His faith is counted for righteousness. Now, this is what only God can
do. This is what God does, and this
is what God does alone. He justifies the ungodly. How's that sound to you? He justifies the ungodly. To him that worketh not. Will you please not think about
what you've done? Don't think about it. Or don't think about what you
need to do. Do not make any resolves that you will be better and that
somehow It will help your relationship with God because you will blank. Would to God that everybody in
this room would learn something about what it means to be somebody
who works not, who doesn't do anything, but believes on him
that justifies the ungodly. I love this word justifies. It's kind of funny. I was, I
was looking at my notes this morning and in my notes, I say,
when he justifies you, he makes it as though your sin never was, but you know, it's better than
that. If I'm justified, I don't have any sin. Right now, I stand before God
without guilt. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. There is absolutely
no barrier, no impediment, no roadblock between you and God
if God has justified you. Justification means I never sin. What an incredible, stupendous
thought. God Almighty, the sovereign God,
the holy God, the God of the Bible, the living God, justifies
ungodly sinners. That's what scripture says. I couldn't help but think of
the publican in the temple. Turn to Luke 18. We've looked
at this a lot the last few weeks, but it's worth looking at again. Verse 13. And the publican standing
afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven.
but smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. This man believed himself to
be the worst man to ever live. And look what our Lord says about
this man. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, not just forgiven. justified without guilt before
God. Oh, that's so very attractive. How can that be? Well, he goes
on to tell us in verses six through eight of Romans chapter four, not to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted. for righteousness, even as David
also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth
righteousness." This is what God does. It's not just a man
making some kind of claim. It's something God does. Oh,
how blessed is that man to whom God imputeth righteousness without
works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now, this is a quotation from
Psalm 32, verses one and two, where David made this statement,
blessed is the man. Now, here's a happy man. You
want to know what happiness is? Here it is. It's not because you got
plenty of money in the bank. It's not because all your circumstances
are good. Doesn't have anything to do with it. Here's blessedness.
Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered
by the blood of Christ. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute. He won't charge him with his
sin. Now, In these verses, the Bible
gives four words in its evaluation of us. Ungodly, iniquity, sins, and
sin. Those are the four words the
Bible uses to describe you and I. Transgressions, revolts, sin,
crimes, offense, Iniquities, moral perversity. When Paul quotes
iniquity, he calls it lawlessness. Sins are the things we do. We lie. We cheat. We steal. We take credit where
credit is not due. We murder. We lust. We covet. We fail to love God. We take his name in vain. We
commit idolatry. We never rest. We break the commandments
of God. That's what sin is. Sin is the
transgression of the law. And the reason we sin is because
of our sin. Our sins come from our sin, our
sinful nature, A nature that is evil. Now you don't become
a sinner when you sin. You sin because you're a sinner. Paul said, I find in a law that
when I would do good, evil is present with me. Turn with me
to Psalm 32 for a moment. This passage where Paul quotes
David in Romans chapter four, the 32nd Psalm. David says, blessed is he, verse
one, blessed. Oh, how blessed, how happy, how
blessed is this man whose transgression, his acts of wickedness is forgiven,
whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. And look what he says next. And
in whose spirit There's no guile. No deceit is what the word means. Now what's this all about? How
can someone have a spirit in whom is no deceit? What's that
talking about? Especially in light of this passage
of scripture, turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 17. The prophet says in verse 9 of
Jeremiah chapter 17, the heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Now, that's
what the Bible says about our heart. Now, who is this man in
whose spirit there is no guile, no deceit? You see, by nature,
we are very deceitful. We play mind games. We refuse
to consider what we are and what we've done. We're very partial
in our judgments, greatly exaggerating what we consider the good things
about ourselves, and minimizing greatly and underestimating our
sins and our faults, and we excuse them. We use a false weight and a deceitful
balance with regard to ourselves. And we put our hope in something
that's frivolous. And it always begins with the
word I. We flatter ourselves that tomorrow
it will be different. And even when we hear the truth,
we think, well, I heard some, I hope somebody heard that. I
hope so-and-so heard that they needed that. And we even blame God for our
sin. He could deliver me, but he hadn't.
