I would ask you to follow with
me in your Bibles as I read from Paul's letter to the church at
Rome, the book of Romans, chapter 3, beginning with verse 19, and
I shall read through chapter 4 and verse 8. You will notice
certain words that I will emphasize, and I do that not to make it
sound strange, but simply provide a very vivid framework for the
exposition of two verses within this larger passage. Romans 3
and verse 19. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be brought
under the judgment of God. Because by the works of the law
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for through the law
cometh the knowledge of sin. But now, apart from the law,
a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by
the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ, unto all them that believe. For there
is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins
done aforetime in the forbearance of God. For the showing, I say,
of his righteousness at this present season, that he might
himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. Where then is glory? It is excluded. By what manner of law? Of works? Nay, but by a law of faith. We reckon, therefore, that a
man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or
is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles
also? Yea, of the Gentiles also. If so be that God is one, and
he shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision
through faith? Do we then make the law of God
of none effect through faith? God forbid! Nay, we establish
the law. What then shall we say that Abraham,
our forefather, hath found according to the flesh? For if Abraham
was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not towards
God. For what saith the Scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of
grace, but of death. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned
for righteousness. Even as David also pronounceth
blessing upon the man unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart
from works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
and those whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not reckon sin. You and I must never underestimate
the power of Satan to undermine and pervert the pure truth of
God. According to the words of our
Lord in John chapter 8, Satan is a murderer and a liar. And he murders, that is, destroys
the souls of men by means of the lie. When the devil has destroyed
a man, the death weapon in his hands is always the lie. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and a liar, and a bold knock in the truth. He is a liar and
the father of it. And perhaps nowhere is the subtle
truth-perverting power of the devil more evident than in the
confusion he has created with reference to God's answer to
the most important question any son of Adam can ask. Now, what
is the question? The question is simply, how shall
I, a guilty, condemned sinner, find forgiveness and acceptance
with God, my Holy Creator. Or, to phrase the question a
bit differently, how can I be righteous before God? Or, to state it differently,
how can I be prepared to die and to face God in the day of
judgment, and to face Him unafraid and fully confident that I will
be accepted in His presence? Let a man begin seriously to
ask that question because he's come to understand Romans 3.19,
that he's condemned by the law, he's guilty before God, he's
no longer indifferent to that guilt, but he's beginning to
ask the question, how can the guilt be removed? How can I find
righteousness where now I have nothing but condemnation and
guilt? Let a man begin to ask that question. And Satan, in whose kingdom the
man belongs, will do all within his power to confuse him with
answers which, if believed, will enmesh him all the further in
satanic bondage and ultimately damage. Tonight it's my joy to direct
your attention to what is perhaps the simplest, most vivid, and
possibly the boldest statement in all of Scripture, which clearly
and definitively sets forth God's answer to that question and forever
exposes every lie of the devil which he would give as a substitute
answer. How shall I, how shall you, how
shall any man, any woman, any boy, any girl, stand before God
with a righteousness that can pass the scrutiny of the eye
of perfect omniscience and of infinite holiness? If you're
standing before a God who can talk out of both sides of his
mouth, who's nearsighted and has no moral principle, then
you and I have no problem. But the Word of God says we stand
before the God who is infinitely holy and inflexibly just. When that begins to bear down
upon us and this question begins to eat away at our minds and
our souls, I say the devil will do all within his power to confuse
the answer of God. How can I be right with God?
How can I have a righteousness before Him? And thank God it
is the very purpose of the book of Romans to raise and then to
answer that precise question. Now our text tonight in Romans
4, 4 and 5. Now to him that worketh the reward
is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is reckoned for righteousness. But before we come to an analysis
of Paul's statement In those two verses, let us take just
a moment to catch the thread of argument, the drift of thought,
the flow of the Apostle's mind leading up to these two verses. The theme of this particular
letter Paul has announced in the first words of the letter.
