All right, take your Bibles,
turn back with me to Romans, Romans chapter four. Romans chapter four. And title of this message, The
Blessedness, The Blessedness of Justification by Faith. The
Blessedness. Our text is going to be found
in verse 6 where it says, Even as David also describeth the
blessedness. Describeth the blessedness of
the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Now, the apostle having both
established the doctrine of justification by the deeds of the law. He first established it by the
depravity of man. And I want you to see this. This
is the foundation of the whole book. And there's a reason why
I keep going over this, because without this foundation, none
of the other stuff will make any sense. It won't work. He
lays this foundation very firmly that man is depraved and has
no hope of ever saving himself. That's the first layer of this
foundation. Without this, one man said, if
you got it wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all. And that's
just so. If you believe there's some hope for you by your obedience,
then all your doctrine is skewed. It's wrong. So he lays that first. He testifies of this righteousness
that was made by Christ. The righteousness of God came
by the faith of Jesus Christ. And thirdly, he puts out this
doctrine of justification by faith, that faith is the means
by which we receive this righteousness. The justification is unto all
and upon all, who? Them that believe. Now, in Chapter
4, the Apostle now chooses an illustration of justification
by faith, and he chooses it very carefully. He chooses Abraham.
He chooses Abraham. He tells us that Abraham was
not justified by his works, although his works were good.
We couldn't compare with the faithfulness of Abraham. And
yet we know this, that Abraham was not justified by his works.
Now, just to give you a little insight, next time we meet I
want to talk about that seeming contradiction in James, where
James says Abraham was justified by his works. And so I'm going
to deal with that later, but right now I've got too much. So, but Abraham was not justified
by his works. How was he justified? Abraham
believed God, not generally, but specifically regarding Christ. He believed God concerning Christ
and what was the result? Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness or to righteousness. Remember I talked about this
last time, faith is not a substitution for righteousness. Faith and
righteousness are two different things. Faith receives what? The righteousness. But faith
itself is not righteousness. Faith is the means by which God
gives to receive righteousness. And so when we're born again
by the Spirit and the new man, what Paul says, he says, we've
established the law. We've honored the law. If you
by faith have received the righteousness that is in Christ Jesus, then
listen, you are righteous. You are righteous before God.
You have established the law. You have established it. Therefore,
do we go back under the law? No. Is faith a work? No. Faith is a grace. So we see the necessity of faith
in this doctrine of justification by faith. Without faith, it is
impossible to please God. You must believe. Yet we know
this by by Scripture is very clear that faith is a gift of
God's grace. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that, what? Not of yourselves. Faith is not
of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works. You see, they're different. Works
and faith are two different things. Faith is not a work. Faith is
a grace. Therefore, to reckon faith to
be a work An act of man's power or ability is to reckon the reward,
not of grace, but of debt. This is what men believe, is
that they, by their volition of their will, they obligate
God to save them. That God is somehow indebted
to them for their faith. That God has to do something
based on the volition of their will, which we know is not true. The doctrine of justification
by faith testifies that the reward, which is justification, look
at that, he says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth
on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to righteousness. The reward is what? Justification,
isn't it? How is the reward given? By grace
or by work? It's by grace. And so God justifies the ungodly
by faith in Christ alone. So now to us who believe, we
believe to righteousness. We believe to righteousness.
What does that mean? It means that this is righteousness
that was made by Christ is now given to us in the new man. In the new nature when God creates
in us, Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 that the new man is
created after God in true holiness, true holiness. I know that to
hear this is troubling. When I say it, I tell you what,
I've got to be very careful what I say to make sure that it is
according to Scripture. It's very troubling even to those
who believe in Christ, that this new man, in this new man we're
righteous. Why? Because all I see is my
sin. I can't see the righteousness.
I can't see the holiness. And so when John says something
like this, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. Now I can see that. I confess
that. But John on this other hand in
1 John 5 and verse 18 says that which is born of God sinneth
not. Now that's troubling. I can't see it. Well, how do
you see it? You see it because God said it.
