Now turn with me in your Bibles
please to Romans chapter four. Romans chapter four. Romans chapter four. And we're
going to read from verse one and we'll read through to verse
12. What shall we say, then, that
Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the Scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness
then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also. For we see 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. And he received the sign of circumcision,
a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet being
uncircumcised, 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. Amen. May God bless to us the
reading of this passage. Just before we get into what
I have to say from these verses this evening, I want to draw
your attention to a few things that the Lord Jesus Christ said.
And I'd like you just to think about these verses that I'm going
to quote and see if you can spot the common thread that exists
between these verses. These are the words of the Lord. Many prophets and righteous men
have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen
them, and hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Another time the Lord said, Then
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
their father. Who hath ears to hear, let him
hear. Another time he said, Then shall
the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee unhungred,
and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? And again, these
shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
into life eternal. Now, did you see anything common
to those verses? There was a couple of references
there to hearing and seeing. That wasn't what I was thinking
about. So let me take that away. Did
you see something else? There's the word. There's the
word that I was looking for. Righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ
called certain individuals in this world righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ declares
that there are people in this world who are righteous. And
yet we've just finished reading, have we not, in chapter 3, that
there is none righteous, no not one. There's none that doeth
good, no not one. I don't know that Paul could
have been any more emphatic in writing what he did. He said
it in the 10th verse of chapter 3. We're now moving into chapter
4. So this is something that I trust we are familiar with.
The whole argument that the Apostle has been building here is to
show that neither Jew nor Gentile Neither those who had the law
given to them, granted to them as the very oracles of God and
were blessed to receive it, or those who were in idolatry and
heathendom and never had the blessings of the revelation of
God, none of them are righteous. They are all altogether in sin,
altogether fallen short of the standard of God's holiness. Towards
the end of the verses that we read together, we would see that
there was a reference to those same two groups as being the
circumcision and the uncircumcision, and that was a mark of the fact
that the Jews had had a cut in their flesh which was a sign
or a symbol or a seal of the blessed relationship that they
had with God and the revelation that he had given to them. There
were those who were the circumcised and there were those who were
the uncircumcised and the apostle distinguishes between these two
as he has done throughout the early chapters of this book of
Romans. But he was emphatic. He said
that there is none righteous. No, not one. Is this a mistake? Is this a
contradiction? Have we discovered a contradiction
in the word of God? You know, we do encounter people,
don't we, from time to time? and they'll say to us, oh, you
don't believe that old stuff, do you? You don't believe the
Bible, it's full of contradictions. Well, I say to them, run your
course, foolish man, and see if that opinion cuts it when
you stand before your maker and your judge in a day to come. See if that opinion makes any
difference to the judge who will do right when you say to him
that the book that he gave and the revelation that he gave was
full of contradictions. That is fool. There is no contradiction. Christ and Paul agree. Christ says there are righteous
people in this world and the Apostle Paul says there is none
righteous, no not one. So we have to see where this
agreement is. How is it that these things are
not mutually exclusive? And of course, the answer is
that Paul was telling us that there is no one, none, not here
tonight, not anywhere in the world, not in the history of
the church, not in the history of mankind. There never has been
one in nature who is totally righteous. There was a man once called Adam.
who was made very good, but he fell into sin and he proved himself
also to be unrighteous. And every single person who has
ever been born from the loins of that man, Adam, hath carried
in them the seed of unrighteousness, the seed which caused them in
their time to perpetrate iniquities against a holy God. And no one is apart from that
general, universal condemnation that falls upon all men. All
men have sinned, but the Lord Jesus was telling us that there
is a righteousness that nevertheless is given to certain individuals. Certain men and women have the
righteousness of God freely given to them as a gift. as a complete
gift, not as a salary or a wage or something that they have deserved
or merited, but as a gift. They have a righteousness, the
righteousness of God, Paul calls it here in these early chapters
of Romans. The righteousness of God freely
bestowed upon them. And he goes to great lengths
to emphasize that it is apart from the law. It is not a righteousness
that comes through law or indeed legal obedience, but a righteousness
that is freely gifted. It's a gift from God. So there's
no legal obedience when we come to think about the righteousness
of God, but there is a sovereign, unconditional demonstration of
grace. grace. It comes as a free gift. A righteousness that comes as
a free gift to those who by nature are sinners and unrighteous. A righteousness that comes to
make the unrighteous righteous. So the Lord Jesus Christ was
right when he said that there were men and women, prophets
and righteous men. He said who long to see the fullness
of the revelation that you have seen, but they didn't see it.