Look at it. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus,
called an Apostle separated unto the gospel of God. And the theme
of the book of Romans is to unfold the gospel of God. The gospel
that he calls, in verse 16, the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believes. A gospel which has as its central
blessing, good news, holding forth as its central announcement,
a righteousness provided by God. Verse 17, For therein is revealed
a righteousness of God. It's a righteousness provided
by God and received by faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. So there you have the theme of
the book of Romans set before us. The theme is the gospel of
God. The good news that originates
with God and comes to sinful men. It is a good news which
is unto salvation, that is, unto deliverance from sin and all
of its consequences. It is a good news which holds
forth as its central blessing the answer to this question,
how can I be right with God? The gospel says a righteousness
is provided. It is a gospel which says that
that righteousness already provided is received by faith and by faith
alone. So he announces the theme. Now
he begins to unfold the theme in verse 18 of chapter 1. And
verse 18, chapter 1, all the way through chapter 3 and verse
19 is simply an exposition of the necessity for such a righteousness.
No sense trying to sell a man a product unless he's convinced
he needs it. And so the apostle says, I come with this gospel
to Jew and Gentile, and I don't come with a luxury product, I
come with a necessary product. And so he shows the whole human
race as under guilt and in bondage to sin. And his concluding statements
in verses 19 and 20 we read, the whole world under the judgment
of God, by the law comes the knowledge of sin. There is the
universal need of the gospel. Then in chapter 3 and verse 20
through the end of chapter 8, he shows the essence of the gospel
and its blessings. Chapters 9 to 11, the relationship
of God's sovereign purpose to men and nations in the giving
of the gospel. And then the book closes chapters
12 to 16 with a word about the application of the gospel to
life. Now then, our text tonight is couched right in the middle
of Paul's exposition of the gospel which is the power of God unto
salvation. He has shown us in verses 21
to 25 of chapter 3 that the ground of that righteousness which God
alone accepts is the person and work of Jesus Christ. The ground
is Christ alone. And that little word alone is
the difference between truth and error. Notice how he emphasizes
it again and again. He says in verse 21, But apart
from the law, a righteousness of God hath been manifested.
And where does this righteousness focus as to its provisional basis? He says in verse 24, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation. Whatever this
righteousness is, its ground is the work of Christ alone. And then one other word occurs
again and again. It's the word faith. It is received
by faith alone. And so I emphasize the many usages
of the word faith and believe in this particular passage. Now,
in the verses before us, what Paul is doing is simply this.
Having stated man's great need, assuming that men are asking
the question now, how can I find acceptance with God? He is very
careful to answer, acceptance is found in the righteousness
which God provides. By that I mean, Paul says, a
righteousness provided by Jesus Christ alone, a righteousness
received by faith alone. Now someone says, well, is this
some kind of a novel doctrine? And he says, of course not. And
he's going to show that this is the way God has always provided
righteousness for guilty sinners. So he takes the example of Abraham
before the giving of the law, David under the law, and he says
both Abraham and David came to the resolution of that question
in precisely the same way that every man must come to the resolution
of that question. The recognition, I have no righteousness
of my own by nature, I can produce no righteousness of my own by
practice, if I'm ever to have a righteousness, God must provide
it, God must confer it, and He has provided in His Son, and
He does confer it to every believer. That's the heart of the whole
message of this section. Now, with that general drift
of thought before us, let us address ourselves to the text. itself. And the approach to the
text is very simple. We have in verse 4 a description
of the one who works, and in verse 5 of the one who works
not. And so we have but two basic points to our message tonight,
the worker and the non-worker. But what I want you to do as
we go into an exposition of the text, I want you to look at the
text as a mirror. Because in a very real sense,
Without any exception, every single person in this building,
in this auditorium, those of you downstairs, every one of
us, if we're asking this question, how can I find acceptance with
God? How can my sins be forgiven?
How can I be prepared to stand before Him in the day of judgment?
Every one of us who's asking that question with earnestness
is seeking to answer it either according to the principles of
verse 4, or the principles of verse 5. And if you're answering
it according to the principles of verse 4 and you go on answering
it that way, mark me, my friend, as sure as your eyes look upon
me. You'll one day be in the pit of eternal burnings. And it's only those who've come
to answer the question according to verse 5 who should be found
in that day filled with unspeakable bliss as they look upon their
Savior. All right? Now to the text. First
of all, verse 4, the one who works. We're going to ask three
questions about him. Who is he? What is his problem? And what is his true condition?
Now to him that worketh. The reward is not reckoned as
of grace, but as of debt. Well, who is this one that worketh,
to use the words of the Apostle Paul? Well, very simply, he is
the person who knows that he must have a righteousness to
commend himself to God. He must have forgiveness for
the unrighteousness in order to turn away the anger of God.
