Throughout the Word of God, we
are taught that sinners are justified by faith. Justified by faith. That's the doctrine of Holy Scripture,
and that is distinctly the doctrine of God the Holy Ghost in the
Book of Romans. Sadly, sadly, multitudes Indeed,
the vast majority of people, religious and otherwise, imagine
that faith is a work of man, a work of man's free will, and
make justification by faith to mean justification by the will
and choice of man. Therefore, lest we be deluded
with the will-worship religion of Antichrist, The Lord God tells
us plainly in Romans 4 verse 16, it is a faith that it might
be by grace. It is a faith that it might be
by grace. That's the title of my message
this morning. It is a faith that it might be by grace. Our text
will be Romans chapter 4 verses 13 through 16. For the promise
that he, 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. For if they which are of the
law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none
effect." Now that's a bold, bold, comprehensive statement. if they
which are of the law, that is if they who suppose somehow salvation
depends on what you do, they who suppose that somehow baptism
or eating the bread and wine at the Lord's table or church
membership or praying or reading your Bible or going to church
or teaching Sunday school or keeping the law or doing good
works, they who vainly imagine that by their works they contribute
something to God's salvation. If that's the case, faith is
utterly meaningless. That's what the word means, isn't
it? Faith is made void. Put your
works in and you say believing God is not worth a puff of air.
Put your works in and you say faith is utterly meaningless.
promise. Every word of promise in the
book of God is made of none effect. Put your works in. Put your works
in. It doesn't matter where you put
them in. Put your works in. Put yourself in the affair of
salvation. You have something to do with
it and you make every promise of God meaningless. Utterly meaningless. Because if God's promise depends
on you, God's promise can't be trusted. If God's promise depends on you,
God's promise can't be trusted. If anything depends on your will
or your works, nothing written in this book can be believed.
Work salvation, any kind of work salvation, makes faith void and
the promise of God non-effect. Because the law worketh wrath. For where no law is, There's
no transgression. All the law can do, all this
notion of salvation can do by your works, this notion of salvation
by your will, this notion of salvation by what you do, all
that does is works wrath. It works wrath. You who imagine
that you're saved by what you do, you always have gnawing at
you from the inside out the awareness that you can't come close to
doing enough. Your faith's not enough. Your
will's not enough. Your righteousness is not enough.
Your goodness is not enough. Your work's not enough. Your
prayer's not enough. Your church attendance is not
enough. You haven't done enough, and you can't. And the law says
to you, you're damned. You're damned. Hell is your portion,
but you don't. Therefore, it is a faith that
it might be by grace. To the end, the promise might
be sure to all the seed. God has made this matter of salvation
altogether a matter of faith in Christ, that it might be by
grace for this purpose, that the promise, God's promise of
everlasting salvation by faith in Christ might be sure to all
God's elect, to all the seed God's chosen, 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. Faith in Christ is the
display and assurance of God's saving grace. It is a faith that
it might be by grace. That's the doctrine of the gospel.
But the world's religion, the religion of antichrist, the devil's
religion, free will works religion, turns the gospel upside down
and throws grace out the door. The religion of this world, all
free will works religion, Now it doesn't matter what name it
wears. It doesn't matter whether you call it papacy, or Judaism,
or Islam, or Baptist, or Presbyterian, or Pentecostal, or Methodist,
or Hindu, or anything else. The whole religion of the world
turns the gospel upside down and throws the grace of God out
the door for it makes salvation depend on you. Any religion,
any religion that makes salvation depend on you, turns the gospel
upside down, and throws grace out the door. God says, it is
not of him that willeth. Satan says, God's done all they
can, the rest is up to you. The decision is yours. God says,
salvation is of the Lord. Antichrist says, yes, but you've
got to do your part. God says, by grace you're saved. We'll worship religion says yes,
but that doesn't mean you don't have something to do God says
we're justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus The works monger says yes, but we're sanctified
by our works. You can't declare That man has
nothing to do You can't you can't say to me nothing depends on
you Why, that makes man helpless. That's the intention. That's
the intention. Well, preacher, if that's the
case, this is all God's work. I don't have anything to do with
it. Oh, I hope you heard that. I hope you... Do you understand
the difference between works religion and grace religion? The difference between salvation
by what you do and salvation by faith in Christ. Here's the
difference. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man. I don't pay much attention to
it, but every now and then, if you are watching Gunsmoke or
watching the news, you see something about the religious nonsense
of this world, and you see folks in the How can I be nice? See folks dressed up in religious
garb and crosses and stained glass windows and beautiful cups
and going through play acting. I mean, it's just
play acting. Senses and acting like priests
and acting like, oh, this is so holy. Seems right to man. Man looks at you, that just seems
right. They're doing good. They're doing good. Or maybe
you don't choose that kind, but you see somebody. I really saw
this. I called Chevron. I forgot who
sent it to me. Some of you may have seen it.
