is not that I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. Romans chapter 3, verse 28, the
Apostle Paul makes this statement. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. There's a particular person I
hope I'm speaking to this morning. A person who knows something
about the guilt of sin and how that there is absolutely nothing
they can do about their sin. You want a right relationship
with God, but you feel as though your sin has separated you and
you can't get to him. Now that's the person that I
want to speak to. someone who knows something about
the guilt of sin, someone who's a sinner. Are you a sinner? Now, if your answer to that is,
well, I make mistakes and I do wrong things, but I wouldn't
call myself a sinner, then you won't have any interest in this
message. But if you are a real sinner, someone who is guilty,
I believe this message will be helpful. I've entitled this message,
What does justification by faith mean? Now, I hope we'll understand
the answer to that question by the end of this message. And
we're going to look at the life of a man by the name of Abraham. And we're going to look at the
first five verses of Romans chapter four. We read in verse one of
Romans chapter four. What shall we say then that Abraham,
our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? Abraham, the father of the faithful. He's the man that is mentioned
in the Bible more than any other man. The father of the faithful. You know, the Lord said, Abraham,
rejoice to see my day. And he saw it and was glad. What about Abraham? How was he
saved? How was he justified? Look what
it says in Romans chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. What shall we say then
that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? For
if Abraham were justified by works, He'd have whereof to glory,
but not before God. Now, in reading that verse of
Scripture, we're dealing with this question, how was Abraham
justified? Well, what does justified mean
in the first place? What does it mean to be just?
Now I've heard people say, religious people say, well, here's a good,
simple definition of justification. It's just as if I never sinned. That's what justification means.
Justification means it's just as if I never sinned. You know,
my conscience doesn't feel any comfort in that because I've
still sinned. Just as if I've never sinned
isn't good enough. And that's not, that's really
not what justification means. Justification means I never sinned. I'm not guilty. If someone's
justified, that means they're not guilty. Whatever crime they
were accused of, they did not do it. They're not guilty. Justification
means I never sinned. I've always done that which is
right, and I've never done that which is wrong. Now that is justification. And Abraham was a justified man. How was he justified? If you and I are going to be
justified, we'll be justified the same way Abraham was. Now look what it says. What shall
we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the
flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified, By works, by
what he did, he'd have something he could glory in. He could say,
at least I did this, and that is why I am justified. If Abraham were justified by
works. Now, what are works? Works are
anything you do. That is what is meant by works,
anything you do, any condition you meet in order for God to
do something for you. Now, most people would say, I
don't believe in salvation by works, I believe in salvation
by grace, but let me give you a few things to think about.
If I put works anywhere in salvation, I make the whole thing of works.
I make the whole thing ultimately dependent upon me. I might use,
well, I need to keep the Ten Commandments. Well, if you believe
that you're saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, you believe
in salvation by works, but I dare say very few people believe that.
But here's what most people believe. God loves everybody. Christ died
for everybody. God offers salvation to everybody. but it's up to you as to whether
or not you'll be saved. You must accept what he did or
you will not be saved. God died for all people in the
person of his son. He died for Judas. He died for
Peter. Let me ask you four very simple questions. If God loves all men the same,
if he loves Judas the same way he loves Peter, what does the
love of God have to do with salvation? In reality, nothing. It's what
Peter did that Judas didn't do because God loved them both equally.
If Christ died for all men the same, if he shed his precious
blood for the sins of Judas and for the sins of Peter, and Peter
saved and Judas is not, that means the blood of Christ doesn't
really have anything to do with salvation. It's what Peter did
that Judas did not do. If God wills the salvation of
all men the same, if it was the will of God for Judas to be saved
and Peter to be saved and Peter was saved and Judas wasn't, what
does the will of God have to do with salvation? Absolutely
nothing. It's what Peter did that Judas
did not do. If God the Holy Spirit is calling
all men the same, if He was calling for Judas and He was calling
for Peter and Peter was saved and Judas wasn't, what does the
Holy Spirit have to do with salvation? Absolutely nothing. You see,
that whole system is a system of salvation by works. Salvation
ultimately dependent upon, contingent upon, predicated upon what you
do. Works are what you do. Now, if
a man puts works in the beginning of salvation, it's an act of
your will where you accept something. If a man puts works in the middle
of salvation, you can become more holy and more pleasing to
God and more righteous through your efforts and your diligence
and putting down sin. and Bible reading and prayer
and discipleship. You become more holy by what
you do. You put works in the end of salvation. You get a higher
reward in heaven because of what you do. I did this, therefore
I'm gonna have a higher reward than this person who didn't do
that. You make the whole thing by works. Now, what about Abraham? The scripture says, for if Abraham
were justified by works, he'd have something to glory in. He could say, I'm saved because
I did this. You see, works makes God a debtor
to men. God owes me this because I did
this. But Paul says, if he were justified
by works, He could have something to glory in, but not before God. For what saith the scripture,
verse three, what does the Bible have to say about this? Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now he is quoting from Genesis
chapter 15. It's one of the first time faith
or belief is mentioned in the scripture. Now, we read in Genesis
chapter 15, verse 1, after these things, the word of the Lord
came unto Abram in a vision. That's a pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the word of the Lord. And
he said to Abraham, 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? I don't even have a child to
be an heir of what you would give me. All I have is this servant.
