The God Who Justifies - [Romans 4]

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Dr. James White, James, I think we've known each other about five years now and James has said not too many churches invite him back the second time, but this is the third time back to Bethlehem Bible Church and When I think of James White, I think of first Peter chapter 3 verse 15, but sanctify
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Christ as Lord in your hearts Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks
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Ask you to give an account for the hope that is in you with gentleness and with reverence
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And I just want you to know that I'm glad dr. White is on our side That's the good news and to God has gifted him with a desire for the word and a desire for public proclamation
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My favorite book of dr. White's is the God who justifies so I asked him this morning to preach from Romans chapter 4 and we went to exalt our
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Lord instead of a man, so please come brethren and Minister to us and I also like you that he preaches just with one text and that's the
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Greek text no English Bibles up here No, it's just the Greek Bible. So I like that, too Well, it's good to be with you this morning for some of you
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You've been seeing a little bit too much of me lately we did a Bibliology class and I was figuring out there was three six six twelve fifteen
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This morning would have been 16, so we're going on 17 hours now and so some of you are going to be very glad to see me heading for Providence this afternoon and Most of you know that your your pastor has become an avid biker
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Did I have anything to do with that? Did I help encourage at all? I mean, I know when you wrote to me and said you'd pick taken up writing
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I've at least tried to aim you to some good biking sites I know I don't look like a biker.
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He looks like a biker. I look like a Harley biker Not a biker biker.
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So And I do actually ride a motorcycle too, but I do believe it or not
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Last year. I wrote about 4 ,500 miles. I'm not gonna ride as many miles this year, but Back in the 90s if you had seen me then if you see some of my old debates
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I am as skinny as a rail because I was riding between 5 ,500 and 6 ,500 miles a year and so We have that in common and someday you're gonna have to come out and I will we will race up South Mountain together
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It's only seven miles, but it's 1 ,400 feet of ascent and it's it's great. It's well
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I see your heart rate monitor going stop now or die That's that's what you get to see with that terribly pleased
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Romans chapter 4 Romans chapter 4 I Do have my
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Greek text with me, but I hate to disappoint I do have an English text as well this morning I just wanted to make sure you knew that my my
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Greek text is the electronic one you I suppose I should let you know you're looking at the only person to my knowledge
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Who has ever preached in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London? Which is Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Church ever preached from the pulpit there when there were people there
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I don't know if you know anybody snuck in when there wasn't anybody there But we were actually having a regular service of the
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School of Theology last July The first person to ever preach from that pulpit using nothing, but an electronic text
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I used the my original tablet which was stolen a few months later, and then it's replaced and was stolen last month and so I'm on the third reincarnation of that particular item
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But I preached from from the elect the electronic text And I'm not sure if the pastor there really fully understood the ramifications of what that meant
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But we did do that have some wonderful Saints in the United Kingdom by the way up in Scotland.
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I'll be there in May speaking up around Stirling and Glasgow and some wonderful Saints, but a very
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Secular nation it is it is so sad to see where so many of our heroes men that we love to read and who walk the streets of the of London preaching the truth and Today they are they're a very small minority
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I think that is a warning for any Nation that would hear the Word of God with such clarity and then turn a blind eye to it in a deaf ear
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God will will not be mocked, but Romans chapter 4 Let's gain our bearings.
