Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program, I'm glad
you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching a continuing message that I've
been preaching through Romans chapter four, concerning a primer
of grace. And last week I began a message
entitled Grace and Faith, and I wanna continue that today.
This'll be part two of Grace and Faith, and it's in Romans
chapter four. And I was talking about Abraham
here as an example, Paul the Apostle, by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, he used Abraham as an example of how God saves
sinners by grace through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ freely imputed to him, freely accounted to him, which
by God's grace, he receives by God-given faith. And that's the
case of all true sinners saved by grace, all true believers. And he started here, he says
in verse five, or verse three rather, he's talking about what
saith the scripture concerning Abraham. He uses Abraham here
throughout chapter four. And then he goes to King David
too, we'll get to that. But he says, for what saith the
scripture, and it says in verse three, Abraham believed God,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness. And what I made
the point last week is that it does not refer to Abraham's believing
as if the act of believing is counted as righteous, his righteousness. You see, the righteousness that
is imputed to those who believe is the merits of the obedience
unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety, the substitute,
and the redeemer of God's people. The Bible does not teach that
I am made righteous by my believing. The Bible teaches that I'm made
righteous by the death of Christ, the obedience unto death of Christ,
and out of that I believe, that the believing is the fruit of
that. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And how do we know
that Christ put away my sins? How do I know that, that he died
for me? That he put away my sins, which
were imputed, charged, accounted to him, and that his righteousness
is imputed to me. How do I know that? God gives
the gift of faith to believe that connects us with Christ
spiritually in the new birth. We're born again, and as a result
of that, we believe. So he says, Abraham believed
God. Well, what did God promise Abraham? Well, if you go back to Genesis
chapter 12 and 13, all the way up through Abraham's life, you'll
see that God promised Abraham many things, made many promises. Some of those promises were physical
and pertained only to the nation of Israel, the physical nation,
and which come up through the old covenant and all of that.
They were physical promises, but there were spiritual promises
given to Abraham that pertain to spiritual Israel, which is
every sinner saved by grace, all who come to faith in Christ,
everyone, Gentile and Jew. And the Bible teaches that. I've
dealt with that many times. And so spiritual Israel, takes
part in the spiritual promises that were given to Abraham. And
the main spiritual promise that Paul is talking about here in
the context is justification before God. A right standing
with God. Salvation by grace conditioned
on Christ. And even Christ himself in John
chapter eight, he told the Pharisees when they invoked Abraham as
their father, which he told them, he said, well, he is your father
physically, but not spiritually, because you don't believe what
Abraham believed. And he says in John chapter eight, over in
the end of that chapter, he says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day
and he saw it and he was glad. So when it says in verse three,
Abraham believed God, he believed what God promised. And what did
God promise him? God promised him salvation by
grace through the righteousness of the coming Messiah, the promised
Messiah. That's what God promised him.
And that That righteousness that the Messiah would surely, without
fail, come in to this world and work out in his obedience unto
death, that righteousness was imputed to Abraham. You say,
well, how could it be imputed, accounted to him before Christ
actually came in and accomplished it? My friend, this is a promise
of God who cannot fail. It was so sure and certain. Listen. It was so sure and certain that
Christ would come in time and accomplish redemption for His
people as their surety, that God imputed the merit, the value
of what Christ would do on the cross to all the Old Testament
saints. And that's what Romans 3 and
verse 25 talks about when Christ whom God set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. And so that remission of sins
that are passed refers to the Old Testament saints. Abraham,
Paul's point to the Roman believers here, is that they were saved
by grace through the righteousness of Christ in whom they believe
by the gift of God, just like Abraham, just like Noah, just
like Abel, all of that. And so look back at Romans four. He says, verse four, now to him
that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Salvation is of grace. And it's through faith, and that
not of yourselves, lest any man should boast. And remember I
made the point last week, that faith involves first and foremost,
the body of truth, the knowledge, that's what the word faith means.
The knowledge that God gives in his word. And then faith involves
the work of faith which God gives to his people by which they believe
and trust. And throw themselves completely
in the bosom of Christ for all salvation. That's what it is. And you cannot separate the two.
Sometimes the emphasis is on the body of truth. Sometimes
the emphasis is on the gift of faith whereby we believe. But
you can never separate those two truths. That's what faith
is. The Bible says, examine yourselves,
whether you be in the faith. Am I believing what God tells
me to believe? Well, Abraham believed God. I
quote Romans 1, 16 and 17 all the time. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That's a message, you see. Good
news. I'm not ashamed of the good news
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believe it. To the Jew first, the Greek also.
Verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. From faith is knowledge revealed,
truth revealed. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. To faith is knowledge believed
by the power of the Spirit in Christ. From faith to faith,
as it is written, the just or the justified, those who are
justified, they live by faith. They live by looking to Christ.
He is their righteousness. Their believing is not their
righteousness. Our believing is not yet perfect.
