I want to get right into what
I'm going to teach this morning. I want you to turn to Romans
chapter 4. Romans chapter 4. Now what I'm basically going
to do this morning, I'm just going to begin reading through
this chapter and just make some comments as I go along. You know the grand theme of the
book of Romans you know when I was your pastor we went through
the book of Romans in the time I was here probably three or
four times you know verse by verse. And we saw there over
and over again how the grand theme of the book of Romans is
is how God justifies a sinner how God can be just and justify
the ungodly you know we preach a God of love and grace and mercy
But his love and grace and mercy must be in line with his justice
his truth his holiness and his righteousness that's the issue
of the gospel job at that question how can a man be just with God
how can he who was born a woman be clean all of these questions
are they come they they strike at the heart of the gospel because
God cannot ever in any way shape form or fashion be anything less
than who he is whatever the Bible says about God that's what God
is and always have been always is always will be never changes.
Any notion of anything that sets up God is a God who is changeable. That's idolatry. uh... that that's
uh... you know that the free will works
religion you know they've got a god who changes that everyone
you know our faith changes in my prayer changes in there you
know that's the way that that's why i used to think you know
before i repented of dead works in idolatry and i'm not going
to make that again because this book doesn't say that you say
but when we look at this you see the issues of god being god
man being who we are we're sinners in need of salvation I, you know,
I've always proclaimed that the gospel is a simple message. Now,
that doesn't mean everything in the scripture is simple and
easy to understand. I mean, you get into some verses
and take some study, doesn't it? Take some word study. And,
you know, we've been made acutely aware of issues of time and eternity. For example, the tense of verbs.
And that has some merit. You know, I believe we need to
study that. We need to understand some of it. But I know this,
and I believe you know it too, that our salvation and our knowledge
of God and our fellowship with one another does not hang on
the thread of the tense of a Greek verb, never has and never will. They're grand truths of the gospel
that are just set forth in the scripture so plain. What is the
ground upon which God justifies the ungodliness? And we know
that's the merit of the obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ
is shed blood his righteousness imputed one that he worked out
on Calvary and established and wrought out for his people to
enable God to be just and justify we get into issues of eternity
and time and I admit that these are things that I can't really
fully grasp. I know this, that there are those
who view eternity so as to deny the necessity of time. And then
I've seen there are those who issue, who emphasize time so
as to deny eternity. It goes back just like to the
argument of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. Some
say, well, if God is absolutely, totally sovereign, the God of
predestination, then how can men be held responsible? And
if men are responsible, how can God be sovereign? Well, the scripture
teaches both. I know that. That God is sovereign
and man is responsible. The scriptures teach that God
is eternal. He never changes. He never thinks one thing one
day and another thing another day. He is of one mind, scripture
says. That's one mind. And then the
scripture says that God created time for his glory. Somebody
says, why did Christ have to come into this world? Because
God purposed to save sinful creatures. And it is his glory to save them. We're creatures of time. So when
we look at all these issues, you know, we can we can talk
about them, we can ponder them, we can discuss them, and that's
OK. We grow in grace and in knowledge. But think of it that the gospel
is a simple message. And I've always kind of operated
that when you look at a verse of scripture, usually not always,
maybe, but usually the simplest understanding of it is usually
the right understanding. But let me take that with that
in mind let's go through Romans chapter 4 he's talking about
Abraham he's using Abraham as an example. Of how God justified
the ungodly how God justified the center. In fact he even says
here that Abraham is the supreme example of how this is done. Those who believe the gospel.
Those who are justified redeemed regenerated are sometimes referred
to as children of Abraham and he's not just talking about national
Israel. He said children of the promise
in Romans chapter 9 they are the children of Abraham what
promise the promise the same promise that God made to Abraham
to save me and keep me and bless me based on the work the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ Abraham look forward to that
if I promise We look back at the promise fulfilled in time.
So here's what he said. Now look at this. Now he said
now what shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining
to the flesh have found. Now his main issue here had to
do with the thoughts of the Jews who would readily say that we
are children of God because we are natural children of Abraham.