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I'm not going to read the entire chapter to take up a Major portion of my time, but let's gain our our bearings in the context of Paul's epistle to the
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Romans It seems to me that Paul planned this book very very well
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He is clearly Recognizing that by planting churches in key areas
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That the natural result is going to be plant a healthy sound church at the crossroads of the culture the crossroads of the
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Roman Empire and by Natural osmosis that message is going to go out into all the rest of the
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Roman Empire So he desired to go to Rome he desired to be there himself How he got there as we as we read in Acts chapter 26 is probably not exactly how he would have planned to do it
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But he desired to go there and you look at where he planted churches You look at Ephesus at the mouth of the
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Lycus River Valley and and the fact that when he writes the Church of Colossae It's probably because that church had come about from the natural evangelization that takes place when you have a sound church
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He spent three years there in Ephesus Establishing that church so that it could be a lighthouse to many others and he recognizes that that saying all roads lead to Rome means that he wants to send to that church a
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Summary of his gospel we might well call this book the gospel according to Paul I mean really it it would function in that particular fashion for us
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And so there is a very clear flow Throughout the book and I hope everyone of course recognizes that the
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Chapter divisions and verse divisions are not a part of the originals and the Bibliography class
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We just had we looked at some of the Old ancient manuscripts and how they were written and there was there was no punctuation
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There wasn't even space between words for that for that matter let alone chapter and verse divisions, which are a fairly new
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Invention in the history of the church makes it easier to find stuff obviously But sometimes the chapter and verse divisions somewhat mislead us we tend to think well
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I've gotten to the end of that chapter and so I've gotten the end of that concept and and we allow those chapter and verse Divisions to to break things up that really weren't meant to be broken up And so if we go back, we know that Paul has begun his epistle by establishing the sinfulness of man the universal
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Sinfulness of man and that in that tremendous Romans chapter one such an insight into the heart and mind of man professing to be wise they became fools anyone who who seeks to look at this world without a recognition of God as its creator and Seeks to be in submission to him as creator anyone who looks that is going to profess themselves to be wise
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But in reality from God's perspective they become foolish their hearts become darkened that chapter tells us that sin touches every aspect of man's existence including man's heart and mind and that God demands that we even think in Accordance with how he has created us to think to think otherwise is sinful
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Modern man has decided that the mind is my own bastion God cannot speak to anything that happens between my two ears but in reality the scriptures will not allow us to have that kind of a perspective and Then he turns to the
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Jews in Romans chapter 2 those who may have been Cheering him on in Romans chapter 1.
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Yeah, Paul you talk about those Gentiles then in chapter 2 He turns them and says you too are universally sinful you may possess the law
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But the mere possession of the scriptures and a possession of the knowledge of the will of God only makes for greater
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Condemnation for you when you then break that law when you then demonstrate that you do not act in obedience
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To the God who has given you that law and then at the beginning of chapter 3 then he ties all this up and says look
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All Jews and Gentiles together are under condemnation and he goes through that Katina of passages that he strings together
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That concludes with there is no fear of God before their eyes. All have gone astray.
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There is none who seeks after God and Having given that rather depressing conclusion.
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It is then and only then That he can turn to the wonderful message of the gospel of grace and may
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I say that that is something that is so Sadly missing in so much of the presentation of the gospel today, and I think it explains so much of the woes of the church
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Paul did not just jump to the good news when he was presenting the gospel to the
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Romans He spent quite an amount of time on the bad news He spent quite a lot of time diagnosing the disease and the fact that there is no human cure for it and When we skip past because we fear the face of men
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We fear the disapproving looks when we skip past what the Holy Spirit has given us in Scripture The danger is we end up bringing self -righteous people into the fellowship of the church resulting in disastrous
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Problems within the context of the church Paul tells us that those passages he cited are meant to close the mouth
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Of any person who would continue to be professing his own self -righteousness All Jews and Gentiles together are brought to a point of hopelessness in themselves and it is only that person who stands before the judge with head bowed
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Acknowledging his or her sin and his or her guilt and the righteousness of the judge to pronounce
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Upon that guilt his punishment. That is the person who is now ready to hear about a
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Savior a person who's just looking for a new self -help methodology is not the person described by the
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Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 3 in 19 and 20 and Then having established that then he outlines the freeness of God's grace and the perfection of Justification in in just a small number of verses he lays out for us these truths
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He says that we are justified as a gift by his grace to the redemption Which is in Christ Jesus whom
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God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith He lays all of this out and then he asked well where then is boasting boasting is excluded because salvation is all of God But then he has to deal with the fact that his
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Jewish compatriots his fellow Jews do not embrace
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This message which he says is consistent with all of the prophets and apostles and so in chapter 4 you have his demonstration of The freeness of justification what it means to be made right before God from the life of Abraham Here is a argument that initially is
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Aimed toward his Jewish opponents who would oppose This Christian message because it is not consistent.
