All right, let's read verses
18 through the end of the chapter. Against all hope, Abraham in
hope believed, and so became the father of many nations, just
as had been said to him, so shall your offspring be. Without weakening
in his faith, He faced the fact that his body was as good as
dead since he was about 100 years old, and that Sarah's womb was
also dead. Yet he did not waver through
unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened
in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that
God had power to do what he had promised. This is why it was
credited to him as righteousness. The words it was credited to
him were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom
God will credit righteousness, for us who believe in him, who
raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to
death for our sins and was raised to life. for our justification. Now, faith has at all times been
the way to God. In fact, the first sin ever committed
by human beings was born out of unbelief. If Abraham, not
Abraham, Adam, If he had fully believed what God had told him,
he would not have done what he did. So, right relationship with
God has always been through faith. Now, in verse 21 here, we have
a good definition of faith. Speaking of Abraham, it said
he was fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. Now, we all make promises and
we've all had promises made to us. And all of us have at one
time or another failed to deliver on our promise. And we've had
people fail to deliver on their promise to us. Sometimes it's
because they're just dishonest and sometimes it's because we
were dishonest. Sometimes it's because we lacked wisdom and
we over-promised. And it turned out we simply didn't
have the power to do what we said or what we promised we would
do. But see, that's not a problem with God. He's wise, he would
never over-promise, but not only that, he can't over-promise.
For there's nothing too hard for the Lord. There's nothing
beyond his reach. There is nothing which would
prove too difficult for him. Whatever he has promised, he
has the power to do. And we can also add this. I mean,
we're not adding it to the scriptures. The scriptures say it in other
places, though it doesn't mention it right here. Not only does
he have the power to do everything he promised, he has the integrity,
the character to do everything he said he would do. You know,
that's why unbelief is such a horrible sin. Unbelief calls God either
weak or untrustworthy. John said in the book of 1 John
that those who do not believe make God to be a liar. And that's
true. If you don't believe someone,
you're saying they're a liar. Now, faith is the avenue of justification. In verse three, we read this. What does the scripture say?
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, justification. and this statement, crediting
righteousness. They mean the same thing. In
another place, Paul uses those phrases interchangeably. So when
it says that Abraham, or that God credited righteousness to
him, it was saying that God justified Abraham. Abraham believed God,
so God justified him. Now this business of justification,
is at the very core of right relationship with God. In fact,
it could be kind of defined that way. The word actually means
to declare someone righteous or to render a verdict of not
guilty. Now justification occupies a
great deal of what the Bible has to say about the gospel and
there's a simple reason for this justification is the answer to
our essential problem which is guilt. Now if a person is accused
of a crime and he comes to the court and he can plead whatever
he wants but his plea won't mean anything he can say not guilty but they're
going to bring forth the evidence And in our system of justice,
a jury decides whether he's guilty or not. And so at the end of
the trial, they render a verdict, guilty or not guilty. Now we know this, that if we
were to stand in judgment, and our conduct and our character
were taken into account on judgment, what would the verdict be? Well,
there can only be one verdict for people like us, and that's
guilty, because we are all guilty of sin. We are guilty of sin
regularly, often, and I would say, in a very real sense, we're
guilty of sin continually. Why is that? Well, because we're
not perfect and anything less than perfect is sin. As the law
says to be accepted, it must be perfect. Cursed is everyone
who does not continue in every point of the law to do it. And so none of us could stand
trial based upon what we have done and come away with a verdict
of not guilty. But God, who is the judge of
all, He is the judge, the jury, the executioner. He is everything
in the system of eternal justice. And He has devised a way in which
He can justify the wicked. He can declare to be not guilty
those who actually are guilty, and yet he is not lying when
he does it. And that is the key to understanding
the gospel. So many people think that the
gospel is a plan. I was watching a series about
a famous preacher in They talk about God's plan of salvation. Well, it's certainly God planned
salvation. He planned every bit of it. But
it's not a plan of salvation like they often use the word.
