our Bibles again to Romans, the
fourth chapter. I've entitled the message this
morning, Righteousness Imputed. Not imputed righteousness, righteousness
imputed. I suppose there's nothing wrong
with the term imputed righteousness, but I like righteousness imputed.
One seems to indicate more of a kind of a legal, sterile thing
that went on outside of me. Righteousness imputed seems to
me to indicate life in the soul. That's what I'm interested in.
All right, now Paul has spent three chapters making this one
point crystal clear to us. The only way you and I can be
justified is through faith in Christ. None of our works can
ever contribute to it in the least. Justification, salvation
is through faith in Christ alone. Now in chapter four, Paul's gonna
give us an illustration of what he's been teaching through the
example of maybe the two most respected men in Jewish history,
Abraham and David. Now we know beyond a shadow of
a doubt both these men, Abraham and David, these are saved men. These are men who are in glory
right now. The Lord told us that. Remember the Lord gave the parable
of Lazarus and the rich man? In that parable, Abraham was
in heaven, wasn't he? And the Lord called David, the
man after mine own heart. So these men were saved. They're
justified. They're made righteous. And if
you and I would be saved, we must be saved the exact same
way these two men were saved. Our text this morning answers
four very important questions. These questions and answers are
going to teach us just what, they're going to be an illustration
of what Paul's been telling us in the first three chapters.
That the only way we can be made righteous is by God imputing
the righteousness of Christ to us through faith in Christ. So
here's the first question Paul asks, what did Abraham find concerning
salvation, concerning justification and righteousness? Verse one,
what should we say then? that Abraham, our father, as
pertaining to the flesh, hath found." Now what is it Abraham
found? Abraham found righteousness before
God. Abraham found true holiness in
the heart. Abraham found the answer to Job's
age-old question, how can a man be just with God? How's that
possible? Now remember, to be justified
is to be made without sin. Justified is not God treating
us like we've never sinned. That wouldn't be just, for God
to treat us like we've never sinned even though we're full
of sin. Justified is being made so that we've never sinned. Abraham
found out how a sinner can be made without sin, justified before
God. Abraham found out what it is
to be holy, unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight. I'm interested
in that, aren't you? That's the greatest blessing
a man can find. And oh, I want that blessing.
That's the blessing our souls must have. That's what Abraham
found. He found true holiness and righteousness
before God. All right, here's the second
question. How? How did Abraham find righteousness? How did he find true holiness,
justification, salvation before God? That's a good question. Because you know, whether they
know it or not, whole world is searching for the answer to that
question. You know, people say, I just want to find out how to
be happy. I'm searching for happiness. What they're really searching
for, they're desperately searching for this, the peace that comes
from this blessing of being justified, being righteous before God, the
whole world searching for it. Abraham found it. Now, if you
and I are going to find it, we're going to find it the exact same
way Abraham did. Well, how did Abraham find it?
How did he find righteousness? How did he find justification?
How did he find salvation? Well, it wasn't by any of his
religious works, was it? It was by faith. What did Abraham
find out about justification and righteousness, salvation
regarding this flesh? What did he find out about that?
Abraham found out that no spiritual blessing can be had by earning
it. No spiritual blessing can be
had by our works or anything that we do. Abraham didn't earn
righteousness. Abraham didn't earn justification.
He found it. He found it. That word found
means obtained. He didn't obtain it because he
earned it. He obtained it because God gave it to him freely as
a gift through faith, not through anything he did. That's what
Paul says in verse two. For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof the glory. but not before God. Abraham
wasn't justified by his words. Abraham wasn't justified by obeying
God and leaving his father's house and going out to a land
God wouldn't show him. Abraham wasn't justified when
he obeyed God and took Isaac, his only son, to that mountain
to offer him there as a burnt offering. If Abraham had been
justified by something he did, he would have personally had
something to glory with. But that's not possible. It's
not possible that any sinner ever glory before God. Look at
1 Corinthians 1, I'll show you that. That's just, it's not possible.
1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, But God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. That's why God saves sinners
the way he does, that's why God does what he does, that no flesh
should ever glory in his presence. So Abraham could not have been
justified by anything he did, could he? Because it's impossible
for a man to glory before God. All right? Then how did Abraham
find righteousness? You know where you find the answer
to that question? It's throughout the whole Bible. The answer to
every question we need to be asking is found in the Bible.