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They say with Moses It is not consistent with the fathers with Abraham It is a new religion and the
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Apostle Paul is saying no This is the same way that men have always been justified in the sight of God and he uses the example of Abraham so note the first few
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Verses here what then shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh has found
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For if Abraham was justified by works He has something to boast about but not before God For what does the scripture say
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Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness Now to the one who works
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His wage is not credited as a favor literally according to grace
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But as what is due but to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is credited as righteousness just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom
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God credits righteousness apart from works and then we have Citation from the
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Psalter blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered
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Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account now it is very clear that the
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Apostle is Attempting to communicate the fact that what he is preaching is consistent with the ancient message of the
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Jewish scriptures themselves and that in the experience of Abraham and the experience of David that they experienced righteousness with God in a
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Gracious free manner He says what shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to faith is found.
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So let's look to Abraham The founder of the faith. Let's look to him. How did he come to have a proper relationship with God?
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Was he justified was he made right before God by what he did by his actions?
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Well, if he does Paul's assertion in verse 2 is he has something to boast about But not before God for what does the scripture say and then
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Paul goes to that key text in Genesis chapter 15? Verse 6 Abraham believed
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God and it was credited to him as righteousness Three terms there that you need to make sure that your your ear is attuned to Belief faith
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Abraham believed God and that faith always has an object Christian faith always has an object.
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I So often hear Christians missing that point and thinking that faith is the acceptance of things for which there is no evidence
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That is not Christian faith Abraham had the very promises of God and he was believing that God had the capacity to fulfill those promises
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He was not acting on some kind of blind faith that just simply launched him out into nothingness
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God had already proven his faithfulness given him his promises and faith had as its object this
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God But then notice the next word credited Credited that is the term to impute to consider something
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It can be used a number of different ways. It can be used simply to to Think about something along a certain lines to consider something to be one way
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It can has that have it can have a very sort of bland meaning along that line But it's also used in accounting text to refer to Crediting to someone's account to impute something to them that they do not possess and then they come into possession thereof it was credited to him as Righteousness Righteousness, I often like to ask people.
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What's the difference between? righteousness and justification Especially if I maybe my voice isn't doing real well, and and I'm not really feeling real.
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Well I've got a Sunday school class teacher something. I'll say what's the difference between righteousness and justification and then
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I can sort of stand back for a few minutes and and let folks hang themselves on whatever whatever answers they give and You know, let's have some debates get going and a few things like that and then
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I can step in and say well It was a trick question. There isn't any difference between righteousness and justification
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Those are English terms that it translate the one complex of Greek terms
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That refer to a right relationship with God now when we think of those terms
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We can think of it as a relationship with God, but then we also think about moral things
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When someone is righteous We can use that term Descriptively of the way they live their life the way that they live
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Amongst their family the the holiness of their life And so we we recognize that when
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God is called righteous that there is a holy Aspect of that a moral aspect of that but when
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Paul speaks of this He speaks of that type of saving faith that Abraham had in God that this results in an imputation a crediting to him as righteousness
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Now What we have then in verses four and five is what might be called an apostolic interpretation of an
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Old Testament text We don't get a lot of that in the New Testament I mean we certainly do get some the
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Old Testament is constantly cited But still the New Testament is considerably smaller than the old so it's not like the
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New Testament functions merely as an apostolic Interpretation of every verse we'd like to have interpreted from the
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Old Testament And so when we get something like this, we probably should pay close attention to what is said
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How does Paul understand Genesis 15 6? How does he understand the assertion that Abraham believed
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God and it was credited to him as righteousness? how can anyone today who when they come under the
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Influence of the Holy Spirit of God who brings conviction of sin upon them and they desire to be made right with God They desire to have a clean conscience before him and yet they know their own sin.
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How can they be made right with God? I believe that Paul's answer stands true to this day.
