Now we're going to open our Bibles
this morning to the book of Romans again, chapter 4. Romans, chapter 4, verse 16 is
the text. Therefore it is of faith. Therefore it is of faith. I feel that the important thing
for the minister of Christ in these days is to preach the way
of salvation. And to preach that way of salvation,
that way to God, in terms that cannot be misunderstood. Someone said years ago, the evangelical
pulpit needs to be evangelized. I believe that's true. The evangelical
pulpit needs to be evangelized. It seems that most pulpits and
ministers today are seeking to impress the hearer with their
ability to preach rather than to impress the hearer with the
power of God to save. Now Paul said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, listen carefully to this, in 1 Corinthians chapter
2 verse 1, the Apostle said, Brethren, when I came to you
I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was
with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom. but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God. I think in most sermons today
the wisdom of words is far more conspicuous than the cross of
Christ. The gospel of salvation is always
needed. That's what our heroes need.
They need the gospel of salvation. Some of them urgently need it.
Because without it, they're going to perish eternally. Unless they
hear it and receive it, they're going to face God without hope
and be eternally lost. Now, when we take a trip in our
automobiles in strange territory, We depend on the road signs.
We depend on those signs to tell us which way to go. We're driving
down the highway and we look for the name of the town on the
sign. And then we look for the direction.
And then we look for the number of miles to that town. Now that's
three things that we want to know. We want to know the name
of the town, the road sign gives us that name. And the road sign
tells us how far it is to that town, and the road sign tells
us which direction we're to go to get to that town. Now suppose
the man who painted the sign decides that that's just too
simple. Well, after all, just putting
the name of a town on a sign and the number of miles to the
town and the direction, that's a little too simple. So instead
of putting the name of the town, the direction, and the number
of miles to that town, He puts on the sign a few sonnets from
Shakespeare, beautiful portrait, or a few lines from Milton, beautiful
portrait, and just leaves off the name of the town and the
direction and the number of miles, and puts on those signs, the
road signs, where we're traveling in strange territory, out there
in the desert or the wilderness, we come to the sign, looking
for a town and looking for the direction, and there we see some
beautiful words from the pen of Bacon, or Shakespeare or Milton. Well, the poetry would be excellent,
and I'm sure we'd appreciate the poetry, but we would be hopelessly
lost. Hopelessly lost. And when the
pulpit just gives us beautiful poetry and wisdom of words and
leaves off the cross of Christ, it all sounds beautiful, and
it tickles the ear. But men depart from those congregations
hopelessly lost and hopelessly wondering in their confusion. Back in Old Testament days, there
were what they called six cities of refuge. If a man accidentally
killed another man, and the law was that the man who was killed,
whether his brother, would avenge the man who was killed. But this
fugitive, if he accidentally killed a man and fled from the
scene, He could flee to one of the six cities of refuge. There
were six cities around the territory of Israel, and if the man had
killed another one accidentally, then he fled to one of those
cities of refuge. And there were plenty of signs
clearly marking the way. There'd be a highway here to
the city of refuge, and a sign would point the way, and the
road would be clear. Now, when he got to the city
of refuge, he got a fair hearing. a fair trial, but if he didn't
get there, he may be killed by the victim's brother, or the
victim's father, or some relative. That relative could kill the
man who had murdered his brother, or father, or loved one, accidentally. But if he got in the city of
refuge, he was safe, and he'd have a fair hearing. Well, there
were a group of men who were assigned to keep the way to the
city of refuge clear. Every once in a while, they'd
go and they'd make sure the sign was pointing in the right way.