This is the doctrine of justification by faith is that when we believe,
listen, we are made righteous. And so to understand this only
comes by faith that the old man of sin must continually be put
off. Why? Because he's corrupt. Isn't
that true? You've got to keep putting this
thing off, because I do. I've got to keep putting it off
because it doesn't stop. The natural man is just a sin
factory. It's the same thing that Jesus
said, that which is born of flesh, what is he going to be? Is that
which is born of flesh become spirit? No, that which is born
of flesh is what? Flesh! Paul said, flesh dwelleth no
good thing. I identify with that. Every believer
does. But listen, that which is born
of spirit, what is it? Is it contaminated with the flesh?
No, that which is born of spirit is spirit. These two are distinct.
And yet they reside in us. Both of them. Both of them. So the new nature that is created
after God in true holiness It is that nature that God purposed
to be conformed to the image of His Son. It is a holy nature sanctified
by the will of God, sanctified by the blood of Christ, and sanctified
by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, can we prove this doctrine
by our works? Can you prove that holy nature
by your works? And you go out there and say, now watch this. The old redneck saying, hold
my beer and watch this. You know? And he's seeing him
do something stupid. No, we can't prove it. You can't
go and change your morality and say, look at my morality. See
that holy nature in me? No. No believer does that because
we know this sin is still mixed with all we do. Now I'm sure that those who believe,
I know this, that we are changed. There's no doubt about it, there's
a change. We're surely different. We have
a different view of God, don't we? Than we once had. We have
a different view of ourselves. Surely we have a different view
of ourselves. What do you see about yourself? I see a sinner. What do you think
about God? I see holy. What's your hope? Only Christ. See, everything's
changed. I once depended upon my own knowledge
and my own self, but now I don't. So surely we've changed. In fact, we by the flesh often have to try to look to
the flesh, don't we? Don't you still try to look to
the flesh? We do, we still try to look for something. And listen,
I know this, if you, this is the experience of every believer,
if we look to the flesh for any assurance, it's like that manna
you stored up, you know, Lord said don't store up that manna.
It breeds worms and stinks. That's what, if I look to myself
for any assurance, it breeds worms and stinks. The only foundation of our righteousness
before God is the triumphant life, death, and resurrection
of Christ. That's my only assurance that
I have this righteousness. And the only proof of this new
nature is this, faith. Faith. I believe in Christ. I don't just believe in him,
I believe on him. He's everything. I, like Paul, count all things
lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my
Lord. I do count them but done that
I may win Christ. Don't you continually count them
done? I mean, we do good works. Believers are saved on two good
works. Now, what work are you trusting
in? What good work you've done, and you've done them. Which one
of them do you want to trust in? None of them. You want to count them as dung
that you may win Christ and be found where? In Him. Not having
mine own righteousness which is by the law, but the righteousness
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Vitally word the of. I want His righteousness that
He made. I need it. Now, as I thought on this new
creation this week, I told you again, I trouble sometimes to
think about it because of the sin that I see constantly before
my eyes. But I want you to know that God
doesn't create this holy nature and you and this leave you to
yourself. I want you to see this. This
is very encouraging because if this holy nature was left up
to us to keep, We couldn't keep it. How do you maintain this
holy nature? How is it continually holy and
uncontaminated? Listen, it is continually holy
and uncontaminated because of its vital union with Christ. You know, our Lord prayed this
in the high priestly prayer, and I don't have time to go back
through all of this. I've got to get to my point,
but I want you to see this. You that have been made the righteousness
of God and Christ. Listen, Jesus said this, I in
them, and thou in me, that they may
be made perfect in one. How are you made perfect? You're made perfect in one. Who
is he? The one that's in you. Just as much as you are in Christ,
you were in Christ when God chose you. You were in Christ when
He died. You were in Christ when He was
raised from the dead and seated on the throne of God. You were
in Him. But now by the grace and power
of God through faith, Christ is in you. Is that not amazing? You want to know how this holiness
continues? It's because of its union with Christ. He is constantly supplying this
holiness. You're supplying none of it.