The Bible says that even the disciples, they said, Lord, we
believe, help thou our unbelief. We still have to wrestle with
doubts and fears and misgivings. But God keeps us through the
gift of faith. He keeps us persevering. And
that faith is not our righteousness, Christ is. And that's what Abraham
believed. And that's what was counted unto
him for righteousness, it. What's the it? The imputed righteousness
of Christ. And so he says in verse four,
now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned or imputed
of grace, but of debt. If you're working for it, you're
not believing salvation by grace. If it's conditioned on you, you're
not believing salvation by grace. Verse five, but to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith
is counted for righteousness. Well, what was his faith? It's Christ. It's the knowledge
that God gave concerning Christ, who Christ is in the glory of
His person, and in the power of His finished work, as God
manifests in the flesh, going to the cross as my surety, my
substitute, my redeemer, and working out, paying the debt
full of all my sins. Jesus paid it all, we sing. and
bringing forth a perfect righteousness whereby God is just to justify
sinners like me. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. You see, that's what it is. It's
not our believing. Our believing is necessary because
that's the means by which God connects us with Christ spiritually. That's the means by which we
lay hold of him. Believe in Him, trust Him, rest
in Him, follow Him, you see. That's the fruit of grace, or
by grace, you say, through faith. All right, now the next thing
that Paul does in this issue, and this again shows us the reality
of grace and faith. This is the primer of grace now.
These are the first principles. He goes to a man named David,
King David. And most of chapter four is taken
up with Abraham. But he interjects King David
here, and he says, now he's talking about Abraham justifying the,
God justifies the ungodly. You see, he doesn't justify those
who are godly, he justifies the ungodly, and he makes them godly. But it says in verse six, even
as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, now listen
to this, under whom God imputeth what? Righteousness without works. David described the blessedness
of the man under whom God accounts, reckons, charges righteousness
without works. Now what is God imputing here?
What is He charging here? What is He reckoning here? Not
faith, righteousness. And so when it talks about that
Abraham's faith is counted for righteousness, it's talking about
the knowledge, the body of truth that is revealed in the gospel
of God's salvation by grace through the blood and the righteousness
of Christ. You say, well, that sounds so
complicated. Well, it may. It may sound complicated to you,
but I'll tell you why it's complicated to you. I know why, because it
was complicated to me at one time. It's because I've been
taught wrong all my life. And I don't want to offend you.
I don't want to make you angry. I don't want to turn you off.
But I'll tell you something now, false Christianity is rampant
in this country, in this world. Satan is sowing his tears. And
one of the most subtle heresies that he has come across with
is that salvation is conditioned on you and your believing, your
faith. And you do that out of your own
goodness or your own free will. That's Satan's lie. And therefore
we have a skewed view of faith and grace when we come to the
scripture. And that's what we've been taught all of our lives.
That's what we've heard all of our lives. until somebody comes
along and puts it in its right place to the glory of God. And my friend, you know what
most people believe in today? They claim to believe in Christ,
but what they really believe in is themselves. They don't
have really faith in Christ, they have faith in their faith.
For example, we've been taught all of our lives that Christ
died for everybody without exception, even for those who perish in
hell or in damnation. So who makes the difference between
saved and lost? Well, they tell us we do. That's
not what the Bible teaches. Bible teaches that all whom Christ
died for shall be saved. Christ said it. And so he said
he laid down his life for his sheep. His sheep will hear his
voice. They'll come, they'll follow
him. They won't follow another. And he said, no one shall pluck
them out of my father's hand. All of this. He laid down his
life for his sheep. And what did he do for them?
He put away their sins by his blood, and he established righteousness
that God has imputed to them. Well, go back to Romans four,
verse six. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness, and what blessedness it is, the blessedness of grace,
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Now, when did David say that?
Well, Paul is referring back to Psalm 32. You can look at Psalm 32, the
first two verses of that Psalm is what Paul is quoting here.
Verse seven of Romans four. Saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered, verse
eight, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin. Now, if you go back to Psalm
32, which is a beautiful Psalm, and it's a prophecy of Christ.
Back in Psalm 32, David made this statement, or by the power
of the Holy Spirit, David wrote this Psalm. And it says in Psalm
32 verse one, it says, blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Now what he's saying here is the blessed man is the
one whose transgression is forgiven. Now how does God forgive sins?
Well, he doesn't just ignore them. He doesn't just say, well,
let's forget it. A lot of people, they kind of
have the idea that God is so loving and merciful and compassionate.
He just says, well, you all made some mistakes. Let's just forget
it. But that's not the case. God is a just God. And he must
punish sin. He's a just God. He's a holy
God. He must act in strict justice. Yes, he's a merciful God, but
mercy without justice is not the mercy of God. Yes, he's a
loving God, but love without justice is not the love of God.
