I invite you this morning to
turn back with me to the fourth chapter of the book of Romans. My message, and I pray also that
it's God's message to you this morning, is justification by
faith. Justification by faith is the
theme of Paul's letter to the Romans. It is a vital part of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. You cannot preach the gospel
apart from preaching justification by faith. Over and over, Paul
includes this in his epistles. What is justification? What does
it mean to be justified? Justification is to be cleared
of all wrongdoing. That's the first thing. It's
to be declared blameless by the all-knowing, all-seeing God of
heaven and earth. It is God which justifies. Sometimes people seek my approval
of their professions and of their beliefs, their hopes before God. But it's not my approval you
need, it's God's. God's approval. It's God that
justifies. Now, there's two things which
are necessary to understand. We're coming in here at the fourth
chapter of this letter which Paul wrote to them, and he's
already established some things. And it's necessary. There's two
things which are necessary to understand if we're going to
be edified by this verse which I'm going to preach and these
verses that I read to you this morning. The first thing is that
man is a falling, corrupt, depraved sinner. You're not going to get anywhere
with any kind of understanding. You're not going to get anywhere
as far as being edified until you submit yourself to the testimony
of God concerning the condition of man. Your condition, my condition. And man is a fallen, corrupt,
depraved sinner. He's a sinner by birth. He's
born that way. Job said, Man that is born of
woman, that's pretty much every man, isn't it? Man that's born
of woman is of a few days and full of trouble. Full of trouble. He's got troubles the minute
he's born he has trouble. He comes forth from the womb
speaking lies. He goes astray, the scripture
says, as soon as he'd be born. He's a sinner by birth and he's
a sinner by choice. John said this under the inspiration
of the Holy Ghost. I always name these apostles
who say these things. Paul said, John said, Peter said. Actually, the Holy Ghost said.
He said it through John and Peter and so on. So let's put it that
way. The Holy Ghost said. Light came into the world. He
said, this is condemnation. You want to know what this judgment
is, this condemnation of God by one man's offense? This condemnation
came and reigned by this one man's sins. You want to know
what this condemnation is? Here it is. Light came into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light. What's that
mean? They chose darkness. That's what that means. They
saw the light. They heard the light. They considered
the light. And then they went back to their
darkness. So we're sinners by birth, and we're sinners by choice. We have the light of creation,
every man. Say, well, I've never heard what
you preached. I have people tell me that all
the time. I've never heard any such thing. Never heard any man
anywhere, never read a book that even said anything like that.
But you have the light of conscience, don't you? And you have the light
of creation. And we don't run to that light
either. We leave that light and run off to our darkness. So we're
sinners by birth, and we're sinners by choice, and we're practicing
sinners. We're sinners by practice, every
last one of us. You know, Paul went through Romans
7, and I'm sure he's talking about the believer there who's
struggling with the sin that's yet in him. He said, when I would
do good, evil's present with me. Every time, all the time,
it never goes away. Sometimes I get my mind set early
in the morning. I'm going in here. I'm going
to lock myself in my study, and I'm going to go in there, and
I'm going to have some undisturbed prayer and study with God, communion
with God in my study, and I go in there. It won't be five minutes.
My mind's way off here on something else. Dog barking outside. What's that? I reckon what he's
barking at. Get up and go out there. When
I would do good, evil is present with me. The good that I would,
he said, I do not. The evil that I wouldn't do,
that's what I do. That's what I do. And finally,
he come to this conclusion. We're talking about being sinners
by practice. Paul said, oh, wretched man that
I am. Have you ever come to grips with
that? That's what we are. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? This is death. This is spiritual
death. This death that works in me. His word spiritual, but I'm carnal,
sold unto sin. And I have a nature of sin, and
it makes me a wretched man. And I need deliverance. And then
Paul tells us over in the third chapter of Romans, the chapter
just before the one that I'm preaching to you from this morning,
he tells us over there that he has before proven that both Jews
and Gentiles are all under sin. They're under the condemnation
of it. They're under the influence of it. They're under sin. And because they're under sin,
there's none righteous. No, not one. None righteous.
