Romans chapter four. I've entitled
the message this morning, a message on faith, a message on faith. As we've been going through these
previous verses, I hope that we've seen this, that Paul has
made so clear that salvation is by faith alone. We're not
righteous by anything that we do. We can only be made righteous
through Christ, our righteousness, through faith in Christ. Christ
is the one who did all the work, and we rest in Him. And this
faith in Christ is very, very important. We can only be saved
by faith. Ephesians 2 verse 8 says, by
grace are you saved through faith. That not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. The only way we can have spiritual life is
by faith. The just should live by faith.
The only way we can be justified is by faith. Romans 3 verse 28
across the page here, Paul says, therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. We can
only be made righteous through faith. Verse five of Romans chapter
four, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
And then we can only please God by faith. The writer to the Hebrews
says, without faith, it's impossible to please Him. There's only one
faith. Only one faith. And every believer
has it. One Lord, one faith, and one
baptism. That makes it pretty obvious.
Everything we need, we must have by faith. Faith is very important.
In the previous messages, we've talked a lot about faith. Righteousness
comes by faith. We must be justified by faith.
So my question this morning is, let's make this very clear. What
is saving faith? And then I want to answer this
question. Do I have it? Do I have saving faith? And we learn a lot about faith
by looking at the life of Abraham. Abraham's called the father of
the faithful. Now, everyone who's ever been saved, they've been
saved by faith. Even those who were saved before
Abraham lived. But Abraham's called the father
of the faithful. Abraham's the first man God made clear the
Messiah is coming through your life. Abraham is given to us
as an example of saving faith. He's the father of the faithful.
There's several things we can learn about faith from Abraham.
First, we learn this. This is good news. Faith is not
given to people who deserve it. It's given to people who do not
deserve it. Where was Abraham found? Where was Abraham God
founded? He was bound down to a stone
statue. He was an idolater. That's good news to me. I don't
have to be good enough for God to give me saving faith. He gives
it to people who don't deserve it. Second, we learn this. Faith is always tried. The Jews
say Abraham had 10 great trials. And those trials did this. They
revealed that Abraham's faith was the real McCoy. And that's
comforting to know that when I'm tried, It's not because God's
quit loving me. No, it's because He does. He's
tried me to reveal and strengthen true faith. Third, we learned
this from Abraham. Faith never looks to the blessings
of this life so that we know God's blessed us. Abraham always
looked to Christ. He saw my day and was glad. Abraham
just believed God. God said, Abraham, your seed's
going to possess. the entire land of Canaan. Abraham never
owned a foot of it, except for Sarah's grave. But he believed. His seed is going to inherit
this land. In our text this morning, Paul gives us several other things
about saving faith. He shows us the nature of saving
faith. And the first one's this, the
foundation of faith. What's the foundation of faith?
It's the Word of God. Verse 17 says, as it's written,
as it's written. Abraham's faith was in the word
of God, what was written. And in Abraham's case, the word
was spoken to him. Verse 18, who against hope believed
in hope that he might become the father of many nations. Why
did he believe that? According to that which was spoken,
he believed the word of God. Abraham believed the promise
of God, the spoken promise. Verse 20, He staggered not at
the promise of God through unbelief. The foundation of Abraham's faith
was the word of God. Like I said, God told Abraham,
your seed is going to possess this land. Abraham never owned
any of it. He lived on it, but he was just,
you know, a migrant going through there. He lived there in tents
with Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him. He never had
any ownership deeds of it, but he believed without seeing any
earthly evidence that this was so. He believed, even when he
didn't have a son, even when he didn't have a seed, he believed
his seed's going to inherit this land. Because he believed the
word of God. That's the foundation of faith.
God told Abraham, Abraham, this is my promise to you. You're
going to have a son. You're 100, Sarah's 90. Stop
being with her after the manner of women. She's already gone
through menopause. It's impossible for her to have
a son. But I'm telling you, you're going to have a son. That's my
promise to you. And when it was impossible, physically impossible
for that to happen, Abraham believed God because he believed the Word
of God. You and I have saving faith.