They'd make sure there were no slides or boulders or anything
to prevent the escape or the fleeing fugitive from quickly
getting to the city of refuge. It was their job to keep the
way clear and to keep the signpost clearly pointing toward that
city. Well, that's the job of the minister of Christ. There
is a city of refuge. for the fleeing fugitive. There's
a city of refuge for the fleeing sinner. There's a city of refuge
for the offender, and that city is Christ. And the Bible clearly
marks the way and clearly points the way, and the way must be
kept clear. We must not confuse and confound
and distort the way. We must make sure that way is
clear, and that's what I want to do this morning. clearly point
you to the way of salvation. How is salvation received? Well,
let's look at our text again. In Romans 4, verse 16. Therefore,
it is of faith. It is of faith. Now, what's he
talking about, it is of faith? What's of faith? What is the
it? He says, it is of faith. What
does the it refer to? It is of faith. Well, let's look
back at the context and see what he's talking about. First of
all, in verse 2, for if Abraham were justified by works, the
first thing the apostle's talking about here, it is a faith, he's
talking about justification. Justification is a faith. What
is justification? Justification is to be legally
declared without guilt. Now, if a man goes to prison,
and the governor pardons him. He's pardoned but he's not justified. If a man goes to prison and he's
paroled, he's paroled but he's not justified. If a man goes
to prison and he serves his term and gets out at the end of having
served the entire term, he is free but he's not justified.
He is a pardoned criminal, he is a paroled criminal, He is
a criminal who has paid his debt. But justification means to be
declared without guilt, completely innocent. Justification is not
to be pardoned, it's not to be paroled, it's not having paid
the debt yourself. It is to be declared legally
before God, before the law, before justice, as having no guilt at
all, no charge, no condemnation, the Bible says, without blame
before God. That's justification. There was
a man put in prison some years ago. I remember reading about
it. And after he had served two or three years, they discovered
that he didn't commit the crime. Somebody else did. And so they
came to him and they said, we're going to pardon you. He said,
no, you're not going to pardon me. He said, I haven't done anything
for which to be pardoned. Well, they said, we'll set you
free. He said, no, you're not going
to set me free. You're going to do more than that. You're
going to justify me. You're going to justify me. I
will not go out of here with a pardon. I will not go out of
here with parole. I'll only go out of here with
a paper saying I'm completely justified before the law. And
you're going to advertise before the people that I am justified,
that I'm innocent, totally innocent. Well, brethren, that's what justification
means. Somebody said it means just as
if I had never sinned. Now that's what we have before
God, justification. Not pardon, not parole, but justify. Totally innocent. You say, what
in the world are you talking about? I'm talking about standing
before God innocent, without blame, holy, completely without
any condemnation. Now that's by faith. And that's
what it is. Now let's go on to verse 3. Therefore
it is a faith. Justification is a faith. All
right, verse 3. Wherefore, what the scripture
saith, what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Now we're talking about righteousness. It is a faith. Justification
is a faith. Righteousness is a faith. Not
only is the person without guilt, but he has a perfect, spotless
righteousness before the law. This is a step further. You see,
by faith, through Christ, we're justified, we're declared innocent,
without blame, without guilt, totally without sin. But not
only that, but we have, by faith, through Christ, a perfect righteousness
before the law, that is, I have an obedience charged to my account
as if I had obeyed every law God ever wrote. Not only that
I haven't disobeyed any, but I've also obeyed some. Now the
Bible says, Thou shalt not kill. In Christ, I've never killed.
The Bible says, Thou shalt not steal. In Christ, I've never
committed a theft. The Bible says, Thou shalt not
covet. In Christ, I've never coveted
anything. You see, I'm innocent. Innocent,
justified, not guilty. But also the Bible says, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. That's the law.
That's a commandment. I fulfill that in Christ. Thou
shalt love thy neighbors thyself. I have that in Christ. So it
is a faith. When we talk about it is a faith,
we're not only talking about being innocent and without guilt,
no condemnation, but we're talking about having a righteousness,
a perfect righteousness, as if we had fulfilled and obeyed ourselves
every commandment of God's law. And we have, in Christ. Or you say, this is getting good.
It sure is good. That's the reason God said, I
bring you good tidings of great joy. The gospel is good news. The word gospel itself means
good news. Now the way it's preached today,
it's not, the news is not too good. But the way the Bible presents
it, it's the best news that an old sinner has ever heard. All
right, let's see the third thing, verse 7. He's talking about the
forgiveness of all sins. Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven, whose sins are covered. That's what it is. All
of our sins, all of our transgressions, all of our failures, all of our
falls, all of our errors, All of our evil thoughts, they're
all covered. They're all forgotten. They're
all forgiven. They're all cast behind the back.