None that understandeth. None that seeketh after God.
None good. All together become unprofitable. And because he is a fallen, depraved
sinner, it's utterly impossible for a man to achieve by his works
and by his worth a justification before God. Now, if you don't
understand that, if you never submitted to that, if you never
bowed to that, you couldn't possibly be edified by what I'm about
to preach. And Paul knew that. That's why
he put it in his letter. Why is that? Well, he tells us
just before he tells us in Romans 3 what is being justified freely
by His grace. Before he gets into all that,
he said, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. Utterly impossible for a depraved
sinner to achieve by his works and his worth a justification
before God. And when he says, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, God's glory is the perfection
of His character. God's not just just, He's perfectly
just. He's altogether just. There's
nothing unjust in Him. He's just. And He's righteous. There's no unrighteousness in
Him. Perfectly righteous. All those lambs which were typical
of Christ in the Old Testament were required to be without spot
or blemish or any such thing. They were to select that lamb
out of that herd, a firstling, without spot or blemish or any
such thing. They were to pin that thing up
and watch it, make sure it had no flaws, make sure it had no
broken bones. Nothing wrong with it. No, nothing
wrong with it. Perfect lamb. That's what's required. That's
what's required. And that's what this whole world's
ignorant of. Moses wrote of the sacrifices which a man would
offer to God, peace offerings unto God. And here's what he
said over in Leviticus 22, 21. It shall be perfect to be accepted. Now, that's what was required
of that lamb, and that's what was required of the Lamb of God.
It must be perfect. And the idea that God will accept
the best you can do, I know that sounds good. That sounds good. And men love to run and grab
little pieces of Scripture to prove that. They do. But the idea that God will accept
the best you can do was proven a lie in the very first worship
service when Cain and Abel came to worship God. That's proven
a lie right there. Abel brought a lamb. That's what
he was told to bring, an unblemished lamb, and that's what he brought.
He brought it by faith, looking ahead to this promised Redeemer
that was promised to his father and mother. He came before God
to worship. He brought a lamb, an unblemished
lamb, a substitutionary lamb. Cain brought the best he could
produce. He did. He didn't bring a bunch
of shabby stuff down there. He brought the best he could
do. He brought it down and he laid it down on that altar. Abel
brought his lamb by faith, seeing him who was typified by it, and
obtained witness from God that he was righteous. Cain brought
the works of his hand of which God had no respect whatsoever. Man is a fallen, depraved sinner
who cannot achieve this justification of God. And then secondly, here's
something else we got to know. That if man could, if he could
achieve that, Christ coming into this world as a man and his death
on the cross, his life under the law, would have all been
for nothing. Isn't that what Paul says over
and over and over? I do not frustrate the grace
of God if righteousness come by the law of Christ, dead and
vain. Dead and vain. My friend, God's purpose in the
creation of the world is to manifest His glory, His glorious perfections
of character in the salvation of a people through the person
and work of His dear Son. And in everything God has done,
is doing, and yet shall do, this is His counsel. and will. People say, well, I'm seeking
the will of God. This is it. This is it. Everything God does
for us, in us, or by us is done in harmony with His eternal purpose
of grace. Ephesians 1.11 tells us, in Christ
also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated, now listen,
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will." Now, our text here in Romans
4, verse 16, is a summary. It's a summary of what Paul has
said concerning this justification which is just illustrated in
the patriarch Abraham. Now, if you care to follow along
with me, verse 16 of Romans, the fourth chapter, has a natural
five-point outline. And I'll just briefly touch on
these things. Let's begin with the first word
of the verse, therefore. Therefore. Now, you move back
up to verse 24 of Romans, chapter 3, and he says, being justified
freely by His grace, through the redemption that's in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation for our
sins through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins." Old Testament sins, New Testament
sins. And then he gets done, he said,
now where's boasting? It's excluded. It's excluded. Therefore, it indicates the reason,
the basis, the foundation for all that he's about to say. And
I don't care. We're Gentiles. We're not Jews.
