And here as we've been going
through these last lessons in Romans, Paul through the Scripture
of the Holy Spirit has showed us so clearly that a religious
person, the religious Jew that he's writing to, by nature is
no better than the person that is an open heathen, that is completely
untaught in the Scripture. That salvation is by grace. It's not on our works in any
part, salvation is by grace. Now, Paul knows these Jews he's
writing to. He's one of them. He's raised
in their traditions and their religion. He understands how
they think. And he understands a question that they would ask.
They say, well, what about our religion? What about all of our
ancestors that have been so deeply involved in our religion? Our
ancestors who wrote the scriptures, who the scriptures are written
about? What about them? We know they were justified.
And that's true. We know at least some of them
were justified, don't we? Well, what about them? And Paul
is going to use Abraham and David as examples to show his point
that righteousness cannot come by the law, by our law keeping.
That righteousness is going to be imputed by God to his people. That salvation every time is
by grace. The only hope that anybody has
is grace. Even Abraham and David, who are
the most revered of the Jewish fathers, even them, Those that
these Jews that Paul is writing to thought were the best. If
they're saved by grace without works, certainly we're not going
to be saved by our works. It's going to have to be by grace
too. So he begins in chapter 4 here, verse 1. What shall we
say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath
found? Now scripture teaches that Abraham is the father of
all believers, but that's not how Paul is referring to him
here. He's referring to Abraham as
the father of natural Israel, that all natural Israel, the
Jews, descended from. He is their fleshly father, their
ancestor by the flesh. And Abraham, according to the
way the Jews think, is the greatest of all the Jews. Well, that being
understood, how was Abraham justified? If we would assume Abraham is
the best one of the lot, how was he justified? How did Abraham
obtain salvation? You can't read the scripture
and think Abraham was an unsaved man. He knew the Lord. Well,
how did he obtain that salvation? How did Abraham obtain righteousness? How did he obtain favor from
God? Scripture calls Abraham the friend
of God. How did he obtain that? Was it
by the actions of his flesh? Was it by the things that he
did or maybe he didn't do? Was Abraham made righteous? because
of circumcision. He was the first one that was
circumcised. Did that contribute to his righteousness?
And you know, we'll see in these next verses, of course not. But
I thought this morning as I was driving over here, you always
want to make these lessons applicable to us. What about our children? What about those of us adults
who were raised under the sound of the gospel? Does being raised
under the sound of the gospel Having parents who are believers,
having parents, grandparents, other relatives who are believers
who teach us the Scriptures, sitting back in Sunday school
class from a time that we're so little we can't remember before
then and memorizing memory verses every week and so forth. Are
we justified by those things because of our parentage and
our heritage of the flesh? How did our parents and loved
ones that we know, how did they obtain righteousness? the same
way Abraham did. Look here in verse 2. For if
Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but
not before God. Now if Abraham had been justified
by anything he did, he could glory before God. But he doesn't
have anything to glory in. The idea that Abraham did something
that would enable him to glory before God, that would enable
him to obtain a righteousness, is contrary to grace. We just
got done reading that last week or in chapter 3, verse 24. Being justified freely by His
grace. He can't be justified by works
because justification comes to us freely by His grace through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Grace is for the guilty. A guilty man can't do anything
to please God. So Abraham didn't do anything
to please God. Now Abraham May have done things
that are impressive to men. He may have had done some things
that might would have enabled him to glory before men if that's
what he wanted to do. But it's just utterly absurd
to think that Abraham or any of us, any man could do something.
That would enable him to glory before God. You might could do
something that would enable you to glory before men because all
they see is the exterior. God looks on the heart. And when
someone looks on our heart, that always automatically eliminates
anything we can glory in. Look at Jeremiah 17. God looks on the heart, and when
somebody looks on the heart of a sinner, that always removes
boasting. Jeremiah 17, verse 9. is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord,
search the heart." See, right there, that's what eliminates
glory before God. He searches the heart. I try
the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and
according to the fruit of his doings. It removes all glory
in us if someone looks on the heart. You think of the utter
shame we would feel if somebody could look on our heart, the
thoughts, the sin, the desires that come from that heart that
we're born with. That removes all glory. So Abraham
didn't glory before God. Well, how was Abraham justified? Verse 3, for what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Whenever we want to know something, Whatever it is, the smartest
question we can ask is, what sayeth the Scripture? If someone
asks, well, what do you think about this? Or what do you think
about this? Or what do you think about that? The best answer we
can give them is, let me go see what the Scriptures say. Then
I can tell you what I think. If I know what Scripture says,
then I can tell you what I think. And as I was studying this week,
I got such a clear example of this. My daughter, Holly, She's
a freshman at UK. She's in a philosophy class.