That's what he mainly has in mind. You know John the Baptist
dealt with that in his ministry when he came along and he called
on Israel to repent and he said in Matthew chapter 3, think not
to think within yourselves we're Abraham's children. They equated
being Abraham's natural children with being saved, with being
justified before God, with being a child of God. And that's the
main point that Paul has in mind here that What shall we say then
that Abraham our father what did Abraham attain what did he
have what was he given because he was circumcised because he
was a Hebrew or a Jew that is after the flesh so we see that
word flesh well that's talking about Abraham's natural heritage
but it's also talking about Abraham's works works of the place the
Bible says in the flesh dwells no good thing. It says that the
mark of a believer is one who has confidence in Christ and
him crucified and no confidence in the flesh. So what did Abraham
attain according to his heritage, according to his works? Well,
he says in verse 2, for if Abraham were justified, the word justified
being declared righteous, being made righteous in that sense
of the legal declaration that God has. God justified for Abraham
were justified if he were declared not guilty by works by works
of the flesh or by who he was. He hath whereof to glory. Now
that word glory means to boast or to have confidence in the
flesh. In other words if Abraham attained
justification because of who he was because of his circumcision
or because of his work he'd have reason to boast in the flesh.
He'd have reason to have assurance, confidence in the flesh. But
he says, but not before God. Now, by deeds of law, he said,
and back in Romans chapter 3, shall no flesh be justified. So it's impossible for anyone,
including Abraham, to boast before God, to have confidence to come
into God's presence and commune with God, to say that God has
justified me based on works of the flesh. That can't happen.
Now, why? Because we're sinners. We fell
in Adam. We fell into death. We fell into
sin. We're born dead spiritually. And everything we do is sin.
And even as justified sinners, we're still sinners. Nothing
we do, nothing we're enabled to do, makes up any part of our
righteousness before God. Isn't that right? Nothing. Our
righteousness is Christ and Him crucified. And then he goes on,
he says, For what sayeth the Scripture? Well, he says, Abraham
believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now, a lot of people have a problem
here. That word, it, that's an indefinite
pronoun. What does it refer to? I told
Jim and Ray what we were talking about. I said I could title this,
It is what it is. Or what it is. Something like
that. The it. And people have problems
with that. Well, I want you to jump over
to verse 20. And I believe this is the key
to understanding what it is, what it is. And I remember what
he said, what's in the scripture, Abraham believed God. Now, obviously,
that means he believed what God says, right? God said something
to Abraham. God revealed something to Abraham.
God promised something to Abraham. And by God's power and grace,
by the power of the Holy Spirit, Abraham did what? He did what
we do. He believed God. You don't believe God on your
own. It wasn't of Abraham's own free will. Where did God find
Abraham? In Ur of the Chaldees, in idolatry. So whatever Abraham got, or whatever
Abraham did, In the way of believing God, we know two things. Abraham
didn't deserve it, and Abraham didn't earn it. All right? You
see, this is a matter of grace he's going to bring out. Well,
look at verse 20. It says, He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. And verse 21, And being fully
persuaded that what He, the He there is God, what God had promised,
God was able to perform. And verse 22, and therefore it,
there's that word it again. What is it? It was imputed to
him. Now what is the it? Well, look
at what he says again. He was fully persuaded of what?
That what God had promised, God was able to perform. And it,
what? What God had promised him. That's what the it is. What did
God promise Abraham? We'll look at John chapter 8. What specifically? Now, we could
go to any number of passages here, but I'll just go to this
one. What is the it? Abraham believed God, and it,
what God said to him, what God promised him, was imputed to
him. It wasn't Abraham's act of believing
that was imputed to him. That's the quality of character.
That's the grace of the Spirit. That cannot be imputed or charged.
You see? Only that which is legally before
God can be imputed. It's either the merit or the
demerit of a work that can be imputed. So what was imputed? What God promised him. Well,
look at John chapter 8. Look down at verse 56. This is the Lord speaking to
the Pharisees, and he says, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see
my day. God promised Abraham, back in
the Old Testament, God promised Abraham that in time he would
send a Redeemer who would establish the only ground upon which God
justifies the ungodly. And he would do it by his bloody
death on the cross. I admit there's some things that
Abraham didn't know, but he knew the gospel. He knew the promise,
what God promised him. And Christ says that here. Your
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was
glad. And then it says in verse 57,
Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years
old, and hast thou seen Abraham? You see now, their minds are
limited to time. Now, we were limited to time.
