Thank you, Brady. I love that
song. That is a savior I can trust my soul to. All right,
let's open our Bibles now again to Genesis chapter 15. I pray this before every service,
but I certainly have prayed tonight that God would send his spirit
on us and enable us to understand and to believe what I hope to
preach tonight. My subject and title is Righteousness
Imputed. Now this subject of righteousness
imputed is so important that it is impossible to understand
or to believe how it is God saves sinners unless we first understand
how it is God makes his people righteous. It's by the righteousness
of Christ being imputed to his people. You know, they say the
book of Job is the oldest recorded, oldest writing in the Bible,
that Job lived before Abraham, certainly long before Moses.
And this was Job's question, the age old question, how should
a man be just with God? How is that possible? Job said,
what is man that he should be clean? How is it possible that
he which is born of a woman should be righteous? How's that possible? That's the age old question.
And we can't know the answer to that question until we understand
this. Christ's righteousness imputed
to his people. We can't know anything about
how God saves sinners and we can't believe on Christ until
we understand this. How can God remain just and holy
and still justify the ungodly? The gospel we preach is the only
gospel that answers that question. Every other gospel lowers the
standard. In some way, somehow, God is not just that he would
ignore the sin of people. Or God is not just that Christ
would die for somebody. God sent him to hell anyway,
because it was up to them to accept Jesus. The gospel we preach
is the only gospel to answer this question. How can God be
just and right and holy and still justify a sinner like you and
me? How is that possible? Now, we're talking a lot about
righteousness tonight. Well, what is righteousness?
Righteousness is perfect obedience to God's law. It's not being
guilty of any sin. Now, that ought to make it obvious
to us, righteousness can't be earned by us. We can't earn righteousness
by our obedience to the law because all we do is break God's law.
Now, righteousness has been earned, but it was earned by the Lord
Jesus Christ. As a man made under the law,
made under the very same law we live under, the difference
between us and him is he obeyed it. He obeyed it perfectly. He
established a righteousness for his people. He made his people
righteous. Just like Adam made his race
unrighteous, Christ made his race to be righteous. And that
righteousness is received by God's people through faith, through
faith in Christ. It's received so simply. just
by believing that the Lord Jesus Christ is all it takes to save
me. He's all I need. I just trust my all to him. That
kind of faith is what receives its righteousness. Now, righteousness
imputed through faith. It's a cornerstone foundational
truth of all of the Bible. It's all the way through it.
You can't understand any of it, really, until you understand
it's Christ's righteousness imputed to his people. Righteousness
imputed as a pillar that holds up the whole gospel that we preach. It all hangs upon this. How can
a man be just with God? So it's a very important topic,
isn't it? Christ, our righteousness. Now, this is the very first time
in scripture that it's spelled out how a sinner has been made
righteous through faith in Christ. Look at verse six, Genesis 15.
And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness.
Now there were other believers who were righteous before Abraham
was born. Noah, I know he was righteous.
God said, I've seen Noah righteous before me, his generation. Abel
was righteous. He came with a blood sacrifice
to worship God through a blood sacrifice. That lamb Abel offered
is the picture of how it is. God makes his people righteous
through the sacrifice of Christ. I'm confident Adam was righteous.
Adam was one taught Abel. This is how God, is to be worshipped
through the blood sacrifice. So there were believers who lived
before Abraham, who were righteous before Abraham lived. But this
is the first time it's spelled out specifically, here's how
a sinner is made righteous. All these other men who were
women, who were believers, lived before Abraham, they were made
righteous the same way, but this is the first time it's spelled
out in scripture. It's through faith in Christ, by believing
God. And here's why I point that out.
Abraham is the father of the faithful. If you and I are going
to be made righteous, we're going to be made righteous the very
same way Abraham was made righteous. It's by believing God, by believing
the word of God. Now we'll look at these first
six verses of Genesis chapter 15. Make four points on how it
is that a sinner is made righteous in Christ, our righteousness.
Number one is this. A sinner can only be made righteous
through the sacrifice of Christ. Verse one says, after these things,
the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, fear
not Abram, I am thy shield. Now the Lord comes to Abraham
and he tells him, don't be afraid. And I wonder why did he tell
him that? Well, maybe Abraham had been thinking about what
he'd just done. He got a little bit concerned.