There might be a Jew in here, and I'm not aware of it, but
I don't think so. I think everybody here this morning
is a Gentile. What's a Gentile? That's a heathen.
That's a heathen. Idol worship and heathen. That's
what we are. Gentile. But whether Jew or Gentile,
it's important that we have an understanding of the Old Testament
Scriptures. Religion is so ignorant of the
Gospel because they're totally ignorant of the Old Testament
Scriptures. The Gideons used to come to school
when I was a little kid. They won't allow them to do that
anymore, but when I was a little kid, the Gideons would come to
school and they'd give you these New Testaments. That's half a
Bible is what that is. That's half a Bible. The law,
the priesthood, and the Jews, we've got to know those things.
It's important that we have an understanding of the Old Testament
scripture. And we've got to see those things
in connection with the promised redeemer and his elect. We as
Gentiles have no covenant. You can't go back in the Old
Testament and find any kind of a covenant to the Gentiles. It's
not there. It was given to Israel. given
to Israel. So we as Gentiles, we've got
no covenant. We've got no promised redeemer.
The promised redeemer was given to Israel. Actually, we have no promises
whatsoever except if we find a connection between ourselves
and the Jews. To find this connection, you
have to have an understanding of the Old Testament scripture.
I preached on this point not too long ago out of Romans chapter
9 where he tells us they are not all Israel which are of Israel.
We go back and we find out these are not the true Jews. All these
sons of Abraham, these literal sons of Abraham, it says neither
over in Romans 9, 7. Neither because they are all
the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall
thy seed be called." Promised of God, manifested by a supernatural
birth. Born when and where God purposed
him to be born. Born totally contrary to man's
reasoning. Everything Paul has to say in
this chapter has to do with the beginning and covenant promises
with the Jews. Not the physical Jews, but the
spiritual Jews. And the root of the hope of the
Jews is in their relationship and connection to Abraham, to
whom God made all these covenant promises. And so when Paul states
his doctrine, he starts out in chapter 4, because that's where
the Jews' hope was. It was in Abraham. We'd be sons
of Abraham. We have Abraham to our father. They argued that with Christ.
That was their hope. So the root of the hope of the
Jews is in their relationship and connection to Abraham, to
whom God made his covenant promises, who was also the father, so-called,
of the Jewish nation. So establish how Abraham was
called and how Abraham was saved, and you establish the hope of
all who believe. Abraham was not just the father
of the Jews. But I read this to you in verse
11 of Romans 4 a few minutes ago. He's the father of all them
that believe. Establish how Abraham was justified
and you have the basis for the justification of all God's elect. Therefore, you see what Paul's
saying, therefore. He built on something. He's already
wrote four chapters to him talking about these things. Now he's
building. And now he's going to summarize. All right, let's
look at the second word of our text. Romans chapter 4, verse
16. Therefore, it, it, it is the
subject of the chapter. What is the subject of the chapter?
The believer's perfect standing before God. No man can be accepted into favor
with God without being perfectly righteous and perfectly just
and holy in every sense of the word. Holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord. And no man can produce these
demands because we're all under sin. Sin entered the world through
Adam and all died. And all who are quickened in
time were found dead in trespasses and sins. That's what the scripture
says. You have to be quickened who were dead. And so it tells
us in Romans 3.20, by the deeds of the law, there should no flesh
be justified in his sight. Salvation is not something we
find, it's something freely given to us of God. This perfect standing
is given to us. It's not something we find. Of lost
humanity, he tells us over Romans 3, there's none that seeketh
after God. They don't seek after God because there's none that
understand it. Salvation is not something men figure out. I hear
that all the time. Well, I was reading and it came
to me. I figured it out. No, you didn't.