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It was true when he spoke it It remains true to our day as well. And I would like you to see verses four and five as contrasts to one another
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Because if you were to look at the Greek text itself, you would see that Paul specifically lays it out
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So that they are contrasts to one another He starts the second verse verse 5 with the very same words that he started verse 4
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But he puts in the particle of negation that which turns it into its opposite Notice we see this in English now to the one who works and then verse 5 but to the one who does not work it's literally the working one and So we have here two different attitudes
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Two different understandings and I think it's vitally important to see because I believe here
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Paul gives us one of the most important insights into the nature of saving faith
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Saving faith there are some who believe that all faith is saving faith that there can be no false faith at all and Yet the
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Apostle John talks to us about people who had professed faith and yet they went out from us
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So it might be demonstrated that they are not of us the Apostle Paul names names of people who had professed faith
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And had now gone back into the world or had actually become active opponents of the faith that they once proclaimed so there is clearly false faith and We know there are people who hold to all sorts of falsehoods about the cross
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About salvation about the Word of God, but who claim to have faith. I Here in New England with people who claim faith in Christ because of their ancestral religion in essence and Yet, I think these words will help us to understand the difference between saving faith and a false faith verse 4 to the one who works this goes back to verse 2 for if Abraham was justified by works or by Means of his own actions.
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So here's the illustration now to the one who works His wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due
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To the working one this would have been this is this is a very pedestrian or standard illustration
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It's something that in every culture people can understand because guess what in every culture people have to work
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Now, I know that there are people here in your neck of the woods who are seeking to banish work that the government will take care of you from the cradle to the grave and You probably feel like you're one of the only people left paying taxes to support everybody else
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Who is trying to get into that particular mechanism? But the fact of the matter is if you're gonna be able to make it in this world, you've got to work
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My kids are are growing up. My son just became engaged if you want to feel old start thinking about that and start realizing that that that term grandpa might be heading your direction and not too distant future and My daughter is graduating from high school and going off to university and she's both of them, of course work even my daughter works almost full -time and They're starting to realize
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It's amazing. They're starting to realize the value of a dollar. Oh, it's so good to be vindicated.
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Oh all you parents are going on how that the younger parents are going oh, we can't wait and The older parents going, uh -huh, wasn't it great to discover that?
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Yeah, you know, they've all of a sudden discovered what cars cost to repair That that's a that's a tires are actually made of gold
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I Think they are I mean if you bought a new pair new new pair of cars of the tires your car reason it's outrageous and You know, they're they're a little bit slower
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You know My daughter's a little bit slower to be asking for money because now she realized how many hours she has to work
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To get the amount of money. She's been so easily taking out of our wallets all along. It's a wonderful thing
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People got to work and you got to work hard. That's that's how God designed things and this illustration
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Crosses all cultural barriers because in every culture people work To the one who works the one who goes into a job with certain expectations
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His misthoss it is the word for wages. I remember when I took Greek Dr.
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Baird my professor Would give us these funny ways of remembering vocabulary every Greek teacher does that and the weirder it is
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The more likely it's gonna work the sillier. It sounds the more likely it is It's gonna stick in your brain.
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And so he talked to us about thinking about misthos She is a sort of a librarian ish looking woman who sits behind the cage and gives you your wage
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And is the financial lady at your at your work is misthos and that's where you get your wage So now you all remember that and you were probably wishing that you weren't going to remember it that way
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But but that is the standard word that would be used throughout the Greek culture For your receiving of the wages that are due for what?
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Standing around doing nothing. No the wages you receive for your work.
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And so the one working His wage his payment is
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Not and then again credited as a favor that goes back to credited in verse 3
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Same term is being used by the Apostle here. It is not imputed to him it is not credited or deposited to his account as a favor literally as a gift or The Greek term is chorus grace
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But instead what is do it is a debt? It is a debt
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Now we know the Bible teaches us That if you are an employer if you're a person who employs someone else to work for you
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That you are under obligation to pay them a fair wage That to withhold that wage
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From a worker is sinful in God's sight. That's how he provides for his family
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That's how they have food to eat and it is sinful to cheat a man on his wages That's the exact same term
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You could go to all sorts of secular sources of this day Go to the papyri that have been discovered of letters that Roman soldiers would write to home or businessmen would would write in regards to business transactions
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You'll find all of these words being used credit deposit wage. What is owed or what is due?