And we wallow in self-pity. That's me and you. A deceitful,
a deceitful heart. And what a blessing it is when
God gives us that spirit in whom there is no God. That's a new
nature. That's a holy nature. That's
being born of the spirit. That's being given a new nature.
And you know what that spirit does that has no guile, that
has no deceit? It's honest before God. It quits playing these mind games
before God. And it confesses sin. Now that's what an honest guileless
soul does. It confesses sin. If we confess our sin. I'm not talking about confessing
to me or me confessing my sin to you. I'm talking about before
God. If we confess our sin, he is
faithful and just to forgive us of our sin. and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Now, do I have anybody that is
ungodly? Listen to me. Guilty of lawlessness and transgression
and sin. Well, listen up. If that describes you, we read
of him who justifies the ungodly. We read of iniquities being forgiven. We read of sin being covered.
We read of the Lord actually not holding us accountable for
our sins, not charging them to us. Now, We also don't read of
any condition we must first meet for this to be done. There's
nothing that I have to do in order to make me a candidate
for this. No works to perform. Now, this is something that only
God can do and only God does. He imputes righteousness. That's what it says. Look at,
look at our text back again, Romans chapter four. I want us
to see the magnificence of this statement. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness. Now that word impute means he
reckons it. He counts it. God says, To Todd, if he imputes
righteousness to me, he says Todd Nybert is a righteous man. He's without sin, he's without
guilt, he's without iniquity. Isn't that blessed? Would you
count yourself very blessed if that would be described, if God
imputes righteousness to you without your works, saying, blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sin is recovered,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now,
what comes into my mind when I hear that is how can that be
right? How can that be just? I mean,
because in myself, that's not me. Righteous? And yet God counts
me as righteous? How could that be right on his
part? How can that be consistent with his justice? How can he
impute righteousness without my works? You know, Proverbs
17, 15 says, he that justifies the wicked and he that condemneth
the just, they're both alike an abomination to God. So how
can this be right? Well, may the Lord enable me
to talk for just a few moments about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I hope we'll understand how
God can be just in imputing righteousness to me or you without any works
at all. And Jesus Christ, I love his name. He is the uncreated,
eternal Son of God. He is God. I love saying this. I've said this probably three
or four weeks in a row, and I'm going to say it again. He's not like God at all. He
is God. He's the one who controlled the
wind. and the waves. And when there
was a great storm, he said, peace, be still. And there was a great
calm. He's the one who brought matter
into existence that was not there before. He created food that
was not in the universe. He brought matter into existence.
He's the one who raised the dead. There would be somebody dead.
Lazarus come forth. He that was dead came forth,
had no choice but to obey his voice. Jesus Christ, the son
of God, he's God the son. He's the same one who sat on
a well in Samaria, being wearied by his journey, tired and worn
out because he's man, the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was tempted by the devil for
40 days. Remember, he fasted 40 days and
the devil tempted him. He said, if you're the son of
God, he heard that voice come from heaven saying, this is my
beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And so the devil was
there when that took place. He heard it all. And he said,
if you are, prove it. Command that these stones be
made bread to satisfy your flesh, the lust of the flesh. If you're
the son of God, prove it. Jump off the temple right in
front of everybody and let us see, because the Bible says,
when we give it, his angels charge over thee, lest you dash your
foot against the stone. Prove it. If you're the son of God,
worship me. He tempted. Oh, Satan tempted
the Lord Jesus. But you know what I love to think
about the Lord Jesus? He couldn't give in to temptation. You know
why? Because it's a God man. Somebody
said, well, how is he tempted if he didn't have the potential
to sin? I don't know. He was, I don't understand that.
But I know my Lord didn't even have the potential to give into
temptation because of who he is. He could not sin. Don't you love that about him?