Maybe he got a little worried. I don't know. Abraham just won,
remember this great military victory over those four kings
He took all the spoils, all that wealth, just great wealth that
he took from those four kings, and he gave every last bit of
it to the King Solomon. Didn't keep any of it for himself.
He said, let these other fellows take some if they want. Let the
fellows have what they needed to eat as we went on this military
expedition, but I'm not keeping any of it. And Abraham got home,
and might be he got a little worried. Am I always going to
pay my bills? If I'd have kept all this wealth,
I'd never had to worry about money again. Am I going to run
short now? Did I make a mistake here? Maybe
Abraham was afraid. He went and poked all those kings
in the eyes. Now they're all going to gather.
He made an enemy of those fellas. And now they're going to gather
together and come seek their revenge on Abraham. And they're
going to have a surprise attack. And he's in trouble. And now
he's afraid. Always somebody's going to come
and attack him. I don't know if that's true or
not. I'm sure of this, the sudden appearance of the Lord Abraham
made him fear. That I know. I mean, all of us
ought to fear at being in the presence of almighty God. Now,
I don't know if Abraham was afraid he's going to wind up needy after
he gave away all those riches or not. I don't know if he's
afraid of these new earthly enemies he made. I don't know. He could
have been, couldn't he? Could have been. Our weak faith makes
us afraid of things we ought not be afraid of. So maybe he
was afraid of that. But we do know this, Abraham
felt fear, reverence, at suddenly being in the presence of the
Lord. The Lord suddenly appeared to him. And he should. Sinners like you and me should
fear being in the presence of a holy God. Our God is a consuming
fire. If we come before God as we are,
then our sin will be consumed. God's holiness and His justice
demands it. We can't stand in our sin in
God's presence. No sinner can do that. We have
to be righteous in order to be accepted. Now we know all we
are is sin, don't we? We think we're standing before
God? And God tells His people the same thing He tells Abraham,
fear not, fear not. You come boldly before my throne
of grace because I'm your shield. I'm your shield. I'm your shield
that will take all of the fire of God's wrath against your sin.
I'll shield it from you. I'll take it and protect you
from that fire so you'll not be destroyed. I'll be your shield
as you go into battle. I'll be your shield. We'll protect
you from all of Satan's fiery darts. And you know what Satan's
fiery darts are? They're accusations of our sin
and we think I'm afraid of those, because I'm guilty. I'm a sinner.
He hurls these accusations of sin against us. He's the accuser
of the brethren. And the Savior says, fear not.
Fear not. You don't have to fear Satan.
I'll protect you. I'll be your shield. So none
of those charges will ever be able to stick to you, and none
of them will be able to condemn you. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the shield of his people. He's the hiding place of his
people. He's the place where we hide from God's wrath against
our sin. Now here it is. Here's how God
can be just and justify the ungodly. Here's the answer to Job's question.
How is it possible that a sinful man can ever be just with God?
How can he be born of a woman? How can he possibly be righteous?
Here's the answer. Christ our Savior. That's the
answer. It's by hiding in Christ. God's
people hide in Christ and the punishment our sin deserves is
poured out. It all hits our shield. It all
hits Christ, our hiding place. And he takes the punishment that
the sin of his people deserves. Christ bears the heat of his
father's wrath against the sin of his people, and he bears it
till the heat's gone. You know, in the Old Testament,
every sacrifice they ever offered, the fire consumed the sacrifice,
didn't it? The fire burned till the sacrifice
was just burned up. Christ our Savior offered Himself
as land without spot to His Father. The sacrifice consumed the fire. He suffered until the fire went
out. And you know why the fire went
out? The sin that fueled the fire is gone. Put away by His
precious blood. Christ has suffered. Christ has
died. Sin's gone. And the Savior says,
fear not. Don't fear standing before God
in judgment. Don't fear God coming and striking you down for your
sin. Justice has already been satisfied in the death of the
substitute. So you'll never die. Your substitute died for you.
