thou shalt remember all the ways which the
Lord thy God led thee. Who's leading us into these good
works? He is. And he said, these forty years
in the wilderness, and here's why he said he did it. To humble
thee, and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart. whether thou wouldest keep my
commandments or not. What does God make us know about
our own hearts when he does this? He makes us to say with Paul,
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. What does
He make us to know about Him through these works? Look at
Genesis 22, 13. Abraham lifted up his eyes and
looked. Behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by
his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him
up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. At the end
of every trial of faith, at the end of all these works, He brings
us to behold Christ, the Lamb of God, who God provided to take
our place, in whom we are perfectly righteous. That's what He makes
us to know about Him. This is your righteousness, it's
Christ. And what does God bring us to confess when He works these
works and causes us to walk in these works? Verse 14, Abraham
called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said
to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. He
makes us to say, it shall be seen that God has provided. He makes us to confess God will
provide, Jehovah-Jireh. Now look at this, "...And the
angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second
time, and he said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord.
For because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld
thy son, thy only son, in blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying
I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, as the sand
which is upon the sea shore, and thy seed shall possess the
gate of his enemies." That seed there that's going to possess
the gate of his enemies is Christ. It's Christ. And in thy seed,
in Christ, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because
thou hast obeyed my voice. And so Abram went back home.
He went back home. Now, Hebrews 6.11 tells us this,
gives us the application. Listen to this. You'll be going
back to James 2. And I'm fixing to finish. Let
me read this to you from Hebrews 6. I quoted this on Sunday when
we were looking at these good works. We desire that every one
of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
unto the end. Perseverance. That's a good word
that he's called us to. But that you be not slothful
but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. And here's why he says, for when
God made promise to Abraham Because he could swear by no greater,
he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing I will bless
thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so after he
had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. They quoted that
scripture right there and said he swore by himself, said I could
swear by no greater. I'm going to bless you. I'm going
to bless you. Now look at James 2. Look at James 2. I hope you
see this. See'st thou, verse 22, see'st
thou how faith worked with his works, and by works was faith
made perfect. It was made manifest to be true
faith. And the scripture was fulfilled. It was shown to us
that it was true. God justified his very own claim
when he said Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him
for righteousness and he was called a friend of God. God said,
see there, I told you. I told you he believed. He brought
it to pass. So by Abraham's work we know
it. We know it's true. Abraham believed God and it was
imputed to him for righteousness and he was called the friend
of God. Do you see something now of why we're not justified
by our works before God from our sin? But God himself uses
these four ordained works to justify before men and angels
and everybody that cares to look into it that the work he's done
is a genuine work and he justifies our faith as being genuine faith
by these works. That makes me want to whatever
whatever God's put in my way it makes me want to do it with
diligence. It makes me want to because it's manifesting what
he's done what he's done. Amen.