Now, you know the main theme
of Paul's letter to the Romans is justification by faith. It's
by grace through faith. It's not our works. It's not
even that we contribute to our salvation or justification in
any way by our works. It's all of grace. And Paul's
been talking here about Abraham. He's going to show that even
our father Abraham, In unequivocable terms, Abraham was not justified
by works. He wasn't justified by his law
keeping or the kind of man that he was, even the act of circumcision. And that's something that the
Jews put a lot of emphasis on, put a lot of importance on. It
was something that they had that no other nation had. And Abraham
was the first. And circumcision was given as
an outward sign, as a seal of the covenant that God made with
Abraham. But Abraham wasn't justified because he was circumcised. It
was an outward seal of the covenant that God made with him. And Paul
is going to show in these verses this morning that Abraham and
every believer, every one of us now, are justified by grace,
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where it's found,
in him. So verse 9 is where our lesson begins. It's where Paul
says, Come with this blessedness then, upon the circumcision of
the Jew only, or upon the uncircumcision also. For we say that faith was
reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. Now come with this blessedness
then on the circumcision only. That blessedness that Paul is
talking about is where we looked at the end of those verses last
week where Paul was quoting from David. Blessed is the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven. Blessed are they whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin. That's a happy man. Or can that happiness come on
other people? Can this justification, is that only for the Jews? Or
is that for people in the whole world? You know, the Jews believed
that God would only bless them. His blessing was only on them,
but the rest of the world was cut out of God's blessing. And
they really believed, at least in part, they believed that God
blessed them because of circumcision. Because they were circumcised.
Because they had the law and they followed the law. And if
that's what a person believes, that even if in part, the smallest,
most minute part, their justification, God's blessing comes to them
because of something they did, then that's justification by
works. Even the most minute work, if
the most minute work is involved on our part, that's justification
by works. And we'd be wise to remember,
as we go through this lesson and through the rest of our lives,
we'd be wise to remember. That we are not the only people
God's going to bless. It's not just this little group
here that's the only people that the Lord's ever going to bless.
God's the Lord of the whole earth. He's got a people from every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation under heaven. He's the God of
grace. And He's going to shed that grace
on the whole creation. There's going to be people from
His whole creation He's going to call that are His people.
And Paul's going to show us now this justification. being made
without sin. Now, if a sinner is going to
be made without sin, that's an act of God's grace. And that
comes on the whole world. It doesn't come on the Jew. It
comes on people from all over the world, Jew and Gentile. Regardless
of our works, regardless of our past history, what we did and
what we didn't do, regardless of our heritage and how deep
our family tree goes back, salvation is by grace. And we receive that
through faith. It's not through circumcision
or any other part of the law. You know, the circumcision was
a Jewish favorite part of the law. We may pick out another
part that's our favorite. Not in any part of the law. It's
through faith in Christ. It's through Him keeping the
law for us as our substitute. That's where it's found. Now,
verse 10, Paul says, here's his proof. How was it then reckoned? When was faith, when was this
righteousness reckoned to Abraham? When he was in circumcision or
uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. When was his righteousness imputed
to Abraham? Before he was circumcised or
after he was circumcised? And this is an important question.
If God imputed righteousness to Abraham after he was circumcised,
then that act of circumcision could be a cause of justification. It could be necessary for a person
to be justified. But, if God imputed righteousness
to Abraham before he was circumcised, then it's clear circumcision
is totally unnecessary for justification. If Abraham was justified, if
God said he was justified before he was circumcised, and if circumcision
is unnecessary, then that's good news for us, because then both
Jew and Gentile can be justified. Then we see The justification,
salvation, is not just for good people who follow the law, it's
for sinners. This is good news for sinners
if God imputed righteousness to Abraham before he was circumcised,
before he obeyed the first commandment of the law. And you know the
truth of the matter. The Lord imputed righteousness
to Abraham before he was circumcised. Now look, I'll show you this
in Genesis chapter 15. We started reading here last
week. In Genesis 15, this is the account of the time that
God said He imputed righteousness to Abraham. In Genesis 15, verse
5, And he brought Abraham abroad, and he said, Look now toward
heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them.
And he said unto Abraham, So shall thy seed be. And he believed
in the Lord, and God counted it to him for righteousness.
Now that's when God counted to him for righteousness. At this
point, Hagar's not even pregnant with Ishmael yet. I'll show you
why that's an important thing to understand. Look over a page
of Genesis 17. Hagar's not even pregnant with
Ishmael yet at this time. Genesis 17, verse 9. And God said unto Abraham, this
is after he is justified, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore.
Thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is
my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed
after thee. Every man child among you shall
be circumcised, and this is the first time this matter of circumcision
has been brought up. And ye shall circumcise the flesh
of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant between
me and you. He that is eight days old shall
be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations,
he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger,
which is not of thy seed. And he that is born in thy house,
and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised.
And my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. Now look over at verse 24. And
Abraham was ninety years old and nine when he was circumcised
in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael, who wasn't even
in his mother's womb yet when God justified Abraham because
he believed God. Ishmael his son was thirteen
years old. And he was circumcised in the
flesh of his foreskin. In the selfsame day was Abraham
circumcised, and Ishmael his son." Ishmael is 13 now. His mother wasn't even pregnant
with him when God said Abraham is justified. At least 14 years
passed. Some of the writers say 25 years,
but we know the minimum of 14 years have passed since the time
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Then it's obvious circumcision didn't have anything to do with
Abraham's justification. And it didn't have anything to
do with yours or mine either. Circumcision was given as a token
of the covenant. That's what God said. It's a
token of the covenant. It's not the covenant itself.
It's not the promise itself. It's a token. It's an outward
token of the covenant between me and you. That's the way the
Lord put it to Abraham. Now back in our text, verse 11.
Now here's why Abraham was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision,
a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, being
yet uncircumcised. Abraham had faith in Christ long
before he was circumcised, that he might be the father of all
them that believe. Though they be not circumcised,
their 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 God said
Abraham was justified. That's an act of God. You can't
do it. I can't do it. That's an act of God. Justification. Putting away sin is an act of
God. And God said Abraham was justified long before he was
circumcised. Then in time the Lord gave circumcision
as a token of the covenant between him and Abraham and with the
descendants of Abraham. And that covenant, that promise
that God made to Abraham was partially that his descendants
would live in that land of Canaan, that they would be the nation
that the Lord would bless, that they'd be his people. And circumcision
was the outward sign that they were part of that covenant. It
was the outward sign that made that nation Israel different
than all the nations that lived around them. And believers today
have outward tokens of the covenant as well. Not that covenant that
we go live in Canaan, but the covenant of grace. Outward signs
that make believers different than the world they live in.
Baptism makes you different, sets you apart. The kind of life
you lead where you show the fruits of the Spirit, joy, happiness,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness. You live
an honest life. You are people of integrity.
You're different from the people that you work with and it stands
out. Those are outward signs. It's not the reason the Lord
saved you. It's not the reason he called you. It's not the reason he justified
you. It's the evidence that the Lord's done an inward work of
grace. You didn't come that way. The Lord made you that way. In
the new birth, he gave you a different nature. And that's an outward
sign of an inward work of grace. Circumcision is just like all
the rest of the law, all the rest of the ceremonies that we
read about in the Old Testament. It's a type. It's a picture of
the work, the spiritual work that's done by Christ for his
people. Because all those Jews had was circumcision of the flesh.
What does scripture say believer has? Circumcision of the heart. That old dead heart's cut away
and God gives you a new heart. It's circumcision of the heart.
And circumcision, Paul says, was a seal of the covenant between
God and Abraham. What believers today have a seal?
Just like Abraham did, we have a seal of the covenant of grace.
Look over in Ephesians 1. What's our seal, the covenant?
The covenant of grace. From Paul's church to those Ephesian
believers, he tells us in chapter 1, verse 13, In whom ye also trusted,
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. In whom also, after that ye believed,
ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the
earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased
possession, under the praise of his glory. The seal of the
covenant of grace is the Holy Spirit, who comes and dwells
in the hearts of his people." In all those Jewish descendants
of Abraham, years and years and years, centuries and centuries,
generation after generation, they are circumcised, and Abraham
is their father according to the flesh. But Paul is not talking
about just the physical descendants of Abraham. He's talking about
Abraham being the father of believers who walk after the faith of Abraham,
who imitate the faith of Abraham. It's not just imitating the act
of circumcision that Abraham went through when he was 99 years
old. It's imitating the faith of Abraham. And that's going
to calm the fears of these Gentile believers that Paul knows is
going to be reading this letter. They're told, well, now you can't
be justified unless you're circumcised. Believing in Christ is important,
but you've got to be circumcised also. You've got to do this or
this or this. Whatever it is, they're going
to pick out their favorite part of the law. To the Jews, it was a circumcision. To somebody else, it's something
else. It's the age old message of Christ plus. And Paul's eliminating. that thought all together to
calm our fears. It's not that you've got to do
something else. Oh my goodness, I haven't done that. Well, I'm
cut out of the covenant of grace. No. It's by grace. It's by faith. Those who are
justified don't just imitate the fleshly activities of Abraham.