He's supplying all of it. And so this union with us, and
this union, think about this, is inseparable. That's why this
holiness will continue, no matter what. This holiness that God
has put in every one of us, if it is real, if it is by faith,
if you have this by true faith of the grace of God, nothing
can take it away. I like what John says, he says,
and the wicked one toucheth him not. That which is born of God. That new man, the wicked one,
cannot contaminate. You can't contaminate it. Isn't that glorious? There is
nothing you can do to contaminate this holy nature that God has
given to you. Why? Because it's in union with
Christ. And so now then, let's look at
our text. Now I want to describe the blessedness. I've described
justification by faith. But now then, the apostle, he
says in verse 6, even as David describeth this blessedness of the man, to whom God imputeth
righteousness without works. Now I know we all desire blessings.
Who does not desire blessings from God? We all do. We want blessedness of physical
health. When you're sick, what's the
first thing you ask for? Heal me. Heal me. We want the blessedness of material
comforts. We want the blessing of peace.
Isn't this true? Peace in our families. There's
so much turmoil in our families. Peace in our country. We want
that. We want peace in our own hearts
and peace in our minds. And so what do we ask? We pray,
God, bless me with these things. Bless me with peace. Bless me
with health. Bless me with material comforts.
And every believer is surely free to pray for these things.
Do not think you're not hindered to pray for these things. Pray
for them. Freely pray. Freely ask. You know what our Lord says?
Our Father knows you have needed these things. Don't you think
He takes these things into account? These are not minor things to
Him. They're very important things that you eat, that you have clothes,
that you have shelter. How many blessings, physical
blessings do you have? Can you count them? But when God sees fit to deny
us these blessings, something happens. We become bitter. We become envious of those who
have the blessings we want. It is true the wicked seem to
prosper. Isn't that true? Have you not
seen that? I mean, they just, everything
they touch just seems to turn to gold. It seems to be plenteous
and prosperous, seem happy. Seem like they have it all. And
what? The righteous seem to suffer. God's people are justified by
faith, justified before God. They seem to suffer. They're
called to suffer. They often are denied the blessings
of the flesh and the prosperity and peace of this world. God's
saints are often hated by the world, religious and irreligious.
We surely are at war even with ourselves. Do you struggle with yourself? I do. When God denies me something, I really know what the flesh
is. The flesh lusts against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary one to another
so that you cannot do what you would. Believer in Christ, are
you troubled? Are you perplexed and cast down? Are you weary of crying? Man,
I get weary of crying. I get weary. We become bitter
when God withholds these earthly blessings. There are wicked men
that seem to make millions off of promising people the blessings
of God, don't they? Wicked men come in, they pray
on grieving people. They pray on those that are weak,
those that are weary, those that are bitter, and they come in
and say, Oh! God wants to bless you! And they give you the formula
of how God is going to give you these blessings. You want to
be healed? Well, God wants to give you that.
God wants to give you comfort and peace and joy. And all you've
got to do is... And then they just fill in the
blank. They're all different as to what they've got to do.
The formula is different. You just have a positive attitude. If you just had more faith, that's
what it is. You don't have enough faith. But this is nothing more than
trying to please God and earn His blessings, isn't it? It's
nothing more than that thing of debt. If I do this, then God
is indebted to give me these blessings. And so what happens if you move
to debt? You've moved away from grace.
You've moved away from grace. If God is somehow indebted to
you to give you these blessings by your works, then you've moved
from grace to works. But we who are justified by the
grace of God through faith, we know this, that the reward, the
blessing of God has never, does not ever, nor never shall come
from our obedience. Any blessing we receive, is there
any physical blessing you deserve? The only thing a sinner deserves
is the wrath of God. That's all he deserves. That's
the reward that we deserve. So any blessing that we have
physically is an act of mercy. God does not owe us health. God does not owe us peace in
this life. God does not owe us anything.
In fact, he's promised us the opposite. Is that not true? In this world you shall have,
what? Tribulation. But, here's our
comfort in that, be of good cheer, justification by faith, I have
overcome the world. So God's promises, now I want
you to look in the scripture, I want you to see one scripture
and then we're going to move on to this, but look at Philippians.
