Him Who Justifies | Sermon 12/05/2021

Apologia Utah

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We have been in the five sola series, sola scriptura, sola

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Christus, and we have now moved on to sola fide, by faith alone.

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Faith alone. We are going to be looking at Romans chapter 4 today. So if you'd like to turn there with me in your

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Bibles, Romans chapter 4, and we will be going verse by verse in verses 1 through 12 in Romans chapter 4.

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I'm unsure how many sola fide sermons I'll do. I think definitely at least one more.

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We'll see how the Lord leads. But for now, Romans chapter 4. Hear now the words of the living and true

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God. What then shall we say? That Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, is found.

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For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

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Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.

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But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

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Just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom

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God credits righteousness apart from works. 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. Is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also?

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For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it credited?

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While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.

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And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised that righteousness might be credited to them.

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And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father

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Abraham, which he had while he was uncircumcised. Thus ending the reading of God's holy word.

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Let's pray quickly. Father, I pray that you would bless the message.

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Lord, speak through me. Christ, I pray that you would increase and I would decrease.

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Lord, fill me with your spirit to speak your truth. God, I pray that we would know so much more deeply the richness of the doctrine of justification by faith and what that means for us.

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Lord, help me to speak clearly. Let it be helpful to your people and let it always be true.

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In the name of your son, Jesus, I pray. Amen. So you may be thinking, okay, a sermon on some deep theological truth.

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How does this impact me? All the ways, though, that sola fide affects us and differentiates

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Christianity from all other world religions that are works -based systems are manifold.

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All the ways it affects us are manifold. The truth is, the doctrine of justification by faith is at the center of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And as I told you in our very first sermon, the formal principle of the

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Reformation in the 16th century was sola scriptura. However, as my fellow elder

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James says, the central material principle of the

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Reformation was justification by faith. Although this truth of the gospel was something taught and preached from the time of the apostles and through the early church fathers until the pre -reformers like Jan Hus and finally to the time of the

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Reformation with Martin Luther, it was indeed being suppressed by a corrupt

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Roman Catholic church. No doubt God kept select men throughout the centuries who clung to these truths.

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Often, even Christian monks away from civilization, they would have the access to the

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Word of God. They would see these truths. And thank God that He preserved His Word.

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His Word never passed away. He preserved it, which undoubtedly preserved His church, which the gates of hell not then nor now will ever prevail against.

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Martin Luther's father wanted a better life for his son. He worked in the mining industry.

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His father was a miner. He wanted something better for Martin. So Martin was sent off to boarding school and then to the

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University of Erfurt. He excelled at all his studies, earning both a bachelor's degree and even a master's degree as a young man, then went into law school, set to become a lawyer.

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The mindset of a lawyer would later plague his mind as he considered

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God a frightening and merciless judge. But on his way back to his parents' home from school, he was caught outside in a violent and terrifying thunderstorm.

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He was in a thunderstorm and it was just raging around him and there was lightning bolts and thunder going on around Martin Luther and he was beyond frightened, he said.

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And so when lightning had struck just near him, it made him fly back, he actually recounted.

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And so when that happened, he thought, I'm done, I'm about to lose my life in this lightning storm.

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And so what did he do? He cried out to the patron saint of miners and said,

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Saint Anne, help me. I'll become a monk if you save me. I'll become a monk. And as he survived that storm, much to the disapproval of his father,

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Martin Luther entered the monastery just two weeks later. Upholding his vow, he became an

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Augustinian monk. He chose a very strict order with rules that represented the law of God and even added traditions upon them just like the

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Pharisees and made monastic life very difficult. There, as he learned more about God and the

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Lord's perfect holiness, Luther became ever more aware of his sinfulness. As he learned more about God's holiness, he became aware of his own sinfulness.

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He sought God's acceptance with earnest attempts in his asceticism, rituals, confession time, spiritual disciplines, and all his commitments to the monastery.

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God's grace for Martin Luther was just to enable him to do the work necessary to earn his own salvation.

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That's what grace was to him. It was to enable him to do the works necessary to work for and earn his own salvation.

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As I said, the more he prayed, the more he fasted, the more he denied himself, the more he was aware of his wretched state.

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Listen to his account of it all, okay? He says, I was indeed a pious monk and kept the rules of my order so strictly that I can say, if ever a monk gained heaven through monkery, it should have been

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I. All my monastic brethren who knew me will testify to this.

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I would have martyred myself to death with fasting, praying, reading, and other good works had

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I remained a monk much longer. As a monk, I lived an irreproachable life.

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Nevertheless, I felt that I was a sinner before God. My conscience was restless, and I could not depend on God being propitiated by my satisfactions.

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Not only did I not love, but I actually hated the righteous God who punishes sinners."

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But God did not leave him in that state. Much like He doesn't leave us.

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He did not leave him in the monastery. The righteousness of God.

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The righteousness of God. That phrase caused Luther fear, but soon he'd understand how he could never be saved by his own so -called righteousnesses.