They're all remembered no more. They're all obliterated. They're
all washed away. And they don't even exist. God
said, their sins will I remember no more. And that's not all. This is a faith. It is a faith. Justification is a faith. Righteousness
is a faith. Forgiveness of sins, blotting
out our transgressions, covering our iniquities, that is a faith.
Now look at verse 13. For the promise that Abraham
should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his
seed through the law, but through faith. For if they which are
of the law be heirs, faith is made void. Not only do we have
in Christ perfect justification and perfect righteousness and
no guilt and forgiveness of sins, but we have an inheritance reserved
in heaven for us. When I lie down to die and they
bury my body, Christ said that I shall be taken into the presence
of God and I shall be received as an heir of God and a joint
heir with Jesus Christ And on the resurrection day, my body
shall be brought forth, and I will stand in his presence, an heir
of eternal glory. And I shall ever, forever and
ever live and reign with Jesus Christ." Now that's the it. Our text says, therefore, it
is of faith. What is of faith? Justification
is of faith. Righteousness is of faith. Forgiveness
is of faith. Our eternal inheritance is of
faith. It is not of works, it is not
of law, it is not of religion, it is of faith. Faith. Faith. And then the Apostle uses
the example of Abraham. in verse 17. I want to look at
two or three things here in verse 17 through 22. First of all,
let's establish this. Abraham was saved, right? No
doubt about it. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he gave the example of the man who was in hell, the rich
man who was in hell, and Lazarus who was in Abraham's bosom, Paradise
was referred to as Abraham's bosom. So Abraham was saved. We know that. Abraham knew and
walked with God. We know that. Abraham is in glory. We know that. Abraham is called
the father of those who work. No, the father of those who believe. Abraham is called the father
of the religious. No, the father of those who believe. So we're certain of that. All
right, let's see how Abraham received these blessings. In
verse 17 it says, as it is written, I have made thee, Abraham, a
father of many nations, before him whom he believed even God. Abraham believed God. Abraham
believed God. When God came to him and said,
Abraham, leave your father's house and go to a land I'll show
you, Abraham believed God, and he left not knowing where he
was going, but he believed God. That's what I'm calling on you
to do. I'm saying that justification and righteousness and forgiveness
of sin and eternal life is by faith, and that faith is believing
God! It's believing God! I'm not asking
you to believe the preacher or believe the creeds or believe
the catechisms. I'm asking you to believe God. And Abraham did. He didn't know
where he was going, but he believed God. And God came to him when
he was about a hundred years old. His wife was ninety and
told him he was going to have a son. And he believed God, not
knowing how, but he believed God. He said, I just don't understand
the Bible. Scripture doesn't say that a
man is saved by understanding the Bible. It says he's saved
by believing it. Abraham believed God. He didn't
know how. And one time God came to him
and said, I want you to take that son, that only son, that
son whom thou lovest, and take him to the top of Mount Moriah
and sacrifice him as an offering for sin. And Abraham believed
God, not knowing why, but he believed God. You can't believe
men, but you can believe God. You can't believe religion, but
you can believe God. And Abraham believed God. That's
how he was justified. That's how he received a perfect
standing, righteousness. That's how his sins were put
away. That's how he inherited eternal glory. He believed God! One time the Apostle Paul was
on board a ship. The ship was about to sink. And
everybody on there who knew anything about sailing, anything about
storms, all of those mariners, they said, it's bound to sink,
it can't stay up. And Paul came to them and he
said, Sirs, be of good cheer. I'm sure those sailors must have
said, this is an awful time to talk about being of good cheer.
The boat's about to go down and we're all going to drown. Be
of good cheer. There appeared unto me this night
the angel of the Lord, whose I am, and whom I serve. And he
said, Paul, the ship will sink, but not one life will be lost.