This is totally against any feel-good religion of this age. First Philippians
chapter 1, look at verse 29. We already told you faith is
a gift of God, isn't it? In this matter of justification
by faith, faith is a gift of God. That's what He says. For
unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on Him. So it is. Isn't it given to you
to believe on Him? Yes! We say amen. Boy, that's
great. That's not the only thing given
to you. Look what else is given. But also to suffer for his sake. Faith is given to us and so is
suffering. Are you praying for healing?
Are you praying for, are you poor? Pray for healing. Yeah,
if you're sick, pray for healing. Ask God, if you ever get healed,
it's got to be from God, isn't it? So pray for it. If you're
poor, ask God for contentment. If you're restless, pray for
peace, and God gives these things by His grace, and when they give
them, give thanks. But what if God forbears? What
if God does not answer? Let us know and be very certain
of this truth that no matter our circumstances, no matter
the greatness of our affliction, no matter the greatness of our
trials, David describeth the blessedness. The blessedness of the reward
of God without your works, without your merit. What is the blessedness of God? Look at your text. And He's given
us to suffer, but He's given us this matter of justification
by faith, and this is the reward of it. Listen. This is the blessedness. Whether God gives you those other
things or not, this is yours. This is the blessedness. Look. The blessedness of the man to
whom God imputeth righteousness. How? Without works. This is the blessedness. Solomon
in Ecclesiastes 9, this is what he said, No man knoweth either
love or hatred by all that's before him. Can you tell the
love of God or the hatred of God by providence? There's a man over here, he's
sick, he prays for healing and God gives him healing. Here's
another man who's sick, he prays for healing and God Kills him. Can you tell which one God loved
and which one God hated by that? No. You can't. You can't tell
by physical blessings. We cannot know the love or hatred
of God by providence or circumstance. But Solomon said in that same
verse, he said, the righteous and the wise, their works, their
righteousness and their wisdom, are in the hand of God. Have you been made wise to see
your need of Christ? I tell you, this is not natural.
That's a gift. If you know your need, that's
a gift. And everyone who is given this
gift by God knows where that need is satisfied. It is satisfied
in Jesus Christ alone. And we, by grace, now look away
from ourselves. We look to Christ. We hold all
our religion and all of our works as done, and we cling to Him. And so then let us see, no matter
what the circumstances of time, no matter the dark paths of providence,
that we're made to walk in this world. Let us trust this. We are blessed. We are blessed. Go to Isaiah 15, see if you can't
identify with this. Isaiah chapter 15, look at verse
10. He said, Who is among you that
feareth the Lord, and obeyeth the voice of his servant? Who
is he talking about? He's talking about those who
are justified by faith. He's talking about those who are made
the righteousness of God in Christ, and by grace and power of the
Spirit, he has given them a new heart, and they trust in God's
servant. Do you trust in God's servant?
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul
delighteth." He's talking about Christ. You fear the Lord, you
reverence Him by believing on Christ. Now this is talking to
you. Listen. Notice their circumstance. "...that
walketh in darkness and have no light." I tell you, this is not the exception,
this is the rule. That those who believe on Christ
often walk in darkness. We walk in darkness with no light
as to the purpose of God. Do you have any idea what God's
doing? God's people are suffering. God's
people sick, God's people die, God's people, their lives are
constantly in turmoil. Do you see what God's doing? Are you often confused like I
am as to how in the world this is going to redound to the glory
of God and the good of His people? We walk in darkness. But what is God's word to us
as we walk and suffer affliction in this life? What is God's word
in the darkness? What does God say to us who believe?
Look at that text. What does he tell you to do?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. We trust God's Word regardless
of how we feel or what we think or how we reason or the circumstance
that we find ourselves in. What are we to do? We're not
to try to figure it out. You ever feel like a hamster
in a wheel trying to figure things out? I do. I get weary trying to figure
it out. Why are you doing this? Why so
much pain? Why so much hurt? Why so much
sorrow? I don't know. I don't understand. Trust me. Okay. Okay. I just trust. We lean with all
of our weight upon our God. Look what happens to those who
try to make their own light. Look at verse 11. He said, behold,
all that kindle a fire, that compass themselves about with
sparks, walk in the light of your fire, in the sparks that
you have kindled. This you shall have of my hand,
you shall lay down in sorrow. Don't try to walk in the light
of your own wisdom. Don't walk in the light of your
own understanding. We try to create light, don't
we? Try to figure this out. We say, oh, look, here's a spark.