Righteous men of days gone by. There will be those who are called
the righteous, who shine forth as the sun. There are those,
a righteous people, who speak to God and who are received of
God. There are a righteous people
who will be taken into everlasting life in heaven when those who
are unrighteous, those who never have received the righteousness
of God, will be sent away into everlasting destruction and everlasting
damnation and punishment. And so these statements that
the Lord Jesus Christ make reveal to us also this point that the
Apostle Paul is making to us, that there is a righteousness
comes from God and it is freely given to individuals. And in
Romans chapter three, verse 21, we read this point from Paul. So here was the point that he
was making. He was saying that there is none righteous, no not
one, in verse 10 of chapter three, but then in Romans chapter three,
verse 21, he says, but now, but now. By nature, there's none
righteous, but now. The righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets. Our thoughts this evening are
going to be centered around the seventh verse of chapter four. The seventh verse of chapter
four. And the Apostle Paul there writes,
blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are
covered. Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered. So the apostle has shown us that
there is a people a people who are made righteous by God because
of his free gift to them. And in verse 28 of chapter 3,
he concluded, he says, we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law, or a man is made righteous by
faith, because that's the same word in there, or it's the same
principle that's involved. We are justified by the receipt
of righteousness, by being made righteous with God and before
God. And so we conclude that a man
is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So the argument that the Apostle
has set before us, he is showing us that there are examples in
Scripture of individuals who have received this righteousness
from God. And he wants to show us, as we
get into chapter 4, some examples in order to prove and to support
this conclusion that he has made at the end of chapter 3. There's
none righteous by nature, whether you're Jew or Gentile, yet there
is a righteousness of God apart from the law, which is freely
and sovereignly and unconditionally bestowed. Therefore, we conclude
that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Now, let me give you some examples to support and prove that principle. And that's what the apostle is
doing for us here at the beginning of chapter four. Can I just,
sometimes when you're thinking about these things and when you're
preaching, you like to have just a little detour and you just
sort of, you do a little loop because something comes to your
mind and you think to yourself, you know, that's actually worth
mentioning. Can I just say something as well about that? The fact
that the Apostle Paul has used these examples in Romans chapter
4 to support this case that he's making, it tells us two things,
two wonderful things with respect to this argument. First of all,
what it has done is it has established the authority of Scripture. Because
Paul is arguing here that these Old Testament scriptures are
to be taken as the absolute truth and the authoritative word of
God. That's the whole point of his
argument in chapter 4. If the Old Testament Scriptures
were not authoritative, if the Old Testament Scriptures could
be left behind and we just concentrate on the New Testament, then Paul's
argument would lose all its credibility. But the power of his argument
is the fact that the statements made in the Old Testament Scriptures
with reference to Abraham and to David, the two examples that
he calls forth, are to be received as God-given truth and that's
what makes his argument so watertight. That's the first point just to
notice here. The second one is that he's relying upon the knowledge
of these Old Testament stories, of these Old Testament accounts,
the history of these patriarchs. He's relying on the fact that
the people to whom he was writing knew these stories, were familiar
with these verses. He wasn't writing to them and
telling them, one, two, three, four, these are all the things.
All he had to do was mention Abraham and immediately in the
minds of the people to whom he was writing, they knew what he
was talking about. So that encourages us as well
to be familiar with these Old Testament scriptures just as
much as we value the New Testament. This is a complete revelation
from God. And yes, it was a gradual revelation. Yes, we accept and believe that
there was a limited revelation which grew and developed and
became larger as the fullness of revelation was given. That
doesn't mean to say that anything that was said and done before
has lost any of its veracity or any of its usefulness to point
us to the fullness of the glory of God and the revelation of
God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that was a little
detour that I just wanted to make there with respect to these
examples that the Apostle is giving us. He draws forth an
example, first of all, from Abraham. And he says at the beginning
of chapter four, what about Abraham? And I think that Although he
was writing to the people in Rome and although Rome was located
in Italy, if my geography is right, and that that would have
been a Gentile country and an idolatrous country and a country
where the Theology of the Jews was not necessarily accepted
and received. Nevertheless, he knew that the
audience to whom he was writing in Rome would have largely been
aware of these Old Testament scriptures. And I think that
he must have completely astounded some of the Jews who heard what
he was saying here. It's almost as if, here is the
Apostle Paul, and he's speaking about justification by faith. He's speaking about justification,
the righteousness of God freely given to individuals. Now that's
a new religion, right? That's a new religion. And yet,
it's not. This is the same gospel that
was preached to Abraham, the same gospel that was preached
to David. And yet all of those Jews who
had learned about Abraham, who had learned about David, who
were familiar with Moses, who knew about Jacob, who knew about
the covenant, who knew about all of the history of the Old
Testament, Suddenly the Apostle Paul has just said, let me give
you an example from Abraham. Abraham, that was the big daddy. That was the main man in the
Jewish religion. And suddenly he says, Abraham
was justified, not by works, but by faith in exactly the way
that I am showing you here in chapter three, in what I have
just said. And the apostle in bringing this
message in this way, using Abraham as an example, he must have astounded
some of those to whom he was writing. The bloom, as it were,
of a thousand years of religion was popped in a single sentence. They had lived their whole life,
their whole worldview, their whole religious understanding
was to do with law and with Abraham and covenant and Moses and having
to be obedient and having to live according to a certain code
and standard. And I'm sure some of them tried.