But he is convinced that the way to construct an acceptable
righteousness and the way to turn away God's anger for his
unrighteousness is to be found in his own performances. in his own workings, something
that he can do either in his own Adamic strength or, and follow
me closely, something that he thinks God will do in him by
grace to make him acceptable before him. But these people
have this common substructure in their answer to the question,
how can I find righteousness? I must find it in the pathway
of performance, in the pathway of doing. Having stated the principle,
let me describe him more fully. This man is found in two distinct
categories. There are those who obviously,
in a very gross and evident way, manifest this spirit. The classic
example, of course, is the Pharisee of Luke chapter 18. Look at it.
He dares to stand in the presence of God and say words such as
these. Luke chapter 18 and verse 9. And he spake also this parable
unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. See
the significance of the words? The Pharisee knew there must
be righteousness. But his confidence was in his own working, and so
he stands before God, verse 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank Thee I am not as the rest of
men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I am
working to construct a righteousness which sets me above these other
unrighteous pagans about me. Then he tells God what he does.
I fast, I give tithes. You see what his problem was? He was standing before God, convinced
he had to have a righteousness to commend him to God. Without
that mentality, all his talk is nonsense. The man was deceived,
but he wasn't a fool. He had the right question raised,
he just had the wrong answer. The question was, how shall I
find acceptance with God? His answer is, my acceptance
is based upon what I am and what I've done. He's a description
of the man who worketh. And so it very obviously brings
within its compass All those who are so deluded as to think
that their prayers, their alms, deeds, their acts of charity
will build up some kind of a fabric of righteousness that will be
acceptable to God. And surely anyone who thinks
that way is utterly ignorant of the most basic teaching of
the Word of God, not by works of righteousness which we have
done. bought according to his mercy, he said, despite grace
he saved through faith, and that none of yourselves, it is the
gift of God, none of works. But all my friends, listen to
me. I want to move to a second category who fit the description
of the man who works, and this is far more subtle and far less
obvious. Listen. It's the person who sits
under a biblical ministry such as is held forth in this place.
who has enough acquaintance with the Bible to know that the Scripture
clearly teaches that Jesus Christ never saves a man from the penalty
of sin without saving him from the dominion of sin. They have
enough knowledge of the Scriptures to know that when Jesus Christ
lays hold of a man and brings him to faith, He also brings
him to repentance. He brings him not only to the
joy that sin is forgiven, but He brings him to deep grief that
sin was ever committed. And he's around the Bible enough
to know that one who believes unto righteousness also lays
hold of Christ unto a life of holiness. And he's aware of those
teachings. They're obviously taught in the
Word of God. Only one grossly ignorant of
the Scriptures would say otherwise. But you know what happens? Listen,
listen. The enemy of the souls of man who has such in his conscience,
he's not going to let them go easily. And when they begin to
be concerned about the question, how shall I find acceptance with
God? I've broken His law, I've trampled
underfoot the privileges of His grace, and I've sinned against
light and truth and privilege. How shall I ever find acceptance? They know that the acceptance
is not going to come in their performance. They're not so foolish
as to go out and think that if they give a little more money
to charity, attend a few more services, God will accept them.
But you know what they do? The devil comes and whispers
in their ears and says, Aha, doesn't the Bible say that you
must repent? They know their Bible enough
to know yes. And doesn't repentance involve deep sorrow for sin and
a real desire and resolution to be done with sin? Yes. Aha. Until you see in yourself deep
repentance, deep sorrow, deep resolution, you've got no warrant
to come to Christ. You see what the devil's doing?
He's saying, go to work. Go to work before you believe. Go to work before you come. Perform,
do, have something to present to God. And it'll land a man
in hell as surely as the poor fool who thinks that by giving
money and by saying prayers and doing external deeds, he can
find acceptance with God. They feel they cannot come to
Christ until they can bring to him something called the spirit
of repentance, or the spirit of humility. That's the man who
works. Now, to him who worketh, we've
described him. Now, the second question about
him, what is his fundamental problem? Well, his fundamental
problem is that he is actually cancelling and negating the whole
principle of grace. Look at the text. Now, to him
that worketh, the reward, the wages, are not reckoned as of
grace, but as of debt. You see what Paul is doing? He's
taking something from the common experience of all men to illustrate
a spiritual truth. And here's the common principle.