I have given you all aboard the ship. Wherefore, sirs, be of
good cheer. I believe, God, I believe, God,
that it shall be exactly as he said." Look at verse 18. Yes, Father? Let's follow Abraham's
profession, Abraham's foundation. Verse 18, he believed God, who
against hope believed in hope that he might become the father
of many nations according to that which was spoken, so shall
thy seed be. God came and said, Abraham, get
thee out of thy father's house to land I will show thee, and
I will make thee a great nation, and I will give thee a son, And
through that Son, I'll bless all nations." What was God talking
about? Abraham knew what he was talking
about. He was talking about the Messiah. God said, Abraham, the
Messiah is going to come through your seed. And the central object
of Abraham's faith was Christ, the Messiah. The foundation of
his faith was the Word of God. He believed God. And the object
of his faith was the Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer of Israel. He believed that Christ would
come. Those are two things that you must remember. The foundation
of faith is the Word of God. I believe God. And the object
of faith is Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord is our representative
before the law. You say, how do we have a perfect
righteousness as if we had obeyed the law ourselves? Christ, the
Son of God, came down here to this earth and took on Himself
our flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh, bone of our bone, flesh
of our flesh. He became a man. And as a man,
as our representative, He met the law and obeyed it. And in
him I obeyed the law, in him I have a perfect righteousness.
And then when he went to the cross of Calvary as my representative
before the justice of God, the arrow of God's wrath plunged
into his heart, and the sword of God's justice plunged into
his heart, and he bled and died under the wrath of God in my
place. And so in him I have a perfect
justification. And right now Jesus Christ the
man. is at the right hand of the Father.
And there he is our mediator, our advocate, our lawyer. And
he pleads for us. And there's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There's a man on
the right hand of God. And that man is pleading not
what you are doing, not what you ought to do, not what you're
promising to do, not what you hope to do. He's pleading what
he's already done. for you in your place and in
your stead. My righteousness is Christ. My
justification is Christ. My standing is Christ. And Abraham
looked to the Messiah. The object of his faith was Christ.
Then verse 19, And being not weak in faith, he considered
not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years
old, nor the deadness of Sarah's womb. God said, Abraham, you'll
have a son. And through that Son will come
the Messiah. And Abraham considered no difficulty too great for God. You know, somebody said, well,
my sins are so great, God is greater. Somebody said, well,
my transgressions are so great, God is greater. Where sin did
abound, grace did much more abound. But I'm so weak, God's so strong. My heart is so hard, God is so
good. My spiritual soul is so dead. God is so triumphant. There's
no difficulties too great. God is able. God is able. Verse 20, He staggered not at
the promise of God through faith, was strong in faith, gave the
glory to God, and being persuaded that God was able, that God was
able. to perform all that he had promised. Do you believe that? Abraham
was persuaded that what God had promised, God could do. Do you
believe Christ is able to save you? Do you believe Christ is
able to look down from heaven upon you and love you in his
grace and mercy? in the dunghill of sin and lift
you with His everlasting arms of love and wash you and cleanse
you and spotlessly bathe you in His righteousness and put
a crown on your head and seat you on a throne and present you
to His Father faultless and without blame. Do you believe that? I
do. Are you willing to be saved by
Christ alone? Are you willing to take up the
yoke of the Son of God? Are you willing to bear his cross?
Are you willing for him to be your master? Are you willing
to confess him before men? Are you willing to leave everything
to Christ and Christ alone? That's what Abraham, that's what
it says here about Abraham. He believed God. His faith and
his confidence was in the Messiah. Christ said, Abraham saw my day. And he rejoiced and was glad. And Abraham considered no difficulty
too great for God to overcome, but he was strong in faith and
gave glory to God and believed that God could perform everything
that he said. He believed God. One day a little
boy's mother called him in and said, Billy, I want you to go
down to the store. and get something for me. He
said, all right. What is it? She said, well, I
bought a vase down at the store, paid $10 for it. And I had too
many packages when I bought it and couldn't bring it home. So
I told the man, I'd send you after it. You go down and get
it for me, will you? And bring it home. And I come
straight home. And be careful with my vase and don't drop it
and break it. He said, all right. So he went
down to the store, and the man gave him that big, tall, beautiful
vase that his mother had bought. And he was on his way home with
the vase in his arms, and he met his little friend Jimmy.