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exact same words Paul is Purposely speaking to all of society in a way that they can understand and what's his point if you go to work?
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if you are the working one and You go there it is your intent that when you get done working
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You're going to be given something in recompense for your wage that you are putting the person for whom you are working into a position of debt and That they owe you until they pay that debt called your paycheck.
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It is not considered a gift You're not a volunteer worker You have gone there in a situation where you desire to receive something from the one for whom you are working
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Now that's an easy and illustration understand everyone understands how that works And so keep in mind the mindset of the worker.
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I am doing what I'm doing to receive something back That is not the attitude
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That is not the mindset That brings righteousness With God because verse 5 says but to the not working one
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Again laid out in such a way as to make sure you see I am drawing a 180 degree contrast
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To the attitude that I just illustrated that we all can understand 180 degree contrast, but to the one who does not work
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But well, he doesn't work then what's he doing? But believes in him who justifies the ungodly
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His faith is credited same word as righteousness
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Here is saving faith Here is saving faith and The first thing we see is saving faith
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Never thinks it is putting God in a position of being a debtor
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If anyone comes to God thinking well if I do these things if I Sing in the choir if I get baptized in a certain way if I give a certain amount of money
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If I crawl on my knees up these steps till they bleed whatever it is
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It can be a little thing. It can be a big thing. It can be a whole series of things It doesn't matter if the mindset is
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That by my actions I am putting God in this in a position where he's gonna have to give me something in response
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That's Romans 4 4 and That's not grace That doesn't result in someone receiving righteousness
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But instead Romans 4 5 But to the one who does not work the one who recognizes
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I Cannot come to God with my hands filled with my little trinkets
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Thinking that I can purchase from God by my actions by my deeds anything from such a sovereign
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King to the one who does not work, but It's not that he's not active it's not that there's not something going on here, but believes
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Saving faith is Contrasted with this idea of action that results in God having to give me something he believes and It's a faith that has a specific object just as it did in Genesis 15 6 just as Abraham Knew the
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God in whom he believed he wasn't believing in some unknown God This is not some mysterious being out there that has not revealed himself
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The faith that God calls for his faith in the God who has revealed himself and made himself known to us
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He believes in him a certain God who does a certain thing And what does this
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God do? He is the God who justifies Yeah, that's where the title came from He is the
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God who justifies Justification is a divine action
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It is not a divine plan accomplished by human action It's not something that couldn't ever ever have been done
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So God does the part we couldn't do and then we come along and fill up the rest of it That is not
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What Paul's talking about? Justification is a divine action
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God's the one who justifies and he justifies to his own glory
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For though we may in our conversations and our discussions about this text focus upon Mankind and how mankind has to believe and what man you know mankind's sin and all these other things the danger is
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That we will become so closely Concerned with these issues and we have to be concerned about them
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We have so many friends and relatives that are in False religious beliefs that have been deceived on these things that we we have to know the truth on these things
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But the same time the danger is we can become so closely Focused that we lose the big picture and all and recognize that all of the gospel
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Everything that God's doing in Christ. Jesus is to his glory
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The centerpiece of it all is that God in Christ Jesus is redeeming a peculiar people unto
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Himself and it's all to his glory There is so much individualism in Western society where it's you know
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It's me myself and I and and I want to know everything God's done for me When the real reality should be what we should be concerned about is is where do
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I fit in this overarching plan? By which God is glorifying himself We so often focus upon ourselves
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Rather than upon the fact that God is the one who is glorifying himself believes in him who justifies who
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If God does it it's going to be a perfect action if God does it it's gonna be a permanent action if God does it's all
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Gonna be his glory, but who does he justify who does he declare to be right before him?
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so Against human religion are Paul's words here and these would have been very much against the the mindset of Second Temple Judaism and the
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Pharisees as Exemplified in the New Testament itself.
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It's amazing today. There's a whole movement going on in in in academic circles
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That in essence ignores the testimony of the Gospels concerning the attitude of the
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Pharisees and scribes Ignores the entirety of the Pauline corpus limits
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Paul's writings to just a few books and And as a result tells us well
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We've all missed the whole point of justification because the Jews actually believed in a gracious concept of justification a gracious covenant
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Well in the sense that they recognized God's grace was necessary. Yes, but that's never been the argument in the first place
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It's the same error that certain evangelicals make when they they meet with Roman Catholics and and the
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Roman Catholics extol the grace of God They go Wow Didn't know you believed in that.