I'm sure some of them tried. There would be those who would
honestly try, but they would find that as much as anybody
else, even the sincere amongst them, that they were never quite
good enough, never quite good enough, never quite acceptable,
and that the law always had something to say in condemnation against
them. And so here was a message. And
it's as if Paul is saying, Was Abraham justified before God? Is he one of those righteous
ones of whom the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking when he spoke about
the prophets and righteous men who long to see these things
which you see but never did, hear the things that you hear
but never did? Is maybe Abraham one of those
righteous ones? Well, of course the Jews knew
that he was. Whence came his righteousness? Where did he get his righteousness? Was it from working for it under
the law? Well, no, because the law hadn't
even been given yet. The law hadn't even been given.
This was years and years before Moses. Turn with me to Genesis, please. Genesis chapter 12. And I'm going to read some verses
here. And if you'll forgive me being so bold, because I suspect
some of you don't know your Old Testament as well as the Jews
in Rome did. So we're gonna read a few verses
from Genesis chapter 12. Verse one. Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
so Abram was Abraham's name before the Lord changed it a little
later in his life, but at this time he was called Abram. Now
the Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country and
from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that
I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great
nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou
shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord
had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was
seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And
Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all
their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that
they had gotten in Haran, and they went forth to go into the
land of Canaan. And into the land of Canaan they
came. And Abram passed through the
land unto the place of Siham, unto the plain of Morah, and
the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto
Abram and said unto him, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar
unto the Lord who appeared unto him. And he removed from Thames
unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent,
having Bethel in the west, and High on the east. And there he
builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the
Lord. And Abram journeyed, going on
still toward the south. Okay, few more verses in chapter
15. So just turn over a page for
me, please. Chapter 15. And once again, verse one. So some things have passed. There's
been a couple of incidents in the life of Abraham. He's had
a battle. He's been able to rescue his
nephew Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah. But then in chapter 15, we come
to the next episode with respect to these promises that were given
to Abraham or Abram as he then was. 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
wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, 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. These passages from Genesis put
us in the picture with respect to the promises that were given
to Abraham. And we see from these things
that Abraham was taken out of the land of Ur of the Chaldees. Now that was not the Jews. The Jews didn't exist yet. Abraham was taken from an idolatrous
people, so he was called by God out of a place and a state of
idolatry, where he knew not God, where no one knew God. And yet
the word of God came to him, came to Abraham in that state. He was a fallen creature. He
was a sinful man like everyone else. He was merely one of Adam's
race, but to him, God sovereignly, unconditionally, unilaterally
made promises of goodness, and of greatness and they were given
to Abraham. And so in Hebrews chapter 11
we find that the writer to the Hebrews says, by faith Abraham
when he was called to go out into a place which he should
after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing
whether he went. So the writer to the Hebrews
is telling us here that Abraham obeyed God because he believed
God, because he trusted God. And yes, he got up and he left.
Yes, he took his family and he went out, but he did so because
he received a call from God and he believed that the God who
had made this promise to him would be faithful to that promise. exercised faith. Abraham, we're
told, believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now that was a righteousness
that was quite separate from the law. That was a righteousness
which came because of faith. It was a righteousness that we
received by faith. And one more point here with
respect to this faith that Abraham had. It was not a vague faith
or an unclear faith. Now I have previously mentioned
that there was a gradual and a growing revelation from the
Old Testament times up until the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ and we see that, we can see that in the reading of the
Old Testament scriptures and yet That is not to say that there
was not a clarity given, a glimpse given, of the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We discover throughout the Old
Testament Scriptures, right from the very Garden of Eden itself,
that the Lord Jesus Christ is to be viewed by those who have
faith. whether it's by type, whether
it's symbolically, or whether it is an actual revelation of
the Lord Jesus Christ in a physical form. And that's what we read
here. Now, I'm not saying that Abraham
knew as much of the Lord Jesus Christ as we do today. And yet,
In John chapter 8 verse 56, the Lord Jesus himself said of Abraham,
your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and
was glad. Abraham met the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham knew the Lord Jesus Christ. Hundreds and hundreds of years
before the Lord Jesus Christ came in the fullness of his revelation,
Abraham knew of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was not a vague
faith. This was not ill-defined. This was not a hazy idea that,
well, I hope it's going to be all right. I'll get up and I'll
go. No, these were promises that were made to Abraham and Abraham
believed the promises of God. Abraham believed the Lord Jesus
Christ. He understood. Here's a bit of
a leap. He understood substitutionary
atonement. I believe it to be the case.