The foundation of our faith is exactly the same as Abraham.
We believe the Word of God. Now, the Bible is not hard to
understand. Understanding the Bible is not
our problem. Believing is our problem. the
only way we can believe the Word of God. And when I say believe,
I don't mean just give mental assent, this is so. When I'm
talking about believing, I mean hanging the entirety of my eternal
soul upon it. The only way I can do that is
by God-given faith. We believe God's Word by faith.
And if you believe this book, you might read something and
you don't understand How that can be, you might not understand,
but if you believe it, simply because God's Word says it, you
have saved the day. The foundation of faith is the
Word of God. The only way we can know God
is through His Word. We have to know God if we would
be saved. Well, you wonder who God is?
Would you like to know who God is? God is who He says He is
in this book. That's who He is. Not who we
think He is, it's who He says He is. God is three persons,
but He's one God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Three distinct persons, but one
God. I understand that. I believe it. Why would you believe
such a thing? That's what God says He is. That's
who God says He is in His word. God's holy. I know that because
I read that in His word. God is both just and He's merciful
at the same time. through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The only way we can find out that's who God is, is in His
Word. Then we also can find out who we are in God's Word. And
we're gonna be saved, God's got to show us who we are. Well,
if you have saving faith, you believe exactly what this book
says about you. Even though it's very unflattering. Bruce Crabtree told me he was
in Cottagefield for a conference. Sunday morning, he got up and
he listened to Brother Mike Walker's radio program. He came to service,
he told Mike, he said, you don't think very much of us, do you?
Well, you can't think very much of us if you believe what this
book says about us. I mean, this paints an awful,
ugly picture of who we are by nature. This book says that you
and me, man, woman, boy and girl that's ever descended from Adam's
loins is dead in sin. We're vile, we're ugly, we're
unable to do anything for ourselves. We can't do anything to make
ourselves righteous and acceptable before God, and we can't do anything
to get God to save us. We're dead, unable to do anything. That's who we are, and what's
worse, our nature likes it that way. Our nature drinks iniquity
like water. We're rebels against God. We
will not and cannot come to Him. That's who we are by nature.
Then this book also tells us, how does God save sinners? Well,
I want to know that, don't you? If you're a sinner, you wonder,
how can God save a sinner like me? God saves sinners exactly
how He says He does. It doesn't matter what I think.
It doesn't matter what you think. It doesn't matter what anybody
thinks. All that matters is, what does God's Word say? God
gave us a whole book to tell us how He saves sinners. It's
one way. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what every page in this book points to. That's how God saves
sinners. In His Son. The Father elected
a people to save. He put them in His Son to be
their surety before He ever created anything. The Son came as a man. God's a Son. became a man, was
born as a real baby, a man. And he worked out, living under
the law, a perfect obedience that he gives to his people.
That's how he makes some money. Then he went to the cross and
he suffered and he bled and died. And with his blood, he blotted
out the sin of his people. The death of Christ satisfied
God's justice against all the sin of his people. So the Holy
Spirit comes and he gives life, he gives faith, everyone that
Christ died for, there's not a chance any of them can perish. There's not a chance any of them
will miss faith. Not a chance. The Holy Spirit's
going to come and see to it. And then God's going to keep
those people by his grace. He'll keep them to the end. Their
salvation, sure. That's how God saves sinners.
That's how he saves them. The Holy Spirit comes and he
gives a new birth. A new birth where there's a new
man born. That new man cannot sin. It's impossible for him
to sin because his nature's holy. He's a partaker of the divine
nature. Now God's word says that I'm
righteous. If I'm born again, God's word
says I'm righteous. Even though when I look at myself,
I don't see it. All I see about myself is sin.