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Well, the Council of Trent anathematized anyone who said you could be justified without the grace of God The issue has never ever been the necessity of the grace of God.
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It's always been the sufficiency of the grace of God And that'll always be the issue because mankind is more than happy to make room for the grace of God Mankind is more than happy to allow for the absolute necessity of God's grace
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We can't make it on our own those Pelagians missed the whole boat, but you see what man always wants to do
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I'll accept God's grace But I have to have enough control of this process to where I can determine whether God's grace will be sufficient in of itself or not
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Attribute 99 % of it to God if you want as long as the 1 %
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I control Determines whether salvation is going to happen or not That truly is the dividing line between a
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God centered religion and a man centered religion. It was a dividing line at the
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Reformation It's still a dividing line today Even if many of those who would pretend to have the
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Reformers as their spiritual forebears no longer believe the foundational things They said but believes in him who justifies the ungodly
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This is why Paul had just said a few sentences beforehand The person who is ready to hear the message of justification is the person whose head is bowed
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His mouth is closed. No more self -righteousness. No more excuses God is just I am
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NOT I need a Savior It's the ungodly who believe unto salvation and If you think yourself one of the godly who don't need to do that then you haven't really understood your sin
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And only the Spirit of God can make your heart to come to understand the depths of that sin
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So opposed to human religion are these words that you probably aren't aware of this but Joseph Smith the founder of Mormonism Came up with his own
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Bible That's not overly surprising if you claim to be a prophet and receive revelations, hey, why not it's a very humbly titled the inspired version and When he came to this text, you see
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Mormonism doesn't have any concept truly of man's sin. I Mean if you think about if God is exalted man from another planet and he himself
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Was once a sinner on another planet. You don't have holy. Holy. Holy You don't really have a
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Completely other God we are the same species as God and so Joseph Smith doesn't understand the concept of sin
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Book of Mormon says is by grace were saved after all we can do as I've said to many of Mormon It's by grace were saved in spite of all we've done
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And so, you know what he did here He took it out. He took it out.
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He reversed The phrase by inserting the word not
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He does not justify the ungodly. He has no
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God who can justify the ungodly He reversed it and in doing so Separated anyone who would follow him from the very grace of God For the person who thinks he or she can obtain righteousness before God outside of the finished work of Christ What did he say elsewhere
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I do not nullify or empty the cross of its power by trying to work for these things
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It truly empties the cross of its very power So here's saving faith
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It does not look to us. It does not look to our works It does not look to our accomplishments instead to the one who does not work to receive a wage
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But putting that aside going a hundred and eighty degrees the opposite direction Believes in him who justifies the ungodly who has provided that way in Christ His faith that faith not the faith of verse for the faith of verse 5 his faith is credited as righteousness
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That's the person who experiences the right relationship with God and that doesn't end the sentence because he then says here
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Let me give you an example of this Just as David also speaks of what what's the blessing here notice the words are specific
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There is a reason why Paul says that the way he says it and doesn't say it the way he doesn't say it the blessing of the man to whom
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God credits righteousness apart from works Now, let's follow our use of terms here.
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Remember see the word credit again, right? Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the man to whom
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God imputes credits That was up in in verse 3 and it's again in verse 4 5 6 imputes credits righteousness
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Again, this is 15 6. Here's verse 5. How does a man receive the blessing of?
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righteousness imputed to him apart from works apart from my
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Accomplishment apart from my efforts How does this happen?
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Here's the blessing of which he speaks now notice something. That's a positive action on God's part Is it not the blessing of the man to whom
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God credits righteousness apart from his? Accomplishments his works his merit see that part keep that in mind
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Because then look at the illustration he uses from the Psalms Look at the text that he uses coming to us from Psalm 32 at Psalm 31 the
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Hebrew Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered
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Blesses the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account now
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That's actually the same term for impute Blesses the man in verse 8 to whom the
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Lord will not impute sin now in verse 6.