If the answer's not in the Bible, we ought not be asking the question.
Look at verse 3. For what saith the scripture?
Abraham believed God and it was counted. It was reckoned. It
was imputed unto him for righteousness. That's how Abraham found righteousness.
The scripture that cannot be in error told us that righteousness
is through faith. Abraham was righteous, made righteous
because he believed God. I look back at Genesis chapter
15. I'll show you how and when that
happened. What is it that Paul's talking
about here? When was righteousness imputed to Abraham? It's when
he believed God. Genesis chapter 15, verse 1. 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. And Abram said, Lord God, what
will thou give me? Seeing I go childless, and the
steward of my house, this Eleazar, and the steward of my house is
this Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, behold, to me
thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine
heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him saying,
this shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth
out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought
him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven, and tell the
stars if thou 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. Well, that's simple.
That's plain. Everybody understand exactly
what that's saying. Abraham believed that he would have a son when
it was physically impossible for him to have a son. Yet he
believed he was going to have one because God said it. He believed
the word of God. And what's more important, Abraham
believed that the Savior would come through that son, and Isaac
is the blessing. Abraham believed God, and God
counted Abraham righteous. He imputed righteousness to Abraham
by faith, because he believed Christ. Right back in our text,
verse four. So righteousness has to be, it
has to come to us by faith, not because of anything we did. Abraham
was made righteous, right? Verse four, Romans four. Now
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
debt. Abraham wasn't justified by works,
was he? It wasn't justified by anything
he did. That's an impossibility. Paul told us that back one page,
Romans three, verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by
the law is the knowledge of sin. You see, it's impossible to be
justified by anything we do, because everything we do comes
from a sin nature. So it's full of sin. The wages
of sin, what we earn by what we do, is death, not life. And what Paul's saying here,
it's a hypothetical situation. It can't happen, but suppose
for a minute that it could. Suppose a man could keep the
law by himself. then God would owe that man eternal
life, wouldn't He? And He'd give it to him. If you
can keep the law perfectly, God will give you eternal life. God
would owe that to you. But then salvation wouldn't be
by grace, would it? No, it would be something you
earned. I used to work for a company that, around Christmas time,
would hand out Christmas bonuses. A check and a Christmas turkey.
Give them to every employee. And it was my favorite days of
the year. I got to go do that. I got to
go to every employee and give them a Christmas bonus. I mean,
they were mistreated all year long, but I got to give them
a Christmas bonus. I loved it. And I'd give them that Christmas
bonus. And you know what almost everybody would say? Thank you. You earned this. You don't have
to tell me thank you. I'm thanking you. You earned
this. A paycheck is not grace. It's
what you earn. It's what you earn. Salvation
is not a paycheck. It's by grace. Is that just Baptist
doctrine? Is that just Calvinistic doctrine?
What sayeth the scripture? Ephesians 2. What sayeth the
scripture? Let's find the answer to this.
How is salvation obtained? Abraham obtained it. How are
you and me going to obtain it? The exact same way he did. Not
by works. By grace. Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. So salvation
is by grace. That means works can never enter
into it in any way. Not even a little bit of our
works that we add to it. Grace and works can't mix in
the slightest. It's either all of grace or all
of works, one or the other. God says salvation is by grace. It's got to be by grace. We can
never make God a debtor to us by what we do because God never
a debtor to his creature. Salvation is by grace. So the
only person who's going to be saved is the person who's so
sinful they don't have any works at all to commend them to God.