But I believe I'm righteous. Eric, how can anybody believe
that? There's only one way. Faith. God's word says it. I
believe it with all my heart. I believe that because that's
what God's word says. See faith, I said this in the
class this morning, faith goes to the scriptures to find out
what I believe. I don't go to the church. I don't
go to church history. I don't go to the reformers and read
their writings. If I want to know what I believe, I go to
God's word, find out what it says, and that's what I believe.
God said it. That's it. He said it and I believe
it because the foundation of faith is the word of God. And
we preach nothing but God's word, nothing but the word of God,
because what you and I need to hear is thus saith the Lord. That's what we need to hear.
That's the message of this book. And the only way we can receive
that the saving faith is through the preaching of God's word.
Look over a few pages of Romans chapter 10. I think of this verse every week. It gives me such encouragement
to preach the gospel. Romans 10, 17. So then faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Now that'll
answer your every question. If you ever wonder, why does
Frank only ever go verse by verse through the scriptures? Because
faith cometh by hearing. Hearing the word of God. The
foundation of faith is the word of God. Second, the object of
saving faith God himself. Romans 4 verse 17. As it's written,
I've made thee the father of many nations, but for him whom
he believed, even God. Abraham believed God. Now you
notice it doesn't say Abraham believed there is a God. Only
a fool wouldn't believe that God is. Only a fool would believe
that. The devil believed because they know there's a God. They
know he is, but they're not saved. Abraham didn't just believe there
is a God. It doesn't say Abraham believed in God or even that
Abraham believed on God. Abraham didn't believe the doctrines
of grace. What did Abraham believe? He believed God. He believed
God. And there's a difference. If
you believe God, I can't explain that difference. But if you believe
him, you know the difference. Saving faith never believes what? Never. Saving faith is always in a person. Abraham believed God. If you
and I have saving faith, we do too. We believe God. If we have
saving faith, our faith is not in what our favorite preachers
say. If we have saving faith, it's not based upon what our
parents or what our friends or what people who we believe know
the Lord say. Saving faith rests in a person. In one person. Always the same
person. The Lord Jesus Christ. Apostle
Paul said, I know whom I have believed. And because Paul believed
God, he believed Christ. He believed who he is. He believed
him. Therefore, he's confident that Christ will keep him to
the end. See, he believes that because he knows who. He believed
God. See, faith always has to do with believing God, who He
is. And because of who He is, because
we know Him, we believe Him, then we know beyond a shadow
of a doubt, He did what He came to do. He didn't come try to
save anybody. He came and He did save His people
from their sin. Abraham believed God. And since
he believed God, he believed God would do everything He said
He'd do. At the end of verse 17, He identifies God here, this
is the God Abraham believed, who caused those things which
be not as though they were. God talked about things that
hadn't happened yet in the past tense. That's the way he spoke
to Abraham. The promise of God is so sure. His promise is just as sure,
just as certain as if it already happened. God came to Abraham
and told him, I'm going to give you a son. Did you notice how
God spoke in the past tense? Here's Abraham, he's childless.
And God says, I have made you the father of many nations. It's
already done. The promise of God is that sure.
And saving faith always rests right there. Paul's dead. Look over at chapter eight of
Romans. Because Paul believed God, this is how he talked about
him. This is how he talked about God's purpose of redemption.
Romans 8, verse 28. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow. He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Now, I'm no English genius, but
I know he's speaking there in the past tense. He has also glorified. You who believe are sitting right
here. We're not glorified. When we look at each other, we
don't see glorified flesh. But God says he also has already
glorified us. Because the promise of God is
so sure, the purpose of God is so sure, it's already done. God speaks of it in the past
tense. Now, what are you going to say to that? Well, I can tell
you what saving faith says to it. Look at verse 31. What shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Saving faith can rest right there
because we believe God. We believe who he is. And all those things we believe
he'll do are all completely dependent on who he is. If we believe God,
this is what we believe, his purpose of the redemption of
his people can't fail. It's impossible because we believe
in him. All right, third. Saving faith believes God who
gives spiritual life to the dead. Verse 17, as it's written, I've
made thee a father of many nations. Before him whom he believed,
even God, who quickeneth the dead, who quickeneth the dead.