Everything we think if somebody told me, said, well, you know,
he's talking about God uses time words when it comes to to salvation. Well, what what are the words?
Could he? I mean, somebody stand up today and speak eternal language
to me, I would challenge you to do that. Do you know anything?
We don't know anything of the eternal, except as God revealed
himself. And says this is me. That's what
God says, you know. So he said, well, you're not
yet 50 years old in verse 58. He said, Jesus said to them,
barely, barely, I send you before Abraham was what? I am. Christ was before Abraham. Now John the Baptist recognized
that. He said this, he said, he who is coming after me is
preferred before me for he was before me. He's the eternal.
God man, he's the, now he didn't actually become God man until
time. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. But in the eternal mind of God
it was always so. Go back to Romans 4 now. Now
what is the end? Well it's what God promised Abraham.
Well what did God promise Abraham? That he was going to send the
Messiah to redeem him and to establish the only ground of
his justification before God. Now did that change God's mind?
The cross did not change God's mind. The cross revealed God's
mind. Christ did not die on the cross
to get God to love me. Christ died on the cross because
God loved me. You see the difference there?
It's called an everlasting love. And I'll tell you what, God's
love is in strict concordance with His holiness and His justice.
Now let's look back at Romans 4. He said it was counted to
him for righteousness. Now you can say unto righteousness.
You can say because of any number of words could go in there for
the four. You know somebody said well you can put whatever you
want in there depends on what you're trying to prove. But you
can see differences in the Old Testament and the New Testament
where that word is translated different ways. But it really
doesn't matter. That's what I'm saying. Let's
keep it simple. Let's not let our gospel hinge
on the translation of a three-letter preposition. Let's just look
at it and see what he's saying. It was imputed to Abraham. What?
What God promised Abraham was imputed to him for righteousness.
What did he promise him? That Christ would come and do
his work. And then he goes on in verse
4. He says, Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned, not
imputed of grace, but of death. In other words, if Abraham had
to work to be justified, then that reward of righteousness
could not be imputed to him as grace. It wouldn't be a gift
of grace. It would be something he earned.
That's what you do when it comes down to a debt. Somebody owes
it to you. Well, God didn't owe it to Abraham.
God didn't owe it to us. And then he says in verse five,
but to him that worketh not, and there's not a plainer verse
of scripture in the Bible that excludes works into this issue
of how a sinner is justified before God, is there? To him
that what? Worketh not. He's not working
for his salvation. He's not working to be righteous
before God. He says, but believeth on him
that justifieth the ungodly. And then it says his faith is
counted for righteousness now faith there you know whenever
you see the word faith in the scripture you know it can be
used in different context in different ways sometimes it's
referring to the faith which means the body of doctrine the
gospel sometimes it's referring to the faith of Christ he was
faithful to do what God sent him to do sometimes it talks
about our act of believing the grace of faith But one thing
you can be sure of whenever whenever faith that God given faith or
whatever faith is talking about in scripture you can you can
rest assured that faith is never considered apart from its object. In the scripture and faith in
the scripture the object of faith is always Christ and him crucified
this is my salvation. What Jesus Christ came and accomplished
for me on Calvary 2,000 years ago. Now that is my ground and
my hope. That's what I believe. And so
when you see his faith is counted for righteousness, it's not talking
about Abraham's act of believing was substituted for righteousness. What he's talking about is Abraham
believing what God had promised. In other words, it's just another
way of speaking of Christ and Him crucified. That's what was
imputed, accounted, that's another word for imputed, or reckoned,
the same word, for righteousness. What Christ would come and do
on the cross thousands of years, a thousand years after Abraham
was imputed to Abraham for righteousness. That's how powerful God is. And
then he uses the scripture here, he says in verse 6, he says,
even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man
unto whom God imputed righteousness without words now David knew
this David described and he described it by saying if not quoting here
from Psalm 32 verses 1 through 2 but what you have here in Romans
4 is a commentary on what David meant. Now David didn't use the