And Jimmy was bouncing a basketball. And Jimmy said, Billy, put the
vase down and play ball with me. No, I better not. Mother
told me to come straight home and not let anything happen to
the vase. We're not going to let anything happen to the vase.
Just set it down over there on the sidewalk, and let's play
basketball, and then you can take it on home. No, I better
not. Mother said, bring it straight home, and something might happen
to the vase. Nothing's going to happen to
the vase. All right. So he set it down over there
on the sidewalk, and they were passing the basketball and dribbling
it and bouncing it, you know, and throwing it, and they weren't
there 30 seconds till that basketball hit a fence and bounced off the
fence and hit the vase and broke it into a thousand pieces. Of
course, Jimmy ran away, and little Billy went over there, and he
stood and looked at that beautiful vase. in a thousand pieces on
the sidewalk. And he knelt down, he picked
up one of the biggest pieces. It looked like it was the foundation
or the bottom of the vase. He set it down there and he reached
and got another piece and put it up against it. It looked like
that's where it went. And he held it there and he thought,
well, I'll try to put this back together, you know, maybe get
me some glue and fix it up. Mother will never know it's been
broken. So he held those pieces and he reached for another and
when he reached for it, that piece fell off. And he shoved it back
on. He reached and got another one.
He put another one on. He had three pieces together. But he
looked around. There were all those other pieces.
When he reached for one, that one would fall. When he reached
for another one, that one would fall. And after a while he figured
it was a hopeless task. And he just sat down on the curb
and started crying. And he cried and he cried and
he cried. And after a while, as he sat
there crying over the broken vase, he sensed the presence
of somebody standing over him, looking down at him. And he looked
up, and it was his daddy. And his daddy had already surveyed
the situation and knew what had happened, but he said, Billy,
what happened here? Well, Billy told him the story.
He said, Mom sent me to the store to get this vase, and she told
me to bring it straight home and not to play, but said, Jimmy
talked me into playing, and we put the vase down, and I broke
it. And, Daddy, I tried, but I can't get it back together."
And his daddy reached in his pocket and pulled out a ten-dollar
bill and handed it to him and said, Now, Jimmy, go down to
the store, and I'll buy another vase to take the place of the
one you broke, and you take it home to Mother. My friend, God
gave you and me a perfect law, a perfect law. Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Thou shalt have no other
God before me. I shall not take the name of
the Lord thy God in vain. Honor thy father and thy mother.
Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not bear false witness." And these perfect laws of God not
only reach the hand and the feet and the eyes and the ears, but
the thoughts and the imagination and the attitude. And he said,
You keep that law now. You keep that law. Don't you
break it. Don't you break it. But we've broken it. Not only
in one point, but in two points, and three points, and four points.
And we're guilty of the whole law of God. We've failed. And
we've tried to put it back together. We've said, well, we may kill,
we may hate, but we don't steal. And we may steal, but we don't
commit adultery. We may commit adultery, but we
don't covet. We may covet, but we don't bear
false witness. We bear false witness, but at
least we don't take God's name in vain. And we keep trying to
justify ourselves, and we keep trying to put the pieces together,
And when one piece gets a pretty good bit of work on it, another
piece falls off. We give a little attention to
that when we come up short somewhere else. And we get a little strength
there, and we come up weak somewhere else. And finally, when we come
to the place where we're without strength and without hope and
without help and without ability, we just sit down on the curbstone
of life and cry and say, Lord, I cannot please you. The Lord
Jesus comes along and he says, what's wrong? Lord, I'm lost. I'm a sinner. I'm guilty. I'm naked. I've broken the law
of God. I've sinned against God, and
God's going to whip me, and God's going to call me to account for
breaking the vase. God's going to bring me before
judgment for my sins. And I'm lost. And the Lord Jesus
Christ pulls out a perfect righteousness, which he worked out. As a man,
he came down here in the flesh, and as a man he obeyed this law,
every jot and tittle, tempted in all points as we are, yet
without sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ worked
out for you and me a beautiful vase pretty than the one Adam
broke. He worked out a righteousness better than the one you broke.