Here's the plan, you follow it. No, it's a plan that God performed. Now in this, in order for him
to bless us, to give us the blessings of the righteous, we must be
declared righteous. How's this gonna be? Well, it
says that it's through faith. There's only one way to be justified
in God's sight, and that's to be perfectly righteous. God says,
I will not clear the guilty. And that has the same meaning
as, I will not justify the guilty. So if we are going to be justified
by God, that is, if we're going to have God say of us, not guilty,
then there's going to have to be some way that we become not
guilty, because God does not lie. Here's one way. From the moment you are conceived
in your mother's womb until the day you die, you obey God's law
with absolute perfection, both in its precept and in the spiritual
principles that are behind the law. Any takers on that one? Anybody here been perfect since
the moment you were conceived in your mother's womb? Anybody
here been perfect since you got here this morning? Has anybody here been perfect
in the last five seconds? I don't think any of us are gonna
be justified on the basis of what we have done, are we? Just
can't happen. God is just. He can't look at
us. He can't look directly at us
and say, not guilty. But there's another way to be
declared righteous, and that's to believe God. Look here in
verse five. However, to the man who does
not work but trusts God, who justifies the wicked, his faith
is credited as righteousness. Now, there are many who claim
to be Christians, and we would probably agree with them on many
points of doctrine that they hold to. What you'd find, though, is sometimes
they mean something different, even though they're using the
same words. But what you find is, is they kind of believe,
okay, you do the best you can, and then trust God to make up
the difference. Work and do as well as you can,
and trust God for the rest. What does this scripture say?
but to him who does not work but trusts." You see, this business of salvation,
it's going to be all you or all God. It's going to be all by
what you do, or it's going to be all by what God has done. This business of the gospel,
it's a solo. God sings no duets, no trios. And certainly, he doesn't just
take a seat in the choir. He's not even just the conductor.
He's the whole thing. And so, if you want to have your
works to play any part whatsoever in whether or not you are justified,
then this is what God will say to you. Okay, have it your way. The whole burden is yours. But to him who does not work, we're taught in our youth never
to quit. And that's good. I mean, that's
something you should teach your children as they're being raised.
When they try to do something, keep at it. Maybe you didn't do so good on
this math test, but don't quit math altogether. Keep working
at it, learn it, or in sports, don't quit, or in a job that
needs to be done, don't quit, don't quit. But when it comes
to the gospel, here's the first thing to do, quit. Quit, stop
trying, give up. The first reason. that most people
will be lost is their refusal to give up. Because it's a real
kick in our pride to have to give up. We try and we try and we try. And it doesn't matter how often
we fail, we keep trying because we don't want to admit, I can't
do this. But faith begins with this. It
begins with quitting. It begins with giving up, throwing
your hands up and saying, I can't do it. I can't be righteous.
I can't certainly not righteous all my life. I can't be righteous
for a minute. I can't do one thing which I can present to
God and say, judge me on this one thing alone. And then God
would say, you're a righteous man. who does not work but believes
God, trusts God. He trusts the God who justifies
the wicked. Now, I said God at one point said
he wouldn't justify the guilty, which is like saying he wouldn't
justify the wicked, and then here it says he does justify
the wicked. But He justifies those who are
wicked by virtue of their own works. But He can justify them
because He justifies them not on the basis of their work, but
on the basis of the works of the one in whom they trust. So, it's going to be one or the
other, the righteousness of the law, or the righteousness of
faith, the righteousness of your own hands or the righteousness
of God's right hand, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the superiority,
let's look at the superiority of the righteousness of faith
over the righteousness of the works of the law. The righteousness
of faith glorifies God. says, and you can turn over if
you want there, 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1, this is a newish Bible and it's
hard to make individual pages turn. Verse 28, 1 Corinthians 1, God
chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things
and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so
that no one may boast before him. So when God was laying out
his plan of salvation, whom did he choose to save? Did he choose
to save those who are glorified in this world, those who are
intelligent or wealthy or influential or outwardly righteous? No, it
says he chose the nobodies. He chose the failures. As one
preacher put it, he said, it's an insult to be the elect of
God because he chose losers. And why did he choose losers?
Because winners are proud. Winners glorify themselves, and
God is not going to have anyone glorifying himself in the presence
of God. You know, everybody that God
saves knows this. He can't take any credit for
it happening. In the religion I was raised in, people thought
that God did everything equally for everybody. And now it's just
up to each person whether or not they're going to believe.