Salvation involves a new birth. It's the birth of a new man who's
got a new nature. He's a new man who never existed
before, and he's the opposite of the old man. He's the opposite
of the nature of Adam in every way. Now listen, salvation doesn't
have anything to do with this flesh. Salvation is not this
flesh getting some spiritual light or some spiritual understanding. The flesh is darkness. The flesh
is dead. And it'll never be anything but
dead. It'll never be anything but darkness. So the flesh can't
have any spiritual life. Impossibility. There's got to
be a new man born. Salvation is not in the flesh.
Starting to act better. Starting to act more religious,
you know. Just going to church and giving your offering and
doing... That's not salvation. Hadn't Paul made this plain?
Sinners cannot be justified by anything they do. Or justified
how? There's got to be a new man born
that's got faith, that believes God. Salvation is not in the
flesh, learning some true things. You can teach anybody true things
from the Bible. It's like I said, the Bible is
not hard to understand. If somebody's got any understanding,
they can tell you what that means, what that's saying. See, he knows
all kinds of true things, but he doesn't know God, does he?
He knows God, he is, but he doesn't know God. He knows God, he is,
but he doesn't believe Him. Salvation, not learning some
true things. Salvation is the birth of a new
man who's got a new nature. That's why our Lord told Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, you know the scriptures, you know those Old Testament
scriptures. But you're dead, you're in darkness. If you would
be saved, you must be born again. If you would see the kingdom
of God, you must be born again. There can be no salvation without
the new birth. Well, who gives this life to
the dead? Where can I find it? The same one who gave life to
Sarah's dead womb. God said, told Abraham, I will
return. I'm not gonna send somebody else.
I will return. According to the time of life,
and when I return, Sarah's gonna have a son. When I return, and
he gave life to Sarah's dead womb, nine months later, Isaac
was born. Years and years later, the Savior
descended from the line of Isaac. Because God came and gave life
to Sarah's dead woman. God the Holy Spirit comes to
His people. The people that the Father chose.
The people that Christ died for. And they're dead. Oh, they're
dead. They're rotten. They're stinking. They're lost.
They're rebels. And He comes and gives life.
That's a whole lot more miraculous than Sarah giving birth to Isaac. Much more miraculous than that.
The Holy Spirit comes and gives spiritual life to the spiritually
dead. He causes a new heart to be born
in those people. The Holy Spirit comes and gives
eternal life, eternal life to those who are dead in trespasses
and sins. And I'll tell you how that life
is had. It's had through faith in Christ. Look back at John
chapter 17. The only way that life comes is through faith in
Christ. John 17, verse 1. These words
speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father,
the hours come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou has given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him. See, he comes, he gives eternal life. And this
is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God in
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast seen. That's the only way we
can know God. That's the only way we can have
this eternal life is to know God by faith. And this new birth
is the gift of God. The Holy Spirit gives it. Saving
faith believes God gives spiritual life to the dead. Here's the fourth thing I want
to see about faith. It's faith's strength. Don't
be concerned. I start talking about faith strength.
You know, we start talking about the strength of faith. Every
believer immediately becomes worried because I look at my
faith and it's awful weak. It's just boy, it's weak. Now,
it's not the strength of our faith that ever saves. It's the
object of our faith that saves. But our faith ought to be strong.
At every moment, our faith should be strong because our faith is
based upon the Word of God that cannot be in a hurry. Our faith
is based on God Himself who cannot fail. Our faith ought to be strong
because it's in God. It's in Christ. He'll do what
He promised to do. But this is just the sad reality
of the matter. The strength of our faith ebbs
and flows. Abraham's did. Abraham had genuine
saving faith and even Abraham's faith ebbed and flowed, ebbed
and flowed. He goes into a strange land and
he tells Sarah, he said, tell them you're my sister because
I don't kill them. Where was Abraham's faith? I understand,
don't you? Our faith just is sometimes awful
weak. And the weakness of that faith can only come from unbelief.