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And the righteousness of God must be imputed to the sinner by faith.

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It was this truth that changed everything for him and of course, impacted the whole world.

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So before we get into the meat of our study in Romans 4, we must gain the mindset of Luther.

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We need to see the true nature of man and his sinfulness. We need to see that man as he is.

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Depraved as he is. The rightful object of God's wrath. Only then, like the desperate monk, can we see our need for Christ and His act of justification.

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So, if you would, you could follow along with me in Romans 1. And we're just going to do quick overviews of each chapter.

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I promise, as quick as I can, chapter 1, 2, and 3, and then we'll go into the meat of our passage in chapter 4.

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So turn to Romans 1. Paul introduces his letter with a salutation that says,

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God promised the Gospel even from the time of the prophets in the

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Holy Scriptures. In that, good news contained the Son of God who resurrected from the dead of whom they are called and have their faith.

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He says in v. 16 -17 of chapter 1, For I am not ashamed of the

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Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the

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Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God... There's that phrase. There the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith.

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Now when you read Romans through, you'll see these verses are essentially the thesis of his whole letter.

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They really are. This theme is throughout each part of his epistle. You'll see it come up again and again and again.

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The righteousness of God. The righteous shall live by faith. For everyone who believes, the root being pastuo in the

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Greek, which shares its root with pistis or faith. Faith and belief are ever so connected in the original languages.

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Believing in a way is exercising faith. In that Gospel, the righteousness of God, that phrase that frightened

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Luther is revealed from faith to faith. This is revealed in the genuine faith of those who believe.

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It is a righteousness from God and outside the person. But here's

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Luther's issue, our issue, v. 18 -19 of chapter 1.

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It says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

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Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. Why is this directly after these wonderful Gospel truths and promises?

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Paul is making it clear why the Gospel is necessary and why salvation comes by faith in the special revelation of Jesus Christ.

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It says the wrath of God is revealed. And revealed there in the Greek represents an ongoing action from God.

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As sin is constant, God's wrath is constant. It's present today.

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God's wrath abides today on those who are outside of Christ, it says. Jesus says that as well in the

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Gospel of John. So, the divine wrath is from the abode of God from His throne in heaven.

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His wrath is holy and just. His wrath is not evil.

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Our wrath and our anger is often tainted, but the holy wrath of God is perfect.

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In the verses following all the way to v. 32, there's a description of sins which encompasses all types of transgressions.

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It is a summary of what we all either do or are capable of, or both.

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Follow along. It says, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper.

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Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

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This is the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men that God is directing

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His wrath towards. The of men means we are the just objects of God's wrath.

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Not the sins. Remember that. God doesn't send sins to hell.

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God says sinners to hell. That's a hard reality. In chapter 2,

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He reminds us of the coming day of wrath and how God will render to each person according to their deeds.

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Chapter 2, Romans. And just in case anyone thinks Paul is only talking about Gentiles or barbarians, he demonstrates

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God shows no partiality in His judgments. None. Just because the

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Jews were God's chosen people and received the law doesn't mean they will escape that wrath.

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Verse 12 of chapter 2 says, For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law.

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And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. So, either the

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Gentiles disregard God's commands as they are written on men's hearts, or the

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Jews have been given the law and disregard them and their inaction accuses them.

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He says due to their circumcision, I'm sorry, due to the sin in their circumcision, their sign of being covenant members becomes uncircumcision.

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Let me say that again. Their sin in their circumcision becomes then uncircumcision.

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What does that mean? It means an expulsion from that covenant membership. You sin and you ruin the sign of circumcision.

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You ruin the seal of the covenant in your sin. And so we discover who a

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Jew really is now in the new covenant in verses 28 and 29 of chapter 2.

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It says, for He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but He is a

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Jew who is one inwardly. And circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the

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Spirit, not by the letter, and His praise is not from men, but from God. So from the time

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God delivered the law to the Israelites to when Jesus gave the

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Sermon on the Mount, what shines through it all is that God is concerned with the inner man, the inward man, and not the external obedience necessarily.

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Because you could do something good but for the wrong reasons or with the wrong heart. Kids, when you obey your parents with what they ask you, and then internally you have just about the worst attitude while you do it, maybe muttering something under your breath as you walk away and your mom doesn't hear you,

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I don't know. That cancels out your obedience. That cancels it out.

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And we do this all the time. We can serve others in a Christian way, but maybe do it to appear righteous or look holy.

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You know what Jesus says to that? When I do these things, these good works to look really good,

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He says, you already have your reward. I was going to give you a reward in heaven, but you already have your reward. You got to be seen before men.

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You got what you wanted. Of course, this passage isn't just about obedience in our inward nature.

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It is saying when God has wrought something inside a man, when

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He has given a heart of flesh and removed a heart of stone, that man has become a member of the covenant of grace.

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Grace. He is a Jew inwardly. One with an inheritance.

