Amen. I take your Bible and turn
back with me to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4, entitled this
message, Imputed Righteousness, Imputed Righteousness. And my text, eventually I'm going
to get there. The text will be found in verse
2. 3 of chapter 4, it says, for what
sayeth the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. Imputed righteousness. Now the
apostle, having plainly and methodically set forth the doctrine of justification
by faith, he has already answered so many objections. both of the
Jews and the Gentiles, first of all, concerning their guilt.
He's answered the objections concerning their guilt, that
both Jew and Gentile are guilty. They are both without excuse.
The Gentiles sinned without the law. The Jews sinned with the
law. The Gentiles had the law of conscience
and nature, and they sinned against what they knew. And the Jews
had the law of Moses, and they sinned against what they knew.
Conclusion, all have sinned. All are guilty. And that objection is going to
come up in chapter 3. Well, what does it profit being
a Jew? Well he said you profited in
a lot of ways, you had physical peace, you had got the presence
of God, you had the oracles and the tabernacle given to you,
had the gospel preached to you. You had much advantage but the
problem was you were the same with the Gentiles, you couldn't,
it couldn't be effectual unless God made it effectual. Isn't
that true of the Gentiles in the Old Testament, those that
were saved? God had to make that same gospel to the Gentiles effectual
that he had to make to the Jews. And so the only means then of
justification is by the obedience in blood of Christ. That's what
he gets to in verse 22 of chapter 3. He said, but now the righteousness
of God is manifest. Now the righteousness of God,
that's what the sinner needs, the righteousness of God. Well
now it's clear as to how a sinner may be righteous. But let me
tell you this, it was witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ. That's how righteousness comes, by the faithfulness of
Christ. That he, according to the law and prophets, obtained
righteousness. And God has set him forth to
be the propitiation for sins, the payment for sins. And so
then seeing clearly that Jesus by his work has done what? He's
established the law, hasn't he? He's made it honorable. He's
fulfilled it. That's what he said he came to
do, right? He said, I am come not to destroy the law, but to
fulfill. And that's exactly what the apostle
is telling us in chapter three. He fulfilled righteousness. Well,
how does a righteousness come to a man? That's the important
question. If he fulfilled righteousness, that's good. But what I need
to know is how that righteousness can be mine. The only way he does that, how
does he justify a sinner? How does a sinner ever have hope to possess this
justification? Tonight, do you seek to be given
this righteousness? Do you need it? Do you need it? Do you seek to have this given
to you by some work of the flesh? Do you think you can earn it? Do you think you can merit it? by some sincere efforts in pleasing
God or obeying His law? The Apostle testifies, no, no. The Apostle testifies the only
way this righteousness, this justification comes to the sinner
is one way, by faith in Jesus Christ. Look at verse 22, he
said, even the righteousness of God which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that," what? Believe. Look at verse 25, "...whom God
has set forth to be the propitiation," how? "...through faith in His
blood." Look at verse 26. He says, "...to declare, I say
at this time, His righteousness, that He might be just, and the
justifier," of who? Him that believeth in Jesus. So now you see how righteousness
is earned by Jesus Christ. And now you see how righteousness
is given by faith in Jesus Christ. By faith, that's how it comes
to us. It's what we mean when we talk about this doctrine of
justification by faith. And this faith This faith, as
we shall see, is no mere act of will, is it? You that believe,
you know this to be true. It's no mere act of will. I remember
there was a time where I just, I knew God was sovereign. I knew
there was no way I could earn this. I didn't know how many
times I willed Him to come and save me. You know what happened? Nothing. Salvation is not by my will.