No, you didn't. It's given to you. If you have
any understanding of these things whatsoever, it's given to you.
You didn't figure it out. He said the way of peace they've
not known. He said, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have
ever entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by Spirit. It was given to you, if you have
any understanding. It was given. It's the gift of
God. The gospel is a revelation. And
then salvation's not a decision. It's the gift of God's sovereign,
eternal purpose and grace. Isn't that what He tells us?
God hath saved us. And because He has saved us,
He called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. There's nobody that
wasn't given to Christ before the world began that's going
to be given faith. It's not going to happen. That
right was bought. It was purchased. by the Lord
Jesus Christ. So, therefore, is the reason,
the basis, and the foundation of this summary, it is the perfect
standing, which is the basis for our salvation and our justification
in particular. All right. Thirdly, therefore,
it is of faith. Without faith, the Scripture
said, it's impossible to please God. I want you to pay close
attention to what I'm saying here. Faith in and of itself,
faith, cannot please God. Faith as a work cannot please
God. It cannot please God because
it has no blood to shed, it has no life to give. It cannot please
God because in itself, that is, it cannot please God because
it is the imperfect work of an imperfect man. It cannot please
God as a work because it cannot put away sin and it cannot produce
a righteousness. So faith as a work cannot please
God. Yet without faith, it's impossible
to please God. So in what sense does faith please
God? Faith believes God's testimony
concerning his son, and his son pleases God. You see what I'm
saying? Faith lays hold of him alone
who can please God, who always, he always about the Father's
business, always. He believes and rests in an eternal
savior, and that pleases God. Faith sees him being the head
of the church who is the beginning, set up from everlasting. It sees
him appointed and set up of God, appointed as our covenant surety,
the one mediator between God and me. It sees him appointed
as our great high priest by his own blood entering into the holy
place, once having obtained eternal redemption for us. We see him
sent forth of God as the propitiation for our sins, declaring God's
righteousness in his remission of sins. Salvation is not in
a creed. It's not in a catechism. It's
in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, I just don't know
if I believe. You'll know if you believe. Oh, yes, you will. Paul said,
are you reprobate? You don't know? You've reprobated
these things? We know because our hope is in
a person. And we know him. We trust him.
We believe him. We follow him. We worship him. Our faith is in Christ. It's
not in us. It's not in anything we do. Not
even in our faith. Paul said in one place, he was
writing to Timothy, I believe it was, and he was talking to
him about these things, and he said, if we believe not, yet
he abideth faithful. He can't deny himself. Our salvation
is not even in our faith. Our salvation is in Christ. But by faith, we lay hold of
this Christ, and we trust in him. And neither hath the Son
hath life. It's God's eternal purpose and
will to save a people in Christ for the glory of his name. And
this salvation is set before us in the gospel of Christ, and
it's received by faith. The man who receives this faith,
God takes that blood of Christ, having persuaded him of why this
blood was shed, and for whom this blood was shed, and for
whom his holy life wrought out of righteousness. And he reveals
those things to us. And in doing so, the Holy Spirit
purges that guilty conscience. And there's nothing else that
will ever take away the guilt of that conscience except that
perfect, accomplished redemption in Christ. That'll purge that
conscience. It'll purge it from dead works
and cause it to serve the living God. And it'll take away its
guilt. Salvation according to the Word
of God. And here's the fourth thing.