When one of you boys goes to a neighbor and says, I'm willing
to cut your lawn, You want me to cut it? Yes. And the neighbor
says, how much? And you say, well, three dollars,
five dollars. You've entered into a contract.
When you have finished cutting that long, that neighbor is now
in debt to you. You've performed a service. which has made that person your
debtor. And until the three or the five
dollars, whatever was the agreement, is taken from his hand and put
in your hand, that person is in debt to you. And when the
agreed amount is transferred from his hand to your hand, he
is no longer your debtor, you are no longer his debtor. There
has been an agreement that has been satisfied. Paul says this
goes on all the time. Whether it's cutting lawn, collecting
a paycheck, He that works, when he receives his recompense, it
is never gratuitous, it never partakes of the distinctive qualities
of grace, but of debt. Now that's perfectly right and
perfectly proper in the realm of labor relationships. In fact,
God has a lot to say if we don't operate by that rule. When an
employer no longer feels indebted to treat an employee right and
vice versa, God has much to say about that. And I'm not going
to digress into the biblical principles of labor relationships,
but the Bible has an awful lot to say about those things. But
what is perfectly right and proper and commendable in the realm
of economics and in the realm of employment is devastating
and damning when it comes to the issue of how shall I find
acceptance with God. The whole mentality of labor
relationships is, I have performed, the one for whom I have performed
must recompense, and the recompense is not gracious or gratuitous,
it is of debt. And Paul says as long as you're
operating on that principle, you're canceling the whole principle
of grace, which means undeserved, wholly undeserved, totally undeserved. Grace and death are irreconcilable
antonyms. They can never be synonyms. but
always antonyms. Look at the vigor of his language.
Now to him that worketh the reward is not reckoned as of grace,
but as of debt. Who is this man? He is any man,
woman, boy, or girl who feels that something he can or must
perform externally or inwardly is necessary before he can have
righteousness from God. What is his problem? He is cancelling
the whole principle of grace. Thirdly, what is his condition?
Well, think of his condition before God. He is still under
condemnation because he is still under the law. Verse 19 of chapter
3, What things soever the law saith it speaketh to them that
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world be brought under the judgment of God. Galatians 3.10
in the first part of verse 11 states it even more vividly.
This is his true condition. Listen to the vigor of Paul's
words. As many as are of the works of the law are under a
curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who continueth not
in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them. Now that no man is justified by the law before God, it is
evident. My friend, listen. Listen carefully.
The law not only makes demands upon the external life, but upon
the attitudes of the heart. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. The law is
spiritual. Now the teaching of the Word
of God is this. If you want to have a righteousness by law-keeping
that will be commendable to God, you must keep the law at every
point, at every moment, of every day, and every hour of your life. And if you can do that, God will
be forced to say, under death you have fully met the demand,
I will reward you with life. But unless you are prepared to
say, that you think there's some possibility that you can keep
the law of God in all of its breath, touching the motives,
the intents, the thoughts, and the reflex responses of the heart
at its deepest level, as well as all of the external expressions
of word and deed and all the rest, my friend. Unless you're
prepared to do that, you better find a whole new basis of hoping
to find a righteousness from God. For the condition of the
man who is working is the condition of being under a curse. For one
slight deviation, for one moment, in a whole spectrum of a thousand
years of perfect obedience will call forth the righteous anger
of God, and the wages of sin is So the condition of every man,
woman, fellow, or girl in this building tonight, who is attempting
by external acts, or more subtly yet, by some preparation of heart
and of mind, by bringing some self-imposed measure of penitence,
or grief, or sin, or vows of obedience, before you'll throw
yourself upon the righteousness provided, your condition is a
tragic condition. You're still under condemnation,
as many as are under the works of the law are under a curse. And what is your condition with
reference to yourself? Well, you'll find that breaking
down into two kinds of people, in terms of the sensitivity of
conscience to the light of the Word of God. In some cases, those
who are working, who are negating the principle of grace, are led
into a delusive complacency. That was the Pharisees. Delusive
complacency, as long as the outside of the cup and the platter was
clean, they didn't care that God saw their hearts. He says,
you are they which look beautiful in the sight of men, but inwardly
you are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Their consciences
have become hardened and seared and insensitive, and as long
as they were doing and working externally, they were lulled
into a delusive complacency. It seems to be that Paul was
in that state for a good period of his life. Read Philippians
chapter 3. On the other hand, there are others who are working.