Faith didn't come by my determination. We see that faith is not a mere
act of will or assent. Some people come to me and they'll
tell me, say, you know what? I don't agree with what you said,
but I can't deny it. There it is. It's written right
there in the page. I can't deny it, but I still
don't believe it. You see, you can assent to these
truths. I can show it to you. I can make
it intellectually acceptable to you, because it is. But that's not faith. I hear
this over and over, and I get it. Maybe they just want to give
them the benefit of the doubt. They come up to me, when did
you come to the doctrines of grace? Well, I didn't. I came to Christ. I don't come to a set of doctrines. I come to Christ, and those doctrines
are evident when I come to Christ. They're clear when I come to
Christ. So it's not a set of intellect. Faith is not an assent to the
facts. Faith is a God-given grace. The same way you were justified
freely. by His grace is the same way
you believe on Him freely by His grace. By His grace we see
that faith in Christ is not a natural intellectual ability. Jesus said,
no man can come unto Me except the Father which hath sent Me
to draw him. He said in John 6, this is the work of God. You want to know what the work
of God is? Here it is, that you believe. That's the work of God. Faith's
not just acknowledging truth, not acknowledging facts. Faith
is a gift of God. And I know this, we are very
sure, I am very sure of this, that all the Father chose in
love, all of them. All of those who Christ justified
by His obedience in blood, all of them. All of them shall be
at the appointed time called of the Spirit of God and not
one shall be missing. In Revelation you have those
24 elders. How many seats are there? When
he calls out the 24 elders, how many seats? I suppose there are
25 seats. 24 elders, 24 seats. The perfect number, 144,000.
That's a perfect number. That's what it was meant to be.
And so it is with all God's elect. Jesus tells us in that very same
text in John 6, they said this is the work of the Father that
you might believe. That faith is the work of the
Father. He said this, I came down from heaven not to do mine
own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the
Father's will which has sent me. that of all he had given
me shall come to me." Is that clear? I think that's very clear. He's not wringing his hands wondering
if they're going to come. Hoping and praying and begging
them to come. No, he don't beg. No. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And when they do, what is he
going to do? I'm not going to cast them out? No way. Why, I came
down from heaven, not to do my own will with will. This is his
will, that of all he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but
raise him up again at the last day. So we know this, that justification
is by faith. It's obtained by Christ. We're
all guilty. No hope in us. Our righteousness
was obtained by Christ, and it's given to us through faith. Now, then he comes to these three
questions in verse 27 through verse 31. The first question is concerning
boasting. When you understand this doctrine
of justification by faith, is there any boasting? Do you have any room to glory
in what I just preached to you? What did you have to do with
any of it? Even your faith was a gift of
God. So what do you have to do with that? You still believe?
Well, who's doing that? Well, God gives that. So we have
no room for boasting. Where's boasting? He says it's
excluded in the doctrine. In this doctrine, there's no
room for boasting. This matter of justification
by faith excludes it. Excludes it. Why? Faith is a
gift of God's grace. So then what happens after faith? What happens once a man is justified
by faith? Do we then look to the works
of the law? Do we look to our moral character
now? Now we've been justified, now
we turn from that and we look to moral character. Is that what
we're concerned about now? Do we look to our works as a
means to measure our faith? Now this is what's happening,
don't get me wrong, this is reformed theology. This is what's taking
place in reformed theology, is that they're justified by faith,
and then once they're done that, they're going to go on to works,
so that they can measure how successful they are in their
faith. Can we look at our moral conduct
and gauge our spiritual growth? You think you can do that? You know who does that? The self-righteous. They're the only ones who can.
I can't. I can't look at my conduct and
see that my faith has grown. The more I grow in grace, the
more I see my depravity, the more I see my sinfulness, my
weakness, My inability. And yes, the more I see His glory
and power and mercy. Now, we don't go on from faith
to obedience to the law. Why? Because the law and works
only do one thing. They promote boasting. Don't
they? If you can measure your faith,
you can say, ah, look at this. See this? See how far I've grown?
What are you doing? Your glory. Well, that's not
justification by faith. Justification by faith don't
allow that. It's excluded. If I've grown any in my faith,
all the glory belongs to God, not to me. And they started talking
about how to. Well, how do you grow your faith? Now they write tons of books
on this now. If you want to know how to, they'll
tell you. Do this, stop doing this, start
doing this, and your faith will grow. Now, the only one who grows faith
is God. And He does it, I know He does
it through trials and tribulations. I know He does it through suffering.
and sorrows and grief through the preaching of the gospel.
