One of the clearest manifestations
of the total depravity of mankind is that multitudes in every generation
have attempted to come to God using God's Word, yet denying
God's Word concerning how He saves sinners freely in Christ
Jesus the Lord apart from any works on the sinner's part. That's
a measure of our depravity that we would take God's Word and
look into it and yet deny exactly what it said. Romans chapter
3 and chapter 4 declare plainly that sinners aren't justified
by anything we do but by God and Christ alone. And some folks
get a little squirmy at that statement because chapter 4 has
to do so much with faith. but the faith that God gives
those that he's justified in Christ is not the same faith
that unregenerate religious folks talk about in our day that we
hear so much about. Faith doesn't make the difference
between your justification and your condemnation. Faith does
not make the difference between your justification and your condemnation. It's God who justifies. It's
Christ that died, yea rather that's risen again. Faith is
not the cause, the reason why a sinner's justified. Faith is
the result of Christ having justified a sinner. It's the fruit of what
Christ accomplished. And if I say opposite to that,
if I say that my faith made the difference between my justification
and my condemnation, my understanding of true God-given faith is as
corrupt as I am. Because I'm looking to my faith
to be some kind of credit with God. And I'm not looking to the
faith of Christ. There's a difference. There's
a vast difference. True faith has all its confidence
in its object, who is the Lord our righteousness. Well, but
scripture says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him
for righteousness. It sure does. And so today I want to show you
what God did for Abraham. And here's what I propose to
you is that Abraham believed as a result of the free justification
and righteousness of Christ His surety. Now you know, I won't
keep you long here, but you know last time in Romans 3, we learn
first of all, a sinner is not justified by obedience to the
law of God. We saw that in Romans 3, 19 and
20. And then we saw that justification,
Righteousness, sanctification, all that's included is completely
accomplished without this sinner's obedience to the law by the faith
of Christ. It's by that one who himself
is the believer's righteousness. Up there in Romans 3.21, now
the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. without
the sinner's obedience to the law. It's witnessed by the law
and the prophets. All God's Word declares it. And
it's the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ. Most
of you modern translations are going to have that as just faith
in Christ. And that fits the theology of
most folks who believe that the righteousness of God is revealed
by their own faith. but it's not revealed by our
faith. It's revealed by Christ, the faithful. Here's the righteousness
of God. Let me give you something to
help you understand that. Here's all God requires. Here's what
the faith of Christ is. Here's all God requires of you
and me. We've got to be born of incorruptible seed. We were conceived in sin. We've
got to be born of incorruptible seed. We've got to come forth
from our mother's womb holy. We came forth speaking lies.
We've got to come forth holy. Our thoughts must be absolutely
in accordance with God's thoughts. He requires righteousness on
the inward parts. Our words must be absolutely
in agreement with everything that God would have you and I
speak. The Lord said, I don't speak these things of myself.
He said, what I got from the Father, that's what I speak.
I and my Father are one. That's righteousness. That's
faith. That's the faith of Christ. And our actions have got to be
absolutely according to the very actions of God that magnify and
honor His holy law, His holy name, and are nothing but complete
love for our brethren. Now that right there, to me,
is about the extent or the fullness of what what I, not quite, but
almost, of what I see by the faith of Christ. But it's not
only His active faithfulness. It's Him Himself. It's His person. It's who He is. It's who He is. I'm convinced, I just have looked
at this and looked at it, I'm really, I'm convinced over there
in Romans 1, 2, I'm sorry, Romans 1, when it says there, verse
17, Therein, in the gospel of Christ,
it sets forth Christ. It's the righteousness of God
revealed. And He is that righteousness. And it's revealed from faith.
I believe that first faith should be capitalized. I believe it
is from Him to those in whom He's taken up residence. But
let's go on here and look. Thirdly, we learn that Christ
honored God's holy law and justice, and thereby God's both just and
the justifier of all who trust in Christ. That's what we saw
in Romans 3.26, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Now that might not line up with
the way you've always believed about the faith of Christ. But
we need to line up what we believe with Christ, with God's righteousness,
and not with how we think it ought to be. If it's translated
to in Christ, it can't be any other meaning. But the translators
were a little more honest than a lot of the translators today. They didn't have any financial
gain from it. If they didn't, they put it in
a way that it could be translated both ways. go both ways theology
wise. Let's look here now at Romans
chapter 4. Paul uses Abraham now to simply illustrate everything
he had taught. What did Abraham, it says verse
1, what shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining
to the flesh, hath found? What did Abraham, what did he
find? The father of the faithful, the
patriarch of natural Israel. What did he find? Did he find
a way of life in himself according to his flesh? Did he produce
righteousness in his flesh? Verse 2 says, for if Abraham
were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before
God. But not before God. God knows
his heart. God knows my heart and your heart. We can't glory
in anything. For what saith the Scripture,
verse 3, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness. What is it? The righteousness
of God. The righteousness of God was
counted, imputed, charged freely, given unto Abraham for righteousness. It became his righteousness. Imputation means Christ's righteousness
is truly my righteousness. Christ's righteousness is truly
your righteousness. It's not as if it's your righteousness. It's yours. I used to hear folks
say, and I thought it was good, that justification means just
as if I never sinned. Well, it kind of does, but it's
more than that. I haven't never sinned according to how God sees
it. In Christ, I've never sinned.