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,
this servant, 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 I'm sure it was a bright,
clear night. The stars, you could see millions,
millions of stars. Abraham looked up. He knew there's
no way he could number the stars. And the Lord said, You see those
stars? So shall thy seed be. And verse six says, And he believed
in the Lord, and he, the Lord, counted it to him for righteousness. He believed what God said with
no physical evidence whatsoever that it would take place. He
just simply believed what God said. He didn't have any children,
but he believed what God said. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, being fully persuaded that what God had promised, he
was able also to perform. He believed what God said, and
God counted it to him for righteousness. Now this is what faith is. Faith
is not a substitute for righteousness. What is the evidence? Like Abraham,
I believe upon God's word that I am justified. I know in myself
I'm nothing but a guilty sinner, but I believe before God. that
I am justified, that I have no sin, that I am not guilty, that
when God sees me, and God sees things as they really are, He's
not pretending. He sees things as they really
are. He sees me as one who is perfectly conformed to the image
of His Son, the very righteousness of God in Him. I believe that. I can't look at myself. I can't
look at my preaching. I can't look at my prayers. I
can't look at my Bible reading. I can't look at the way I treat
people. I can't look at my ability to refrain from sin and say,
yep, you're the righteousness of God. I have no physical evidence
that I am, but I believe God. And that is the evidence. I believe
that what Christ did is all I need to make me justified before God. that all God looks to for me
is His Son. I'm in Him and I am perfectly
righteous in Him. I believe God. That's the evidence
that I have this faith. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. Look in verse 4 of Romans chapter
4. Now, to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt, to him that worketh,
to him that doeth, to him that meeteth a condition. It's the
reward, Christ, not reckoned of grace. It's not given to you
by grace. but it's given to you as a reward
for the obedience of your works." Now, Paul is actually making
a hypothetical case right here. To him that worketh, the reward
would not be reckoned of grace. It wouldn't be a gracious gift
of God. It would be what God owed that person. God became
a debtor to that person. You see, grace says, I'm a debtor
to the Lord. Works say, the Lord's indebted
to me. He has to respond to what I've
done. He owes me this. Now, I realize that most people
on a conscious level don't think, well, I believe in salvation
by works. I believe God rewards me for what I do. They don't
come out and say it that way, but yet their belief shows that
that's what they really believe. And it could be that you have
believed in a system of salvation by works all this time up to
this very point, and have never understood that salvation, the
reward, is given by grace. Now, verse 5. This is one of
the most magnificent verses in all of the Word of God. Now to
him that worketh is the reward, salvation, justification, 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. To him that worketh not, he does
not, do anything that he thinks can in any way recommend him
to God. It doesn't mean he doesn't care
about works. He knows in his case there's
not one thing he can do to recommend himself to God. He really believes
that. There's not one condition he can meet. If there's anything
that's dependent upon him, it's over for him. He knows if salvation's
dependent upon me, I'm doomed to be damned. I have no hope. This man has taken his place
as a sinner before God, and he knows he is ungodly. And did
you read, let me read that again, even as David also described
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth, verse five,
I'm sorry, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Now, what does this thing of ungodly mean? You know, the scripture
says Christ died for the ungodly. Ungodly means no regard for God. No love for God, no esteem of
God, no care for God. Ungodly. My nephew and I were
riding along in the car just a few weeks ago, and I don't
know how the subject came up, but we started talking about
the punishment due to sex crimes. And we talked about what a horrible
thing that is when when someone has no regard for the life of
somebody else, and they abuse them, and they sin against them. They don't care about the consequences
in that person's life, how it's gonna affect them down the road,
how they're gonna have to live with that forever. They have
no regard for that person whatsoever. It's so evil. Somebody like that,
I tell you, that is a wicked, wicked offense. And I've even
heard and read that people that commit such crimes can't be reformed.
There's not even any point in I mean, they need to be jailed
to protect society, but they can't be reformed. If they're
let loose, they'll perform the same wicked acts again. And that's
why they have to be jailed and incarcerated, because of what
they do. And we were talking about what a horrible thing that
is. And when I say that, I know this, apart from the grace of
God, I'll be one of those people. And you will be, too, whether
you know it or not. It's true. There's no sin that we're not
capable of. But my nephew made this statement
to me. He said, That's what we did to God's Son. And it hit
me like a ton of bricks. We had no regard to God's Son,
to His holiness, to the perfection of His person. Men nailed Him
to a tree with no regard for who He is. Now, works are out of the question
for that man, aren't they? The only way he can be saved is by
grace. Now let me ask you a question. Paul talked about him who justifies
the ungodly. What a magnificent concept. Let's
say someone committed a sex crime against your child. They took
your child and with no regard for your child's life, abused
them, not caring what that did to your child. Would you justify
them? No. You may forgive them. By the grace of God, you may
forgive them, but you could not justify them in what they did. That would be impossible. If
your daughter was raped, you would not justify the rapist.