I believe that Abraham understood that because he knew, he met,
he trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. We read there in Genesis chapter
15, verse one, after these things, the word of the Lord came unto
Abraham in a vision. What came unto Abraham? Who came unto Abraham? The Word
of the Lord came unto Abraham. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was a
theophany. This was an Old Testament revelation
of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham saw the Lord
Jesus Christ in his day. After these things, the word
of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Now you might not think it in
a first reading of that verse, but I believe that substitutionary
atonement right there. I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. What does a shield do? A shield
is interposed between the attack of the enemy and the preservation
of the body. That's what a shield does. You
put your shield up. And what did the Lord Jesus Christ
say to Abraham when he met him? He said, I'm your shield, Abraham.
I'm your shield. Not only am I your shield, Abraham,
I'm your exceeding great reward. I am going to stand before you. I am going to be interposed for
you. I am going to take. the weight
of judgment against you and I am going to carry it for you. That was the message that was
given to Abraham. Abraham understood it and Abraham
believed the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham trusted in Christ as
his righteousness with God. He trusted in Christ as his shield. He trusted in Christ as his inheritance. And that's all, that is all in
its entirety that we are asked to do today in the faith of the
gospel, in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, just to trust that
Christ is such a redeemer, such a substitute, such a surety for
the sins of his people. So much for Abraham. What about
David? This is the second example that
we are given here. If drawing upon Abraham was not
enough, Paul now enlists the testimony of David. King David,
to whom the Jews looked with pride and with messianic fervour
and anticipation. Oh, they longed to see this Messiah
that would come from the house of David who would re-establish
their kingdom, that would re-establish their nation, that would take
them back to be the top of the world where they imagined that
they ought to be as God's chosen people. Oh they knew all about
Abraham and they knew all about David and they knew all about
the messianic prophecies. And so the Apostle Paul brings
forth David and he brings forth the words of David or the Psalms
of David. What did David say? Psalm 32
and verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Here is an individual who has
no sin before God. Here is an individual who Paul
paraphrases positively as having a blessedness through the gift
of righteousness. Blessedness by righteousness
freely given. And that's justification. So
Paul says, David believed in justification. David believed
in a righteousness which justifies before God. Not only so, he believes
that it is freely given, not to do with the law, not to do
with works, not to do with obedience, but freely given as a gift. So in 2 Corinthians 5, verse
21, we can see how that imputation, which is what David is speaking
about here, that substitutionary transaction, is revealed to us
in the New Testament. That is, like the shield of Abraham,
one in place of another, one substituting for another, one
standing in front of another in order to take that judgment
upon himself that the one for whom he stands might go free. 2 Corinthians 5.21. Listen to these words. This is
imputation. This is Righteousness imputed. For he hath made him, that's
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, he hath made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. That's exactly what David
has been saying. That's exactly what was revealed
to Abraham. These two examples from Old Testament
scriptures brought forth in order to support the argument of Paul
in Romans chapter 3 show us exactly the nature of this righteousness
of God. It comes by imputation. It comes as a gift bestowed because
one stands in our place, because one becomes the shield of those
who are themselves the guilty perpetrators. Galatians chapter
3 is another example where Paul, writing upon the same subject
to the church at Galatia, says, Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. So there's the
Lord Jesus Christ again, that shield. He being made a curse
for us. He receiving the judgment of
God that should have been ours. So to the Corinthians he says
that the Lord Jesus Christ becomes sin, bears our sin, carries the
responsibility for that sin, carries the punishment for that
sin. Having been made sin for us,
he takes that punishment upon himself. And we are counted. No, we are made. righteous before God. Not just
counted righteous. As if God says, well I know what
you're really like but I'm just going to pretend that you're
different. No, made righteous. Christ made
sin. We made righteous. This righteousness
has been given to us. This righteousness has been imputed
to us. This righteousness has been imparted
to us. Not in the flesh, the flesh is
old, the flesh is sinful, the flesh must die, but in the new
man, in the new creation, in that hidden man of the heart,
as Peter calls it, in that which has been born again. The effecting cause of that great
transaction, we're told, is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of Christ as he died
as a willing sacrifice for his people. So in Romans 5 verse
9, we're not quite there yet, but Paul is going to be drawing