You know, Terry, you know where this is going. She's in this
philosophy class, and they're reading a book. She's in this
thing about world food issues, and they're talking about hunger.
And they're reading a book, and a chapter of the book dealt with
fasting. And this philosopher who wrote the book quoted scripture
about fasting. Then the class is supposed to
read the book and read some other philosophers and come to class
and have a discussion about this matter of fasting. And of course
the first thought I thought of, here's a bunch of kids playing
with a poke diamond and have no concept of the value of what
they're debating on this high philosophical level. And she
called home before I got home from work and she's talking to
her mama and she wanted to know what do these verses mean? What
sayeth the scripture? And she said, I know that those
verses are not teaching salvation by works. But what do they mean? Because here, taken just, you
know, out of context, it's one verse standing alone. These philosophers
are making it sound like if you fast, you're on a higher spiritual
plane than everybody else. Salvation by works. Well, what
do they mean? And we were talking about that
at dinner and I said, well, I don't know. So I went and got my Bible
and got my concordance. And I read about fasting. What
saith the Scripture? Then I understood what I thought
about Scripture, about this matter of fasting. And when I talked
to her, I was very encouraged. She really wasn't calling to
ask, what does Daddy think? She didn't want to know what
I thought. She said, what does the Scripture mean? What saith the
Scripture? And I'm happy to report, by the
way, that fasting, I don't think that in any way we ought to fast.
And I'm glad, because when I was a baby, my mother put me on a
four-hour feeding schedule, and I've stayed on it ever since.
I don't want to go more than four hours without eating. We
don't need to worry about that. And I don't know how all that
will go over with the philosopher, but I do know what Scripture
says. And on any matter, I know what the Baptists say, what they
think, what the Presbyterians think, what the Methodists think,
what the Catholics think, so you can easily find out what
the philosopher thinks they love to tell you. But here's what
I want to know. What sayeth the Scripture? And
here's the mark of a believer. Believers believe. You show them
what Scripture says and they believe it because they believe
God. The Scripture is God's Word. They believe God. That's what
a believer does. Believes God. It may contradict
what I used to think. It may contradict what my friends
say. But I'm going to change my thinking right quick when
I find out what Scripture says. And if a person insists on thinking
something or believing something or holding to something that's
contrary to Scripture, it's because they do not know Christ. Look
at Isaiah 8. What sayeth the Scripture? Isaiah 8, verse 19. 19 And when they shall say unto
you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards
that peep, and that mutter, should not a people seek unto their
God for the living to the dead? to the law and to the testimony,
to the Old Testament scriptures, if they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. Believers
believe God's word. Now, what sayeth the scripture?
Those Jews, they may have thought Abraham was justified by some
of his obedience to God or because of his circumcision. I know that's
what they thought, but what does scripture say about how Abraham
was justified? Scripture says Abraham believed
God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Not because
of anything he did, justified by Christ, by faith in Christ. And I'll show you that in Genesis
15. Here's where Paul's quoting from in Genesis 15. Here's the time God said Abraham
was justified. Genesis 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 wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and
the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram
said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and, lo, one born
in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the
Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine ear, but he
that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine
ear. 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." He
believed God. It really, honestly, truly is
that simple. He believed God. Even our father
Abraham was justified by Christ. Through faith in Christ. Not
in his own works and his own doings, but in Christ. And if
Abraham's not justified by his works, you can bank on it. We're
not going to be justified by our works. If we're going to
be justified before God, it's going to be the same way Abraham
was. By the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith in Him. Through
the righteousness of Christ being imputed to us. Now Abraham is
known to be a man of great faith. And every one of us can be thinking,
I don't got faith like that. I don't have faith like that.
I'm not that strong. But you notice it doesn't say,
Scripture never says it's perfect faith that saves. It's faith
that saves. It's the object of our faith
that saves, the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember when our Lord, in
that pre-incarnate appearance, He came with the angels to Abraham's
tent, sat in the door of Abraham's tent. He told Abraham, not only
are you going to have a son, your wife Sarah is going to have
a son. What did Abraham do? He laughed. That's unbelievable. That wasn't an act of faith,
was it? And Sarah laughed too. That wasn't an act of faith.
It doesn't have to be perfect faith. It's faith in Christ who
is our perfection. That's the kind of faith that
saves. The kind of faith that justifies is faith in Christ. Now, here's another argument. You can just anticipate this.