Because they think faith is something natural. Faith is not natural. Faith is the gift of God. And
everyone who truly believes God, he knows he can't even take credit
for his faith. Yes, he believed. I believe the
gospel. Most of you here say you believe
the gospel, and that's right. No problem with saying you believe
it. Why do you believe it? Because God worked in you to
believe it, and for no other reason than that. It wasn't because
you were wiser than your neighbor who didn't believe it. It's not
because you were more virtuous than your neighbor who didn't
believe it. It's not because you were raised in a Christian
home as opposed to someone else who wasn't raised in a Christian
home. It was because God in sovereign grace and mercy gave you spiritual
life and from that spiritual life you believed. So even though
it says we're justified by faith, it's not as though we can take
credit for the faith that we have. We can't glorify ourselves for
anything. You know, works-based righteousness
glorifies man. If a man works, has a job, he
puts in his 40 hours, and at the end of the week, boss hands
him a check, that guy, the worker, he can take credit for that,
can't he? If he did the work he was told
to do, when he gets paid, he can say, I earned that. The boss
isn't doing him any favors by paying him. And when a man works in order
to gain the blessings of God, he's looking for wages, not a
gift. And if God were to give him blessings
based on his works, then that man would thump his chest in
the presence of God. Look at me. I won heaven. God's not going to allow that. The righteousness of faith glorifies
God in every aspect. The righteousness of faith is
better than the righteousness of works because it's a righteousness
that's already been produced. The righteousness of works speaks
of a righteousness I still have to perform for as long as I'm
alive. Now, I've already failed. So
there's already no hope, but you know, even if, theoretically
speaking, even if up to this point I had been righteous, I've still got some time left.
And I've got to keep being righteous. God cannot render a verdict regarding
me until my life is over. If I'm going to try to be justified
by my own works. But the righteousness of faith
is a righteousness that has already been performed by the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's his entire life and death
put together. It is a righteousness not that
we produce, it's a righteousness we simply receive as a gift.
And that righteousness, it's already done. That would be one of those things
included when Jesus Christ said it is finished. It's done. I have done everything necessary
to bring in an everlasting righteousness. In the book of Daniel it makes
a prophecy of Messiah who was to come. And it says after a
certain time that he would come and he'd make an end of sin and
an end of transgression and he would bring in and everlasting
righteousness. I like something that's already
complete. I get a kick out of these jokes
that people put up on the internet, making fun of that
company, IKEA. You can buy furniture from them
and you got to assemble it when you get it. And I suppose that
means a lot of people have gotten furniture they wouldn't have
because it's not quite so expensive. But it's sure nice to have one
that's already been put together, already been assembled. This
righteousness, it's already been assembled. It's not a kit. It doesn't come in a box and
say on the outside, these tools required. It's finished, complete,
and flawless. The righteousness of faith is
better because it's already been tried and proven. If I'm going
to be justified by my own works, I still have to face judgment.
But the righteousness of faith has already been judged and accepted.
Say, what do you mean by that? Well, Jesus Christ lived the
life we should have lived, and he died the death that we will
die apart from him. And then God raised him from
the dead. Now, what does that mean? That means that God saw
his life, God witnessed his death, and said, that's good enough.
That's good enough. It passes my judgment. That's why it is written in chapter
5, verse 1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ,
and then over in chapter 8, verse 1, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, why is that? It's because the righteousness
that they have is not one that they worked, it's one that Jesus
Christ worked, and God has already said, that's good enough. The righteousness of works calls
me to labor. The righteousness of faith calls
on me to rest. What does it say here? Going
back to verse five. However, to the man who does
not work, but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith
is credited unto righteousness. Does not work. Everybody likes
holidays. Everybody likes vacation. Why?
Don't have to work. I say everybody. There are some
people known as workaholics. It doesn't matter whether they're
on vacation. They're going to be doing something. But I enjoy time off. I enjoy
being free of the responsibility to perform duties and fulfill
obligations. When God made the law, or gave
the law, gave his law to the Israelites, one of the laws he
gave them was the law of the Sabbath day. Now the Sabbath day was a symbol. It's not a moral issue. It's
a symbol. One day out of seven, they were
permitted to not work. Now, man is so prone to work. I said he was permitted, he was
commanded to not work. And what amazes me is how many
people worked anyway. If the Lord were to say to me,
don't work tomorrow, I'd say, okay, I'm good with that. But
they saw, first of all, they didn't trust God that in six
days they would be able to work enough to take care of themselves.
or they were so covetous and consumed with a desire for money
they couldn't be satisfied with what six days would produce.