He's a gracious God. He delights to show mercy. He's a God of grace, but grace
without justice, that's not the grace of God. Grace reigns through
righteousness, justice satisfied. And so how does he do that? He
says, well, blessed, Psalm 32, blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Now the covering there doesn't
mean that he covers over sin to hide it from view. It's not
a covering to hide. The covering is a reference back
to the sacrifices of the blood of animals which typified the
blood of Christ. And so they're covered with the
blood of Christ, not covered over, but covered in such a way
that justice is satisfied by the death of a substitute, and
that's Christ. So he says, blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, verse two of
Psalm 32. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. The one whom the Lord imputes not iniquity is one of
his chosen people who are justified and it's evidenced by in whose
spirit there is no guile. What that means is as a result
of the imputation of righteousness to them, they're born again and
brought to faith in Christ and they're brought to be honest
before God about their sinfulness. Like that old publican in Luke
18, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Remember the parable
of the Pharisee and the publican in Luke 18? The Pharisee boasted
in what he thought God enabled him to do. Well, he was full
of guile. Because my friend, nothing, now
let me tell you something. When we're born again by the
Spirit, God enables us to do some amazing, marvelous, miraculous
things. The most of which is believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. But what the Holy Spirit does
in me is not my righteousness before God. You see that? And so when that Pharisee stood
up and said, I thank God I'm not like other men. I do this,
I do that, I don't do this, I don't do that. He's full of guile,
dishonesty, hypocrisy. But here's an old publican who
just beats on his breast and says, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. That's one in whose heart, in
whose spirit there's no God. He knows what he is. I know that
if God were to judge me today based upon my best efforts to
obey the law, I'd be damned forever. I have no hope of salvation but
the blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. And that's what David
meant. Now if you go back to Romans
four, verse six, seven and eight here, As he said in verse six,
even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works. If you go back
to that Psalm 32 passage, you won't find these exact words
there. David didn't use the word righteousness,
that is commonly used in the Old Testament for justice and
justification and justify. In those two verses that Paul
quotes, David didn't use that word. So what's going on here? The Holy Spirit is, through the
Apostle Paul, is giving us a commentary on those two verses back in Psalm
32, showing us what David meant by that. So he's simply telling,
he said, when David said, blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. What did David mean by that?
He meant the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. Now here's a biblical concept.
If you're going to understand grace and faith, Grace reigns
through righteousness, the Bible tells us. No righteousness, no
grace. No blood, the blood of Christ,
no righteousness. No righteousness, no life, no
new birth, no faith to believe. It's all right together, they
say. But here's the concept. The Bible
speaks often of the non-imputation of sin. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, or does not impute sin. Over
in Romans chapter eight, I quote this verse quite often, because
it's so important. In Romans chapter eight, look
at verse 33. It says, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. You
see, in the justification of God's elect, His people, God
does not impute, charge, account their sins to them. Now, they
are sinners. God is not pretending here in this issue of imputation. To impute means to charge it,
to account it, to reckon it. And that's why we look at it
like a debt. If you go into a store and you don't have the money
to buy what you're purchasing, You give them a credit card and
that amount that you buy is charged, imputed, reckoned to your account. If you find later on that you
can't pay that, then what happens? Well, they come after you or
somebody has to step in and say, put it on my account, I'll pay
it for them. That's what this thing of imputation
is. I often use the banking analogy. where a man owes a million dollars,
let's say, to a bank, but that man does not have one single
penny to pay off that debt. And so he goes to the bank and
he speaks to one of the officers and throws himself on their mercy.
Well, you know what's gonna happen there. No, they're gonna come
after the man. They used to put people in debtor's prison like
that. And so he says, I can't pay the debt. He said, well,
can you pay a dollar? No, I don't have a dollar. Pay
a penny. No, don't have a penny. That's the case. So the banker
opens up the account books and he looks at your name, this man
who owes a million dollars. He says, wait a minute, you don't
owe a million dollars. That debt's been paid by somebody
else who came in here and said, put his million dollars on my
account, I'll repay it. It's been imputed to him. Could
you imagine what kind of relief would come over you? But the
banker says, hold on, there's more. Not only did they pay off
your million dollar debt, they put a million dollars in the
bank in your name, in your account. They imputed this million to
you. You've got a million dollars to the good. That's what this
thing of justification is about. And so, When God says he does
not impute sin to his people, he being a just God, what did
he do with those sins? Well, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse
19 tells us, talking about the ministry of reconciliation, that's
the gospel ministry. The ministry of how God justifies
sinners and how sinners are justified before God, how a sinner is made
right before God, that's the ministry of reconciliation, by
grace, based on the righteousness of Christ, through God-given
faith. And he says in verse 19, to wit,
this is 2 Corinthians 5, 19, to wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself. Now the world there doesn't mean
everybody without exception in the world. The word world in
the Bible never means everybody without exception in the world. He's talking about a specific
people that God has chosen and called out of the world The point
that Paul's making here is for Jew and Gentile, not just for
one segment of people in the world. How do you know that? Now listen to it. Reconciling
the world unto himself, and listen, every individual in the world
is not reconciled to God. There's some who die in unbelief,
die in their sins, and enter damnation. So he says, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. So God doesn't
impute sin to them. He imputed it to Christ. Christ
was made sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. And we who believe have
his righteousness imputed to us. And that's what grace and
faith are all about. Faith is not our righteousness. Faith believes unto righteousness. How? By believing in Christ. Resting in Christ. Now the rest
of Romans four will bear up what I'm telling you on this. And
I know it's a lot to think about. It's a lot to get a hold of.
But you need to study these things and pray that God will reveal
them to your heart. Hope you'll join us next week for another
message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.