exact words imputed righteousness there if you go back and read
Psalm 32 he didn't use those exact words. He says in verse
7, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose
sins are covered. And we know that's talking about
atonement. We know there was the blood of bulls and goats
that ceremonially covered the sins of not only God's elect
in Israel, but the whole nation. So when you talk about their
sins being covered now, you're not talking about just believers
back then. You're talking about everybody in that nation. So
that high priest went into the holiest of all four, Israel. And that included the elect and
the non-elect in that nation. That was a civil covenant. That
was a ceremonial covenant, you see. But the blood of bulls and
goats did not save them, justify them. The blood of bulls and
goats cannot take away sin, Hebrews chapter 10. That was only a type
of the reality. That was only a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the precious blood of the Lamb. So here's
what David meant, verse 8, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin. Now David recognized the blessedness
of it. Now look at verse 9, cometh this
blessedness then upon the circumcision only, now a good way to say that
is, is that just upon a Jew? Is that just upon the Jews only? Or upon the uncircumcision also,
or the Gentiles? In other words, does the national
distinction of being a Jew or Gentile have anything to do with
this? And the answer is no. For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness. Now what is that faith? It's
what God promised. It's not Abraham's act of believing
that was reckoned to him. That would be the same as preaching
imparted righteousness. That would be the same as saying
God justified me based on something that he did in me. And we know
that's not so. Faith is what God promised Abraham,
what Christ would come and do. And then he says in verse 10,
how was it then reckoned? How was it imputed? When he was
in circumcision or in uncircumcision. Now, when was it imputed to Abraham? What does it say? When he was a circumcised Jew
or before. He says not in circumcision,
but in uncircumcision. Now it's clear here from these
verses that something was imputed to Abraham. And I don't see anything
in scripture from Genesis to Revelation that says anything
is imputed except sin and righteousness. I don't see it. But he says here,
in uncircumcision, and then look at verse 11, and he received
the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had yet been uncircumcised. And that's a good translation
you see there in the tax that he had yet that's what the translators
added that the King James translators but it would go something like
this and he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the
righteousness of the faith which being uncircumcised in other
words being uncircumcised Abraham received a seal that he possessed
the righteousness of faith the righteousness that God promised.
And he possessed. And it says here in verse 11.
Go on, it says that he might be the father of all them that
believe the father in the sense that he's the supreme example.
Of how God justifies the ungodly, though they be not circumcised.
That righteousness might be imputed unto them also. Now that word
might be a lot of people. That's that's in the present
tense. It's what it's talking about. In other words, it's a
set reality. And it's not a maybe. In other words, it may or may
not be when it says might be like we might sometimes use that
phrase. But it's a present tense verb.
It's a set reality. And he says in verse 12, and
the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision
only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father
Abraham, which he had yet being being yet uncircumcised, that
promise, believing the same promise that God gave to Abraham. In
other words, the gospel that Abraham believed is the same
gospel we believe. And that's an amazing thing to
me, because it tells us that our gospel does not change. It
will not change. Now, we may learn and we may
grow and grow. Hopefully we do. But the gospel is the same. And
he goes on, verse 13. Now listen to this. He says,
For the promise that he should be the heir of the world And
not that was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law but
through the righteousness of faith. And what he's talking
about is the Lord Jesus Christ. Who would come and accomplish
what God promised to do in time. And he says for verse 14 for
if they which are of the law be heirs faith is made void and
the promise you see how faith is connected with the promise
here and the promise made of none effect. In other words,
if a sinner could be justified by their works, then believing
God's promise would have no bearing at all on giving evidence that
a sinner was justified. It would be made void, and the
righteousness that God promised to send would be for nothing.