Someone says, well, if you believe what you are preaching, you don't
believe in the importance of works. You're saying our works
are completely unimportant and that's just going to lead to
lasciviousness, the lawless behavior. Look at James chapter 21. Here's
the verse that these folks love to quote about this matter of works. James
chapter 2 verse 21. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works? That's what they quote. He was
justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the
altar. And they say, see, James is contradicting Paul. Scripture
is contradicting Scripture. No, that's not what's happening
at all. When you read Scripture, when
you read a verse of Scripture, it's got to be read in context.
And then it's going to be compared with other Scripture. Compare
Scripture with Scripture. If you want to understand what
sayeth the Scripture. We'll go back to verse 14. Let's
read this in context. Are our works important? Well,
what does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith
and hath not works? Can faith save him? Can that
kind of faith save him, faith that doesn't have works? If a
brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and
one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled.
Notwithstanding, you give them not those things which are needful
to the body. What does it profit? What good
did you do? Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being
alone, being by itself. Yea, man may say, Thou hast faith,
and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest
that there is one God? Thou doest well. The devils also
believe and tremble. The devils believe there is one
God. Does that mean they have faith? But wilt thou know, O
vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham
our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son
upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works, and by works was his faith made perfect? And
the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed
God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness." See,
James is not contradicting Paul, he's saying the exact same thing,
that he was justified by faith, it was imputed unto him for righteousness,
and he was called the friend of God. how that by works a man is justified,
and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the
harlot justified by works, when she received the messengers and
sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit
is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Now here's what
scripture teaches. Paul is talking to the religious
Jews who thought they could be justified before God by their
works. James is talking to these religious
philosophers, these religious smart fellows, theologians, who
drew the conclusion that since we're justified by faith, our
works are unimportant. Our conduct and our obedience
are completely unimportant because we're justified by faith, not
by works. What James is talking about is
not being justified before God, but our faith being justified
before man. Men can't see the heart. God
does. That's where God deals with us, but we don't deal with
each other in the heart because we can't see the heart. All we
can see is our actions. I see your faith by your works. Faith produces works and obedience. What Paul's talking about in
Romans is the cause of our justification. It's Christ. It's faith in Christ.
James is not talking about the cause. He's talking about the
evidence of our salvation. True salvation produces obedience
and good works because the Lord gives a new nature. There's different
works because there's a different nature. Faith without works is
dead. Just like a body without works
is dead. If a body's not working, it's
not moving, it's because it's dead. Faith that doesn't produce
obedience is dead. Where there is no life, where
there is life, there are signs of life. And where there's faith,
there's signs, there's evidence of faith. So verse 4, back in
our text. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Whatever a worker
receives is wages. It's a debt from their employer.
You know, when you pay a debt, you're not giving a gift. You're
not being gracious. Wayne, when you send me an electric
bill this month, The electric company doesn't get that and
say, wait a minute, he's a gracious guy, isn't he? Look at this gift
he sends. No, it's a debt. You're not being
gracious when you pay a debt. That's not grace. That's not
mercy. It's a debt. And if any amount of our works
contributes to our salvation, to our righteousness, then salvation
is not by free grace. And that's what we just read.
Remember back in chapter 3, verse 24, It's a gift. Justification is a gift. It's
a free gift of God's grace. Now, Paul talks about this reward. Now, him that worketh is the
reward, not reckoned of grace, but of death. We're talking about
Abraham. What was Abraham's reward? Scripture
says, we read it back here in Genesis a few minutes ago, that
Abraham had an exceeding great reward. Well, what was his reward? God Himself. Remember when we
read, He said, Abraham, I am thy exceeding great reward. You
can't earn that reward. How foolish do we have to be
to think that a creature can make God indebted to us. It can't
be done. If God's going to give us anything,
it's the reward of grace. And wages are what you pay a
hireling. Wages is what a hireling is due. Wages is not what a son is given. I give my daughter everything
I can give her that she might need. It's not a wage. She doesn't
have to work for it. It's because she's my daughter.
Because I love her. A son, a daughter is giving blessings
because of love. Not because they work for it.
And believers are God's children. His spiritual sons and daughters.
And we're giving every spiritual blessing because of grace. Because of love. Now a son still
works, doesn't he, but has a totally different motive to be obedient
than the hireling. The son does it out of love.
Savannah this evening will do the dishes out of love, just
because she loves me, because she loves her mama. Totally different
motive than the fellow that's washing dishes for minimum wage
down at the restaurant. Totally different. And I'd rather
be a son than a hireling getting wages any day, wouldn't you?
Wouldn't you rather have an inheritance than wages? Well, I would. Especially
of God. Now, verse 5. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. The only way a sinful son of
Adam can ever be justified is through faith in Christ. A sinner
can't be justified by our sinful works. It's got to be the works
of Christ being imputed to us. And remember, being justified
is being made without sin. That is entirely the work of
Christ. A sinner can't do something to
make himself without sin. That's a blessing we receive
through faith in Christ. And you can't even make a work
out of faith because faith is the gift of God. It's not the
act of faith. It's not the act of believing
God that justifies us. It's the object of our faith.