That's how God can be just and still justify the ungodly. I
look over second Corinthians chapter five. I know this is
almost every single person here. As soon as I said that scripture
reference could quote it in your head. We quote it all the time,
but I want to read it, look at it, let this sink in. Here's
how God's elect are made righteous. It's by the sacrifice of Christ
for our sin. Verse 21, for he, God the Father,
hath made him, God the Son, sin for us. Him who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now that's the
only way God could remain just and still justify the ungodliness.
The father made his son sin for his people. I was talking to
a preacher friend of mine the other day, and this verse came
up, and he got pretty riled up. People accuse us of saying when
we say that Christ was made sin, that we're accused of saying
Christ was made a sinner. And he said, I don't know anybody. I don't even know a false prophet
who says Christ was made a sinner. He said, I don't know anybody
who says that. Christ was made sin. He was made sin for his people. All the sin of all of his people
who met was put on the Lord Jesus Christ, his body upon the tree.
And when he was made sin, the father didn't say, well, now
this is my son. He knew no sin. He didn't really do this sin,
so I won't. I'll just kind of go light on
him. No. God is holy, and he fully
exhausted his wrath against all of that sin. He poured it all
out upon his son, unmitigated fury, unmitigated justice for
that sin, and he suffered until sin was gone, and he gave up
the ghost. He gave up the ghost. That's
how God's justice is satisfied. Sin has been punished in our
substitute. The father took the sin of his people away from them.
It doesn't belong to them anymore. He made it belong to his son.
He made his son to be sin for his people. And in exchange,
the father took the righteousness of his son and imputed it to
his people. He made them righteous. He gave
them that righteousness. He made them the very righteousness
of God in him. And he could do that because
he took the sin of his people and put it on his son. And his
son, by his sacrifice, made that sin to not exist anymore. It's
not like, well, it used to exist over here, not exist over here.
No, sir. It used to exist over here on us. The father put it
on his son, and his son made it not to exist anymore. And
in justice, in righteousness, God made his people righteous. because they are without sin
because the death of Christ, our substitute, took it away. That's how God made his people
righteous. All right, number two, look back at our text, Genesis
15. Righteousness can only be earned by the Lord Jesus Christ. After these things, the word
of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, fear not, Abram,
I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. I'm your reward. Now this is the thing that amazes
me and the thing that I love about God's salvation. How it
is God made it right for him to have mercy on his people.
He didn't do it by ignoring his law. He didn't do it by ignoring
the holiness of his character. He did it by satisfying it. And
he made it right for him to show mercy to his people. Instead
of condemning them, he made it right to show mercy to them.
Now that way, salvation is sure. for a sinner like me, that the
Father made it right for him to have mercy on my sorry soul. And the Lord comes to Abraham
and he tells him, Abraham, you don't have to worry about giving
away these riches. You don't have to worry about all this
earthly junk. I am your exceeding great reward. Now we think of
salvation as a gift, don't we? And that's the way we ought to
think of it, as a gift. It's absolutely right. Salvation
is by grace. Salvation is all unearned by
us. And even though we don't deserve
it, God gives it to us anyway. That's grace, isn't it? It's
a free gift. And the reward that God gives his people is not things. And you know why we think that
when we think of all these blessings and things? It's because we're
so tied to this flesh. But the blessing God gives his
people is not things. The reward is a person. The Savior says, I am thy exceeding
great reward. The reward is not streets of
gold and pearly gates and a big house on a hill in heaven. The
reward is Christ. It's knowing Him. The reward
is seeing Him. The reward is being made just
like Him. Just like Him. I'm telling you,
you can't find a greater reward than that. Being made just like
Christ. What a reward. and all the gospel
that we preach, everything we hope for, it's all in a person. Salvation is a person. Salvation
is knowing and loving and trusting a person. Salvation is not in
knowing the right doctrines. Brother Fortner told me one time,
I wouldn't spend two seconds trying to convince anybody that
election is true. I wouldn't spend two seconds
trying to convince anybody. He said, I will preach Christ to
them. And if the father's pleased to reveal Christ to them, they'll
have no problem with election. See, if you know Christ, you
believe him, it's going to be as plain as day to you. He chose
me. I didn't choose him. It's obvious,
isn't it? See, if you know the person,
all your doctrine will be right. If you know Christ, you're going
to know this. He didn't die for somebody that's going to go to
hell. He didn't die for somebody to give somebody a chance to
be saved. If Christ died for somebody, this is what I know
he did. He saved his people from their sin. That's what he came
to do. And that's exactly what he did.