I know that this is his means. And so where there's boasting
by justification by faith, it's excluded. So what is the law
then of the believer? Look at Hebrews chapter 12. Look
at Hebrews chapter 12, what the apostle says to us. He says this. Look at verse one,
wherefore seeing we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses. He's talking about those witnesses
who walk by faith, isn't he? All of Hebrews 11 is talking
about those believers in the Old Testament who walk by faith. Seeing we're encompassed by so
great a cloud of witnesses, those that walk by faith, let us lay
aside every weight and the sin that easily besets us. What sin
is that? What sin easily besets all of
us? Unbelief. It is the sin that
easily besets us. What are we to constantly do
with it? Set it off. Lay it aside. It's a weight. And let us run with patience
the race set before us. Oh, there it is. He must now
be ready to talk about the law. Running that race, we got to
get back under the guidance of the law. We don't know the course
unless the law tell us which way to run. What did he tell
you to run by? He tell you to run by law? Looking
unto Jesus. That's how you run this race.
When? Every day. Every moment. Every second. Running the race,
looking unto Jesus. Who is what? The author and the
finisher of our faith. Is there any glory in that? You
get any glory in that? Looking to Jesus, do you get
any glory? No, He's the author, He's the finisher, and if I'm
running by faith, He's given it. "...who for the joy set before
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God, for consider Him." I'll
tell you what, if there's any time we need to be contemplating,
that's it. Consider Him. It doesn't say consider yourself.
Consider Him. If you want to really consider
yourself, you've got to consider Him, lest you faint and be weary
in the way. And so the second question that
was raised, well, is He the God of the Jews only or the God of
the Gentiles? Look back at your text. In this matter of justification
by faith, is He the God only of the Jews? Or is He a God? No. What did the Apostle say?
He said, no, He's the God of the Gentiles also. Why? Seeing
there's one God. There's not two Gods. There's
not one God for the Gentiles and one God for the Jews. And because there's one God,
listen to this, there's only one means by which God saves
both Jew and Gentile. It says, He shall justify. The circumcision, how? By faith.
And the uncircumcision by faith. See? Same way. Same way. We're going to get to this. Abraham
is an example of this. Were the Jews in the Old Testament
saved any differently than we're saved? Because I'm telling you,
there's a whole group of people that are called dispensationalists.
They believe that in the Old Testament that the law has some
kind of special power that forgave sins. until Christ came and made
it all better or whatever. It's silly nonsense the way they
have to describe it. As though that animal sacrifice
had some real power. When the apostle tells us, in
Hebrews he tells us those offerings never took away sin. And yet
they still believe that somehow the Jews were saved differently.
No. They were saved by grace through
faith in Christ. That's how they were saved. So
how are we saved after Christ has come? Same way, same way. And then the last objection was
that do we make void the law by this doctrine? Because this
is the point that many are going to come, many have been angry
at me about and still are concerning this matter of the law. Do we
make void the law? Is that what you're doing? You're
saying the law, preacher, when you're telling me this, if you're
justified by faith without the deeds of the law, then you're
telling me the law is useless. No, that's not what I'm telling
you at all. The law is useful. Listen, when it's used lawfully,
when you use it as it is God-determined to be used, I'm telling you this, the law
does have power. Law has power. And has power
over anyone who's under it. What does the scripture say?
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do them. Does anybody want to be under
the law? Because the law has power. Has
power to curse you. Has power to damn you. That's
all it has power to do. It can't help you. When the law
says thou shalt not lie, does that help you not lie? Does that
give you any power not to lie? Any strength not to lie? Any
ability at all? No. It just tells you don't lie
or be damned. That's all it says. And you know
what? We lie. So if you want to be
under the law, the law can only do one thing for you, curse you.
So yeah, the law has power. I don't make void of the law.
The law's good. There's nothing wrong with the
law. Paul says that we were weak through the flesh. There's the
problem. We're the problem, not the law.
The law is good. But the law cannot forgive you.