It's more than that. But verse 4 says, Now to him
that worketh is the reward, the crown of righteousness. Righteousness
is itself. To him that worketh, it would
have to be reckoned to him not of grace. It couldn't be freely
given to him but of debt. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. That's true God-given faith.
Don't you catch what verse 5 says right here. True God-given faith
believes on Him that justifieth. Do you see that? Verse 5, To
Him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth. Our justification is in a person.
Our justification is accomplished by a person, not us, Him. Him that justifieth the ungodly. That's the only thing we brought
to the table was being ungodly. That's it. And every sinner God
justifies is that way. And therefore, every sinner that's
ever been justified has been justified by God, by what Christ
accomplished before he ever even knew anything about it. Faith
is what God gives us to receive what He's already done for us.
And thereby, it's said that we're justified by faith that's in
Christ, that trusts Him that justifies us. That's true faith. Faith is represented here as
the complete opposite of anything resembling a work. Anything opposite
of it. And this righteousness of God
in Christ comes not by anything we do ourselves, but through
God's free gift of faith, which unites us with Christ our righteousness.
We can't even boast of our faith. If you read over there in Ephesians
2.8, 2.8 and 9, and you take out Night of Works, out of verse
9, it says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and
that night of yourselves is the gift of God, lest any man should
boast. We'd boast of our faith if we could muster up the faith
to believe Him. Just like we boast of our works.
Now I want you to see that Abraham's faith was a gift given to him
because Christ was his righteousness. That's what Scripture said. For
God so loved, He gave. Isn't that right? God gave. So let's consider what the Lord
did when He called Abraham. Back here in Genesis 12, verse
1. Hebrews 11.8 says that this is
when Abraham believed God by faith. Now read here with me,
Hebrews 11.8. By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out... I'm going to read you Hebrews
11.8 and then I'll read you Genesis 12.1. 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. By faith he did that, Scripture
says. Now Genesis 12.1 says, Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
Get thee out of thy country, from thy kindred, from thy father's
house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of
thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name
great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that cursed thee. And in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. So Abraham departed, as the Lord
had spoken unto him. Abraham's country, his kindred,
his father, his father's house is all an example to us, a representation
to us for it truly was to Abraham of our natural condition in sin. Abram was in idolatry. He was
in idolatry. He wasn't seeking God. He wasn't
looking for God. He wasn't trying to come to God.
God came to him. Why did God come to him? Because
He loved him. Because he put him in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Because in Christ he blessed
him with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
How many is that? It's all of them. Is justification
one of them? Yes, it is. That's a spiritual
blessing of God. God blessed Abraham when he chose
him and put him in Christ. He blessed him with all spiritual
blessings. That's why he came seeking Him. That's why he came
seeking Him. Now, secondly, But he had to
bring him out of that place. He had to bring him from his
own kindred, from his own country, from his daddy's influence, bring
him out from under all that, because all he was in was in
sin and rebellion, and he had to be brought out. And so then,
notice here secondly, the Lord's promise to make of Abraham a
great nation was in Abraham's seed, in Christ, who would be
born of Abraham's lineage. In Christ, he said, all the families
of the earth should be bled. That is, a people out of every
family. different nations, tribes, kindreds,
tongues. They're going to be called out.