Verse five back in our text. But to him that worketh not,
To him who has no works, but believes on him that justifies
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. I love that
salvation is this way, by faith through grace. Salvation by faith
gives hope to the worst, the worst, the worst low down sinner
you can find. Salvation by grace, through faith,
is the only way there's salvation for a hope, or a hope for salvation
for somebody like me. It's the only way. That's what
Abraham was when God found him. Abraham wasn't this, you know,
pillar of righteousness and holiness. Abraham was an idolater when
God found him. Abraham was bound down to a stone
statue when God found him. He's a heathen idolater. And
God saved him anyway. because salvation is by grace
through faith. Then that means there's hope
for other heathen just like me too. Salvation by grace opens
the door for the worst of sinners. You don't have to be a good religious
person for God to save you. Matter of fact, you can't be
a good religious person for God to save you. The only people
God saves are people that don't have any works. There's nothing
about them to make them good. So if they're going to be saved,
they've got to rely on Christ to do all the saving. If somebody's
got to rely on Christ to be all of their salvation, then God
saved that person. It's the only hope you have that
Christ is all of your salvation. So God saved you. He's given
you the same blessing he gave Abraham. That's the way God saved
Abraham. And that's the way God saved
David too. The other example of faith in scripture. Our text
here, Romans four, verse six, even as David also described
with the blessedness of the man on whom God imputed the righteousness
without works, without works. Davis is the man who finds this
same blessing Abraham found. That's a blessed man, blessed
man. God had blessed him richly. Well, what was the blessing here
David's talking about? He's talking about righteousness
before God. that was given without works,
it was imputed through faith. That's how he was blessed like
that. God gave David this blessing without any works. It was all
through faith in Christ. He goes on, he says, that's what
he says here in verse seven, saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. What a blessing. Now, like I said earlier, whether
the whole world knows it or not, this is the blessing. This is
the peace of heart and soul they're looking for. It's to have your
iniquities forgiven. To have your sins covered, blotted
out, so you have no fear before God. That's the only way salvation
is possible. It's through the sacrifice of
Christ. Now, where does our text, I mean, is that just a conclusion
you've drawn, Frank, or where does the Bible say that? This
tells us that in our text, next verse. Verse 8, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now, do we know this
about God? God's holding. I hope you know
that. God's holding. God cannot overlook sin. He can't do it. God must impute
sin where there's sin. He must do that because He's
holding. He's got to charge it to somebody. Does that make sense? And that's
obvious. Well, if God does not impute your sin to you, where
did He impute it? It's got to be imputed somewhere.
If God doesn't impute your sin to you, the only reason for it
is He imputed your sin to Christ at Calvary. That's how your sin
is forgiven. That's how your iniquities are
covered. That's how the sin of God's elect is put away. It's
through the sacrifice of Christ, our substitute, who took our
place. suffered and died the death that we deserve. God imputed
the sin of his elect to his son and Christ suffered and died
to put it away forever. So God forgives the iniquity
of his people freely. It's forgiven because he already
punished your substitute in your place. The sins of God's elect
are covered. because your sin was charged
to Christ. And Christ shed His blood to cover them, to blot
them out, so that there is no more death, no more sin. God
does that freely in His Son. And when God gives us faith in
Christ, I tell you what we believe. That Christ I just described,
that suffering, dying, perfect, holy Son of God who became a
man, that Christ is all of my salvation. Don't ever hang my
soul over hell and drop me in it by telling me any of my salvation
depends on me. No, Christ must be all of my
salvation. When God gives us faith in Christ,
don't we believe? We believe, I don't need any
works of my own. Christ is enough. He's enough
for the Father and He's enough for me. Who Christ is, is enough. to save me from all of my sin.
And we believe that. God has imputed righteousness
to us. So by faith in Christ, I'm literally,
actually made righteous. Made as righteous as God Himself. That's right. See, it's got to
be by faith. If the Father imputed your sin
to His Son, then He imputed His righteousness to you. Both, it's
just as real as God imputed the sin of Christ, or your sin to
Christ, He imputed Christ's righteousness to you. You're made literally,
actually righteous. That's the blessing that David
found. That's the blessing Abraham found. And that's the only way
we'll find it, too. It's through faith in Christ.
All right, now to prove the point, here's the third question. When
was Abraham made righteous? When? He was made righteous the
very moment he believed God. Verse 9, come at this blessedness
then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also.
For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or
in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. Now we might say, you know, I'm
a heathen. I'm not like David and Abraham.
They were made righteous by faith. I see that. But Abraham and David
are in a different league than me. I'm not like them. They were
Jews. I'm a Gentile. God spoke audibly
to them. God never spoke to me. These
were great men of faith. And I'm just a heathen. If you call, but I got faith,
it's mighty weak. It's nothing like their faith.
I can't do what they did. This just doesn't seem like it
applies to me. I can't go out in the world with just what I
can carry on my back and just go to a place God's going to
tell me of later that I don't know nothing about. I know Abraham
did that. I can't. Abraham took his only
child to the top of a mountain and tied him down to an altar
with the intention of quartering his body and burning it up. I
can't do that with my child. I can't. I can't be like Abraham.