He worked out a perfect righteousness, one that can never be broken.
That can never fail, that can never be taken away. And he says,
you want it? Do you want it? Now, brother,
you'll never want his till you realize you've lost yours. There's
the problem. You'll never want his till you
realize you've lost yours. As long as you think you can
take that old vase you've broken and piece it back together and
take it to the Father and say, you like this one, Father? And
the Father will say, no, I don't like that one. I don't like that
one. God can be satisfied with no
less than perfection. God can demand no more than perfection. But you better have perfection.
You don't have it, do you? When you realize you don't have
it, then you'll look to Christ, and it is a faith. It's a faith. It's not earned. It's not bought. It is a faith. It is received as a gift. All
right, now look. Look at this. One more statement.
It is a faith. Why is it a faith? For two reasons. Will you stay with me a minute?
First of all, it is a faith that it might be by grace. That's
the reason it's by faith, that it might be by grace. Now, salvation
is by faith alone. Not by works, not by law, not
by merit, not by payment, not by condition, but by faith. Why?
That it might be of grace. Now, if any work or any merit,
or any payment, or any condition enters into the salvation of
my soul. It's not by grace, it's by work.
In other words, if I may pay you just a nickel for something,
it doesn't matter how big it is, how important it is, if I
pay anything for it, it's not a guilt. I've earned it. I don't care what I pay you.
I may not, you say, but you didn't pay me what it was worth. That
doesn't matter, I paid you something. And if I pay you anything at
all, it's not a gift. It's a purchase. And if salvation,
if rediction, if justification, if righteousness come by works,
it's not grace. If it's grace, it's not works.
If it's works, it's not grace. If it's mercy, it's not works.
If it's works, it's not mercy. And therefore he says salvation
by grace and faith that it might not be of works, that God might
get all the glory. Now let me show you something
in Galatians chapter 4. Turn over here to Galatians chapter
4. This is mighty important right here. You say, well, I think
that a man has to make himself acceptable before God. I think
he has to do this and do that and do the other in order to
be acceptable. I think the law enters into our
salvation. All right, listen to this. Galatians
4.21. Tell me. Paul said, you that desire to be under the law,
you that desire to be under works for salvation, do you not hear
the law? Don't you know what the law demands?
Don't you know what the law requires? If you hope to be accepted by
God by what you do, do you realize what you have to do? Do you realize
what you have to produce? Do you not hear the law of God?
It is a perfect law. It is a holy law. It is a law
so holy and so perfect that you have to be as good as God in
order to fulfill it. Only God can fulfill it. It's
as holy as God. And then look at Galatians 5
verse 3. I testify again to every man that is circumcised, every
man that's under the law, every man that desires to be under
works for salvation, I testify this to you, you are a debtor
to do the whole law. To pray for them that curse you,
to take off your coat and give it to the stranger, to forgive
seventy times seven. to love God with all your heart,
to love your neighbors yourself, to pray for your enemies, to
feed them that curse you, and never to allow one thought of
hate envy, jealousy, lust, malice, unkindness, ever, in any way,
to come near to enter in your heart, to always, at all times,
in all circumstances, under all conditions, to think that which
is holy and pure and righteous and of God. That's a tough assignment,
isn't it, for an old rebel like you? You can't make it, can you? All right, why don't you quit
trying to buy salvation and receive it by grace? It is a faith that
it might be of grace. And if God lets you pay a nickel,
you'll brag about it forever. If God lets you pay a nickel,
you'll brag about it throughout the endless ages of eternity. Lord, I preached in your name. Lord, I did many wonderful works
in your name. I never knew you. I never knew
you. the thief on the cross cried,
Lord, just remember me. Today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. He said to the Pharisees and
the Sadducees, the publicans and the harlots, enter heaven
before you. They know their sinners. They need grace, they need mercy,
they need righteousness. They'll give God the glory. You
won't give God the glory, therefore they enter heaven and you go
to hell. It is of faith that it might
be of grace. Now secondly, and this is the
most important thing that I'm going to say, you listen to it.