You remember Paul said, if righteousness come by the law, then faith is
void, is vain. So he goes on, verse 14, for
if they which are of the law of the earth, or verse 15, because
the law worketh wrath. In other words, those who are
under the law, the only thing they can bring is death. That's
all. And he says, for where no law
is, there's no transgression. The law was given to show us
our sin, not to provide a way to make us righteous. That's
why God sent Christ. And so he says in verse 16, therefore,
it is a faith that it might be by grace to the end. Listen,
the promise might be sure to all the seed, not the promise
may be or may not be, but it will be. It is as a present tense
verb, too, in verse 16. And he says not to that only
which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of
Abraham. That is, they believe the same
promise that Abraham believed. What God promised Abraham and
gave to him, he's promised to us, too, and given to us. And
he's the father of us all. Verse 17. As it is written, I
have made thee a father of many nations. That is, God's elect
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Before him,
Before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the
dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were."
God's not limited to time. You see, in God's mind, it's
an eternal mind. We can't understand that. We
can't climb into that. We can't explain that. That's
God. But you know something? I've often felt this way. If
we could explain God in those areas, He wouldn't be God. He
wouldn't be God at all. He'd be just like us, and he's
not. So he says in verse 18, talking about Abraham, who against
hope, believed in hope that he might become the father of many
nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed
be. Now you know that's a reference to Abraham. God promised Abraham
and Sarah a child, and they didn't have one. And then Abraham had
the child out of wedlock with Hagar, the bondwoman, and that
was Ishmael. But there was a child of promise.
And that was Isaac, and that's what he's talking about. Abraham
didn't consider his own physical makeup as being, what, almost
100 years old, and Sarah's being almost that old, as to God fulfilling
the promise. God's going to fulfill the promise,
so he, against hope, believed in hope. And it says in verse
19, and being not weak in faith, that is, not being weak in believing
what God promised. He considered not his own body
now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. We know that faith glorifies
God because it honors every attribute of his character. And he says
in verse 21, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised,
God was able to perform. God was promised that he was
going to send them aside. To redeem to establish that ground
of justification to bring to take away Abraham's sins, all
his people and to establish the only righteousness based upon
which God could be just to justify any center and every center that
he justifies. God was able to perform. You
say God always saw it so. But God worked it out. God created
this for his glory, and he set it forth according to the times
that he appointed. God sent forth his Son in the
fullness of the time. God sent forth his Son made of
a woman. Why did he have to do that? Because
he purposed within himself to glorify himself in the salvation
of fallen sinful creatures. And that's all that God accomplished,
the revelation of his glory, you see. God's glory is not God
just sitting up in space thinking about things. God's glory is
manifested in his acts, what he does, who he is and what he
does, you see. And so he covenanted with his
son before time began to save a people and to give them all
that was required in his son who would come in time and establish
for us every requirement of salvation. that God must have and that we
must have. So he says in verse 22, he says,
and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now
you may have heard, uh, when we talk about the tense of Greek
verbs, there's a tense in the Greek, it's called the aorist
tense. And it's usually when you see it translated in English,
it's usually translated in the past tense. But the aorist tense,
we don't have an equivalent tense for it in English language. We
don't really, and I think what it is, I know if you study it
in the lexicons, it'll tell you something like this, that in
that there is no definite reference to past, present, or future in
it. And what he's talking about is
that this is an eternal matter before God. And he says, look
at it again, and therefore it, what God promised, was imputed
to him for righteousness. Now look at verse 23. Now it
was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to
him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed. Now that
word, that shall be imputed there, verse 24, is a present tense. And he says, if we believe on
him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. It's like
he's saying this, now the words, It was imputed to him or credit
to him were not written for Abraham alone. Not just a brain but for
us also. And he's saying here in verse
24 that our faith will be regarded in the same way that Abraham's
faith was. In other words if we believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ and trust him. Then that is the evidence
that righteousness has been imputed to us to. that were justified
before God, just like Abraham. It wasn't written on his account
alone that it was reckoned to him, but it was written for our
account too, believing on Christ. And so he says, who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. When Christ died on the cross,
he died for our sins. Book of Daniel says he made an
end of sin. He finished the transgression. He brought in everlasting righteousness.
And he died, he was buried, he rose again the third day. Why?
Because the work was accomplished. He said it's finished in John
chapter 19. It's finished. He completed it. Now, there's
no more work to be done. You see, if Christ completed
it, there's nothing you can add to his work that he accomplished
at the cross. And we believe that, and we rest
in that, and that's our hope and our ground of salvation.