this as part of the same argument. He is saying that being now justified,
that is now made righteous by his blood, by His blood, the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's righteousness imputed,
God's righteousness reckoned to us by the blood shed by the
Lord Jesus Christ. And our sin put onto Christ,
thereby demanding His death in our place and the judgment that
He received. kind of coming to the end of
what I have to say to you this evening in the context of these
things that are set before us as the examples that Paul has
used in order to support his argument at his conclusion at
the end of chapter 3. But in order to round these things
off, I want to draw your attention to a verse at the end of the
chapter four that we're looking at. Just jump ahead, as it were,
a little bit and draw your attention to the end of the chapter. And
I think I'm going to do this a couple of times probably in
the next few weeks. And I want to show you for this
reason, we're going to be looking at verse 21. But I want to jump ahead because
this righteousness of God that was given to Abraham and the
righteousness of God that was given to David The righteousness,
as it were, of which the Lord Jesus Christ spoke when he said,
there are people who are righteous, and of whom Paul was concluding
when he said that though we are in nature sinful, yet there is
a righteousness of God which comes freely to us apart from
the law. That righteousness of God, it didn't just go to Abraham. It didn't just go to David. This hasn't just been given to
a very small number of historical characters that we might look
back upon and longingly think to ourselves, oh I wish I could
have some of that righteousness which they had. No, this righteousness
of God is available to sinners like you and me, and it's available
to sinners like you and me right here, right now, here tonight,
in the midst of this storm. We can have the righteousness
of God. freely given to us. Now that's
an amazing thing and yet that's exactly what Paul is saying here
in Romans 4 verse 21. So let me read this. This is
a sort of rider to the conclusion of our thoughts tonight. It says
in Romans chapter 4 verse 21. And being fully persuaded This
is speaking about Abraham again. Being fully persuaded that what
he had promised, he was able to perform. That's what Christ
had promised to Abraham. That he would be his shield and
his exceeding great reward. What he had promised, he was
able to perform. Abraham was persuaded. Abraham
believed it. and therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. It was freely given. Righteousness
was given to him. Now, says Paul in verse 23, it
was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to
him. This hasn't been written down
in the book of Genesis by Moses. This wasn't written for his good
alone. 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 offences and was raised
again for our justification. I'm having to fight this rain
on the roof. The righteousness of God. is
available to us. That's a staggering statement. The righteousness of God is given
to sinners like you and sinners like me. Freely given, unconditionally
given as a free gift. He was fully persuaded He was
fully persuaded that what had been promised, God was able to
perform. And that's all he believed. He said he didn't know how it
was going to happen. He didn't know all the details.
He didn't have the fullness of the revelation which we now have. These prophets and righteous
men, they looked forward and they saw that there was something
going to happen. God was going to do something.
He didn't have all the fullness of the revelation, but he had
enough to trust, he had enough to believe, and he did. What
did he believe? He believed that the blood of
Jesus Christ cleansed from all sin. He believed that the righteousness
of God would be his because a substitute would stand in his place, a shield
would be found and an inheritance would be bestowed. He believed
that God would not impute sin to him but would rather impute
righteousness to him. So let me ask a question of you
tonight. Are you so persuaded? Are you
persuaded for all the additional and enhancement of the revelation
that has been given in the Gospel of Christ? Are you so persuaded? What He had promised, He was
able to perform. Do you believe God? Do you believe
He's trustworthy? Do you believe He's able to do
that which He has said He is going to do? Do you believe that? I began by referring to the Lord
Jesus Christ's words that there are a people in this world who
are righteous. They're righteous in Christ.
They are righteous before God. They are righteous by the imputation
of God's own righteousness to them in Christ. These are a people
whose iniquities are forgiven. These are a people whose sins
are covered. They are, as Paul says, found
in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through faith of Christ, the righteousness
of God by faith. They are like, as Peter says,
them that have obtained like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. If you believe the promises of
God in Christ, If you believe these promises for salvation,
promises for redemption, promises for reconciliation by the blood
of Jesus Christ, if you believe that there is a righteousness
of God that is imputed to sinners, not by good works, not by their
efforts, not by the law, but by the sheer gift of God, then
it is God who has given you that faith to believe. And it is God who has delivered
you from your sin and who has given you grace and mercy in
the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord grant us all that
faith tonight and the blessed assurance of possession of it. Amen.