They imitate the faith of Abraham. They believe God. God told Abraham,
you're going to have a son. You're going to have descendants
more than the stars of heaven. And that old man believed God,
when it would look like it was impossible. I thought this morning, I wish that I could imitate that
faith more. There's no reason not to believe
God. I believe. I believe. Lord, help thou mine unbelief.
Oh, do we believe God? That's the question. Do we believe
God? And today, circumcision is not
the issue. People don't bring that up as
a religious, moral idea. But they substitute different
activities in the place of circumcision. It's the exact same thing. It's
works. They replace circumcision with,
well, now you've got to believe the right doctrine. You've got
to be baptized. You've got to be given money
in the offering. You've got to read your Bible
a certain amount of the time or something. No one is justified
because they believe the right doctrine. I'm telling you, there
are countless numbers of people who believe a lot of right doctrine,
a lot of good Calvinistic doctrine, but do not know the Lord. There
have been plenty of people who've been baptized because they think
that they've got to do that in order to be justified. And that
water in that pool didn't change them a bit. It didn't wash away
their sin. They came up out of the water
with as much iniquity and as much sin as they ever had before.
Like we've heard for years, it didn't make them a wet sinner.
It didn't justify them. People attend religious services
like crazy. I mean, we live in a religious
area. People go to church. How many
church buildings is there in this town? I mean, they're filled
up. Pews are full of people. This morning, you're attending
religious services because it makes them feel better. You know,
they make them think, well, my friends think, you know, I'm
better because I'm here, you know, filling up the pew. And
they don't know the first thing about the God of this Bible.
People are putting thousands and thousands and thousands of
dollars in offering plates. They're sending it to fellas
on TV. I watch them and I think, Somebody's going to have to be
on serious medication to believe what that guy's saying. You send
me money. Send me your last dime and God's
going to make you rich. I mean, they just fork it over. Why? Trying to buy salvation. And salvation cannot be bought
without the blood of God. That's what it takes to buy salvation.
It's not our little bit of money. People read the Bible because
they think somehow it's going to make them holy. The scribes
and Pharisees did in our Lord's day. The Lord told them, you
search the scriptures because they think that they can have
eternal life in the reading. And they may as well read Shakespeare.
They may as well read your focus work, haven't they? Because it's
no different to them. It's not to them. It's not the
word of God. Justification is by the blood
of Christ. And we receive that through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And all those things I was telling
you that people substitute now, I'm not belittling those things.
Someone who has faith in Christ, the way Abraham had faith in
Christ, if you believe God, you will be baptized. You can't help
it. It's a joy. I'd love to identify
with my Redeemer. He gave Himself to me. You'll
be baptized. You'll confess Him. If you have
the faith of Abraham, you'll believe the right doctrine. When
you hear it, you'll say, that's Him. that glorifies my Redeemer. That's
what I love. That's what I believe. I believe
that. You'll attend the public worship service if you have the
faith of Abraham. You can't skip anymore. You can
skip eating this afternoon. You love to assemble with God's
people. Hear His Word taught. Sing His
praises and pray together. You can't help but attend a worship
service. You'll be there if you have faith in Christ. You'll
put money in the offering. It's the joy of giving. You love
to support the gospel if you have faith in Christ. You'll read the Word. Not because
you have to. This is the Word of my Master.
This is the Word of God. I'll read it. I love it. I can't
help it, but read it. Not in order to earn favor from
God. Not in order to kind of get extra
credit or something, like you do in school. If you fall behind,
you do some extra credit. Maybe you make up. It's because
we have the faith of Abraham. Not in order to get it, but because
we believe God. Because we love God. We love
his word. We love his son. We love his
people. Can't help it. And those people are the sons
of Abraham. And you know how they came into
this world? As sinners. Even a hated publican is called
a son of Abraham. Look over in Luke chapter 19.