He could not sin. He lacked the ability to sin. There's one place he lacked the
ability. He kept God's law perfectly. A body is thou prepared for me. He came in the flesh and he kept
God's law perfectly. He performed what only God can
do, righteousness. He worked out a perfect righteousness. He never sinned. Don't you love
to think about that? There's one who never sinned.
Now, we know about ourselves, don't we? But there is one who
never sinned. And yet this one who never sinned
was nailed to a cross. And the scripture says that while
he was there, the sun quit shining. It wasn't a solar eclipse. The sun actually quit shining
for three hours while He hung on the cross. And during that
time of darkness, this One who is God, who is man, who never
sinned, while He's hanging on that cross, He cries out out
of that darkness, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? You know, the scripture says,
in Psalm 37, David said, I've been young and now I'm old, and
I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread.
Yet we have the Lord Jesus Christ forsaken by God. Now, why? Because all of my ungodliness
All of my iniquity, all of my transgressions, and all of my
sins were imputed to him. Now what all does that mean? I know it means a whole lot more
than me or you can ever understand. He took all of my sin in his
own body. on the tree, all of the violence
of it, all of the filth of it, all of the evil of it. He took
it in his own body on the tree. He became guilty of it. You were reading in Psalm 40
Mark where, where the Lord said, mine iniquities are gone over
my head. As a heavy burden, they're too
heavy for me. That's the Lord speaking. And
that's how He speaks on the cross. Because my sin actually became
His sin. And His righteousness is imputed
by God to me. Where it becomes my personal
righteousness. My iniquity is forgiven. My sin is covered. And remember, God's covering
is not like our covering. If I cover something, it's still
there. When God covers something, it's not there anymore. It's
gone. My sins are not charged to my
account. They're not imputed to me. Past
sins, present sins, future sins. Sins of commission. Sins of omission. Sins I fall into repeatedly. Familiar sins. Sins of imagination. Sins of word. Sins of deed. Sins that I don't even know anything
about. You know, most of the sins that I've committed, I'm
ignorant of. I don't even know what they are. They were all
imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ and became his. And none of them
are imputed to me. And this is the great stupendous
truth of how God justifies the ungodly. Turn to Matthew chapter one. This is the angel speaking to
Joseph. Verse 18, now the birth of Jesus
Christ was on this wise when as his mother Mary was a spouse
to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't born the
way you and I were of the seed of Adam. She was with child of
the Holy Ghost because our Lord is God. He didn't have the sinful
nature you and I have. He was born of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being
a just man, not willing to make her a public example, was minded
to put her away to divorce her privately. Now, of course, he
didn't believe that she was with child with the Holy Ghost. Would
you? You wouldn't believe that. I'm with child of the Holy Ghost.
Well, yeah, okay. You know, I mean, but, but he
was a good man. He didn't want to put her through
public humiliation, so he was going to put her away privately. Verse 20, but while he thought
on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto
him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to
take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in
her is of the Holy Ghost, the third person of the blessed Trinity. And she shall bring forth a son
and thou shalt call his name Jesus. You know what Jesus means? Savior. That's his name. Savior. For he shall save his people. their sins. Now, what's that
say? He shall save his people. He doesn't save everybody. He
saves his people. He saves those the father gave
him. He saves the elect. He saves those who come to him.
He shall save his people from their sins and here's what I
need saved from. You know, there's been all kinds
of times where I've messed up and I've done things that have put me
in uncomfortable situations where I've said, Lord, save me from
that. Don't let me have to pay the price of the stupid thing
I did. I don't know how many times I've done that. You ever
done that? Pray the Lord to get you out of this mess. Lord, save
me out of this. Save me out of this. And I expect
I'll be praying it more, too. I'll do something that is just
stupid. Lord, get me out of this. But
you know, if he doesn't get me out of those things, it's OK,
really. Really, I mean, if he doesn't
get me out of those things, but here's what I need to be safe
from. I need to be saved from my sins. My sins against God,
my sins that I can't do anything about them. Lord, save me from
my sins. Now, this passage of scripture
promises he shall save his people from their sins. How's that?