I don't have any idea who it is, where it was. Some fella,
preaching, singing, carried on, and fella got up to preaching.
Fella come running up the aisle. suit and all, and did a back
flip into the bad district, shouting hallelujah. Oh, that seems right. He's got the spirit. He's got
the spirit. Others, no, no, no, no. They just go to church and
sing their songs like we do, and listen to the preacher, expound
the scriptures, and go away confident. Now, you go out and serve the
Lord, and God will accept you. And that seems right to a man.
Everything about religion seems right to a man. as long as it
depends on you. Give me my will. Let me put my
finger in this pie somewhere and it seems right to me. It
doesn't matter whether you're rubbing rosary beads or repeating
a sinner's prayer. There's a way. There's a way.
It may be the Catholic way or it may be the Buddhist way. It
may be the Baptist way or it may be the Pentecostal way. There
is a way. There's a way that seemeth right
unto a man. But the end thereof are the ways of death. I didn't come here today to offer
you a better way of life. I didn't come here today to present
to you a purer form of doctrine. I didn't come here today to tell
you about a clearer understanding of salvation. I've come here
today to show you the way of life. The religion of God. The salvation of Christ. The
faith of the gospel. And everything contrary to it
will take you to hell. Everything contrary to it will
take you to hell. Your religion will take you to
hell. Your good works will take you
to hell. Your free will will take you
to hell. Only that faith that God gives
in Jesus Christ the Lord, which declares salvation by grace alone,
will take you to glory. Have I got your attention? Let
me show you three things in this text of scripture. Hold your
Bibles open, and I want you to see that what I've got to say
is right here in the Word of God. If it's not here, don't
listen to me. Don't listen to me. I have found a good way to respond
to adversaries, both friendly adversaries and angry adversaries.
I had a letter just recently asking me about some teachings
concerning our Lord Jesus being made sin. A friend wrote to me.
And I said to him, after answering several questions, if you will
show me anywhere I have written or said anything that is not
in direct consistency with exactly what God says in his word, I
will make a public apology and repudiate it as fast as I can
publicly. Now this is why I'm telling you,
if I preach to you, That which is right here in front of you,
it's God's Word, you better hear it. If what I say is not according
to this Word, don't listen to this preacher. Go find somebody
who'll tell you the truth. Go find somebody to tell you
the truth. All right, here's what the Scripture teaches, right
here in this text. God's elect are heirs of the world, first
thing. Second, any mixture works with
grace is a total denial of grace. And third, faith in Christ makes
the promise of God sure to our souls. Now let's see if I can
make good on it. Look at verse 13. Here's the
first thing. God's elect are heirs of the world. For the promise
that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to
his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of
faith. God promised Abraham and his seed that he was the heir
of the world. What a promise. What a wide,
broad, sweeping, comprehensive promise. What does it mean? What does it include? Now understand
the teaching of Scripture. God's covenant as represented
with His covenant with Abraham, with all its promises and spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, was established with and fulfilled
in Christ who is Abraham's seed. Hold your Bibles here and turn
to Galatians chapter 3. We'll look at some Scripture together.
Galatians chapter 3. God's covenant, all its promises,
all its blessings were fulfilled in Christ, who is Abraham's seed.