I can't go be like Dave and grab the slingshot and fight a giant
who's armed to the teeth. I just, I can't do that. That's
fine. That's just fine. You don't have
to do those things in order to be saved. Abraham and David didn't
do those things in order to be saved. And you don't either. That's not why God saved them.
And Paul proves the point here by the point of law that the
Jews just were. Oh, how they loved circumcision. It was what physically, outwardly
made them different than every other nation. Oh, they loved
it. I mean, they just loved it. Because
that was an outward sign, I'm different than you. I'm better
than you. That's the way they looked at it. All right. When
did God count Abraham to be righteous? Now, when did God say? Because
whatever God says, that's the way it is. When did God say Abraham
was righteous? Was it before he was circumcised
or after? It's one or the other, which
is it? It was after, way after. Abraham was not circumcised for
at least 13 years after God said he was righteous. Some of the
writers say it was 25 or 26 years. He was circumcised when Ishmael
was 13 years old. So it was at least 13 years after
God told him you're righteous, that he was circumcised. And
circumcision didn't have any justification, did it? It was
13 years later. But Abraham was circumcised.
So why was he circumcised? If it didn't make him righteous,
if it didn't add anything to him, why was he circumcised?
Verse 11. He received the sign of circumcision.
That's all it was. It was a sign, a seal of the
righteousness of the faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised. And this is the reason for it,
that he might be the father of all them that believe though
they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed
unto them also. And the father of circumcision
to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the
steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet
uncircumcised. Now that might seem kind of complicated. Let me tell you what Paul's saying
there. Abraham was circumcised as an outward token of God promised
Abraham. that his natural descendants
would inherit the land of Canaan. That's all it was. It was an
outward token of the promise. There's his promise to national
Israel. But that doesn't have anything to do with salvation.
Abraham was circumcised after God counted him to be righteous
for this reason. There's many, but there's two
I can think of that's worth talking about. It's to give hope of righteousness
to every sinner. It's to give the hope of salvation
to every sinner. If the only way you can be saved
is to be circumcised, none of you ladies can be saved. But that's not how God saved
Abraham, is it? We know that God has saved many women, so
it can't be by circumcision for them or Abraham. Every woman
God's ever saved is saved the exact same way Abraham was saved. It's the faith in Christ without
anyone. Abraham was circumcised long
after God counted him to be righteous for this reason. Secondly, to
give hope to Gentile heathen like you and me. That's what
we're Gentile heathen. Abraham being justified, being
made righteous before he was circumcised gives hope to salvation
for you and me. Abraham did not have to keep
the law in order to be saved. I didn't give Moses the law until
430 years later. The law didn't enter into it.
Abraham didn't even have to keep part of the law, circumcision,
in order to be saved. Abraham was justified long before
he was circumcised when he believed God. Righteousness was imputed
to him through faith, through faith in Christ. And that gives
hope of salvation to every sinner who can't keep the law. Abraham
didn't keep the law in order to be saved. I don't have to
keep the law in order to be saved either. I'm saved the same way
Abraham was, by believing Christ, by laying hold on Christ. If
Abraham can't be saved by what he did, I certainly can't be
saved by what I did. The only way I can be made righteous
is the same way Abraham was, by believing Christ. And that
gives hope of righteousness to every sinner, no matter who they
are or where they're from. You don't have to be a Jew. You
don't have to grow up keeping the law and the ceremonies. God
saves his people through faith in Christ. And Abraham is called
the father of the faithful. He's the father of everyone who
believes in this way. We're made righteous the same
way he was, by faith. That's the only way a sinner
can be made righteous. Verse 13. For the promise that he should
be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed
through the law, but it was through the righteousness of faith. The
promise was not to Abraham through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. That's the only way a sinner
can be made righteous. It's through faith in Christ.
When we believe Christ, God reckons, He counts, He computes the righteousness
of Christ to us. All right, here's the last question.
I always like to ask this question. Why? Why does God save sinners
this way? Why does God only save sinners
by faith without any of our works? Well, there are too many reasons
for us to mention in a lifetime, but I'll give you three that
are found in our text. Number one, God saves sinners
by faith without any of our works because nobody can be saved through
keeping the law. Salvation's got to be by faith.
Verse 14, for if they which are of the law be heirs, Faith is
made void and the promise made of none effect. Now, this is
another hypothetical situation Paul gives. If a person could
keep the law, they can't, but let's just suppose for a minute
a person could keep the law. Well, then they wouldn't be an
heir, would they? No, they wouldn't be an heir.