The law cannot justify you. But it can point you to someone
who has. When I look at the law, I see
Christ. I see that Christ fulfilled that
law. He established that law as my
representative. And here's the greatness of that
gospel of justification by faith, is this, that all that Jesus
did, all he did, all of his obedience, all of his suffering in the flesh,
all of his crucifixion and death and suffering under the justice
of God, everything he did to satisfy that law is now imputed
to me. It's mine. His righteousness is my
righteousness. His offering is my offering. It's imputed to everyone who
believes. Therefore, only those who are
justified by faith without the deeds of the law, only we have
established the law. Without ever honoring it ourselves.
It's astounding. I've never honored that law myself.
Have you? Not in the least. And yet, in the eyes of God,
through my representative, that righteousness of His is really
mine. It's mine. And so what does the Apostle
say? Look at Romans 8. Look at this. I'm going to skip
ahead here a little bit. And so what does Paul say to those
who are justified by faith? There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
who walk not after the flesh, who are not trying to be justified
by the flesh. I'm not trying to be justified by the flesh,
but walk after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus did what? Made me free from the law of
sin and death. For what the law could not do, and is weak through
the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin condemns sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled, where? In us. Who? What? Walk not out to the
flesh. Those who don't try to seek to
be justified by the law. I don't try to seek to be justified
by the law. I seek to be justified by the righteousness of Christ. And so now, look back at your
text now. That's justification by faith. That's been laid out
clearly. Now then, look at what Paul says.
He's going to use Abraham here as an example, an illustration
of this justification by faith. You're going to see he's giving
form to a doctrine. He just gave you the doctrine.
Now he's going to give you somebody to look at and say, look, this
is how it's done. This is how it's done. He's going
to use Abraham as an illustration because he's got more objections
coming. He still has more objections
from the Jews regarding circumcision and its place in salvation. And so he uses Abraham. Why?
Abraham is the most honored man in Jewish history. He is the most honored man. To
tell you the truth, he is the most honored man in Muslim history.
And among Christians, we read in this chapter that he is the
father of us all. He is the most honorable man
that we all can look to. No matter where you come from,
Abraham is an honorable man. So he uses him. So he illustrates
by Abraham how a sinner is justified without the law. Now here the
apostle uses Abraham to stem another possible objection regarding
circumcision. Yeah, Paul, we know this. You're
going to use Abraham. And Abraham was before the law,
right? And he's going to get to that.
He was 430 years before the law. This justification was given
to Abraham. But wait a second. Wasn't Abraham
circumcised? Yeah. Well, does that have anything
to do with his justification? Circumcision is a part of the
law, but it was also before the law of Moses. And Abraham was
circumcised, so is it not reasonable to assume, Paul, that Abraham's
circumcision has something to do with his justification? Look at the text. What shall
we say then that Abraham, our father, is pertaining to the
flesh, hath found." What does he mean pertaining to the flesh?
Talking about circumcision. He's going to deal with it. What did
he find? What part of his circumcision,
what benefit did his circumcision have to his justification? Now circumcision was a token
given to Abraham of a covenant, a sign of God's promises. I'm going to read this to you
in Genesis 17 and verse 13. He said this, My covenant shall
be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised
man in your house, his soul shall be cut off from his people for
he hath broken my covenant. You see? So they're going to
say, ah, see Paul? See, God made a covenant with
Abraham and his justification was dependent upon his circumcision. And not only that, but consider
Abraham's faithfulness. Can you find a more faithful
man than Abraham in Scripture? Abraham was a faithful man, wasn't
he? God said, Leave your home and your family and your country.
Now there's a desert over there, and I want you to just march
straight out there. Where? Just go. I'm not even going to
tell you which direction, just go that way. And he just starts
walking. packs up all of his things and
just leaves according to the covenant promise of God. I'm telling you what, I've got
believers living in other states who have the written promises
of God and they won't leave their homes or families to attend a
worship service. Yet look at Abraham, he left
with not so much as a building, just one promise. Consider Abraham's
offering of his own son. What a faith that is. God says, in that boy is going
to come the Christ. And Abraham believed that. Then
one day God seemed to contradict himself and he said, take your
son and go kill him. You know what Abraham did? Without
hesitation, he went to kill his son. Why? He believed God would raise him
from the dead. He said, it's going to be alright. I'm going
to cut his throat, but as soon as I do, God's going to raise
him from the dead. Anybody got faith like that? Now let me ask you this. What
did his obedience have to do with his justification? What did his circumcision and
his faithfulness have to do with his justification? Look, he says
this in verse 2, For if Abraham were justified by works, he have
whereof the glory. Isn't that right? I just named
all those things. He's got me beat. How about you? Yeah. Well, if anybody's got room to
boast, Abraham does. Abraham does. But notice this. Not before God. Not before God. All those things didn't mount
to a hill of beans before God. What does circumcision have to
do with his justification? What is his obedience? Nothing.