How can I be saved from my sins? Well, first of all, if he saved
me from my sin, that means I'll never have to be penalized for
my sin. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. I'm not going to have to bear
the punishment of my sin. The Lord did for me. He was punished
for me in my place. I'm saved from the power of sin. Now, I have to tell what that
means. What do you mean by being saved
by the power of sin? Because it sure seems like sin's
awful powerful to me. What do you mean by that? Well,
I'll tell you exactly what I mean by that. There was a time, and I'm
conscious of it, there was a time when I could not believe. I tried, but I didn't know what
it meant. If I knew what it meant, I'd do it. I hear the preacher
say, repent. What's it mean? I couldn't do
it. You need to love God. I can't.
I don't even know who he is. Then God saved me. And I now can do what I formerly
could not do. I'm relying on Christ right now. I love him. I believe on him. I'm saved from the power of sin.
And one of these days, I'm going to be saved from the very presence
of sin. And this is funny. I was folding bulletins Friday. And I remember Wilma Ward used
to always fold the bulletins. And I thought, she's in heaven
right now, beholding the face of Christ without sin. While
I'm sitting here folding bulletins. I look, I look forward to being
with her there, but that's what it is to be saved from the very
presence of sin. Don't, don't you look forward
to being saved from the very presence of sin. And you really
already have in Christ. Now look at John 17. John chapter 17. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven. Unlike that poor publican in
the temple who would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven,
this one could lift up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. as thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent." Now look what he says in verse four. He says,
I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished. the work which thou gavest me
to do. Now, what was the work the father
sent him to do? Now, once in the end of the world,
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And that is exactly what he did. He finished that work. You know
what that means? That means it's completed. It's
completed. There's nothing for you to do.
Look in Hebrews chapter one. I'll put this among my many favorite
scriptures, this is one of them. Verse one, God, who at sundry
times and diverse manners, spake in times past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by a son,
whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins. He sat down. Now, why did he
sit down? Because the work was done. The
sin was purged. And if it was purged, you know
what that means? It is no more. When he had by himself, with
no help, no contribution from me or you, when he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down. He offered himself without spot
to God And our spots became his spots and he purged them away. And he sat down on the right
hand of the father. Turn with me to another scripture
in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter nine. Neither verse 12, Hebrews 9,
12, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, the very presence of God,
heaven itself. And look what it says next, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. You obtained it. Now, let me say a few things
about justification once again. I know I talked something about
it last week. I'm going to talk about this week. And you know, I'm
thinking about this. I don't talk about justification
every time I preach. Somebody says, I get tired of
it. I don't. I don't. I don't. As a matter of fact,
I love it. And more thrilling to me now, I hope somebody says, that's
all he ever talks about. Good. Good. Justification. Did you notice when I read that
passage of scripture in Hebrews 9, 12, it said neither by the
blood of goats and calves, by his own blood he entered once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Eternal. Do you know that everything God
does is eternal? Everything. Everything. Redemption. Justification. You see, I believe in eternal
justification. There was never a time when God
looked upon his elect as guilty. Now they were guilty in and of
themselves. Like I said, this is the kind
of stuff I don't know how to wrap my mind around it. But God
said, I will by no means clear the guilty. If he ever sees you
as guilty, he's not going to clear you. But in Christ Jesus,
I've been eternally justified. You see, 2 Timothy 1.9 says,
he saved us and called us for the Holy College, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
were given us. Everything we have was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, I love it that
way. I believe in eternal justification.
Somebody says, do you really? Yes, I do. But not only do I
believe in eternal justification, The scripture says he was delivered
for our offenses and he was raised again for our justification. My justification was accomplished
in time by what my Lord did on the cross of Calvary. He justified me and he did it
on the cross. He did it when he lived. He did
it when he died. He did it when he was raised
from the dead. He accomplished my justification. I was justified
in time. You know what else? I was justified
when I believed the gospel. I was in a state of condemnation.