He's the son of God. Of course his death redeemed
everybody that he died for. Of course it did. Christ died
for his elect and only his elect. And none of those people can
ever perish. Because Christ died in their place. If Christ died
for you, you know this. Your debt's paid. You can't be
condemned. See, your doctrine will be right
if you know and trust Christ. So don't bother trying to teach
somebody doctrine. Just preach Christ to them. Tell
them about Christ. Their doctrine will fall right
into place. You don't have to worry about
an Armenian thinking they got to make their decision for Jesus
in order to be saved. If you know Christ, you'll know
this. Salvation is by grace. It's by grace. I can't earn it.
It had to be given to me freely by His grace. I can't earn salvation. I can only receive it. But salvation's
earned. Now, we don't earn it, but salvation
is earned. Somebody had to earn it. Salvation
is earned by the Lord Jesus Christ. The word reward here, I just
kind of thought that word meant free gift or something like that.
But you know what it means? It means wages. It means pay. That's exactly what it means.
Something that somebody earned. Wages are something that belong
to you. They're rightfully yours because you earned them, didn't
you? I used to, when I worked the warehouse, go around on Fridays,
hand out checks to people that worked for me. People would say
thank you. I mean, what do you say? But you're welcome. This
is what I always thought. Don't thank me. You earned it. Thank you for showing up to work.
Wages is something you earned. It belongs to you. Well, Scripture
says the wages of sin is death. Now that's all you and I can
earn by our works. Death. Because everything we
do is sin. So how is it possible our wages
can be Christ? How is it possible that our pay
can be Christ? How is it possible our wages
can be righteousness? How is that even possible if
the wages of sin is death? Well, it's our wages because
the Lord Jesus Christ earned it for his people. He earned
it as their federal head, and what he did, he did for his people.
Christ is the head of the body, and everything he did, his people
did anyway. See, it's our wages because Christ
earned it for us. The Lord Jesus Christ made his
people the righteousness of God in him. And it's their righteousness. It rightfully belongs to them.
Because Christ earned it for them and he gave it to them.
It's theirs. It belongs to them because he
gave it to them. And God's justice demands those people be saved. That they be ultimately glorified
together with Christ because they have been made righteous. If you believe Christ, you do
not have to fear standing before the judgment seat of Christ.
You do not have to fear at all judgment in any way whatsoever,
because God made it right for him to glorify his people. And you who believe, I personally
don't believe that a believer's gonna even stand in judgment.
We've already been judged in Christ, However that's going
to work, I don't know. That's just what I happen to
think. But you don't have to worry about it. God's justice
demands you be glorified, because Christ made you righteous. That's
the reward. That's the wages that's yours,
because Christ earned it for you. All right, number three. Righteousness is received through
faith in Christ. You're not made righteous when
you believe. Christ made you righteous. Any more and you became
a sinner first time you sinned. Adam made you a sinner, didn't
he? Adam made you unrighteous by what he did. You're just born
that way. You're just born coming into the world that way, speaking
lies. Christ made his people righteous. We receive it in our
experience when God gives us faith in Christ. That's what
happened with Abraham here. Abraham trusted the Lord Jesus
Christ. God gave Abraham faith to trust
the one who was coming. Abraham had faith. He believed.
He looked forward to Christ. He looked forward to his coming.
Abraham saw my day and was glad. That's what the Lord said. If
God's gonna save you and me, it's gonna be by the very same
faith. Faith that looks to, trusts in, and relies on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We just are looking back to his
finished work while Abraham looked forward to it. But it's faith
in the same person. Faith in the same one who established
righteousness for his people. Now our text says, and I never
saw this before I started studying this, it never really occurred
to me, the word of the Lord came and spoke to Abraham. Well, who's
the word of the Lord? Christ the Savior. John told
us that in John 1, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the word of God, pre-incarnate appearance had to be, came and
talked to Abraham and made this promise to him. Now, 10 years
ago in our, in our studies, just been a few chapters, but 10 years
ago, God promised Abraham, he and Sarah would have son. They
still don't have some, they're still childless. So look what
Abraham says. Verse two and Abram said, Lord
God, what will thou give me? Seeing I go childless and the
steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said,
behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born of
my house is mine heir. Now this is not a question of
unbelief. Abram didn't ask this because he didn't believe God.