The story of Zachaeus. Now Zacchaeus was, he descended
from the loins, physically, of Abraham. But he's a publican. I just betcha, those Jews that
live to this day did not count him a son of Abraham. He wasn't
invited to the family reunion. He's cut out of the will. They
didn't count him as a son of Abraham, but what did the Lord
say about him? Luke 19, verse 2. Behold, there is a man named
Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was
rich. He was rich because he stole
and robbed from the Jews. In verse 3, he sought to see
Jesus, who he was. This wasn't just a passing fancy
with Zacchaeus. I want to know who he is. That struck me as I was reading
that this morning. That's what I want to know, who
he is. But he couldn't see him for the
press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before
and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to
pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place,
he looked up, and he saw that wretch sitting up there in that
tree. And he said to him, Zacchaeus,
you make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy
house. And he made haste, he obeyed
the commandment, and he came down. and received him joyfully."
How else is a sinner going to receive the Lord but joyfully? And when they saw it, they all
murmured, saying that he's going to be a guest with a man that's
a sinner. That's who he's a guest of. That's
who he came for, sinners. And Zacchaeus stood and said
unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to
the poor. If I have taken anything from
any man by false accusation, I will restore him fourfold.
said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch
as he also is a son of Abraham. Why is he a son of Abraham? Because
he believed God. And you know how I know he believed
God? Because this day salvation came to this house. What changed? Why did Zacchaeus say, Lord,
half my goods I give to the poor? Why did he say, Lord, if I've
taken anything from any man by false accusation, I'm going to
restore him fourfold? Why did he say that? Was he trying
to curry the favor of the Lord? No, sir. He said that because
this day is salvation time to thy house. That's why there's
a change taking place. The Lord's come. He received
him joyfully. And he's a son of Abraham because
he believed God. Circumcision and His giving goods
to the poor and restoring money to the people in need had nothing
to do with it. That was just an outward evidence
of an inward work of grace. Salvation came to his house.
Now verse 13 back in our text. For the promise that Abraham
should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his
seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Now
part of the promise to Abraham that he'd be the heir of the
world It did mean a piece of land there in Palestine that
his descendants would have and live what we call the promised
land. We call it the promised land because God promised it
to Abraham and to his seed. But more importantly, that promise
was bifocal and the most important part of that promise meant that
he'd be the heir of the world to come. When the Lord promised
Abraham that his descendants would have a place they could
come, they'd live together, He wasn't primarily talking about
the nation of Israel living in that strip of land over there
in the Middle East. You know, somebody made that promise to
me all these years later, and I've never been there, by seeing
that land on TV. And you know, that didn't sound
like a real good promise to me, to be able to inherit that hunk
of land over there. It doesn't look real pleasant
to me, quite honestly. It looks to me like a great big
sandbox. Where the people there are always miserable, they're
always hateful, and they're always fighting a war. You know, if
you promised that land to me and tell me that's my inheritance
and that's the inheritance for my children, I'd say, no, thank
you. You can just keep it. That's not the promise that God
made. I mean, it was, but that's not
where the blessing of the promise is. Believers, the sons of Abraham
have a spiritual promise of eternal life through the Messiah that
would come from Abraham. That Messiah who's going to come
and redeem so many people, we can't count them. Abraham couldn't
count them. And with all our computers and
calculators and stuff today, we can't count them either. He
redeemed so many. And those redeemed ones are all
going to be gathered together in glory, in peace with the Lord
Jesus Christ. They're not going to be over
in a worn-torn strip of land somewhere over in the desert.
It's going to be in glory with Christ. That's the promise. And
believers are heirs of all that because our Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ, purchased it all with His blood. He's the heir. He's the heir of God. And we're
joint heirs with Him. And we don't obtain this inheritance
through religion or through the law. It's through faith in Christ. A lot of years ago, I heard Charlie
Pinkton say this. He said you can understand this
verse if you take out some of the clauses that are between
the commas there. He may ask Sandy what all those
were. I don't know. But this is what he said to underline.
And if you'll take your pen and underline this, it won't change
the verse. And it'll help you understand it so clearly. For
the promise was not through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. The promise to all God's people,
for the promise was not through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. That's how we obtain this righteousness,
that's how we obtain this inheritance, through faith. Now verse 14,
For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void,
and the promise of none effect. You know the Jews, and the same
thing holds true for the religious people of our day, human nature
hasn't changed. If they could keep the law perfectly, They
would be righteous before God. If someone can earn a righteousness
through their own law-keeping, then there's no need for faith.
If you can keep the law and you can earn a righteousness before
God, then we'll just do away with faith. It's unnecessary.