I mean, the only reason we'd be weak in faith is we don't
believe God's going to do what he said he'd do. There's no other explanation
for it. But thankfully, now that's a
witness. That's the way we are. But thankfully, We're not saved
because of the strength of our faith at any given moment. We're
saved because of the object of our faith. Our salvation is sure
because Christ, the object of our faith, cannot fail. And that's where strength's faith
is found. And we're looking to Christ. Faith cannot waver. Abraham believed God by looking
to God. Not by looking to reasons for
hope in this life or in this flesh, but by looking to God.
Verse 18. Who against hope, against any
fleshly reason for hope, believed in hope that he might become
the father of many nations according to that which was spoken, so
shall thy seed be. A saving faith believes God when
there's no human reason to do it. Saving faith is not believing
human logic. Now, the gospel is logical. I
mean, there's no other message that's preached that's logical.
Every other message that's preached, if you take two seconds to think
about it, makes no sense. The gospel is logical. But that's
not why we believe it. No. Saving faith is not human
understanding. I make great effort to preach. In a way, I look over every word
I plan to say Does that make sense to people who understand
that word? Sometimes I ask Jane, this is what I'm saying, does
this make sense? I want people to understand what I'm preaching.
But saving faith is not human understanding. When we think
on the things of the Lord, we think about who God is, we think
about how He saves sinners. We can't understand how these
things can be. I don't understand how I can
be made righteous and how Christ can be made sin. I don't understand
how he can be made sin, yet he'd be the sinless sacrifice. I don't
understand how that can be. I don't understand how there
can be two opposite natures in me. And both of them are me. This man of sin and flesh and
decay and rebellion, that's me. That's not somebody else, that's
me. And this man who believes God. who loves God, who loves
the gospel, who hungers and thirsts after righteous. That's really
me, too. That's me. God caused me, born in me. I
don't understand that. There's one me, but there's two
nature. I don't understand that. And
I can't understand that. Nobody can. Because saving faith
is supernatural. Saving faith is a supernatural
gift of God to believe things that are humanly impossible.
It's to believe things we cannot see. You can't see election,
can you? Saving faith is the evidence
of it. With men, these things are impossible. But with God,
all things are possible. That's the strength of saving
faith. The next faith has got nothing to do with this body.
Abraham did not consider the weakness of his own body. What
he could or could not do, he just believed God. Verse 19.
Being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead. When
he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. Abraham believed God even though
it was physically impossible. Because the promise of God never
depends upon us. What we can or can't do. Never.
The promise of God always depends upon what God said he's going
to do for his people. It always depends upon God. The
strength of saving faith is looking away from ourselves and looking
to Christ. That's where saving faith is
strong. I look at me, I don't see any
reason for salvation. When I look at me, what I am,
what I think, what I do, I don't see in me any hint of righteousness
or any hint of sanctification. When I look at this body, I don't
see any hint that this body could ever possibly rise from the dead. I see a lot of reasons it's going
to die. I see a lot of evidence for that, but I don't see any
reason how it could ever be resurrected. But you know, I believe every
one of those things. I believe God saved me. I believe he made
me righteous. I believe Christ is my sanctification.
And just like our brother Job, I believe One day, this body
is going to rise from the grave and with these eyes, I'm going
to see the Lord and not another. He won't be a stranger. I'm going
to look on him. I'm going to know him. I'm going to be with him.
Frank, how in this earth can you believe any of those things?