To him that work Seeking to produce something that will give them
grounds to believe they may come unto the Lord and His provision. You know what it leads in their
case? To tormenting misery. Look at Martin Luther. Fasting. almost killing himself with religious
vigils, but his conscience was tormented that the law of God
touched the deep springs of his being, and he felt as though
the judgments were hanging over his head hour by hour. And all
the torments of a man who sees God is holy, I am sinful. God's
law touches every faculty of my being and all that I am. And
he's trying to work into acceptance what tormenting misery it's enough
to make a man blow his brains out. What a miserable condition
to be in. Am I speaking to someone in that
condition tonight? Your conscience has been made
sensitive by the application of God's holy law. And do you
know that that law is spiritual and holy and just and good? And
God has a right to demand of you perfect love to Him, heart,
mind, soul and strength, perfect love to your neighbor, which
interpreted means you'll have no rival in your affections to
God. You'll worship him in the appointed
way. You'll not take his name in vain. You'll regard the structure
of the seven-day cycle of life. You'll regard with sanctity the
parent-child relationship, the law of life and purity and property
and possessions and the tongue. You take that law seriously.
You read it as it's set forth in Matthew chapter 5 and you
see that lustful thoughts are adultery and anger unrestrained
is murder. And you read Romans 7, and you
know that covetousness is idolatry, and you say, Woe is me! What
can I do? And it seems the more you try
to work to bring that heart of yours into conformity with the
law, the more it spews out its filth. And you know nothing but
misery tonight. Ah, my friend, listen. To him
that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but of
debt. In that condition, you're under condemnation, and under
condemnation you will remain until you enter into a diametrically
opposed orbit of spiritual perspective. And thank God verse 5 describes
that for us. Let's look at it now. Having
considered the one who works, let's look in the second place
at the one who works not. And we're going to ask a few
questions about him. But to him that worketh not, but believeth
on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."
Question number one, who is he? Who is he described in the words,
to him that worketh not? He's got the same problem as
the other man. He stands under the condemnation of Romans 3.19.
He's part of that world. Jew and Gentile who stand under
the judgment of God. He's got the same problem. How
can I be right with God? But he has given up all attempts
to find the answer to the problem in his own working. is given
up that obvious way. He has no notions that his prayers,
his morality, his performance of duties in any way can form
the basis of acceptance with God. And he is also seen through
the subtle, subtle lie of the devil in that less obvious kind
of working. He knows that no measure of his
own grief or sorrow for sin no measure of repentance, not even
His face must stand between Him and the provision of God. And
He has come to say from the depths of His heart with spiritual understanding,
nothing, nothing, nothing without Him, nothing in my hands I bring. to thy cross, I cling. Not once foul, and now on my
way out of foulness. Once foul, and now I cling. Foul! I to the fountain fly. I come in my foulness, the foulness
of my hard heart. For what greater sin is there
than a hard heart to God? If you better fix up that sin
before you can come to Him, what hope is there that you'll come
to Him with any sin? If your gross sin in your
eyes before the law was applied to your conscience was addiction
to booze or to some other external sin, many a man is broken the
bondage of that with one ounce of the grace of God. But who's
going to break a hard heart? I was going to change a heart
of stone that's indifferent to God to a heart that beats as
a fleshy heart was not for God. And all my dear friends, some
of you keeping from Christ because you say, my heart's too hard.