That must be the way it is. We just continue to follow that.
And you know what God says? He says, this is what you're
going to receive in my hand. You'll lay down in sorrow. Trying to make God to be indebted
to us, that's making our own light. Why does he do this? Because
in times of darkness we are moved from trusting God to trust our
own selves. But let the gospel then be our
light in this darkness. Let the reward of Christ shine
as the blessing of blessings. This is all spiritual blessings
God promised us is this, that He imputes to us righteousness
without merit. Notice David's words. They are
quoted from Psalm 32. Go back to your text. Look at
this. Psalm 32 is where he's quoting from. He says, Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Now Paul there changes it. You
go to Psalm 32, it's going to be in the singular. But Paul
uses a plural word here. He says, blessed are they. Now he does this for a very particular
reason in this, that all those who believe are blessed. Blessed
are they, all the elect, Jew and Gentile, And what is the
blessing of this righteousness? God forgiveth sins and covers
them. This is the blessedness that
by Jesus' obedience in blood all of the elect have their sins
forgiven by the offering of Jesus Christ. All of the elect. This is a blessedness, isn't
it? That all God chose have all their sins been forgiven. All
of them. Now how is the blessedness of
all the elect come to us? Well, it comes by
a faithful high priest. In the darkness of our providence
then let us look to Christ who bore our sins. He bore our sins
Do you get this? He bore all our sins. You finish sinning, are you done
today? You're just going to cut that
off and it's not going to happen anymore. No. You still, there
are sins yet even in this hour, in this day, in this month, if
God gives you in these years. There are sins. But listen to
me. All your sins, Jesus Christ bore
in his own body on the tree. And so then in your trouble,
in your affliction, look to his affliction. Look to him who was
made. He was caused to be sin. Who himself knew no sin and there
He says this, is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow? Can you
match your sorrow to His? You've not been given some blessings
and you're pretty upset about it. Well, stop looking at you, look
to Him, look what He suffered. He bore our sins, all our sins,
and how blessed is the result of that! That our iniquities
now because of that are forgiven. All of them. All our iniquities are forgiven.
Isn't there a covenant in Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 34? Listen to
what God declares He's going to do. Is there anything God
said He's going to do that He hasn't done? Anything at all?
Has God failed to do one thing He said He'll do? No. This is what He said He'll do.
will forgive all their sins. So when you ask forgiveness,
don't you know that you have it? Not because of any good in
you. You have it because God willed
to do it. And He did it by the suffering
and death of His Son. And so what does this mean? It
means this, that all our iniquities are not only forgiven, now you
forgive something, right? Somebody did something wrong
to you and you forgive them. Did that erase what they did?
Is that possible? Can you do that? No, you can't
ever erase their guilt. They actually did it. But in
this matter of Jesus Christ, listen to what happened. God
not only can forgive your sin, He can forgive your sin because
you don't have any. This is what justification by
faith is. It's not just as if I never sinned. No, to be justified
means you've never sinned. You can't say it's if I've never
sinned, otherwise you really wouldn't be just. You'd be guilty. And somebody's pretending. Somebody's
just pretending that you're just. But look what, I'm going to give
you a couple of scriptures. Look at this. Look at Isaiah 43. Look
what happens when this blessedness of Jesus Christ, what he did.
Isaiah 43 and verse 25. What did God do by the death
of Christ? He said, I, Even I now just in case you want
to know who did it I? Think we're so stupid. He's
got to repeat himself I Even I and he's been he spent several
chapters telling you that there's nobody else, but me in this book
He's not even I am he alone that blotted out by Transgressions,
I'm gonna do it why I? for my own sake and will not remember thy sins. Consider this blessing that God by Christ has so blotted
out your sins that he can't remember them. Consider this grace that it's
without your works that he does this. In Jeremiah 50 he says,
In that day and at that time the sins of Judah shall be sought
for and there shall be none. There shall be none. Is that not THE blessedness? That you are made righteous so
much so that God cannot and will not remember your sins. That's how powerful the work
of Christ is. Totally removes your guilt. Now look at this next part. Go
back to your text. Look at this next part. And he says this, blessed is
the man. Now he goes back to the singular.