I'm not looking at any of those things. I believe. I'm looking
to Christ, who is my salvation, who is my righteousness, who
is my sanctification, and Christ who is my resurrection. That's
how I can believe those things. Then look at verse 20. Abraham
staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
he was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Abraham did not
stagger at the promise of God, even though he didn't have the
first clue how God's going to do what he said he'd do. That's
just fine with Abraham. He didn't have to understand
how God was going to give him a son. He didn't have to understand
All those people are going to have those land of giants and
strong nations and walled cities. All you have to do is believe
God. That's all you have to do. And if we know God, this is what
we know. All things are possible with
God. Nothing's too hard for God. Now these want to be theologians
who fill up the Internet. Y'all stay away from them. But
this is what they want to talk about. They always want to talk
about how and when. How and when. When was it that
Christ put my sin away? Was it when he died at Calvary?
Was it when I believed? Was it when I keep following?
When was it? When is what they're interested in. They're interested
in how. How is it that Christ could put
my sin away? You know, and they want to talk
about all the mechanics of how God did that. And when they start
to do that, you know what they do? They just twist themselves
up in a knot. They twist the scriptures and
they twist themselves up and they cause themselves and others
to stumble. Faith doesn't stagger at that. Faith just says, Christ
took my sin away and put it away under his blood. I believe that
says what God said. Faith doesn't stagger at that
one bit. Faith just believes. These wannabe theologians, boy,
they wanna talk about, what's the new birth? When is a person
born again? It's what, when, isn't it? They
say, well, it's a principle, or it's light or understanding
coming to the flesh, or it's something God promised, but we
won't have it till glory. And they try to look for evidence
of the new birth. They look for evidence of the new birth by
looking way down in them or looking at their actions, you know, outside
of them. Boy, when they start doing that, they twist themselves
up and they cause themselves and others to stagger. But faith
doesn't stagger at that. Faith says, well, I know I'm
born again because God said it. I know it. There's a new man
in me who loves God. He wasn't there before. There's
a new man in me who believes God, who believes God's Word.
He wasn't there before. There's a new man in me who wants
to pray. There's a new man in me who desires to worship. He
wasn't there before. And there's a new man in me who
hates my sin, who repents of my sin and trusts Christ for
all of my salvation. He wasn't there before. How'd
he get there? If it didn't come of me, God
put him in me to do good. It's just obvious to somebody
who's got faith. The new birth is very simple
if you've been born again. Faith and look to evidence of
faith in things of this life. Even trials don't make it stop.
Even waiting a long time on God to fulfill his promises will
not stagger faith. Faith does not have to do with
human time or human circumstances. Look at Matthew chapter nine.
Faith doesn't stagger, because faith just looks to Christ. Not only is He able, but He will
do what He said He'd do. Matthew 9, verse 27. And when Jesus departed thence, two blind
men followed Him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David, have
mercy on us. And he didn't answer, so they must have kept crying,
because it doesn't say they cried once, they were crying and saying,
they kept repeating, thou son of David, have mercy on us. And
he was coming into the house, the blind men came to him, and
Jesus saith unto them, here's the issue, do you believe? Believe
ye that I'm able to do this? And they said unto him, yea,
Lord. Then touched he their eye, saying, according to your faith,
be it unto you. And their eyes were opened, And
Jesus straightly charged them, saying, See that no man knoweth.
But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all
that country." Those blind men had no idea how the Lord could
touch their eyes and make them see. They didn't understand how
that could possibly happen. They could not see a thing, could
they? But they didn't stop believing.
They believed He was able. That makes me cry at that father.
Lord, I believe. Honestly, I believe God. Help
Thou my number, help Thou my number. And then saving faith
is fully persuaded that God's gonna do what He promised to
do. Back in Romans 4 verse 21. And being fully persuaded that
what He promised, He was able also to perform. Abraham had,
I told you there's just one faith. Abraham had the same faith the
Apostle Paul did. Both of them were fully persuaded.
They were both fully persuaded because they both looked at Christ.
They know He's able. They know to do what He said
He'd do. And if we have saving faith, we're completely confident,
fully persuaded that Christ is all I need to be saved. I don't
need anything else. Christ is everything I need.