They would have to receive a debt. They would have to receive wages
that they earned. They couldn't be an heir of righteousness if
they earned it. But no person can keep the law.
No person can make themselves righteous by what we do. Then
it would be something we earned, not inherited. And salvation,
righteousness, must be inherited. If we could earn righteousness,
we'd earn it by keeping the law. Then that would make the promise
of God to save his people by faith void. Look at Galatians
chapter three. We can't do something to make
the promise of God void and of no effect. The word of God, the
promise of God can never be made void. Galatians 3 verse 18. For if the inheritance be of
the law, then it's no more promise, but God gave it to Abraham by
promise. God gave it to Abraham by promise.
So it can't be earned. It can only be received by faith. See, it's impossible for a person
like us. Our nature, the nature we're
born with, is a sin nature. That's all our nature can produce.
If we're going to be righteous, we've got to be given a different
nature. We cannot earn a righteousness by what we do because everything
we do is sinful. Verse 15. Because the law work
with wrath. For where no law is, there's
no transgression. See, the law can't make anybody
righteous, ever. All the law can do is work God's
wrath. Because everything we do is sin
and deserves God's wrath. All the law can do is be a mirror.
It can just hold up that mirror and show us how sinful we are. How much we've broken the law.
The law can never tell us how to keep it. The law can never
tell us how to be righteous. All the law can do is say you're
guilty. It just works wrath. Well, since
we can only earn God's wrath by what we do, where's salvation
come from? It's got to be by faith. It's
got to be by faith. Even if there were no law of
Moses, we'd still be guilty of breaking the law of nature, wouldn't
we? Paul talked about that in chapter one. You look at creation
and see God is, and we still don't seek him, so we still would
have broken the law even if there was no law of Moses. But God
did give the law of Moses. this reason to show us how exceedingly
sinful that we are. God gave us the law to shut us
up to faith in Christ. The law shows us you don't have
any hope of salvation in yourself. If you've got any hope of salvation,
it's in Christ. He's the only one who would keep
the law. He's the only way you can be righteous. The only way
you can be righteous is if Christ is your righteousness. It's got
to be through faith in Christ. It can't be any other way. Alright,
the second reason God saves sinners this way is because salvation
has to be by grace. Verse 16, Therefore it is of
faith that it might be by grace. Now since we can't do anything
but earn God's wrath, salvation's got to be by grace. Grace is
God giving us what we don't deserve. If we can only earn wrath from
God, If we're saved, if God saved us, the only explanation for
it can be grace. What saved the scriptures? We
already read in Ephesians 2, for by grace are you saved. Through
faith. That and out of yourselves, it's
a gift of God. Noah. The first time the word grace
is used in scripture is about Noah. Noah was saved from drowning
in the flood of God's wrath against sin because he was in the ark. because he found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. That's what scripture says. Noah
wasn't saved because he was a good boat builder. Noah was saved
because he found grace in the eyes of the Lord and God shut
him in the eyes of the Lord. How can a sinner be justified?
There's just one way. It's by grace. Let's say it's
the scripture. Look back at page Romans 3 verse
23. Here we are. for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God." We cannot be justified by anything
we do. If we're justified, it's got
to be by grace. Thank God for grace, verse 24.
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. See, it's by grace. Someone might
think, you know, I'm too sinful. to be saved. I'm too rebellious.
I just, you don't, preacher, you don't know the things I've
done. You don't know the things I've thought. You don't know
all the things that I've said. I'm such a rebel. There can't
be any hope for me. God couldn't have anything to
do with me. Oh, it's a good thing salvation is by grace, isn't
it? Because whether or not we want to really admit it, that's
all of us. There's no reason God have anything to do with
me except his grace. Romans chapter five, verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, that it just might show how bounding
in sin we are. Oh, but where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's how we're justified. We
talked earlier about being made an heir, an heir of righteousness.
Look at Titus chapter 3. How is it that we can be made
heirs of God, heirs of righteousness? How can we possibly be joint
heirs with Christ? Titus chapter three, verse seven. It's by grace. It's all by grace. That being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Peter told him that day as he
was preaching, he said, brethren, This is what we believe. I don't
care whether you're Jew or you're a heathen Gentile. Salvation
is by grace. We, good, religious, moral people,
shall be saved even as they, even like those heathen are saved.
