I remember Brother Ralph Barnard
telling us about a preacher, a Baptist preacher, who lay dying
in a hospital in, I think, in Memphis or Nashville, Tennessee.
And he could barely speak. And he began to speak, and nobody
could really understand what he was saying. And finally, someone
kind of leaned down close to him. close to him, and that's
what he was saying, I'm bound for the promised land. And then
God gave him strength, and he just bellowed out that song,
I'm bound for the promised land, oh who will come and go with
me? And passed away just like that. If you will, open your Bibles
tonight to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter one. 2 Timothy chapter 1. We'll read
down through verse 14. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, according to the promise of life which
is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace,
mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve for
my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance
of thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see
thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy.
When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother, Lois, and thy mother Eunice,
and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore, I put thee in
remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in
thee by the putting on of my hands. Now, I don't want to say
much, but I just would remind us that the apostles, the apostles
had power that regular ministers of the gospel do not have. and
they could lay their hands, and did lay their hands on believers,
and they received miraculous ministerial gifts. Let's go back,
let's go back, let's keep our place here, but let's turn back
to Acts chapter eight. Let me just show you this, because
we know that these gifts that the charismatics like to tell
us that they are, They're demonstrating and they are partaking of the
gift of healing, the gift of speaking in different languages,
the gift of interpretation, all of these different gifts that
were in the church, in the early church. Why are they not here? Because there's no apostles.
Once the apostles died, then these gifts passed away. They
were given through the laying on of the hands of the apostles. Look here in Acts chapter eight,
we have here the case of Samaria. Now verse 14, now when the apostles,
which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the
word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. Let's go back
there to verse 12. Let me not skip over that. But
when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom
of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both
men and women. Now you know that's God's order. That's God's order. Hearing the
gospel, believing the gospel, being baptized. It's not reversed. I know men have reversed that,
and they call sprinkling putting a little water on an infant's
head, baptism. That's not baptism. And even
if it were, they've got the order reversed. Hearing, believing,
being baptized. That's the Bible order. That's
God's order. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. Whosoever believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Whosoever believeth not shall
be damned. But these in Samaria, they heard
the preaching of Philip and they believed and they were baptized. Then Simon himself, this was
a sorcerer, Simon. And this shows us, this is recorded
no doubt to show us that baptism doesn't save a person. This man,
Simon, he was baptized too. But if we read on in this chapter,
we see Peter told him, thy money perish with thee. In other words,
he thought the gift of God could be purchased with money. And
he showed himself, he manifested that he did not truly believe. He had a faint faith, no doubt,
but he didn't truly believe. Then Simon himself believed also,
and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered,
beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now, when the
apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received
the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when
they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive
the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was not fallen,
upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of
the Lord Jesus. Now, when it says the Holy Spirit
had not fallen on them, that doesn't mean that they had not
received the Holy Spirit. They were believers. No one is
a believer apart from the work, the grace of God, the Holy Spirit.