And Abraham's Scriptures tells us, saw Christ's day. It says
he saw Christ's day. I don't know that I've ever entered
into this quite as much as I have studying this this week. But
the Lord showed Abraham over in Genesis 15-2. I want you to
hold your place there. Genesis 15-2. We're going to
camp there just a few minutes. But in Genesis 15-2, Abraham was called out by God
to look up into the sky. Now look here with me. Verse
1 says, and after these things, Abraham, consider all his, he'd
been called out from his family and his country. He had asked
God about Lot. If it's just one man down there,
will you save him? And the Lord said, I'll bring
him. If there's one down there, I'll bring him out. And Abraham went down
there and fought for a lot. And Melchizedek, this type of
Christ, some believe he was Christ, may have been. But he met Abram
on the way back and blessed him. Now after these things, the word
of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram,
I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abraham said,
He said this, he said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing
I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eleazar of
Damascus. He's just a servant. He's going
to receive the inheritance from me. And Abraham said, Behold,
to me thou hast given no seed. I know what you told me, but
you haven't given me a seed. One born in my house is mine
heir. Behold the word of the Lord came unto him saying this
shall not be thine heir It's not gonna be this not gonna be
this servant in your house But he that shall come forth out
of thine own bow shall be thine heir and he brought it forth
abroad And said now look toward heaven and tell the star count
the stars if thou be able to number them and he said unto
him so shall thy seed be And he believed in the Lord, and
the Lord counted it to him for righteousness." Now I want you
to hold your place here. Look over with me, Galatians
3.16. Galatians 3.16. Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds,
as of many, but as of one, to thy seed, which is Christ. Now catch this next phrase here
I want you to see. In this I say that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ. He's talking to
Abraham there now. And it says here that when he
was talking to Abraham, God wrote His law on Abraham's heart. That's
what a covenant is. And it was confirmed to Abraham
of God in Christ. You mean to say that when he
made that promise, Abraham saw that he was talking about Christ?
That's what the Lord said. The Lord said, Abraham saw my
day. And he rejoiced. He rejoiced to see it. Now I
want you to see something and the scriptures tells us there
that the law didn't come to 430 years after that. It couldn't
disannul this promise. This promise was yea and amen
in Christ from God to Abraham when Abraham was standing out
there in that desert looking up at all those stars. Abraham
saw Christ right then. He saw him then. And he wasn't
circumcised. We're going to look at that next
time. He wasn't circumcised until 15 years later. So that didn't
have anything to do with it. This was salvation by promise. That's exactly how every sinner
is saved. Now let me show you something else here. Hold your
place there in Genesis 15-2 now. Did you turn away from there?
Genesis 15-2. To see that this covenant, this is what it means
when it says God will put His law into your inward parts. God
makes His covenant with you. And he writes this covenant in
your heart. We see how sure it is in Christ. And that's the
only motivation for good work. That's the only thing that will
make a sinner want to walk before God honorably and turn from his
own wicked, self-righteous works. And it was confirmed in him.
We need to understand who this Word is that came to Abraham.
Look here in Genesis 15. After these things, the Word
of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. Well, the written Word
wasn't around. What word came to Abram in a
vision? John 1 once says, In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. There's three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these
three are one. This work I'm saying was done
with Abraham. It was born witness in Abraham
through the Spirit. We're going to see that in a
minute. But this is the Son of God talking to Abraham. Abraham
saw Christ. He beheld Him. And look here
now, what did He say? What did He say? The essential
Word, the Son of God, Abraham's surety. He revealed Himself to
be Abraham's shield. He said, Abram, I'm your shield. Christ is the shield, first and
foremost, who bore the justice of God in the room instead of
Abraham. Abraham, you're guilty before
God. Abraham, God's wrath has got
to be satisfied. His justice has got to be carried
out. But don't fear, Abraham. I'm your shield. I'm your shield. I'm going to bear it. and protect
you from having to bear it. I'm your shield. And he tells
him something else here. He says, I'm your reward also. He said, I'm your shield and
not just a reward, an exceeding great reward. But now the righteousness
of God is manifest. Where? By the faith of Christ. You not only need to be justified
from being guilty before God's law, but you've got to be made
to bear righteousness of God. That's the reward. That's the
crown of righteousness. You've got to be crowned with
righteousness even as God is righteousness. And he said, Abraham,
I'm not only your shield to protect you from God's justice, but I'm
the one that's going to robe you in righteousness too. I'm
your reward. Abraham saw his day. And those
fellows the Lord came to, they were boasting about, we'd be
sons of Abraham. And he said, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. And he saw it. And he was glad. That's what faith is. Faith is
gladness to trust Him and look away from myself. And they said,
you're not even 50 years old. How did you see Abraham? And he said, before Abraham was,
I am. Guess who came to Abraham and talked to him? Abraham, look
up here. Look at all these stars now.