Secondly, it is of faith that it might be of grace that God
might get all the glory. But here's the second reason
why salvation is by faith. It's by faith to the end, or
for this reason, that the promise might be sure. to all the seed. Now, brethren, salvation based
on human merit has always failed. It failed under every dispensation
from the Garden of Eden to this present time. Men have failed
under every age, under every circumstance, under every dispensation. No place can give any assurance
or safety or security. God made a perfect garden back
yonder and put man and woman in it, and they God saved Noah
from the flood, saved him supernaturally, unusually, from a flood in an
ark. He wasn't off that ark 15 minutes
till he'd broken God's law again. God miraculously brought Lot
out of Sodom and led him out there to a cave and let him see
the cities, the perverted cities of Sodom and Gomorrah consumed
in his wrath. And you know what happened to
Lot. God made David the most powerful man in the world. He
gave him the kingdom of kingdoms on this earth and promised the
Messiah would sit on his throne. And poor David, he just walked
the law of God under his feet. Solomon, the wisest man who ever
lived. God said, Solomon, ask what you
want, give me wisdom. God gave him wisdom above all
men, and he played the fool. And then the apostles, God The
Lord Jesus Christ came down here and chose twelve of them, and
one of them was a devil. And in the early church, the
tongues of fire, the speaking in other languages, the raising
of the dead, the healing of the sick, and still Ananias and Sapphira
lied to the Holy Ghost. I'll tell you, every dispensation,
every age, every condition, every circumstance under which God
has placed a sinner, the sinner has failed. He's failed. So it's got to be by faith that
I might be saved. That it might be sure. It's got
to be by faith. If that thief on the cross is
saved, it can't be any way but faith. Because he can't walk
for God. His feet are nailed to a tree.
He can't wash. He can't work. He can't witness. He's dying. So it's got to be
by faith. And you, my dear friend, you
may be sixty-five years old, and you've been a Christian for
twenty-five years, and you've lived in the church and walked
with God. You ain't home yet. And there's a good possibility
that you'll fall tomorrow. Good possibility. In fact, it's
almost a dead certainty. Aren't you glad salvation's not
by works? If it's by works, you'd go to
hell tomorrow. But salvation is by faith. Aren't you glad? Boy, I tell you, if I thought
salvation was by what I did or what I presented or what I gave
to God and depended on me and on my walk and on my purity of
thought and purity of attitude and failure to ever one time
deviate from the law of God, I'd be shaking like a reed in
a tornado. But I'm Well, it's quiet in my
spirit this morning because salvation is by faith. It's by grace. It's in Christ. It doesn't depend
on me. It depends on Him. It depends on him, O to grace,
how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be, O God, let
thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. Here I raise my Ebenezer hither,
by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to
arrive at home. It is a faith, justification,
righteousness, forgiveness, eternal It's by faith. It's to believe
God. It's to believe His Word. It's
to believe His Son is our Savior. And it's by faith that it might
be grace and not works. And it's by faith that your salvation
might be sure. Your salvation by faith is as
sure as the throne of God. But your salvation by works,
oh brother, your salvation by works will fail because you'll
fail. I predict you'll fail before
this day is over. I predict you'll fail before
you leave this congregation. I predict you'll fail before
I say Amen. I predict you're failing right
now because you're a son of Adam and you've got an unclean heart
and an unclean spirit. I predict you've already failed,
but in Christ I cannot fail." Our Father blessed the message
to our hearts, how we long to be in Christ, not judged by our
own righteousness, not judged by our works, but justified in
Him, cleansed in Him, accepted in the Beloved. Christ our hope,
our refuge, our strength, our redeeming. We want to please
Thee, O God, but we know in the flesh no man can please Thee.
Thy good pleasure is Christ. But we want to be more like the
Master. We want our lives to be conformed
to His image. We want men to see us and glorify
God, who is our Father, help us to walk like children of God,
help us to avoid all appearance of evil, Grant that our lives
may be so dedicated to Christ that others may see Christ in
us. We pray in His name and for His glory. Amen.