But they had not received these miraculous signs that we're talking
about here. Now notice in verse 17, then
laid they their hands on them, that is, Peter and John, apostles. They laid their hands on them
and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through
laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given, he
offered them money. saying, give me also this power
that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
But Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee, because
thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with
money. Thou hast neither part nor lot
in this matter. And notice, for thy heart, thy
heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent. therefore, of
this thy wickedness. And pray God, if perhaps the
thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee." The point I'm
making as we go back here to 2 Timothy is, Paul is writing
to Timothy, who had been converted under Paul's ministry and attended
Paul. And Paul thinks of him as his
son, not his natural son, but his son in the faith. and he
had laid hands on him, verse six, wherefore I put thee in
remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee
by the putting on of my hands. In other words, those ministerial
gifts that those early preachers had, Timothy also had, and he
had received them through the apostle Paul laying his hands
upon him. That's the way they received,
the early Christians received these gifts. And so when the
apostles passed away, then these gifts eventually also passed
away because there was no one, there was no apostles to lay
hands on believers. Stir up the gift which is in
thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given
us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound
mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who has saved us and called us with an holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death
and hath brought life, that is eternal life, and immortality
to light through the gospel, whereunto I am appointed a preacher
and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which
cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed,
For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Hold
fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me in
faith and love which is in Christ Jesus, that good thing. That
good thing, the gospel, the gospel, that good thing which was committed
unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. I want us to think for a little
while this evening on his exhortation there in verse 13 to Timothy,
hold fast the form of sound words. Hold fast the form of sound words. We all know that words have meanings,
and it's important to know the meanings of the words that we
use. And I have a particular word
tonight that I want us to think about, and that is the word imputation. Imputation, whole fast form of
sound words. The word is imputation. In the fourth century, There
was a preacher by the name of Jerome, and Jerome was one of
the Latin preachers, and he translated the Bible, the scriptures, into
Latin. He had the Old Testament Septuagint,
and of course the New Testament. He had the Greek scriptures,
which he translated into Latin. And if you read or study much,
you will see that Latin Vulgate, Latin Vulgate. That's the translation
that he made. And then I like to think of the
fact that John Wycliffe, he made or started his translation from
the Latin Vulgate. So his translation into English,
the first translation of the scriptures into English. I love
to read, don't you, about these men that God used in translating
the word of God into a language, our language, English, and words
they had to come up with, words like the mercy seat. But in this
Latin translation, Jerome used the verb imputo, I-M-P-U-T-O,
when he translated Psalm 32 and verse 2. Blessed is the man whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the man, happy is
the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Well, we've got
to know what that word means, don't we? to understand and be
blessed by that text. The Apostle Paul quoted that
verse in Romans chapter four and verse eight in showing that
in saving man, God imputes the righteousness of Christ unto
that person. The meaning of the word impute
is to reckon. that word could be translated
reckon, or to put to one's account. To put to one's account. Let
me try to illustrate it like this. You take a check to the
bank, and you've got your bank deposit, and you give the bank
your deposit slip and the check you are depositing, and they
accredit the amount of that check to your account. They credit,
they impute it. to your account. They reckon
it to your account. I read the story this past week,
and I've seen this over the years, a few times of a couple who looked
one day at their bank statement and they had over $100,000 in
there that they didn't know where it came from. So what did they
do? They started spending. They started
spending. It wasn't their money. It was
a mistake the bank had made. And now they're in They're in
trouble, aren't they? But the word impute, it literally
means to credit or to put to one's account. There are three
basic truths of Christianity that we all recognize. As a preacher,
if I were to go into a place I'd never preached before, and
maybe a place where the gospel had never been preached before,
I know these three things. These three things are so, first
of all, the universal sinnerhood of all men. No matter where I
go, no matter to whom I preach, I'm preaching to sinners. I know
that. It wouldn't matter if I went
to New York City or if I went to New Delhi, India, if I went