If someone can become righteous through their own law-keeping,
then God's promise to impute righteousness is a useless promise. God just wasted His time making
that promise if salvation can come by works. If salvation can
come by works, there's no room for faith. There's no room for
grace if salvation can come by our works. If salvation can come
through any work of ours, then the promise of God has nothing
to do with salvation, right? What good is it for God to promise
it to somebody if they have to do works to keep it? If salvation
comes through our works, then the love of God The love, the
eternal love of God for his people means nothing, because salvation
is by works. If salvation is by our works,
we have to do something to make it effectual, then the obedience
of Christ is utterly useless in salvation. If salvation could
come by our works, then the death of Christ is utterly useless
in God's monster. If salvation could come by our
works. It's the age old truth that salvation It cannot be by
grace and works. It's got to be one or the other.
It's got to be all of grace or all of works. And thank God,
salvation is all of grace. It's all of God's grace. Look
over Galatians 3. Galatians 3, verse 18. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it's no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Abraham didn't obtain it by the
law or by circumcision or by anything else he did. God gave
it to Abraham by promise. It's by grace. Now verse 15. Because the law worketh wrath.
For where no law is, there is no transgression. People with
a human nature cannot earn righteousness through the law. Because the
law works wrath. It works wrath in us and it brings
wrath on us. The law works wrath, works hatred
and sin in us. The more we're told not to do
something, the more we're going to do it. One of the most motivating
factors to a human being is telling you can't do it. And they'll
just, I'm going to do it no matter what. It just incites rebellion
in us. The more we're told you can't
do something, I'm going to do it. So the law, God's law works
wrath, works hatred towards God in us because it's God's law
that we're breaking. We don't want to be under that
rule. And the law is broken. We've broken God's law and that
brings God's wrath on sinners. It works wrath in us and brings
wrath on us. And we can't expect to earn eternal
life or peace with God through the law that works nothing but
wrath. Now, if there was no law, there
wouldn't be any transgression. And that's true, but that's just
a hypothetical statement. Because God did give the law.
And even before God called Moses to the top of that mountain,
and he gave him the Ten Commandments and the whole Mosaic Law, there
was still sin. Adam sinned in the garden. God
gave him one commandment. Only one. He didn't give him
ten. He didn't give him pages and
pages and pages. Just one. Adam don't eat the
fruit of that tree. And what did he do? He ate it.
Because the law works for Adam. People sinned before the Ten
Commandments ever came. We sinned against the law of
nature. We sinned against the law that's written on our hearts
and our consciences. And God gave all that law to
Moses to show us our sin more clearly. To drive us to Christ. To show us that we're incapable
of earning a righteousness through the law. And not just through
the whole law. People, like I say, they just
want to pick out their favorite. Well, you got to keep this one.
We can't keep that one, much less the whole law. It is impossible
for that to come through our obedience to the law. So verse
16, Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to
the end that the promise might be sure to all to see. Not to
that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of
the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Salvation,
righteousness, justification, every spiritual blessing, is
by God's grace. Paul said in Ephesians 2, verse
8, is by grace. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. It's by grace. And grace is the
only way a sinner can be justified. The only way a sinner can be
made without sin is by the work of another. The only way a sinner
can put away their sin is through the payment of another. Through
the payment And grace is the only way salvation
can be sure. Nothing I do can ever be sure,
ever. But the covenant of grace, David
said, is ordered in all things and sure. Why is it sure? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilled every requirement. The perfect Son of God assumed
human nature and fulfilled every requirement for us. And He sealed
it in His blood. And it's sure. It's sure because
of who did it. And we receive those blessings
by grace through faith. And God's grace is for sinners. Not just the Jew. Not just the
good people. It's for Jew and Gentile. It's
for any distinction you want to draw between men. Here's what
we all boil down to. We're sinners. Regardless of
what distinction you want to make between us, we're sinners.
And God's grace is And it comes to those who believe God like
Abraham believed God. Those people are the sons of
Abraham. Here you sit, sons of Abraham.
I just bet you, when Abraham sat and looked at those stars,
God said, so shall I see thee. He had in his mind's eye a picture
of who he was seeing. Who was it God was talking about?
And I'm glad that the Lord is not limited to our small imagination. Abraham never imagined a bunch
of hicks like us being part of his family tree, but here we
sit. By God's grace. God's grace is so good, he's
not limited by what even Abraham thought. Sons of Abraham.