My spirit is not broken for my sins. My friend, listen. The
man who watches not is the man who says, no measure of my grief
can I bring to commend myself. It is my grief and I don't have
grief. I don't bring him balls of obedience. He is the man who worketh not. He will not wiggle his little
finger to add anything to a righteousness already provided. Second question
we ask about him, we've already introduced him. What has resolved
his problem? Look at the text. But to him
that worketh not, but, notice the opposite of working, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. Oh, what precious
words. Let's take them apart. What has
resolved this problem? He has come to believe on him. His faith has turned wholly away
from himself and is fixed wholly on another. And who is the one
upon whom it is fixed? It is fixed upon the only God
who has provided a perfect righteousness for ungodly sinners. Look at
it. He has come to believe on Him who justifies, that is, declares
righteous, the ungodly. Now, that word ungodly is a strong
word. It's always used of wicked men. enmeshed in nothing but pure
wickedness. It is used in Romans 1.18. The
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all, here it is,
ungodliness. Romans 5 verse 6, when we were
without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. 1 Timothy 1.9, the law is made
for the ungodly. Jude 4 and verse 15, Verse 4
and verse 15 of the one chapter of Jude, the same word is used. Now what's happened to this man
who works not? He's come to the revelation that the God who summons
him to faith is the God who justifies ungodly sinners as ungodly. To state it in the beautiful
couplet of these two statements, Romans 5, 6, look at it. For
when we were yet without strength in due season, Christ died for
whom? For the ungodly. Now follow closely.
When the Lord Jesus poured out His life's blood for His people,
what were they? They were yet in their sins.
They were yet in bondage. They had no righteousness of
their own. He died for them as ungodly. Now follow closely.
When God justifies those for whom Christ died, what condition
are they in at the point that He justifies them? Partially
godly? They're in exactly the same condition
they were when Christ died for them. Wholly ungodly. I didn't say it. Look at the
text. He's come to believe in Him who justifies the ungodly. Is a sense of longing to please
Christ an act of godliness or ungodliness? It's an act of godliness. Is deep, sensitive sorrow for
sin? Is that an act of godliness or
ungodliness? It's an act of godliness. Repentance,
humility, sorrow, grief, principle of obedience, these are all the
fruits of a godly man. And though there is no break
in the time sequences, we'll see as we ask the fourth question
about this man. We have one more before that
one. But follow closely. At the point that a sinner receives
the provision of righteousness from God, he is, in God's eyes,
yet ungodly. He is, in his own eyes, yet ungodly. And it's that God who justifies
him who believes. Now anyone who's attended this
ministry for any length of time knows that we seek to be faithful.
in hammering out the biblical doctrine that God never saves
a man by faith without also bringing him to repentance, and the evidence
that we've repented is a godly life. I preached it to lords
days ago, but the same Bible that gives us that class of text
teaches us here in terms that only a man determined to pervert
them can misunderstand. God justifies the ungodly. As that truth broken in upon
your spirit, he justifies the ungodly. Well, having asked the question,
who is he? What's resolved this problem? We ask in the third
place, what's his condition? Well, look at it. Now to him
that worketh not, But believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is reckoned for righteousness." And the word reckoned immediately
brings us into the court of law. It is a legal term. It is imputed. It is accounted for righteousness. What's happened to the man who
dares to believe that God, for Christ's sake, justifies the
ungodly? He gets what his heart longs
for, a perfect righteousness. There is imputed to Him the perfect
righteousness of Jesus Christ, the righteousness wrought by
His own sinless life and His own vicarious death. His condition
is that described in Ephesians 1 as accepted in the Beloved,
and therefore all boasting is utterly undercut. As Paul says
in the latter part of chapter 3, where is boasting? No boasting,
why? Because we've come into the orbit
of a justification to those who believe as ungodly men. So they can't say that, well,
I did this, I repented, I sought, I, I, I, I, no, no. He found
me in my filth and uncleanness, and showed me the perfect righteousness
wrought in the life and death of His own dear Son. And I believed
unto life and salvation." That's his condition. He's ungodly at
the moment he believes, but now the fourth question, will he
remain ungodly? And the answer is very clear
in Scripture, no. For the same grace that revealed
that perfect righteousness Titus 2.12, that grace has appeared
teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live
soberly, righteously and godly in this present age. No ungodly