He asked this question because he did believe God. He said,
Lord, you said I'd have a son. I believe you. But where's he at? Lord, you
said the whole earth is gonna be blessed by my seed. But I
don't have a son. Where's this coming from? Where's
this blessing coming from if I don't have a son? I believe
the seed you promised, but where's the son? And it's a fair question. God promised it. When's he gonna
fulfill it? So the Lord answers in verse
four. And behold, the word of the Lord, Lord Jesus Christ came
unto him, saying, this should not be thine heir, but he that
should come forth out of thine own bowels should be thine heir.
And he brought him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven
and tell the stars if they'll be able to number them. And he
said unto him, so shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord
and he counted it to him for righteousness. Abraham believed. He believed the Lord who spoke
to him. He believed the Lord Jesus Christ.
This was Christ speaking and he believed him. So he did more
than believe what the Lord said. He believed the one who's speaking.
He did more than believe Isaac's gonna be born someday. Abraham
is looking a whole lot further down the road than this. He's
looking to the Redeemer. He's looking past Isaac to the
one who would come from Isaac. Abraham is looking to Christ,
the seed. The apostle told us that, Galatians
3.16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. And he saith not into seeds as
of many, but as of one, into thy seed. which is Christ. That's
who Abraham's looking for. Abraham believed and he trusted
his soul to Christ. He believed him and God counted
it. He imputed it to him for righteousness. Now God didn't just suddenly
make Abraham righteous because he believed. That's not what
imputed means. That's not what accounted means. Impute is an
accounting term. You can only impute what's already
there. You can only record in the books
and charge to the books what's already there. I've used this
example many times. I've worked at the warehouse.
I was in charge of the finances, and I would take care of the
bank account. Every day, I would log in the deposit that we made
for that day. Now our new bank balance is this. Some days, we made huge deposits,
maybe $1.5, $1.75 million, just all in one day. Well, buddy, I can't put on those
books a $1.5 million deposit unless one's been made. I imputed
there what was already made. God imputed righteousness to
Abraham because Christ made him righteous
and he received it by faith. This is in Abraham's experience.
He received it by faith. He received it by believing the
seed. Christ is all it takes to save
me. Abraham had no children. God said, look up here at the
stars. I mean, can you imagine how many stars you saw in that
with no pollution or anything? We used to go down. I would get
off work on a Friday night, and we would go see Janice's mother.
She lives down in Cherokee, North Carolina. We'd go over the Smoky
Mountains there. And a couple times, I'd stop
at the very top of that mountain. That means close to midnight
probably, you know, at this time. in the dark, you know. And I
pull off the side of the road and said, let's look at these
stars. And I turned off the car. That's
what freaked Jan out. She said, don't turn that car
off up here, you know. I'm just, ah, what if it doesn't
start? I want to turn the lights out. I said, look at these stars.
Can you imagine how many stars Abraham saw that night? No pollution,
no white pollution, no smog, no nothing. All the stars. God said, that's how many children
you're That's how many people the Lord Jesus Christ is going
to redeem. And Abraham believed it before
he ever had a son. Because he believed the word
of God. He believed what God said. Now
the only way a sinner can be made righteous is through faith
in Christ. It's by trusting him. Even though
we can't imagine how he's going to do it. He's going to keep
his word. He's going to save his people.
He's going to save them without any works of our own. Righteousness
cannot come by the law. Abraham here, righteousness was
imputed to him. The law is not going to begin
for their 400 years. Law's got nothing to do with
this. It's all faith in Christ. Abraham wasn't righteous by keeping
laws or observing ceremonies. He's not circumcised yet. Abraham
was made righteous by trusting Christ. It's by faith in Christ. All right, here's the last thing.
Christ our righteousness is only revealed through the preached
word of God. Now Abraham believed Christ.