A divine principle is established. He said, therefore, it is by
faith, now listen, that it might be by grace. That's the only
way it can be by grace, is if it be by faith. If it be by works
in any sense, then it's not by grace. Salvation according to the Word
of God is by the grace of God. He says in Ephesians 1, 6, to
the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein he hath made us
accepted in the blood, in whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace." He tells us that twice concerning that finished work
of Christ. But if you won't get down to it, the whole thing's
of grace, isn't it? Huh? You know election's called
in the Scripture an election of grace? Sure it is. Even so, there remaineth right
now, Paul said, a remnant according to the election of grace. And
if by grace, then it no more works. Otherwise, grace is no
more grace. The incarnation of Christ, he
said, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. What about revelation? We beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace. Full of
grace. What about our calling? Paul
said, he called me by his grace. Justification, being justified
freely by his grace. Faith, by grace are you saved
through faith. Eternal union, God hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved. Maturity, what
about that? There's a work, maturity. Now,
we grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
what about your service? That's a work, isn't it? No,
he said, let us have grace that we might serve God acceptably. We have to have grace. Oh, what
about the victory? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more bound. What about the rule of life?
We're not under law, we're under grace. Isn't that right? Where sin abounded, grace does
much more bound. And then what about our hope?
He said his grace is sufficient. What about my present standing?
I am what I am by the grace of God. I'm telling you there's
salvations of grace. I don't care where you go, go
back to eternity past, it's grace. Go to eternity future, it's grace. You know, the old priest, he
went down and he worked on that temple, rebuilding that temple. And he worked and he worked and
he worked and all this will come and they helped him and he got
that temple up and got it all built. You know what he said
about when God done? Grace, grace unto it. Salvation is by grace from beginning
to end and all that's in between. Paul abundantly proves in Romans
4 that Abraham was justified by the free grace of God before
he was ever circumcised. Circumcision came as a result
of that grace. Did you know that? That's what
he tells us here. The circumcision was just a sign
or an evidence of the seal of the righteousness of faith which
Abraham had yet being uncircumcised. And he received it while he was
yet a heathen that he might be the father of all them that believe
and that the righteousness of faith might be imputed to us
also which believe the same way he did. It wasn't written for
his sake alone. Isn't that what he goes on to
say here in chapter four? but for also who shall believe. If salvation be of works, even
if that work be faith, it cannot be of grace. But it is of faith
that it might be of grace. And faith is a gift of God. I'm
telling you, it's given unto you. Isn't that what Paul said?
It's given unto you to believe. Given unto you. Now, let me tell you something
about this faith. That which brings faith to pass
is the work of God. It's the work of God. Now, he
has means, he has preachers. We've been through that. We've
studied those things, and I've shown them to you in the scripture.
He has means that he's devised to recover his bandit. And the
preaching of the gospel, he said, is the power of God unto salvation. We've looked into those things.
But this work that's done in the giving of faith is the work
of God. It's utterly impossible for a
fallen, depraved son of Adam to produce faith. He can mimic
faith. He can mimic faith. Monkey see,
monkey do. He can profess faith. Yes, he
can, and he does. But he cannot produce it. It
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We're
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. And that which brings
faith to pass is the work of the Holy Spirit of God. And when
and if the Spirit of God be pleased to work in you, he will incorporate
all of your faculties. He doesn't cut top of your head
off while you're sleeping and pour faith in and then sew it
back on. It incorporates all of the faculties
of man. All of these faculties which
has been in bondage, He sets free. He empowers those faculties.
We're not robots. If the Spirit of God be pleased
to work in you, He will incorporate all your faculties, the will. the understanding, the hearing,
the thinking, the reasoning of men. You know, the will of man
has been put in such a bad light that us preachers sometimes,
because of that, don't even talk about it. But he said, my people
shall be willing in the day of my power. That's what he said.
The will is incorporated in this thing. When the Holy Spirit does
a work in you, you'll be willing. You'll be willing. Willing to
what? Willing to do whatever He tells
you to do. You'd be willing to hear. You'd be willing to submit. You'd be willing to drive. You'd
be willing to get out of bed and get over here. You'd be willing
in the day of His power. The will of man. God doesn't
ignore it. He doesn't want it. My people
shall be willing in the day of my power." Now listen, that's
not all he said in that verse. That's Psalm 110, verse 3. That's
not all he said in that verse. He said, they shall be willing
in the day of my power in the beauties of holiness. You know
what holiness is? The wholeness of God. They're going to see it. They're
going to lay hold of it in Christ. The wholeness of God. And they're
going to be willing. They're going to be willing to
receive it. They'll embrace it. We're told, without reservation,
whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.