sinner ever believed on him who justifies the ungodly as ungodly
and then remained ungodly. Because at that moment a principle
of life is implanted within him, and godliness begins to be his
passion. He's still a sinner, but he's
never an ungodly man again. See the difference? But you better keep that line
of demarcation clear as it's kept in Scripture. Because no
man believes upon him who justifies the ungodly, without becoming
a godly man, don't you start bringing this over here and say,
until I begin to see the marks of godliness in me, I won't believe
on Him who justifies the ungodly. That's turning from Him who works
not to Him that worketh. And it will damn you, my friend. That's putting something between
you and the purely gracious provision of God in Jesus Christ. The two great heresies that are
within the human heart by nature and they break out sometimes
with great theological jargon and argumentation in the history
of the Church to blight the people of God are the twin errors of
legalism and antinomianism. And what are they? They are a
missing of this razor's edge truth of God's Word. The legalist
saying that I must do before I can be I must become before
I can embrace." The antinomian saying, because I have received,
it matters not what I am. The Bible does not need man's
lies to support itself. No truth of God needs the assistance
of man's lies. And the truth of the Word of
God is that we are not justified by our repentance, by our sincere
forsaking of sin, by our willingness to submit to the Lordship of
Christ or anything else. We are justified freely by His
grace. We believe on Him who justifies
the ungodly. That truth stands on its own
legs, an impregnable bastion of comfort for every disturbed
soul who knows he needs a righteousness not his own. But there's another
truth that stands on its own two feet, that all who had believed
on him who justifies the ungodly as ungodly will no longer be
ungodly, but out of gratitude to the Savior who loved them
and died for them and the God who has declare them righteous. They long to please Him, and
they do so in the power of a new life, so that their justification
is always wedded to their sanctification. Tonight my concern is not the
establishment of that principle. We did that two Sunday nights
ago. But it is to establish this principle, that the man who works
not is the man who rests upon Christ alone. Well, to summarize,
what is the great lesson of this text of scripture? And I can
do no better than to quote the words of Charles Hodge, who at
the close of his exposition of this chapter, where he gives
some of the principles of doctrinal perspective that are set forth
in any given chapter, says these words. I quote him now. The great
lesson of this text is that the renunciation of a legal, self-righteous
spirit is the first requisition of the gospel. The renunciation
of a legal, self-righteous spirit is the first requisition of the
gospel. This must be done or the gospel
cannot be accepted. He who works refuses to be saved
by grace. To use the words of Paul himself,
turn to Romans chapter 10, if you will, please. Romans chapter
10. Brethren, my heart's desire and
my supplication to God is for them, that is, his fellow Jews,
that they may be saved. Now in Paul's mind, what does
it mean to be saved? Well, in this context he'll tell
us. For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves
to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law unto righteousness for everyone that believeth. As Paul thinks
of his unsaved countrymen, How does he view their unsaved state? Well, he tells us in these words,
it's a state in which there is non-subjection to the righteousness
that God has provided. Now, they didn't go out and say,
we don't need a righteousness. There is no God. There is no
judgment. There is no law. There is no heaven. There is
no hell. Let's just eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we
die. These were not a bunch of hedonists. These were not a bunch
of libertines. They were concerned about righteousness. They say there is a God in heaven,
and that God is holy, and I am his creature, and I am accountable
to him, and I must have a righteousness, that is, a right standing before
him. But what did they do? They went
out to create their own. They were workers. And being
workers, they never submitted themselves to the righteousness
of God. One of the simplest biblical
definitions of a Christian is a man who has submitted to the
righteousness of God, the righteousness God provides, and who submitted
on the terms that God sets forth, faith alone. And oh, how subtle
is the enemy. And all around us in our world
this very night, there are people utterly indifferent to the question
with which we began tonight. How can I be right with God?
What do they need? They need the preaching of the
law of God to show them they'd better be right with God, for
a day of judgment is coming in which nothing else will matter,
and we need to thunder the law to people indifferent about righteousness. On the other hand, there's a
lot of people in so-called gospel churches who say, oh, I've clothed
in the righteousness of Christ. No concern for holiness. No desire
for obedience. What do we need to tell them?