They used to say, uh, Helena, Louisiana, uh, Helena, Arkansas's
biggest sky on earth. Cause it's just Delta, you know,
it's just flat. You can see from east to west
and just on a starry night, it's just multitude of stars. And I can just picture what Abraham's
looking. He's out there in the desert and he just sees from
one horizon to the other, just a multitude of stars. And the
Lord said, that's how many brothers and sisters I'm going to give
you, Abraham. That's how many children you can, you can be
the father of that many children. Talking about everybody in Israel?
No, no, no. He's talking about those that
were going to be saved in D.C. Not Isaac, Christ and Abraham. And he said, now Abraham, that's
me. I'm Yeshua and I'm your exceeding
great reward. You see what God's righteousness
requires? You can't provide it. You need
the faith of Christ. And that's what all the believers
at every age have rejoiced in. The psalmist said, Behold, O
God, our shield. He said, The Lord God is a sun
and a shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. What is a shield? It's going
to give grace and glory. Deuteronomy, happy art thou,
O Israel, whose like unto thee. This is spiritual Israel, people
saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, who is the sword
of thy excellency. And then the psalmist cried,
and he said, Thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of the
living. You're my portion. You're my
reward. You're my righteousness. You're
my enduring substance. Now thirdly, the Lord ministered
this life and this gift of faith to Abram, right there, then and
there, through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit bears witness in our
heart. Look here, the sinner saved,
always saved the same way. If you'll turn back over to Galatians
3, look at verse 5. Galatians 3. Look at verse 5. He therefore
that ministereth to you the Spirit. This is what Paul is asking the
Galatians. Who ministered to them the Spirit? Well, turn back
with me to Galatians 2.8. Paul said, He that wrought effectually
in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was
mighty in me toward the Gentiles. This is Christ the Lord. This
is God ministering the Spirit. And Paul asked Him here in Galatians
3. He says, now, He therefore that
ministereth to you the Spirit. Isn't that what Peter said at
Pentecost, the day of Pentecost? He said, God has shed forth this
which you now see in here. The Lord said, our Father is
going to send the Spirit. And He said, Christ has shed
forth this which you now see in here. He ministered the Spirit. Now Paul asked Him, He that did
this to you and worketh miracles among you by stretching forth
his hand to heal, doeth he it by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith? Everything that's been said right
here. God the Father, God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ ministering
the Spirit to the believer does it through the hearing of faith,
through the Word. I'm your shield, I'm your exceeding great reward.
And it says here, verse 6, even as Abraham believed God. That's
exactly how Abraham was saved. That's how he came to believe
God too. I'm pointing this out to you, brethren, because, and
this is what I found, this is interesting to me. I never have,
this is a, it's good to be here where I get to preach and what
have you, because I'm learning something. I'm learning just
looking at things. When people see Romans chapter
4, Romans chapter 3, when they see it on a message, or whatever,
it usually, it doesn't get, it don't get downloaded as much.
Because everybody thinks they know it. Everybody thinks they
understand it. Do we? Do we? I hear a lot about
faith that's about your faith, about your act of believing.
It just brings this whole thing down on a level to where man
has the final say. That's not what happened to Abraham.
And Paul is using Abraham as the illustration here because
Abraham, for the Jews, I mean, this was the patriarch. And for
believers, this is the one we know as the father of the faithful.
How was he saved? How was he given faith to believe?
Christ did it. The Lord Jesus Christ did it.
He was as much Abraham's righteousness as his surety before he ever
laid down his life at Calvary as he is for you after he's laid
down his life at Calvary. He's the righteousness of God.
It's by the faith of Christ. Abraham saw it. He looked ahead
by the Word speaking in him and said, See it? See what I'm going
to do? See the righteousness of God
manifest without the law by the faith of Christ? I'm your shield.
I'm your exceeding great reward, Abraham. And by the Spirit of
God's grace, Abraham believed. He believed. So what did he find? What did Abraham find concerning
his fleshly works or anything that was done in him? What did
he find? What saith the Scripture? Romans
4.3. Abraham believed God. And the righteousness of God
was charged unto him, imputed unto him for righteousness. He was made the righteousness
of God. Now to him that worketh, the reward's not reckoned of
grace, but it's of death. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, that's true faith. His faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin." You think about it. There's Abraham,
this ungodless sinner, this idolater. And God gave him spiritual life. God gave him repentance from
his own life, his own country, his father, to turn and follow
God and never did tell him where he was going or nothing. Abraham
believed him because God gave him a heart to believe him and
he trusted him. And this ungodly man who's given
life, who's given faith to trust Christ, realizes that before
God had ever come to him, before God had ever given him new life
to hear, ears to hear and a heart to believe and eyes to seek before
he ever did it, Abraham understands, God loved me. He put me in Christ. That's grace. Are you tired of
hearing about grace? That's grace. And Abraham's sins were charged
to Christ his surety. And Abraham said, Abraham, I
am your shield. Your sins are going to be charged
to me. And by my faithfulness, my righteousness is your righteousness. And Abraham believed God. And
he found out this. This is what he found out. God
will not charge you with sin. Ever again. Ever again. Well,
that'll make a man fall into all sorts of licentiousness.