He's the word of God. The word of the Lord came to
him. Abraham believed him. But he also believed the spoken
word of God, didn't he? God made this promise to him.
Abraham believed it. Abraham believed what God said.
You want to believe what God says to you? God's not going
to talk to you audibly like he did to Abraham, but you want
to believe what God has to say to you? Here it is. This is what God has to say to
me. Everything you need to know in
order to believe on Christ is right here. Every blessing God
has for a sinner is revealed right here. This is what God
says. Now open it up and read it and believe it. Now I know
when you open up and read the word of God, it's hard to understand,
isn't it, sometimes? Sometimes it's hard to understand.
Don't you often feel like that Ethiopian eunuch? How can I understand
what's being said here, except some man tell me? Well, that's
where preaching comes in. This book is what God has to
say to men, and God's pleased to reveal it to his people through
the foolishness of preaching, by preaching the word. I wrote
an article on this for the bulletin last Sunday. I'm so committed
to this. I'm so determined, God is my
helper, I'm determined to do this, to preach nothing to you
but Christ. To preach nothing to you but
this word, and God help us to never get off on a tangent. There's
a lot of things I think. There's a lot of opinions of
mine that I hold very, very dear. But not one of them is gonna
do a blessed thing for your soul. But this will. And I tell you,
I'm determined to preach it. By God's grace, I'm determined
to preach it, because righteousness comes by believing the word of
God, the truth of God, the gospel of Christ that's revealed in
this word. Righteousness comes by hearing the preaching of the
bare word of God, not trying to impress anybody with all of
your oratory skills and all these things, you know. Somebody told
me recently, oh, I'd love to go hear this preacher, you know.
I mean, he just looks the part. He's so handsome. Well, I mean,
I reckon that's better than being ugly. I mean, I don't know. But
that's not helping you none. Righteousness comes by believing
the bare preaching of the Word of God, the bare Word of God. Righteousness doesn't come by
going through some religious ceremony now. It's by believing
the Word. What does God say? I mean, let's
find out what God says and believe it. Righteousness is not feeling. You know, we get this good religious
feeling because we've got this religious atmosphere created
by, you know, smokes and candles and music and so forth, you know.
Righteousness is a state of the soul where Christ has made his
people righteous. And that righteousness can only
be believed by the word of God. It can only be received by believing
the word of God. And that's why we constantly
preach it. That's why we're so committed to preaching. We can't
be made righteous by anything that we do. Even believing Christ
doesn't make us righteous, does it? Christ made us righteous.
Believing Christ enables us to receive it. Believing Christ
is when we receive it by experience. Christ made that righteousness
on Calvary's tree. And he reveals that to his people
through the preached word. Somebody's got to, if we're going
to believe him, somebody's got to preach him to us, don't they?
Somebody's got to. Abraham is called the father
of the faithful. Like I said, he wasn't the first one to have
faith in Christ, but he was the first one where they were spelled
out this way. He was made righteous, imputed righteousness to him
because he believed God. Abraham is the father in this
way. He's the illustration that God chose in scripture to show
us how it is he saves his people by his grace. Not their works,
by His grace. By the righteousness of Christ
imputed to Him. That's why I read Romans 4 to
start the service. That's what it's all about. Righteousness
comes by believing Christ, not our works. If God's going to
save you and me, He's going to do it the same way He did Abraham.
By giving us faith to believe Christ. I go right back to my
opening comments when I started the message tonight. It's my
prayer that the Lord will take His word It has been praised
and cause us to believe it, cause us to believe it. That's how
God makes his people receive the righteousness that Christ
made for them. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our father, how we thank you
for salvation that is full and sure and just, satisfies every
attribute of your holiness and your justice and your righteousness.
through the sacrifice of Christ our Savior, where he put the
sin of his people away by his sacrifice and made them righteous. Father, I pray that you'd give
each heart here this evening faith to believe him, faith to
believe he's all I need. I don't have any of my works,
any of my experience, anything I think, say, or do to him, but
trust Christ and Christ alone. Father, exalt him so much that
he's all we see, all we believe, and all we desire. It is in his
precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Isaac. Stand and sing 222.