But God said rest. Now why did he tell the Jews
to rest? Because there's some moral aspect to a particular
day of the week? No. It was a symbol of one who
would come who would do all the work for us and therefore we
would be able to rest. Now, we don't observe a Sabbath
day. Now, Paul said if somebody wants to honor one day above
another, that's fine, they're allowed to do that. And if there's
a fellow that doesn't honor one day above another, that's fine
too. Let them dwell in peace, leave each other alone about
it. Well, what's that saying? That's saying it's obviously
not a moral thing. If it were a moral issue, he
wouldn't have said, you know, it doesn't matter which way you
do it. He wouldn't say that about murder. He wouldn't say, now
some people think it's okay to kill folks and there's some that
think that's not the right thing. Now they just need to get along
and not, no, murder's wrong always. But this Sabbath day thing was
for a time. It was given to the Jews to point
them to the one who would come and do all the labor for them
spiritually so they would no longer have to labor. But it's
not just to natural Jews, that is the biological descendants
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's to all those who are of
the seed of Abraham by faith. The book of Hebrews. talks about
the Sabbath in chapter four, I believe it is. And it says,
you know, God's rest, he said, some thought the rest would be
in the land, but then they didn't believe and they didn't enter
God's rest. And so the writer of Hebrews
says, so God's promised rest wasn't really that land. And
then he mentions the Sabbath day. And he said, that wasn't
the rest that God promised. Then he makes this statement,
therefore there remains a Sabbath rest to the people of God. Now
many have taken that to mean that this Sabbath day is a continuing
law, but that's not what the writer meant. He was saying the
land wasn't the promised rest, the day wasn't a promised rest,
so it must be something else. It must be that something else
remains, which is the Sabbath rest of the people of God. And
what is that? It's the rest of faith. It's
the rest of ceasing from your labors to try to earn God's blessings. I think it's a good idea for
people to take a day off every week. It's good for your health. You know what they say, all work
and no play makes Jack a dull boy. My dad was When I was in
college, he was working at a company that manufactured and repaired
mining equipment. And I guess they were falling
behind. And so they decided they're going to work seven days a week.
My dad was in middle management. And he said, I would be willing
to work seven days a week if there were eight days in a week.
But he says, I work to live. I don't live to work. And that
began the parting of the ways with that outfit. You can't work
all the time, but that's a health issue. Spiritually, spiritually,
we must rest from our own labors. Why? Because that's the only
way to acknowledge that all the labor has already been done. If you hire someone to build
your house, When they're completed, do you go in and start building
again? Now, if you're me, you might
try, but no, it's done. It's finished. And you honor
the builder by just walking in and living in there and not adding
to what he's done. Our Lord said, in my father's
house are many dwelling places. I go to prepare a place for you."
Now, if he's prepared a place for his people, what would it
be like for one of them to show up and say, well, you know, I
think it needs to be like this. I think it needs another room.