I hope you'd forgive them, but you wouldn't justify them. Only
God could do something like that. Only God would do something like
that. And here's the amazing thing,
God did do something like that. He actually justified the ungodly. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. God justifies the ungodly. Now the only hope that a guilty
sinner has, an ungodly sinner, one who has been guilty of crimes
against God and has had no regard to his person, evil people. This is what the gospel is for. Now remember this, the gospel
is unlike any other religion. The gospel is a religion for
sinners. Christ came to save sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. He didn't die for good people.
He didn't die for moral people. He didn't die for people who
got things straightened out. He died for the ungodly. To him
that worketh not, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly. Now, how is that? Well, I take you back to Luke
chapter 18. where the Lord told two people
that went into the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, a very
religious man, and he stood in the temple and he prayed thus
with himself. I love the way the scripture
points out. He prayed with himself. He wasn't praying to God. He
thought he was, but he wasn't. He prayed thus with himself, Lord,
I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. unjust extortioners. I'm not like this publican. I
pray. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
Oh, he was a good, righteous, moral man. And he thanked God
for it. He wasn't giving himself the
credit. Oh, forbid that I believe salvation by works. I don't believe
that at all. But he wasn't, in his prayer, there's no mention
of grace. of mercy, of the sacrifice of
Christ. Just, I thank you how I am. I'm not like other men are. And
that's most men's religion. They compare themselves to others.
And you can always find somebody that makes you feel a little
bit better about yourself. And there was another man in the
temple, and he had a very different prayer. He stood back in the
back, and he beat on his breast. The scripture says he wouldn't
in so much as lift up his eyes to heaven. He smote his breast,
crying, God, be merciful to me, thee sinner. This man believed
himself to be the worst man to ever live. And you know what
our Lord said regarding those two men? He said, regarding that
man who cried out, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He said, I
tell you, that man went down to his house justified, not merely
forgiven, justified, not guilty, perfect before God rather than
the other. Now let me close by saying four
or five things about this glorious truth regarding justification. First of all, justification is
by grace. Romans 3.24 says, being justified
freely. There's nothing you do to get
it, nothing you do to earn it. It's not given to you because
you turned from your sin and gave your heart to Jesus. Being
justified freely. by His grace. You see, this is
the act of God. It's what God does. He justifies. And if He declares you just,
you're just. Can you imagine a judge standing
before the defendant and saying, I'm going to offer you justification.
And do you want to be justified or condemned? You take your choice,
which one you want. That never happened. We'd get
rid of the judge if it did. No, the judge has the authority
to pronounce one justified or condemned. Justification is by
grace. That means it's a gracious act
of God. There's nothing you can do to
earn it, obviously, because in and of yourself, you're not just.
The only way you can be or I can be justified is if justification
is by grace. The unmerited favor of God. Justification by grace. This
thing of being not guilty before God, it's a work of God's grace.
Secondly, we read in Romans 5.9 of justification by blood. Now,
blood represents the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He shed
his precious blood on Calvary's tree. He actually died. His blood
was shed. Now, there's only one reason
for death. That reason is sin. The wages
of sin is death. My sin became Christ's sin. God took my sin off of me and
placed it upon Christ, and he shed his precious blood. He became
guilty before God, and God killed him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. On Calvary 3, Christ was not a victim. I, you know, the
Lord turned the lights out at that time. The whole land was
covered by darkness, and it wasn't a solar eclipse. It was darkness
that could be felt, and the Lord is letting us know there's a
whole lot we don't understand about what was going on, but
I know this. Christ was suffering for sin.
He died for sin, and by his death, my sin was put away, so I have
no guilt before God. That's how I'm justified before
God, justified by blood, and then justification by faith.
I love that scripture. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. What is the evidence that God
by His grace justified me? What is the evidence that Christ
Jesus by His blood justified me? The evidence is faith. I
am relying on Him, to Him that worketh not, but believeth on
Him that justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness.
And then justification is by works. James chapter 2 verse
24 says, you see how that by works a man is justified and
not by faith only. Now that doesn't mean faith and
works. He uses the example of Abraham. Abraham offered up his
son. God promised the Messiah would
come through him. He believed God. God said, go
kill your son. He believed God would raise him
from the dead. So he was willing to offer up his only begotten
son. He proved he really believed God. Now, if he would have said,
I can't offer up my son because then God's promise won't come
to pass. Why? He would just be proving he didn't
believe God. It was his works that proved he really believed
what God said. Justification is by works. Your
works will prove whether you really believe grace. Your works
will prove whether you really believe justification. And lastly,
there is justification by words. The Lord said, by your words
you'll be justified, and by your words you'll be condemned. What
that means is, is your words will line up with what you believe
about justification, and if they don't, you don't really believe
in justification. Your speech will show what is
in your heart, what you really believe. You know, Martin Luther
said, a church stands or falls by what it believes regarding
justification, and I believe that's so. Now, are you a guilty
sinner? Christ died for guilty sinners. Look to Him and all your guilt
is removed. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.