See that? He talked about what God did for the elect, but now
he brings it personal. He said, Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now as we walk in the dark times,
our souls are prone to sin. Isn't that right? I told you
we're prone to bitterness, we're prone to to fail, prone to sin,
and I confess this, that sin is mixed still with all I do.
I confess as Paul, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to
will is present with me, but how to do that which is good
I find not, O wretched man that I am, constantly am. That's a present tense word there.
He's not thinking about what he was, he's thinking about what
he is. O wretched man that I the sin
which Christ died for and God has blotted out it may not be
present to him but it's present to me I see it I feel it but
behold the blessedness of God look at this even though you
see it and feel it listen what God says I won't charge you with
it How can God not charge me with
sin? How is that possible? It's real. I'm guilty of it. Yet regardless of what I feel
and think, this is the blessedness of God that is given to me and
every sinner who believes on Christ. To everyone that worketh
not but believeth on Jesus, God says, I will not impute your
sin to you. Why? Because it's already paid
for. You see, God cannot charge you
with something that's already paid. That's unjust. And because God is just, He sees
the blood of His Son and says, I will not, because I cannot. I will not impute sin to you.
I will not charge you with your sin. Remember, God cannot impute something
that's not really there. When you see that word impute,
realize this, that God can't impute something that's not there.
He can't charge you with something you really don't have. That would be unjust, wouldn't
it? To charge you with something you don't really have. But God is charging you with
righteousness. Why? Because you're righteous. God's not charging you with sin.
Why? Because there is none. What happened to it? It's covered. The blood covers all our sins. I often think of Jacob. Remember
when he had to dress up like Esau? He had to put on that goat
skin. Isaac wasn't going to bless Jacob
unless he was Esau. He had to be Esau to get the
blessing. And so it is with us when we
believe on Jesus Christ, we put on His very skin. And so when
God sees me, He sees His Son. And He says to me, I
will not charge you with sin. I will not charge you. I'll charge you with righteousness. Is this not the blessing? It is the eternal blessing of
God. And notice God says that in that
covenant, I will remember their sins. When? What I can't forget, God won't
remember. Because of who? Who gets the
glory for all of this? It's Christ, isn't it? When I thought of this blessedness,
I thought of that man sick of the palsy. Remember that? That
man, they lowered him down before the Lord and he couldn't move. He was paralyzed. He couldn't
do anything. And the Lord looks down at this
man and He says, Son, thy sins be forgiven. Tell you the truth, I believe
that's what the man wanted. He might have wanted healing,
I'm sure, but he received a greater blessing than he could ever possibly
imagine. By believing on the son, what
did the son say? Son, thy sins. How many of them? All are forgiven thee. And then what'd he do? He blessed
him with health. He blessed him, he raised him
up. He raised him up for his own glory to show his power,
but he did it. Listen, we want God's blessings, and we ask for
them, do it. You're free to. Come before the
throne of grace and seek whatever you need before the hand of God.
It is our God that supplyeth what? Every need. Every need
we have. But in those times of darkness
when he refuses, keep this in mind. That's not the blessing. The blessing is this. Son, thy
sins be forgiven. All of them. God imputes to you
righteousness. will not impute to you sin. May God move our hearts with
love and appreciation, regardless of what blessings he gives or
withholds in this world. Give us hearts to latch on to
that blessing and hold on to it by faith. So you're walking in darkness,
just trust the Lord. He knows what he's doing. He's
blessed you. He's blessed you. I pray God
will bless this to your hearts and encourage you. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer. Gracious Father, bless us with
your mercies and kindness. Pour out your spirit and your
love upon us, Father. I pray for those who have needs
in the body and mind. I beg you for mercies, tender
mercies. In the midst of our afflictions,
let us know this, your grace is sufficient for us. And I pray that you'd give us
grace to be thankful for all that Christ has done
for us. And I pray this in His name, amen.