I didn't know God. And I was justified when I heard
and when I believed the gospel. Do you believe all three of those
things? Yes, I do. And I don't really necessarily know how to
bring them all together. And I don't feel the need to,
you know, I mean, if you don't believe the gospel, you don't
have any reason to believe God has justified you. Not until
you bow the knee to Christ and believe on him and believe and
trust his righteousness until you actually trust the Lord Jesus
Christ. You don't have any reason to
even suspect that God's justified you. But oh, if you believe the
gospel, You have every reason to know that God has justified
you. Now this justification, it's
instantaneous in eternity on the cross and the moment I believe
and God's justification is irreversible. You cannot not be justified. If you're justified, you cannot
not be justified. And this is God's declaration. I think of Romans chapter eight,
verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. I love the challenge Paul puts
out there. Bring it on. Who will lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? God justifies. Who is he that
condemns? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Now, who's going to condemn
me? Can't do it. And with justification comes
every other blessing. If you have justification, you
have every other promise in the new covenant. There's nothing that you don't
have. If you have justification, you have it all. God has blessed
you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And need I say that there's nothing
we can do to earn it or purchase it. It's free. Being justified freely by his
grace. through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus is had without money and without price. Now, listen to this real carefully. God, God, the father, the infinite,
eternal, sovereign, immutable God is completely satisfied with
the work of his son. God the Son is completely satisfied
with what he did. He shall see the travail of his
soul, Isaiah 53 says, and be satisfied. God is satisfied. God the Son is satisfied with
what he did. All that is relevant, now listen to me, all that is
relevant in me being justified is what Christ did and God's
response to it. You believe that? That's all
that's needed. What Christ did and God's response
to it. God's satisfied. Christ is satisfied. God the Holy Spirit is satisfied.
The spirits of all those just men made perfect in heaven are
satisfied. Are you? Are you satisfied with what he
did? That's all you need to make you just without sin before God. To him that worketh not, he can't work. He knows there's
nothing that he can do to achieve God's salvation, but believeth
on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness.
Now I want to look at one other scripture. Turn to Romans chapter
14. You know what justification makes?
Justification. If you really believe in justification,
you know what makes you want to never sin again? That's what it does. If you really
believe this, it makes you want to never sin again. Look at Romans chapter 14, verse
17. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink. It's not do's and don'ts. It's not if you do this, you'll
be better, but if you fail to do it, you'll be worse. Forget
that. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness. That's justification. Righteousness. And what comes from righteousness? Peace. If I'm justified, you know what
I have? I have peace. God's at peace with me and I
have peace of my conscience. I've got what I need, peace. And what comes with that peace?
Joy in the Holy Ghost. Oh, the joy of knowing that all
God requires of me I have in the justifying work of my Redeemer,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that I stand before God, and He does not impute
my sin to me. He imputes the righteousness
of Christ to me, and because of that, my sin is forgiven. My iniquity is covered. My transgression
is not imputed to me. Now, I love the way David said,
even David described the blessedness of that man. Would you not agree
that that state is a state of utter blessedness at words only
use three times in the new Testament blessedness twice right here. Oh, may God enable us to enter
in to this blessedness. of having the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ as my own personal righteousness, not merely... I read somewhere where somebody
said it's forensic. No, it's more than forensic.
It's my personal righteousness. May God enable us to revel in
that. Well, how can I know if I have
it? Beloved, if you believe on Christ,
if you look to Him right now, believe, what must I do to be
saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That means you actually
trust Him, who He is. His law keeping, His death, His
resurrection, is all that's needed to make you perfect before God. God's command to you, everybody
in this room, God's command to you is believe on the name of
his son. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for the gospel. How we thank you for the blessedness
of that man and those men and women that you impute righteousness
without their works. Given and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Lord
teach us that and Lord cause us to be of that number. in whose
spirit there is no guile, enable us to come before you in honesty,
confessing our sins. And oh Lord, that you will be
as you said in your word, and we know you will, you're faithful
and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. In Christ's blessed name, we
ask these things. Amen. Dwayne, what page you got? 117, we'll stand and sing together.