Galatians 3, 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. So when
God made His promise to Abraham and his seed, He was making a
promise to Abraham's seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all who
are in Christ. Those promises and blessings
belong to all believers, belong to all the church, to all the
Israel of God, to all Abraham's seed in Christ Jesus. Look at
verse 29, Galatians 3. And if ye be Christ, If you're Christ, then are ye
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Look over Romans
chapter 8. Romans 8 verse 16. Romans 8 verse
16. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we're the children of God. How? Giving
us faith in Christ. The Spirit of God bears witness
with our spirit that we're the children of God, giving us faith
in Christ. When God, the Holy Spirit, comes
in the new birth, reveals Christ in you, causes you to believe,
you say, Abba, Father! The Spirit bears witness with
our spirit that we're the sons of God. Verse 17. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Oh! Joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. These promises, these
blessings of God are ours, not through the law, but through
the righteousness of faith. You can't avoid noticing Paul
keeps hammering this one point again and again and again. Sinners
get God's salvation and all its blessings, not by works, but
through the righteousness of faith. Now notice also the word
promise. It's singular, not plural. I wonder why that is. Well, God made one promise to
Abraham. Go back and read the book. God made tons of promises
to Abraham. But the promise is singular,
not plural. Why is that? Because Christ is the promise.
Christ is the promise. Get Christ, you get everything.
Get Christ and you're made heir of the world. In this one promise, the Lord
God gives Himself and all the perfections of His being and
all the works of His hands to His people. In this place, God
the Holy Spirit declares that we who are heirs of the covenant,
Abraham Those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ, the one Abraham
trusted, are heirs of the world. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3,
all things are yours for you are Christ and Christ is God's. Turn over to the back of the
book, Revelation 21. Let me show you this. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob walked
on this earth. Strangers and pilgrims looking
for a city whose builder and maker is God and they walk through
the land of promise and they didn't receive the promise that
but they believed God and Isaac and Jacob were heirs with him
of the same promise just as we are just as we are now look at
Revelation 21 When you get a chance read the whole chapter together,
this is what it means when it says we're heirs of the world
You remember when the children of Israel came out of Egypt?
Do you remember what they took out of Egypt? Do you remember
what they took out? Everything that was worth anything.
They took out everything that was worth anything. Everything
they needed, all the silver, all the gold, all the weapons,
all the provisions they needed, they took with them out of Egypt.
That's what it is to be heirs of the world. When God gets done,
you and I will see and see clearly that everything, everything in
His creation, everything in providence and in grace, every event, every
aspect of history is that which God has done for us. Let's see if that's not true.
Revelation 21 verse 1, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall
be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and will
be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. And there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the
throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto
me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said
unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give to him that is a
thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that
overcometh, he that overcometh, who is that? Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ, he overcomes. He that overcometh,
watch this, shall inherit all things. will be His God and He shall
be my Son. Look at verse 24, and the nations
of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. Now
that is not talking about some nations are Christian saved nations
and some nations are lost. No, no. That is talking about
God's elect out of all the nations of the world. Those who are saved
out of all the nations of the world are some America, some
over in China, and some in Russia, and some in Great Britain, and
some here, some there. All the nations of the world,
watch this, watch what it says, shall walk in the light of it,
and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into
it. The kings and nations of the
earth bring everything into God's kingdom and lay it at the feet
of God's saints and say, here it is. Verse 26, and they shall
bring the glory and honor of the nations into the kingdom
of God. This is the promise of God to
every sinner who trusts his dear son, the Lord Jesus. He that
believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Oh sinner, believe
on Christ and go home today. enriched beyond measure. Heir of the world. Heir of the
world. All right, back in our text,
verse 14. Here's the second thing. Any mixture of works with grace
is a total denial of grace. Let me repeat what I've said
from this pulpit countless times. My relationship with the eternal
God does, in great measure, determine what I do. Life and faith in Christ does,
in great measure, determine what we do. God's grace enters a man's
life. God's grace takes possession
of a woman's life, and God turns things upside down. Well, actually,
He turns things right-side up. And He makes a difference. He
changes the way we live, changes the way we behave, changes motives,
changes thoughts, changes desires. No question about that. My relationship
with the Eternal God does in great measure determine what
I do. But what I do, be it good or bad, does not in any measure
determine my relationship with God. Understand that? What you
do doesn't count for a thing. What I do doesn't amount to anything
in our relationship with God. Like Paul, I stress this point
over and over again because it needs stressing. Any mixture
of grace and works is a total denial of grace. That's the meaning
of Romans 4, 14, and 15. Look at it. For if they which are of the
law be heirs, that is, if folks who think they're saved by what
they do are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of
none effect, because the law worketh wrath. For where no law
is, there's no remission. Turn over a few pages to chapter
11, Romans 11, verse 6. And if it be by grace, then there's
no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then there's no more grace. Otherwise, work
is no more work. Put grace in, you throw works
out. Put works in, you throw grace
out. Listen to what Paul says in Galatians
2. Just listen. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. All works salvation. is a frustration
of the grace of God and a declaration that Christ died for nothing.