He's my righteousness. He's my justification. He's my
sanctification. He's my wisdom. He's it. I don't have any other backup
plan. I don't have a plan B. Christ is all of my salvation
or I'm going to be gone. That's where saving faith rests.
All right, lastly. Here are the results of saving
faith. Verse 22. And therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. This is what Paul has spent four
chapters telling us. Salvation is by faith. We're
justified by faith in Christ. not by our doings, we're made
righteous, not by anything we do or we don't do. Sinners can
only be made righteous through faith in Christ, by believing
in Him. And if we believe Christ, His
righteousness is imputed to us. When we believe, the righteousness
of Christ, the obedience of Christ as a man, actually becomes our
righteousness and our obedience. Abraham was made righteous when
he believed God and God imputed righteousness to him. He was
perfectly righteous. You and I are going to be saved.
You and I are going to be made righteous. It's going to be imputed
to us the exact same way it was to Abraham. 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. If we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification, now right there
is salvation. And that's everything faith believes. Christ was delivered to God's
justice for the sins that were laid upon him, for the sins of
God's elect that were laid upon him. He was delivered to God's
justice and he was delivered to death. had their sins imputed
to Christ, so that our sins became His sins. That's the only way
the Father could kill His Son in justice and still be holy,
is if He became guilty by imputation. By His substitutionary death,
Christ put the sin of His people away. The blood of His sacrifice
blotted out their sins. So it doesn't exist. God's not
just pretending their sins don't exist. They literally do not
exist anymore. God who sees everything says,
I don't see them anymore. Why? How can that be possible?
Because the blood of Christ blotted them out. If Christ died for
you, you have no sin. The law, Satan, nobody can charge
you with sin. Christ put it away. The death
of Christ satisfied God's justice. So God's just not looking for
anybody for whom Christ died. Justice has been satisfied in
the death of our substitute, and we're accepted in the beloved.
Christ died, and three days later he rose again, not in order to
justify his people. He rose again as the evidence,
as the proof, his death did indeed justify his people. Put away
the sin that caused the father to kill him. There's no sin left.
Something raised him from the dead. And saving faith rests
right there. That's all I need to know. Now,
let me ask you. Remember I told you I want to
know what is saving faith? And do I have it? What should we then say to these
things? That's what God's word says saving faith is. Now what
do we say to those things? Do I have saving faith? Well,
I'll tell you what I say. Quit your... fill in the blank. Whatever it is that you think
makes God happier with you than somebody else. Whatever it is
you're doing that makes you think, you know, God will accept me
if I do this, or I'll be more savable, I'll be less sinful
if I do this. Whatever it is that you're doing.
Quit. Quit. Quit. Quit. Did you ever
tell your children just quit? Quit it. That's what I'm telling
you and me. Quit it. Whatever it is in your
mind, quit it. Quit everything you're doing
and trust Christ alone. Just quit and rest in Christ. Do you amen that? Saving faith
always does. We just quit and rest in Christ. Oh, may God make it so that He
grant us saving faith. to rest in Christ alone. Quit
looking to ourselves. You'd just be disappointed. Let's
quit looking to ourselves and look to Christ alone. Let's bow
in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this clear declaration you've given to us in your word. Now,
we know this is not a difficult thing to understand. Your word's
plain. It's been plainly expounded. Father, our problem is by nature,
we can't believe. Oh, would you grant faith to
believe, faith to look to Christ, faith to rest in Him. Would you
give us faith, Father, strengthen our faith, cause us to remain
faithful to Thee, to look to Christ and Christ alone. He's
all of our salvation. He's all of our righteousness.
He's all of our wisdom. He's all of our redemption. He's
all of our resurrection. Christ is all. Give us faith,
I pray, to rest in Him. That's where salvation is found.
It's in him. Give us faith to look to Christ,
to rest in Christ, to be united to him by faith that only you
can give. Father, bless your word, we pray,
for your glory, for the good of your people. It's in the precious
name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray and
give thanks.