to Singapore, no matter where I would go preaching, I know
this is a basic truth of Christianity, that all men are sinners, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I know that. And number two, I know that the
Lord Jesus Christ died a substitutionary death. I know that. I may preach that. He died the
innocent, the just in the place of the unjust. He died a substitutionary,
a vicarious death. He had no sin of his own, but
he died charged with the sins of others. And thirdly, I know
that all who believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the son of
God, are justified by faith. Not by works of righteousness,
which we might do, not even by baptism, which is certainly something
that believers should do. We're not saved by any of those
things. Therefore being justified, declared
righteous by God, Therefore, being justified by faith, by
faith in Christ, we have peace with God. Now, those three truths,
the sinnerhood of all men, the vicarious death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and justification by faith, they all hinge on this
truth of imputation. They all hinge on this truth
of imputation. And that's what we're going to
see. The Lord willing now, hold fast the form of sound doctrine. There are three acts of imputation
that we will think about. First, the first act of imputation,
the sin of Adam. Now what does imputation mean? It means to set to the account
The sin of Adam was set to the account, was imputed to all of
his posterity. That is, all men. The sin of
Adam, the one sin, the sin of disobedience. Now he sinned many
times later. Those sins were his sins, and
his sins alone. They're not imputed to us, but
that one sin, that one sin of disobedience, is imputed to everyone
in the world because we all are children of Adam, right? Yes, we all spring from Adam. The apostle Paul in Romans 5
in verse 18 said, therefore, therefore, by the offense of
one man, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. All men
are condemned when we come into this world. That is, we are sinful
individuals. And how's that? By the sin, by
the offense of one. Judgment came upon all men to
condemnation. And this is so apparent and so
easy to see. How did death come into this
world? Because of sin, right? Sin brought death. If there had
never been any sin, there wouldn't be any death. Infants die. Children are born into this world
and live here, breathe here just an hour or two, and pass away. Well, how did they sin? Well,
they didn't sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression. That's
what Paul says. But they still die. Some die
in the womb. How is that so? How can that be so? Because by
the offense of one man, judgment passed upon all men to condemnation. The sinnerhood of all men. We also know that we were all
in the loins of Adam, that he Not only was our representative,
but we were in his loins. He was ahead of all men. You
know, it's a matter of tithing. Some
people say, well, you know, I believe that believers are still supposed
to tithe. And I've tried to show people
the only time the word tithing is used after the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's not used in any of the epistles
except Hebrews. And it's not used there to tell
men that they need to tithe, to pay a certain amount of money.
You see, people say, well, yes, but in the gospel, our Lord said
these also you have should have done. But yes, when the Lord
Jesus Christ died, remember that old covenant was abrogated. It was ended. It was ended. When we used to have a television
program, I brought a message on giving one time from 2 Corinthians
chapter eight, I believe it was, and made mention of the fact
that tithing is not taught to believers. I had a friend here, was a member
here for many years. I loved him dearly. I was talking
to him about this one day and he said, well, I just believe
it's a good place to start. And I said, I couldn't say that
from the pulpit. I couldn't say it's a good place
to start because someone would take it as a law. We give out
of love. We don't give out of, a force
or because we're afraid God's gonna cause our car to break
down or something like that, you know? Believers give out
of love. We love God because he first
loved us and it's a joy to give. But here's my point, I got kind
of sidetracked there. In Hebrews, we do have the word
tithing. But it's not used to tell people
how much they should give or pay because you didn't give tithes,
you paid tithes. The whole idea is foreign to
the new covenant. It really is. It's foreign to
the new covenant, the covenant of grace. It's the law and you
better do this because the law says do this. No, we give out
of love. But the places in the letter
of Hebrews where we find the word tithing, it is used there
to show the greatness of the priesthood of Melchizedek. How does he do that? How does
the apostle do that? Because he shows how that Abraham
paid tithes to Melchizedek and when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. His grandson, Levi, paid tithes
to Melchizedek. His whole point is to show how
great our high priest is. And he is a high priest after
the order of Melchizedek, which simply means he is an eternal
high priest. He will always be our high priest. But the point I want to make
is Levi, the grandson of Abraham, according to the apostle, paid
tithes. And under the law, it was the
Levites who received tithes. The Israelites paid tithes to
the Levites. But Levi paid tithes. How did
he pay tithes? He wasn't even born. No, he wasn't
born, but he was in the loins of his grandfather, Abraham. We were in Adam's loins, all