Nothing. And we don't even have to speculate
about this. See, I'm not speculating that his works had nothing to
do with his justification. The apostle will not allow any
speculation and neither should we. Look at verse 3. What are
the first words here? Where does he go to prove this? He says, for what saith the scripture? Isn't that all that really matters? I don't have to be an opinion.
This is not an opinionated group session we're having, is it?
I'm just telling you, thus saith the scripture, thus saith the
word of God. God said this, listen, Abraham
believed God. And what? What's the result?
It was counted unto him for righteousness. It was imputed unto him for righteousness. Now, I need to clarify something
about this statement because this is, it may be clear to you,
but there are massive amounts of people who really believe
this and, to tell you the truth, as I read through many commentaries
on it, I couldn't believe that actually people believe it, but
it is. It's so. First of all, I want to give
you this negative statement. This does not mean his faith
was instead of righteousness. or in lieu of righteousness, or substituted for righteousness. Listen to me. Faith is not righteousness. Is your faith righteous? No. Faith is the means by which we
receive what? Righteousness. But faith itself
is not in lieu of or instead of righteousness. It is not counted
as righteousness. Yet there are many people who
believe this and will refer, then they will refer you back
to the yoke of the law because they don't believe that you have
any righteousness in you at all. You that believe. There are many
that believe that this, your faith is just accredited to you
as righteousness. And then someday when you die,
you'll receive that righteousness. That's not what the scripture
here says. The text, as well as many other
scriptures, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him
for righteousness. Why? Because he was really righteous. Now, I want you to understand
this. God doesn't work on a line of credit. We give a credit card
to people, and they take it, and they swipe it. What do we
really give them? Nothing. We didn't really give
them anything. It's not real money. It's real.
It's in the air. It's ethereal. We might be able
to give it to them later. It's credit. It's not what it
means to be imputed. It's not it. God cannot charge someone with
righteousness who does not have it. Can't do it. Won't do it. Won't do it. Why? That's unrighteous, isn't
it? To charge someone with righteousness who don't have it. God can't do that. He's just.
Let me put it this way. If you had a murderer and you
went around saying, man, that guy's a good guy. Someday he's
going to be a real good guy. He's going to be a great guy.
You charge him with something he don't have. He's not righteous. God doesn't do it that way. So
faith is the means by which we receive righteousness of God
and by which we are justified before God. The best translation,
look at this again. It says Abraham believed God
and it was counted to him unto righteousness, not for righteousness.
His faith wasn't counted for righteousness, but what? Unto
righteousness. Now where do I get that from?
Well that same word is translated in many other places and I don't
have time to go through every one of them, but simply if you
go to Romans chapter 10 and he says this, For with the heart man believeth,
what, for righteousness? No, unto righteousness. So faith
itself is not our righteousness, but by faith we see our need
of righteousness, By faith we see that Jesus Christ provides
righteousness, and by faith alone we receive that righteousness
as God has imparted that righteousness to us. This is what the new birth is
about. When you believe, when you believe, faith comes from
where? It comes from the new birth,
doesn't it? God creates in us a new nature. a holy nature,
a righteous nature. And this is how it is received.
It is received by faith. Can you see it? Can you see that
righteous nature? I know, Joanne, you walk around
all day long just basking in the glow of your righteous nature.