All one way. It's through grace. Salvation
is by God's grace. The scriptures teach us that
over and over and over again. It's not by our words. It's by
grace. God's grace opens the door wide
to every sinner. We don't have a gospel that excludes
anybody. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace includes every sinner who doesn't have anything
they can do for God, who needs Christ to do everything for them.
That's salvation by grace. If you don't have anything about
you that would recommend you to God, that makes you a candidate
for grace. Salvation by grace. That's why
God saves sinners that way. And then the third reason, I
love this reason. God saves sinners by grace, through faith in Christ,
because that's the only way salvation can be sure. Verse 16, therefore
it is a faith that it might be by grace to the end that the
promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which
is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham.
who's the father of us all. If salvation were by works, the
only people who could be saved are good, moral, religious people. But now that can't just be outward.
That goodness, that morality, that true religion has got to
be in the heart. It's got to be a nature. That
rules out all of us. Our hearts are desperately wicked,
deceitful above all things. If salvation is by our works,
The only thing that's sure to you and me is our damnation.
Is that right? Salvation is by what we do. The
only thing that's an absolute certainty is our damnation. But
if salvation is by God's grace, through faith in Christ, and
it is, then salvation, the salvation of God's people is sure. It can
never be lost. Salvation by grace is sure because
God who cannot lie promises. Salvation by faith in Christ
is sure because Christ already finished the work. There's no
work left for you to add to it. He's already finished it. When
he said it is finished, he meant it. The work was finished. Salvation
by faith in Christ is sure because the sacrifice of Christ has already
made an end of sin. There's no more sin left to damn
you if Christ died for you. His sacrifice, His blood made
an end of sin. Then what's left for you and
me to do? Just rest. Just rest. We don't
have to add any words. That's what faith is. It's resting. It's trusting in Christ. And
that's the way God saves sinners. Now, in closing, I want to make
this message very, very personal to everybody here. You don't
have to be in doubt. You leave this building this
morning, you don't have to be in doubt and wonder, am I righteous
or not? You know that, like I said, this
is the blessing the whole world is searching for. So all of us
are too. We want this peace that can only come from being righteous
before God. Well, you don't have to leave
here wondering, am I right? You don't have to leave here
saying, I don't know. No, you can know with absolute certainty. You can know whether or not you're
righteous before God. And it's by answering one more
simple question. This is the only question I got
for you. Do you believe Christ? Do you? I don't care what else
you do. I hope you're faithful. I hope
you pray. I hope you read your Bible. I hope you come seeking
the Lord. But this is the question. What think ye of Christ? Is he
enough? Do you believe him? If you do,
then God's made you righteous. That's how he imputes righteousness
to his people, by giving them faith. And if Christ is not enough
for you, if you don't know him, you know it. Now you know it.
Now I'll tell you what I'd do if I was you. My heart breaks for you. Because
I know, I know what it's like to sit here in the congregation,
to sit here amongst God's people, who love Christ and believe Him
and are thrilled by the message and wonder, why aren't I thrilled
that way? Why can't I know Him? What's wrong with me? I'll tell
you what's wrong with me. I'm dead. If you don't know Christ,
I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd fall on my face before God
and ask Him, would you give me faith and grace? Face the gift
of God. It's yours to give. Would you
give it to me? Would you give me a heart to
believe Christ? If he does, you'll be justified
before God, because righteousness comes through faith in Christ.
Oh, I pray God to make every one of us, each soul leave here
this morning, trusting Christ alone, because that's how righteousness
is at, through believing Christ. All right, let's bow and pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for the plain, simple, obvious teaching of your Word, that salvation
is by your free and sovereign grace, that righteousness comes
through God-given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not by
our works, it's through Him, through Him who finished the
work. It's not by our works of righteousness, it's through Christ
who is our righteousness. What good news that we can rest
in Christ, knowing our salvation is sure and certain in him because
of who he is and what he's accomplished for his people. Father, how we
thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only way sinners
like us can be made righteous is in his obedience. The only
way our sin could ever be put away. We're so vile and wretched
and guilty. The only way our sin could ever
be put away is in the precious blood of your dear son. Father,
we beg that you'd apply your word to our hearts this morning.
Give us the same faith, the faith of Abraham, the faith of David.
Give us the same faith that rests in completely and wholly in our
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray this for his
glory and the good of your people. Father, bless us, we pray. It's
in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks
and we ask you to bless your word.