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It's a positive action But then in verses 7 and 8 it's illustrated by the non
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Imputation of sin. I think this is missed by a lot of folks.
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It wasn't missed by the Reformers It wasn't missed by good solid systematic theologians But today it seems to be getting missed by a lot of folks
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Who just don't think that the Word of God is clear enough or consistent enough to actually really tell us what's going on here
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Verse 6 is positive proclamation is that God credits righteousness a part of work apart from works, but how does he do it?
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What's the mechanism? Verse 7 and 8 tells us that has to do with the non imputation of sin
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Bless are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven whose sins have been covered. This righteousness requires that sin be dealt with These lawless deeds they have to be forgiven
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These sins have to be covered over just as the blood was sprinkled upon the mercy seat and it covered that mercy seat
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These sins must be dealt with Before verse 8 can be true blesses the man whose sin the
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Lord will not take into account How can the Lord not take into account the very violation of his holy law?
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Well, Paul has already told us how this is and he'll expand upon it more But he does so Because he has imputed those sins to another he has imputed those sins to another
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Those sins are not just covered over God doesn't just wink at sin and say
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I don't worry about it that's such a common view of God as the the the
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Friendly grandfathers sitting upon the throne who can just simply dismiss sin
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I've become more sensitive to that presentation because of my studies of Islam Islam Has no concept of substitutionary atonement or atonement at all to be quite honest with you and they reject
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The atonement of Christ the Quran specifically says Christ did not die upon a cross They reject the whole idea of the necessity of a
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Savior and they say that Allah can forgive any sin without any punishment and any fulfillment of his law and his holiness being extracted from anyone a substitute of the person himself so much so that that Muhammad told the story of a man who had murdered 99 people and he went to a monk and asked if God would accept his repentance and When the monk told him
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God wouldn't he killed the monk so I put him at a hundred So somebody else probably from a distance while running told him
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That he could if he went to a certain village he could find out how God would receive his repentance
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And so as he leaves the village, he's in and he's heading for the new village The Angels come to take his soul the time for his death comes but then they have an argument because where are they going to take his soul and It is decided that a measurement will be taken and whichever city he's closest to Will determine whether he goes to heaven or to hell
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If he's still the closest to the village he just left Then he's going to go to hell
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And if he's closer to the village he was going to to find out how God would accept his repentance and will go to heaven and according to Muhammad God made the earth
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Shrink between he and the village and lengthen behind him so that he was one breath closer
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To the village he was going to and so he went to heaven That sounds really nice But the problem is it leaves 99 or a hundred deaths unpunished
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Just simply winked away No provision made for God's holiness and God's law
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The wages of sin isn't death in that context at all No means of salvation and so I've become more sensitive
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To those who do not recognize that in the sacrifice of Christ, and I have said this many times if you look at the cross of Christ and All you see is
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Sentimentality if all you see is love and oh there is such love there But if you do not see in the cross of Christ the wrath of God against sin
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You are not seeing the cross of Christ. That is not the atoning sacrifice discussed in the book of Hebrews It is only when you see the wrath of God against sin
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That you can see the depth of the love of God that is truly there on Calvary's tree
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Other than that you're just seeing a very shallow Image of what truly takes place there
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And so you see sin lawless deeds forgiven
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Then verse 8 blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account
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Some as a minor textual variant there It doesn't really impact the reading but it can also be understood to whom the to whom the
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Lord will not impute sin Both come out at the same point
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This blessing of a righteousness that is in is given to us without works that is given to man without works verse 6
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That blessing isn't just one aspect Yes, we receive a righteousness from God, but it also involves the
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Non -imputation of our sins now, how can our sins not be imputed to us? We're the ones that committed to them. There must be a substitute
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That's why you have to have a full and biblical doctrine of the atonement for the gospel to make any sense
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We have to get beyond just a emotional view of the cross to see what
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God has truly done there And so I have often asked Roman Catholics And I would ask
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Baptists for that matter I'd ask anybody Who is the blessed man of Romans 4a?