The only people on the top side of God's earth who would take
of the water of life is those that God makes willing. Until
he does, ain't nobody going to touch it. They won't touch it. Now, I'm not talking about free
will. I'm talking about a will set free by the preaching of
the gospel and the power of the Holy Ghost. And when God the
Holy Spirit gives faith, it involves a decision. That's another thing
we don't talk about much because it's so abused in our day. They
got salvation tied up in a decision. But I'm going to tell you something.
When God the Holy Spirit begins to work in you, you're going
to make a decision. You're going to have to make
a decision on what to eat today. Or maybe not. She might not have
fixed you anything. Might not be a decision. But
we have to make a decision about everything, don't we? When we
get up, when we go to bed, what we're going to eat, what we're
going to drink. We make decisions all day long. Well, there's decisions
involved in this thing of faith, too. There's decisions. But the difference
is the principles and basis behind the decision. And when God gives
his gift of faith, it involves an understanding. I've never
heard anything so ridiculous as this Pentecostal gospel who
don't care what you believe. You can believe anything you
want to. You better flee that. You better run away from that. John said, we know that the Son
of God hath come and given to us an understanding. That's part
of that gift of faith. An understanding that we might
know Him that's true and that we're in Him that's true. And
then Paul tells us we can't call on an unrevealed God. How are
you going to call on Him in whom you have not believed? And how
are you going to believe in Him of whom you have not heard? And
how are you going to hear that preaching? There's understanding
involved. We've got to hear. How are you
going to hear without a preacher? Not an entertainer, not some
kind of a showman or a preacher gibberish, but a pastor-teacher. That's what it calls them in
the Scriptures, pastor-teachers, evangelist-teachers. Go ye therefore,
he tells Matthew in the Great Commission, go ye therefore,
all power has been given unto me in heaven and earth. Now you
go and teach all nations. You go and teach. And one of
the main requirements for a pastor is that he's apt to teach. It
is of faith that it might be by grace, every part of it, from
the providence of God that arranges it, to the working of God in
you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. It's all of
grace. All right. Here's the fifth point.
Therefore, it is of 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 is the
father of us all. And my friend, the faith of God's
elect is sure to all his seed. They all going to hear it. Every one of them is going to
hear it. How's that possible? I don't know. But I tell you,
when I was born back in the 50s, I never in my wildest imagination
ever dreamed that they'd have a machine that I could write
something on that people could have anywhere in the world and
pick it up immediately. It costs us, well, it don't cost
us anything, but those who are putting it on for us on the Internet,
it only costs $2 for a message to go on the Internet, and it
goes to anybody in this world who wants to hit that button.
I never imagined such a thing. Back in the 50s, I never dreamed
of such a thing. It's sure. It's sure. In Galatians 3.16 it said, Now
to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not
to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is
Christ. And this faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God. That's how God's ordained it.
That's how it's brought to pass, and how it's received. And it's
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. So
then, justification by faith is the gift of God's grace through
faith to enable us to see our justification accomplished in
the person of Jesus Christ. That's what it is. That's what
it is. And people won't wait to some
kind of experience or profession or walking down an aisle or decision
or something and they, that's when God justified me right there.
No. No. If you are a believer, and
you've experienced that salvation of grace, he just let you in
on it. But you were justified way back
yonder when he raised Christ up from the dead and even further
back when he purposed that justification. Let me read these last verses
here in Romans 4 and I'll stop. He said in Romans 4.23, having
gone over all these things that Abraham did, God allowed Abraham
to have this revelation of Christ and he spoke to him as a friend
to a friend. He spoke to Abraham. And Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Romans
4.23. Now, it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him. But for us also, to whom
it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for our justification." Justified.