No, it's done. It's finished. And we rest. Let's look at Abraham as the
example of a believer. It says here in verse 20 that
he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God,
but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being
fully persuaded that God had power to do what he promised. Now let me make what I think
is the most important point in this message. Faith is concerned
with promises. Faith is concerned with promises. It's not concerned with decrees. It's not concerned with what
God has determined in his secret counsels that he will do. Faith
looks at the promises. and acts upon them. Now, why
do I make this point? Well, it's because of something
I never confronted till I came to this area, and that's the
idea that some people have that you can believe and still be
lost, or you can never be sure that you believed. Because after
all, it takes a work of God in the heart before you can believe,
and I don't know that He's done that work in my heart. God never, listen carefully because
this is true, God never teaches us to look within our hearts
to see if He has done a work of grace there. He teaches us
to look at the cross of Calvary and see that He did a work of
grace there. His promise is simple. His promise is plain. And he
doesn't tell us, try to fit the promise within the scope of my
sovereignty. No! God's sovereignty is God's
business. What God has decreed will come
to pass, but he never said, make sure that my decree comes to
pass. He made promises, and his promises were never directed
to people according to election or regeneration. That is, he
did not say, all the elect may come to me. He didn't say that. He didn't say, he who has been
born again is free to come to me. In fact, he didn't say that. We know that if a man is not
born again, he won't perceive the kingdom of God, he won't
enter it, but God never addressed the promises to those who have
been born again. Do you know who he addressed
the promises to? Sinners. Do you qualify? He made promises like our Lord
made in Matthew chapter 11, when he said, All you that are weary and burdened,
come to me and I will give you rest. Now, did he say anything
like, you know, all of you who were chosen by God, come to me
and I'll give you rest? No. He didn't say all of you
that have had a work of grace in your heart, come to me and
I'll give you rest. No, he said, are you weary? Are
you burdened? Has the labor of trying to earn
God's blessing just ground you down into the dust? Come to me. I will give you rest. Oh, that sounds like a good promise
to me, but I don't know if it's for me. Well, are you burdened? Are you tired of it? Are you
tired of trying to be good enough for God? Oh, the Lord has a promise
for you then. He says, come to me. I will give
you rest. And if you don't come to him,
you're saying one of two things. I'm not tired. I'm still strong. I'm doing good. I can handle
this burden. or you're saying he's a liar,
one or the other. People try to put virtuous names
on unbelief. There's no excuse for unbelief. There's no way to make it look
humble or virtuous or anything like that. It's just unbelief.
That's all it is. Say, well, I still don't know
if it's for me. Well, listen to this promise from God. It's
in the book of Isaiah. Look unto me, all you ends of
the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God, and there is no other. Now, the only question you gotta
ask in determining whether or not that promise applies to you
is this. Do you live on the earth? Well,
yeah. Okay, the promise is to you.
And no one has the authority to rob you of the promise. And I can say this, God has power
to do what he promised. He said, look to me and be saved. And he didn't say, look to me
and be saved because you've been convicted of your sins. He didn't
say, look to me and be saved because you're sad enough about
your sins or you felt your sins enough. He said, look to me and
be saved because I'm God. Do you believe He's God? Yeah,
there isn't any other. Do you live on the earth? Yeah.
Well, then look, turn to Him. That's the promise. Look to Him. Quit looking to yourself. Quit
trying for yourself. Quit working. Turn from self
and unto Him, and you will be saved. That's
not my theology, that's God's promise. And since everyone would agree
they live on the earth, the only reason that a person wouldn't
turn to the Lord, look to the Lord, is because they don't believe
they need to. I don't think I would be found
wrong in this. Everyone who does not believe,
you will find at the very root of their unbelief is self-righteousness. No matter how much they may try
to cover it up with humility, if you believe God, you'll come. And if you come, you will be
saved. If you believe Him, Despite all
the sin that you've done, despite the wickedness of your heart,
despite the dullness and foolishness of your heart and mind, despite
the wickedness of your ways, you come to Him. He will give
you rest. He will forgive your sins. He
will blot them out. He will cast them behind His
back. You will be justified in His sight. He will declare you
to be righteous, and He will give you all the blessings that
a righteous man deserves. You say, boy, that's too much
for me to believe. Well, I can understand that. It's certainly not natural. We
don't treat people that way, but God does. Peter preached this. He said in Acts chapter 13, through
him, that is through Jesus Christ, and through faith in him, we
are justified from all things we could never be justified from
in the law of Moses. He did not say through doing
the best we can and then trusting him for the rest. He just said
through him, through his person, through his work, through faith
in him, just laying the whole of our soul's salvation on him,
we are justified. From all those things we could
never be justified from in the law of Moses. Everything the
law of Moses condemns us for, the blood of Christ justifies
us from them. Now that's the promise of God.
So who will we believe? Will we believe God in his promise
or will we believe theologians who like to keep people under
bondage by twisting doctrines and applying them in ways that
they were never intended to be applied? Yes, God chose a people. Yes, Jesus Christ died for them.
Yes, the Holy Spirit calls them. Yes, it's true, no man can come
to the son except the father draws him. All of that is absolutely
true. But you don't have anything to do with that. You have to
do with the promise. He said, come to me. So why don't
you? Why don't you? Come to him today. Come to Him every day. Come to
Him always. For there's nowhere else to go. May God grant us an understanding
and a heart of faith to