And your children, I know that they see it. No, we don't see
it. How do we see it? We see it by
faith because God declares it. That Abraham believed God unto
righteousness. For with the heart man believeth
unto what? Righteousness. And so therefore
God charges us with righteousness. Why? Because He's made us righteous. He's made us righteous. This is what we call imparted
righteousness. I know, go to 1 John, and you're
going to see this in yourself, you that believe. You don't see
righteousness. You don't see it. The only way
you can see it is by believing what God testifies of it. What
do we see? We see sin. That's the first
thing John deals with, isn't it? He said, if we say we have
no sin, what? We deceive ourselves, 1 John
1 and verse 8, if we say we have no sin. You say you have no sin. Anybody, any believer ever said
that? Not any true believer. We say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. But what
do we do if we confess our sins? He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. Now look at chapter three. Look
at verse nine. Whosoever is born of God, what? Doth not commit sin. Now how can those two things
be true? They are. Both are absolutely
true. He's talking about two distinct
natures. That which is born of God, what
is that? That's the new nature. That's
the new man that Paul says is created after God in true holiness. This is the imputed righteousness
we're talking about is in the new man. And so as by faith,
faith is the evidence that new man exists. It's not his moral
character or his conduct, although he desires to have every bit
of righteousness. He desires to do only righteous,
but he's hindered. Why? Because the old man has
not changed. The old man of sin still resides
in us and therefore you have a conflict within yourself. You
that are justified by faith, you have now the righteousness
of God and yet what? You still have the old man of
sin constantly warring with one another. You know who doesn't
have a warfare? Somebody who only has one nature. God's people have a constant
warfare because of this. And so just like Abraham, when
Abraham believed God, guess what? He was righteous. When you believe
God, guess what? You're righteous. You're righteous. God's not charging you with something
you don't have. He's imputing it to you because
he's imparted it to you. It's yours. It's in us. And so the point is, faith is
not righteousness, but righteousness is fulfilling the law, Christ
has fulfilled it, and by faith we receive it. Yet still some persist to speak
of Abraham's faith in such a way as to merit it by work. Look back at your text. Look
back at your text here. In other words, They're going
to try to make Abraham's faith a work. They're going to try to make
Abraham say, well, didn't Abraham believe? Well, yes, he did. Well,
doesn't his faith count toward that righteousness? No. No. Look what Paul says here. He says, now to him that worketh
is the reward reckoned, not reckoned of grace, but what? Isn't that
true? Work and reward is always debt. Some will hold that Abraham's
faith was taken by God to be part of his holiness. But behold
the glory and greatness and power of God's grace in the salvation
of a sinner, that by faith we were what? Unholy. Isn't that
right? We were unholy, unrighteous,
unworthy of the least of God's mercies. But God having chosen
us, Christ having obtained our holiness, the Spirit now appointed
and giving us this holiness, that the righteousness is now
imputed to us, because he has given us it in the new nature,
so then is my faith a work? Is faith a work? Is righteousness that's now mine
dependent upon my faith? You say, well, preacher, he commanded
you to believe, and you believe, right? Yeah. He said come, and
you come, right? Yep. Well, shouldn't your faith
count for something? No. You know why? Because if it did, then God was
indebted to me. You understand how that works?
You work for somebody, they are what? Indebted to pay you. And
so if my faith counts as a work, guess what? God saved me out
of debt and not grace. Paul sets forth here the distinction
between works and grace. If I receive the righteousness
of God based on the slightest work, the smallest act of the
flesh, then it is not of grace, and men should stop calling it
grace. If you believe in free will, works, religion, you do
not believe in salvation by grace. Stop saying you do. They need
to stop saying it. It's not true. Why? Because they believe in some
measure of volition, of will, indebts God, makes God indebted
to them to save them. Well, I exercise my will, now
what? God has to save me. That's not
grace, Paul says. That's works. It's works. Then you stop calling it salvation
by grace. They believe in salvation by
debt. But what does Paul say about justification by faith?