It's Christ who saves. And you know who God justifies? The ungodly. He doesn't justify
the good people, the good religious people, the people who are obeying
him. He justifies the ungodly. Sinners. And Abraham is the perfect
example. Abraham, when God called Abraham,
was an ungodly idolater, bound down to a hunk of stone. He wasn't
always a man of faith. He wasn't always a man of good
deeds. He wasn't always the man to take his son to the top of
a mountain and offer him just because God told him to. He was
a man of faith because God called him out of idolatry. He justified
the ungodly and gave him a life of faith, a life of following
God. God made Abraham a man of faith
by saving him from his ungodliness. justify our sin. He doesn't overlook
our sin. He justifies the ungodly by imputing
our sins to Christ. Imputing the righteousness of
Christ to us without any contribution from us. And again, you can't
leave this verse without pointing this out now. Does that mean
the believer never works? That he never works. To him that
worketh not. No, that doesn't work. That's
not what that means at all. After the Lord saves a man, he
still works, but the motive is completely different. It's out
of love for our Savior, not in order to make God indebted to
us, not in order so that we can be saved, but because the Lord
has made us objects of his mercy and grace. It's all the difference
between the motive of a hireling and the motive of a son. Now,
verse 6, he goes on to David. He says, even as David also described
it, the blessedness of the man. unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works." Now Paul switches to this other patriarch that
the Jews all admired him. This is King David, the sweet
psalmist of Israel, the man after God's own heart. Well, how is
David justified? The same way Abraham was, the
same way every believer is, by Christ, through faith in Christ. David says the man is blessed,
he's happy, who the Lord imputes righteousness without worse."
A sinner is happy to hear that. Why? Because I can't do anything
to make God happy with me. I can tell you from experience,
I can't do anything to make God happy with me. I spent a long
time trying. I spent a long time trying to
be a good boy and learn my memory verses and doing everything I
was supposed to do. I couldn't do anything. to make
God have mercy on me. Can't do it. It's freely by His
grace, without works. And the only way a sinner, like
you and me, can ever be made righteous, justified, is through
imputation. Can't come by any work we do.
If it came by work that we do, then it's not imputed, is it?
It's owed. David says righteousness is imputed. Look at verse 7. saying, Blessed,
happy are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. I'll tell you the truly happy
man is the man whose sin is forgiven, whose sin is covered under the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a happy man. B. Fraser used to tell me when I
was teaching that Sunday school class, she'd say, Frankie, those
are shouting words. Happy is the man, all whose sins
are forgiven, whose iniquities are covered. Oh, my goodness.
God removes our sin as far from us as the East is from the West.
They can never touch you again. They'll never be brought up again.
This is a happy man who can lay down to die. A happy man, a blessed
man, because in judgment, those sins will never be brought up
again because they were judged in Christ our substitute. That's
why he's happy. Look at verse 8. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. The truly happy man
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now we talked
about God imputing righteousness. Now He's not imputing sin. This
matter of imputation is a two-way street. Righteousness becomes
ours. The same way sin became ours.
When Adam sinned, his sin His guilt was imputed to us, imputed
to everyone he represented. We are sinners because we have
Adam's nature. We became guilty in Adam. Before we ever did the first
act of disobedience, we became guilty in Adam by imputation. Christ's righteousness is imputed
to everyone he represents. We are righteous because we have
the righteousness of Christ. Before we ever did the first
act of obedience, just like before we did the first act of disobedience,
we were made sinners, guilty by imputation. Before we did
the first act of obedience, we were made righteous in Christ
by his righteousness being imputed to us. You see, this doesn't
say happy is the man who doesn't sin. Happy is the man who doesn't
have any sin at all, because that would eliminate all of us,
wouldn't it? Well, there'd be no good news then for us. Happy
is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin. Well, why
won't He? If the man's happy to whom the
Lord will not impute sin, why won't the Lord impute sin? Why
won't He reckon or charge sin to us? Because the sin of God's
elect was taken from us and imputed. to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we're made happy through his sorrow. That's why we're happy,
through his sorrow, because our sin was charged to him. We have
life because of his death. We're rich because of his poverty. That's why we're happy, because
that imputation works two ways. Our sin, iniquity, vile wretchedness
imputed to him, and he put them away. covered him with his blood. Happy is the man whose sin is
forgiven, and his righteousness imputed to us, given the very
righteousness of God. All right, we'll hope that's
a blessing.