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Who's the blessed man I had a
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I played a clip yesterday of a debate that I had with a Roman Catholic priest father
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Peter Stravinsky's and The clip I played was where we were discussing first Corinthians chapter 3 but in the second part of the cross -examination,
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I Asked father Stravinsky as I said Who is the blessed man of Romans 4a?
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I've asked so many Roman Catholic priests that and I've always been amazed that they look at me with blank stares
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Why would you even ask such a question father Stravinsky's his response caught me a little bit unprepared
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He said it was Jesus think about that one for just a moment
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Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account Don't think so.
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I sort of gave him a few moments to try to recover from that one and came back at it again Are you the blessed man?
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You know what? His response was I Hope to be I hope to be
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Some Roman Catholics have said well the blessed man is the person who was just baptized before they leave the church
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Why before they leave the church because once they leave the church then they have the opportunity of you know Getting bumped into in the street having an impure thought whatever it might be and and poof.
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They're no longer the blessed man because see in Roman Catholicism Those of you who are former
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Roman Catholics or if you're a Roman Catholic or this morning if you commit a venial sin Is it imputed to you you better believe it is
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That's why you have to do your our fathers and hail Mary's and so on and so forth And if you don't do those properly with the proper disposition, that's why there's such thing as purgatory
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So what about what about mortal sins? Are they imputed to you? Yep sure are That's why you have to go through the sacrament of confession and and receive the grace of justification
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Once again, there's still temporal punishments And they all cling to your soul and you've got to do your penances and so on and so forth
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There is no non imputation of sin in the Roman Gospel Which is why it isn't the gospel.
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Are you the blessed man? Are you the blessed woman? Do you know what it means to have to to stand in a righteousness that is not your own
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Knowing that your sins have been laid upon him he has fully suffered the wrath of God due to those sins and his righteousness a perfect righteousness
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Has been imputed to you as the soul standing you have before God Do you know that this day?
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Do you know that if you were to stand before a just and holy God? that you can claim that you can claim on the basis of the authority of the
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Word of God a Perfect righteousness before him because you claim nothing of your own Or you one of those folks who still have a
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Romans 4 for non saving faith Because you think you've worked you think you've accomplished you think you've done something that amounts to your standing before God Don't go to hell from the pews or the seats of a
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Bible preaching church Don't say oh, I've already
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I've gotten all this taken care of I'm just thinking about what I'm gonna be doing today or tomorrow Whatever else it might be.
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Are you the blessed man? Are you the blessed woman any? Child of God any son or daughter of God has the wonderful privilege of saying
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I Am the blessed man, I Am the blessed woman. I have received the blessing of God crediting to me righteousness apart from my works apart from what
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I do and Every day no matter what my circumstances are no matter what my physical circumstances my monetary circumstances
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No matter what's going on the world around me Even if I like my brothers and sisters and many of those nations on that map in the back are
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Put in jail and separate from my loved ones every morning that I awake
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No matter what my external situation. I Can rejoice that I have the blessing of the righteousness of God imputed to me freely
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So that at the end of this chapter at that artificial division going into chapter 5
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Paul can say therefore having been justified by faith We have peace with God the only person
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Who can truly understand that peace that Shalom with God? Is not the person whose lips are still wagging in self -righteousness but the person having recognized their
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Just condemnation before God has looked to the
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God who justifies the ungodly And has received the blessing of that imputed righteousness by which we stand before God and have peace with him
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Let's pray together Indeed our Heavenly Father. We are thankful That though the world hates this message because it robs them of their self -righteousness
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It robs them of their control of your grace And though armies have marched and hatred has been expressed
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Yet you have protected your message You've given us your word.
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You've protected it. You've changed our hearts that we love it You haven't allowed that message to be altered and changed and destroyed and here
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Living as we do half a world away from where Paul was when he wrote this Yet we claim the same promises.
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We love the same message We thank you for that and if there be any here this day
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Who to this point have been trusting in their works trusting in their accomplishments
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Oh God, may you have mercy by your spirit to break through to show them their sin show them your holiness and Show them a perfect Savior We thank you for the gospel.