Abraham failed a lot. Sure did. But God didn't impute
sin to him. But I'll tell you what Abraham
did do. Everywhere God told him to go, he went. Everything God
told him to speak, he spoke. He followed God. He believed
some sound doctrine taught to him by Christ the Lord. And he
followed Him. And he went everywhere he went
and did everything. Perfectly? Absolutely not. He
fell down every step of the way. But one thing he didn't do, he
didn't straddle the fence between his own country and his idolatry
and all that and what Christ had revealed in him. He didn't
straddle the fence between the two. If He would have, He wouldn't
have followed those things which were coming to the glory of Christ. You know what He did? See you. I believe Him and I'm following
Him. That's what He did. In those works that He did afterwards,
Paul's teaching us here that we're not justified by works.
We're justified by Christ. But those works that he did after
that, they justified Abraham before men that he really did
believe God. God came to him and he said, Abraham, offer up
your son Isaac. And he called him his only son
Isaac too. Back up before that, he came to him and he said, Abraham,
Abraham had the boy with the bond woman. He said, Abraham,
cast him out. That's the work of your own hand.
He's not the Son of Promise. He's coming through your own
loins, Abraham. And you know what the Hebrew writer says?
Abraham staggered not in unbelief. He wasn't in unbelief at all. It looks like he was to me when
he took matters into his own hand. God's viewing him in the
faithfulness of Christ. And he staggered not in unbelief.
He believed God. For just as Christ believed God.
was trusted God as a servant of God. And then he saw Christ
right there. God just kept teaching him more
and more Christ. And he says, now you take that son Isaac,
Abraham, go up to the mountain. Kill him. Sacrifice him to me.
Abraham believed God, didn't he? He went up there. He took
his boy and he said, Lord, as you've said it, I believe it.
The Lord said, Don't put your treasure on things of this world.
Do you believe Him? Prove it. The Lord said, Seek ye things
which are above. Do you believe Him? Do it. Abraham,
go up to that mountain and take your boy and sacrifice him. Abraham
believed God. And he went. And on the way up
there when Isaac said, Daddy, what about the law? What about
the law now? He said, son, God will provide
himself a lamb. I know what the law said. That
law ends in the one I've seen, in the one I'm trusting, the
one in whose day I've delighted in. That's who that lamb ends
in, son. That's who that law ends in,
has its fulfillment in. We're going on up here and do
what God said. And when he saw that ram caught in that thicket,
he said, there he is. There's the lamb. God's provided.
because he saw Christ's day. He saw the lamb God provided.
He saw the ram caught in the thicket with the briars pushed
down on his head, crying out, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Because of the covenant you entered
into, my son, to be Abraham's shield and to be his portion.
Because of the covenant you entered into, my son, to be the shield
of Scott Keller and of Eric Lutter and of Pete Sheppas, to be their
portion. For that reason I poured out
my wrath upon you, son." That's what Abraham saw. He saw
it in the son of promise. He saw it in the ram caught in
the thicket. And he proved he believed God.
He followed God the rest of his days. And God said, Behold my
son in whom I am well pleased. He had stumbled. He had fallen. When he was down there lying
to that king and saying, Sarah's not my wife. God said, I will
not impute sin to him. He's righteous. He's righteous. You want to see how faithful
Abraham is? Look to the faith of Christ.
That is what true faith does. That is what God given faith
does. It looks to the faith of Christ, to his, and we see there,
there's the righteousness of God. That's what he requires
right there. Well, Abraham believed. And it wasn't
by his works. It was by God-given faith. And
I just hope that's a... I enjoyed that. I enjoyed seeing
that. I started seeing those things about Christ, and the
Word, and the shield, and the portion, the exceeding great
reward. It's like I told you Thursday night, if I prepared
any messages, I'd dance around a little bit more. Put a little
spring in my step. So I hope it does for you, too.