If you can be saved by what you do, why would God slaughter His
Son? If you can be saved by your works,
why would God make His Son sin and sacrifice Him upon the cursed
tree? Salvation cannot be by grace and by works, by faith
and by works. For if the inheritance be of
the law, there's no more promise. God gave it to Abraham by promise. Salvation, any part of salvation
by works denies salvation by grace. We recognize we're saved
by God's grace, but we have to do our part to keep ourselves
safe. That denies grace. We recognize we're saved by God's
grace, justified by grace, but our sanctification is another
thing. That's a denial of God's grace. We recognize salvation
by God's grace, but we recognize, too, that our works count for
something and we're going to earn our rewards from God in
heaven by our works. Salvation by works denies God's
grace. Salvation, any part of salvation
by works, makes the death of Christ meaningless. Salvation,
any part of salvation by works, makes any profession of faith
in Christ a blasphemous mockery of Christ. I wrote that down
and sat for a little while and mulled it over and decided not
to change a sentence at all. Salvation by works makes any
profession of faith in Christ a blasphemous mockery of Christ. To say I believe in Christ and
trust my works is to mock Him and blaspheme Him. To say I believe
in Christ and trust my will is to blaspheme him and mock him.
Christ is salvation. Christ is the totality of salvation. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption that according as it is written that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord." Are you with me? First, God's elect
are heirs of the world. Second, any mixture of works
with grace is a total denial of grace. Here's the third thing,
verse 16. Faith in Christ makes the promise
of God sure to our souls. Therefore, it is of faith that
it might be by grace. To the end, 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. Stay with me. I want to show
you three things in this verse of Scripture, and I'll be done.
Number one, salvation is a faith that it might be by grace. The
promise of salvation, eternal life, remission of sins, justification,
sanctification, and glorification are by faith in Christ, only
by faith without works of any kind. Paul is telling us again
and again that sinners are justified freely by the grace of God through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. What does it mean to be
justified? Much could be said. I've already
said much concerning it. Much more could be said when
I get done today. But this it certainly means. To be justified
is to be eternally pardoned of all my sin by the precious blood
of Christ. To be justified is to be acquitted
and vindicated of all charges before the bar of God's holiness
and justice. To be justified is to be righteous
before God. Righteous. To be justified is
to be made and regarded by God as perfectly righteous. This is how the apostle puts
it. Unblameable. Unreprovable in his sight. Oh, what would you give to go
home unblameable and unreprovable in the sight of God with a conscious
awareness that it's so? To be confident, to be confident
that God Almighty sees no sin in you, charges no sin to you,
will never be angry with you, will never punish you, but rather
embraces you, takes you as his own, kisses you like the father
kissed the returning prodigal and says, welcome home, son.
Oh, what would you give to have that justification? It's free. You buy it without
money and without price. by faith in Jesus Christ. How
is it the sinners are justified? The source is God. It's God that
justifies. The spring, the fountain, is
God's grace freely justified by His grace. Justified by the
sacrifice and bloodletting of God's darling Son. And our Savior's
resurrection is the declaration that justification is accomplished.
But here the Spirit of God tells us that sinners receive God's
salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. Faith. That's self-renunciation. You will never trust Christ until
you renounce all trust in yourself. is reliance. Reliance upon Christ. Reliance upon Christ. Resting
on Him. Resting on Him. Casting yourself on Him. And
faith is appropriation. It is taking Christ for your
own. Taking Christ. We reach out and
touch the Lord as He passes by. You'll find he's not too busy
to hear your hearts cry. He's passing by this moment,
your needs to supply, so reach out and touch the Lord as he
goes by. Faith is taking Christ for your
own. Taking Christ for your own. You folks who've been married,
you take your wife, you take your husband, will you Have this
woman to be your lawful wedded wife. I will. I will. You take her for your own. She's
mine. See that lady there? She's mine.