of us were. We're all descendants of Adam. Well, I said we all are. There's
one exception, right? There's one exception. Our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam didn't represent him. He
didn't represent him, why? Because he was not the seed of
the man. Not the seed of Adam, the seed
of the woman. And surely that's what Jeremiah
meant when he wrote in Jeremiah 31, the Lord created a new thing
in the earth, a woman shall encompass a man. Surely that's what he
had reference to, something new, something that had never been
done before, something that's never been done after that, a
woman. A virgin, we know that Isaiah,
what he meant by that, behold, a virgin shall conceive. A virgin,
a woman who never knew a man, shall conceive and bear a son
and shall call his name Emmanuel. And we know what that means,
don't we? God with us, Emmanuel. So the first point about imputation
is that all men, We've all become sinners by the imputation of
Adam's sin. You can say, well, that's not
fair. That's not fair. Well, wait a minute. Better not
speak too soon. No, there's more to come, right? The second imputation is the
sins of Christ's sheep were sent to his account. Adam's sin was imputed unto all
of his posterity. The sins of Christ's sheep, they
were all imputed to Christ. They were all set to his account. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21,
for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now this explains
Peter's words when he said, who his own self bore our sins in
his own body on the tree. Bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. The sins of God's people there
in Isaiah 53, the scripture says, he hath made to meet upon him
the iniquity of us all. If we could just picture like
that the bundle of sin, if all the sins of God's elect, God's
sheep, could be all bundled up into one bundle, God made them
all to lay the meat upon his son, Jesus Christ. That explains
how in Psalm 40 in verse 12, he said, for innumerable evils
have come past me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon
me. Oh, but you had no iniquity. You're the holy son of God. No,
he had none of his own, but he took the sins of his people.
They were imputed. They were charged. They were
set to his account. So that he said, so that I am
not able to look up. They are more than the hairs
of mine head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. The innumerable evils And we
can't even compute, we can't even begin to compute the sins,
the iniquities, the evil that was charged, that was set to
his account. And that's the reason I believe
he said in that verse, I'm not able to look up. I'm not able
to look up the awfulness. Wickedness. You know, you can't
define sin. I can't. The Apostle Paul couldn't. He used the same word to define
sin in Romans chapter seven. He used sin to define sin. How
can you define it? It's so awful, so evil, so wicked,
so opposite of God. And yet all of that was laid
upon the substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the sins
of his people. So many, so great, so awful that
he and his holy person said, I can't even look up. No doubt they were the cause
that he cried also. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? We sing that hymn sometimes.
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene, and wonder
how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. Oh, how marvelous,
oh, how wonderful is his love for me. But one of those verses,
and I love to sing this, he took my sins, Can you say that today? He took my sins and my sorrows,
and he made them his very own, and he bore them to Calvary. Amen? Imputation. Adam's sin imputed to all of
his posterity. The sin of God's elect imputed
to the substitute. And third, The act of imputation,
the merits of Christ, the righteousness of Christ is set to the account,
is imputed unto all who trust in him, all who believe in him. Look with me in Romans 4. Paul is speaking about justification
by faith. He showed, first of all, how
there's no difference between the Jew and the Gentile. We're all sinners by nature and
by choice and by practice. But here in chapter four of Romans,
he said, what shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as
pertaining to the flesh, had found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, He hath whereof to glory, but
not before God. What does he mean by that? That
means no one is going to glory in themselves before God. For what saith the scripture,
Abraham, Genesis chapter 15, Abraham believed God. And it was counted, imputed,
set to his account for righteousness. Now what was imputed unto him?
Those who deny imputation, they say, well, that was his faith.
No, it wasn't his faith. That wasn't imputed to him. It
was a righteousness of Christ. It's a merit of Christ, the imputed
righteousness of Christ. If you believe in Christ tonight,
if you know him as your Lord and Savior, his righteousness
is your righteousness. It's your righteousness. And
you're accepted with God. Not clothed in your righteousness,
no. You'll never be accepted that
way. Because our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. in God's
sight. Oh, but with His righteousness,
we are as righteous as He is. James chapter 2 and verse 23,
and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed
God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he
was called the friend of God. Hold fast the form of sound words. Imputation. What a wonderful,
wonderful word and truth that is conveyed. The gospel is, right? It's the gospel. The gospel of
substitution. I pray the Lord would bless these
thoughts and words to us this evening.