We need to tell them if they have been justified as ungodly
sinners, the same God who justified them has taken them in hand and
will be sanctifying them. And if there's no evidence that
He's sanctifying, He's never justified them. We need to ponder
that message. Lord, listen to me. Those of
you who've been privileged to sit under a ministry such as
is extended from this pulpit, where at least in some measure
the law of God is preached and the great and awesome issues
of eternity are set before you, and who know that a life of holiness
is the indispensable evidence of new life in Christ, I fear
that some of you have yet to grasp this truth. To him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith, his conscious awareness, Some of you who are going on
and around in circles of dejection and hopeless despair, I plead
with you tonight, in Christ's name, stop your working! Stop
your doing! Believe on the God who, for Christ's
sake, justifies the ungodly. You say, but Pastor, I have a
hard heart! Yes, you are ungodly. Yes, but
I don't have to. Yes, you're ungodly that you
don't. Oh, but I know all that, and
God knows it, and yet that God says, believe and live. That God says, I've provided
a perfect righteousness. Believe and live. Ah, but someone says that doctrine
will lead to license. My friend, if you talk that way,
you've never experienced it. You mean to tell me if I were
sinking beneath the billows of an angry sea, and some man came
by who was a potential rescuer, and he rescued me freely of his
own kindness and risked his own life, that then I'd get out and
throw dung on him? I'd get out and then I'd spit
on him and say, because you didn't charge me to get out of the water,
I'm going to kick you in the knees. Oh, if he reached in graciously,
gratuitously, with no cost but the risk of his own life, every
time I see that man, I'll feel a sense of indebtedness to him.
And God doesn't need to say, pay me, or you won't obey me. He reaches down freely and graciously
in Jesus Christ and rescues sinners who are hell-bent to destroy
themselves. And when He rescues them freely,
they say, Oh, my Savior, here, Lord, I
give myself to you. It is all that I can do. You
bemoan your hard heart, my friend. It will continue to be hard till
it is broken at the sight of free grace. A heart that lingers
by Mount Sinai will always be a hard heart, and it will die
a hard heart, and it will go to hell a hard heart. The hard heart that gazes upon
Calvary is melted. A bleeding Savior I have viewed,
and now I hate my sin. Oh, may God grant that you look
to Christ, who lived, who died for the ungodly, and to the God
who justifies the ungodly, who believe upon Him and upon His
Son. Oh, that God will own the poor
efforts of His servant to preach this great and grand and fundamental
and essential truth. My friend, if you go into the
presence of God, thinking of Him in any other light than the
God who justifies the ungodly, I wouldn't change places with
you for a billion worlds, because you'll go condemned, bound to
the power of that law. It will press you into the deepest
hell and hold you there for all eternity, an eternal monument
of the righteousness of God. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The only way to escape being
an eternal monument of His righteous judgment against a broken law
is to find refuge in that perfect righteousness of His own dear
Son. The simplicity humbles us, doesn't
it? like Naaman, who was asked to go wash in a river, or if
only the Prophet had asked me to do some great thing. I can
imagine what may have happened that day in Numbers 21, when
bitten by the serpents and Moses commanded to make a serpent of
brass and hold it forth, with the great news that all who would
look in trust would live. They might have had the intellectuals
who said, this is all a stupid idea. And while they're debating
about the stupidity of it, they die from the snake bites. And
you might have had the sensitive souls who said, no, no. We're
bitten because of our own sin, and it's too simple and too easy
that we should simply live. We've offended God. We've grieved
God. It's not right that we should now, in the midst of our misery
brought upon us by our own sin, simply look and have all the
effects gone. It's not right. It's not right.
My friend, listen. Their greatest sin was not the
sin that brought the snake bites. But it was impugning the wisdom
of God and despising His grace that provided a remedy. And under the guise of a humility
that says, it's too simple, it's too easy, you're guilty of accusing
God of lack of wisdom. He says, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up that whosoever believeth may in Him, in Him, have eternal
life. Look and live. That's my parting
word to you tonight. Look and live. Oh, but Pastor, won't someone
think that... My friend, don't you be wiser
than the Holy Ghost. And if anybody looks and lives
tonight, you watch their life from here on in. It'll be a new
life. It'll be a holy life. It'll be
an obedient life. Where are you tonight? Verse
four, verse five. To him that worketh, are you
a worker, striving, hoping, struggling to produce a righteousness of
your own? Or have you come to that blessed cessation of your
own works? To him that worketh not, worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness. Where are you tonight? You say,
well, I'm somewhere. No, there ain't no middle. You're there,
there. Now, where are you? Is there
that trustful recumbency, as the old writers would say, that
resting upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone? God grant that it shall
be so, and I'll have no fears. that you'll go out and abuse
this doctrine and say, hey, you know, we saw the end of it, we'll
justify it, we'll go out and live with it. My friend, you
do that, and God will have a special place in hell for you, because
you've turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. But because
men turn grace into lasciviousness, I'm not going to change grace
into works. To him that work is not, must live. This is the promise of God. Let us pray.