He says, but to him that worketh not. Oh, that's good. He spent three chapters telling
you you can't work for it, can't earn it. Three chapters telling
you you can't earn it. I need a salvation for somebody
that doesn't work. Now, to him that worketh not. But what? Believeth. So is faith
a work? He just said work and not, and
believe it, they're not compatible. Faith is not a work. But believeth
on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is imputed unto righteousness. Do you believe on him that is the just and justifier
of the ungodly without works, then you believe salvation is
by grace. You believe salvation is totally by the grace of God. We confess that all my salvation
is in Christ, and I have received him by faith and that by the
power and grace of God. So then do we go from not working
back to working? No, because then you put it back
into the other camp. It's not of grace, but of death. Do we go back under the law after
we've been justified by faith? Go to Galatians 3 real fast,
and then I'm going to close. I had this other. I'll just,
Lord willing, I'll get to this on Sunday. Look at Great Galatians
3. Remember when we went over this? These Galatians thought
that one work, circumcision, one work, that's all they wanted.
That's all they wanted to add, one work. He said, foolish Galatians,
who have bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before
whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified
among you? This only would I learn of you.
Received you the spirit by the works of the law, by the hearing
of faith. How did you receive the spirit? How did it come?
Did it come by works, your merit, or did it come by grace? By the hearing of faith. Are
you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, you are now made
perfect by the flesh? Man, does this not destroy every
bit of progressive sanctification? Just a simple verse, it's not
a very difficult verse to understand. They believe that you begin in
the spirit and that you're made perfect by your obedience. Are
you so foolish that you would not obey the truth? Have you
begun in the spirit and are made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things
in vain if it yet be in vain? In other words, If you believe
that, if you continue in that, then all of that you suffered
is nothing but vanity. Your faith was nothing but a
lie. Go back to your text, and we'll
read the benefits to you, and you see these benefits. If you've
been justified by grace through faith, if you've been justified,
you've been made righteous, You're acceptable before God. And listen,
nothing changes this. Nothing's going to change this.
If you are righteous now, you'll be righteous forever. Why? Because it wasn't done by you.
It wasn't earned by you. It wasn't merited by you. And
it's not going to be kept by you. Listen to the benefits. Verse 6, Even David also describeth
the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without what? Without works. And what does
David say? Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered. You who are justified by faith
are blessed people. I don't feel blessed. I don't
matter. I tell you what, today I have
not felt blessed all day long. I felt the opposite of being
blessed. Does that have anything to do
with this? No, not really. My feelings about
the subject don't have anything to do with it at all. I'm blessed
because my sins are forgiven. How many of them? All of them. All of them are forgiven. All of my iniquities are covered.
I'm covered in the righteousness of Christ. I'm covered in the
righteousness of Christ. When God sees me, he only sees
me through his son. That's it. He sees me as he sees
his son. I'm covered. You know, you know,
Noah was covered, wasn't he covered in the ark? He was covered. So no matter where he went in
that ark, he was covered. No matter where I go in the world,
I'm covered. God has blotted out our sins
as a thick cloud. Notice this. Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord... Look at these words. The Lord
will not impute sin. Isn't this a grace of all graces? that I who am really guilty of
sin, that He will not charge me with sin. You know why? Paid
for. God didn't overlook my sin. God
paid for it. And God says this, I will not
charge him with sin. Why? Because I paid for it. I'm not skating into heaven
by the skin of my teeth. going there in the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ. And all my sins are washed. All
my sins are covered. Listen, without works. I don't understand why people
want to try to put their works to it. Do you want to put your
works to that? Now listen, I desire to do things that are right,
that are good. I desire to serve God, don't you? Doesn't that
make you want to serve God? Want to honor God? Want to do
good? Of course it does. That's the
motive of good works. But I'm not one to take any one
of those good works and put it on top of this. A lot of times I want to hide my
works. Though they might be good to others, I tell you what, they
are still mixed with sin and the best of them. Paul said,
I count them but dumb. That's all my good things. That
I might win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. But the righteousness, which
is what? By the faith of Jesus Christ. That's the righteousness
I want. Well, guess what? That's the righteousness you
have. If you believe on Him, that's the righteousness you
have. Do you have it? Do you believe? Then you have it. It's the same
thing in Abraham. You have the same righteousness
Abraham got. The same way Abraham got it. By grace, through faith. I pray God will bless us to stand
and be dismissed. Chuck, would you dismiss us in
prayer, please?