She's mine. You can't have her. You may want
her, but you can't have her. She's mine. She's mine. Now look
up here. See this daughter here? I'm hers. I'm hers. Because she gave herself
to me and I took her, she's mine. Because I gave myself to her
and she took me, I'm hers. Because Christ gave himself to
me and I took him, he's mine. Faith is taking Christ for your
own. Faith in Christ, second, is the
gift and operation of God's grace. It's the gift and operation of
God's grace in us by which God promises salvation, promises
covenant blessedness, and makes it sure to us. Faith doesn't
cause grace. Grace causes faith. Faith doesn't
cause life. Life causes faith. Faith doesn't
cause salvation. Salvation causes faith. People
say, well, you've got to take the first step. If you take the
first step, there's nothing wrong with you. No, no, no, no, no. Man's dead in trespasses and
in sins. Lazarus has got to come out of
that tomb. But if you're waiting on Lazarus
to make the decision to come out of that tomb, you're going to be waiting
a while. But when the Lord says, Lazarus, come forth, he that
was dead came forth with a light. That's what faith is. Faith is
the result of God giving life. And this faith is God's assurance
to us of all his promised grace. God said to Abraham, son, everything's
yours. Christ is yours. My son is yours. My son, your seed, he's yours. Abraham rejoiced to see his day
was glad. Abraham believed God. He said, Christ is mine. Christ
is mine. Faith is God's assurance in your
heart that Christ is yours. Here's the third thing in this
16th verse. All who trust Christ are God's
covenant people, the Israel of God, the sons and daughters of
Abraham. You see that in the last part
of the verse? Abraham is the father of us all. So that God's
people, wherever they're found in all the world, are one people. God's people are one people. And they all have a family likeness.
They all have a family likeness. What is that? What is their family
likeness? Boy, you can tell them God's
people just by, you can just walk up to them and say, I've
had folks tell me, I can tell a person's a Christian just by
looking at them. And I try not to laugh out loud. I know who's saved and who's
not. I can tell you by the way they dress. I can tell you who's saved and
who's dying. I can tell you about where they go to eat. What foolishness. Oh, no, no. But preacher, don't
God's people all have a family likeness? They sure do. They
all walk in the steps of that faith of Abraham, their father. They all trust Jesus Christ alone
as their Savior and Lord. Oh, may God the Holy Ghost who
alone can do so, give you understanding in his word. God's elect are
heirs of the world. Any mixture of works with grace
is a total denial of grace. And faith in Christ makes the
promise of God sure. Oh, may God give you the hand
of faith to lay hold on Christ. Brother Tom Harding in his bulletin
for today, had an article by J.C. Philpott that I just thought
was outstanding. I won't read you the article,
but I'll give you what I got from it. He said, the primary function
of the hand is to take hold of and grasp an object. The human
hand is a masterpiece of anatomy. The fingers and the strong opposing
thumb are expressly designed to seize a thing and hold it. amazing. Did you see that? Seize it and hold it. That's
the purpose for which God made the hand. Every muscle, every
vein, every nerve work in unison to get things and hold things. That's what the hand does. Is
it any wonder that in this book God speaks of faith as a work
of the hand. Lay hold of Him. Lay hold on
eternal life. Lay hold on eternal life. Take
hold of my strength, God says, and make peace with me. Faith
is taking hold of God. Faith is taking hold of God's
strength. Faith is taking hold of Christ. Faith is taking hold of eternal
life. Angel of the Lord came and wrestled
with Jacob. And when the Lord wrestled with
Jacob, do you remember what Jacob did? He took hold of him. He took hold of him. And the
Lord said, let me go! And Jacob said, I'll not let
you go till you pronounce me blessed. And God pronounced him
blessed. And thus the promise of God was
made sure to Jacob, though he halted on his thigh all his life. Peter is about to sink. And he
cried, Lord, save me. I perish. And he laid hold on
Christ. Oh, sinking sinner, lay hold
on Christ. Take him for your own. God give
you grace. they hold upon the hope set before
you this day in the gospel for Christ's sake. Amen.