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One who has a King. That is the spiritual Jew. Those who believe by faith.

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Now on to chapter 3 in Romans. He goes back to talk about the ethnic

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Jew that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. The Jews were given the oracles of God.

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They were given the Holy Scriptures. They were entrusted to them. That is a mighty gift.

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He says, does their unbelief nullify God's faithfulness? He says, in no way. They were unfaithful.

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Does that nullify His faithfulness? Not at all. Not at all. V. 5 of chapter 3, but if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God...

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there it is again. What shall we say? What we will see is that the imputation of Christ's righteousness brings

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God great glory. Our sinfulness, our fallenness, and the redemption of such rebels will produce for God that much more glory.

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Okay? So, the Jews received the oracles of God, but are they better than the

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Gentiles? He says, absolutely not. Absolutely not. They are all under sin.

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And here is the thorough and yet succinct summary of our wretched state.

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Of all people, starting in v. 10 of chapter 3, it says, as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one.

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There is none who understands. There is none who seek for God. All have turned aside.

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Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one.

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Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

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Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known.

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There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now, people have made a great error in trying to pull these verses apart.

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Trying to dissect them away from each other. Saying, ok, what's the context now of Psalm 14,

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Psalm 53, Psalm 5, Psalm 140, Psalm 10, Isaiah 59, Psalm 36?

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They look at all these individual things because that's where he compiles this list from.

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But they are missing the point. They are missing the point. Paul, an inspired writer of the

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New Testament text, demonstrates this is the reality of all people born into iniquity.

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Born under Adam. The weight of the combination of these verses is devastating.

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This is who we are outside of Christ. You may not be as bad as you could be, but that's what we're all capable of, right?

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It is our total inability. We are totally unable to come to God in our own so -called righteousness.

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That's what Paul's getting at. It can't be done. V. 20 puts the last nail in the coffin of chapter 3.

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V. 20, it says, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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So, no one, not a single person, because of their sin and their sin nature, can they earn or merit or work their way to heaven.

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No one can earn the justification of God by their own righteousness. It is folly.

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It is a false righteousness. That's especially what the

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Pharisees had. We cannot earn it. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 show us

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God's wrath is directed toward all the ungodly. That among the ungodly is not just Gentiles, but Jews as well.

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We see that no one is righteous. No one has inherent or intrinsic righteousness. And through obeying the law, which is righteousness, no one will be declared righteous or righteousness accredited to their account.

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They, we, need a righteousness outside of ourselves.

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Okay? Paul kept saying God's righteousness. God's righteousness.

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Verses 21 -31 of chapter 3 really begin the discussion of justification by faith.

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Let's read verses 21 -26 of chapter 3. It says, But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested.

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Okay, so God's righteousness comes apart from the law. Remember that. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.

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So even the righteousness of God that comes through faith in Christ comes apart from works.

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That's what he's saying. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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There's no distinction between Jew or Gentile. It's everyone. All have fallen short of the glory of God.

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Being justified as a gift by His grace. It is a gift.

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It is unmerited favor. It is not worked for through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. You know what propitiation is?

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That is the appeasement of the wrath of God. Propitiation means that the blood of Christ was given and the wrath of God was subdued in receiving

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His blood and receiving His sacrifice. That is propitiation. God was satisfied.

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His wrath was satisfied in receiving the blood of His Son. This was to demonstrate, it says,

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His righteousness because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration,

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I say, of His righteousness at the present time so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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God is just because one did pay for sins.

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One paid for the sins of the unrighteous. And God is the justifier because He is then the one who imputes

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His righteousness to the sinner. All by the instrument of faith.

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And this faith, it says, and this justification is a gift by His grace.

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It is a gift by His grace. Who can boast now? He says no one. Who can boast now?

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He says it's excluded. No one can boast. He is the just and justifier.

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He is just and the justifier. You were just a recipient of grace. You just received grace.

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That's all the part that you played in it. You received grace. And so that brings us to our section in chapter 4.

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And I know that was a detailed account leading up to Romans 4, but again, we must have the mindset of Luther.

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The weight of sin. The holiness of God. And now we can understand that we can't remedy our situation.

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We need the justification of God. If you want to put chapter 4 on the screen, Zoe, that'd be great.

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Chapter 4, verse 1. It says, what then shall we say? That Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh is found.

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Abraham, the main patriarch of Israel, if he didn't find righteousness in the law, where did he find it?

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Verse 2, for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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Paul just told us in chapter 3, no one can boast. No one can boast.

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It is excluded. Can you imagine being led into the courts of heaven, being granted access to the abode of God and going before His throne and before Him and boasting?

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Going, God, it was me. I know You tried hard to save me, but it was all my works. It was all that I did.

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Thanks for trying. I'm here because of me. Can you imagine that? That is ridiculous even just saying it out loud.

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But seriously, honestly, that's what every other religion in the world says it will do besides biblical

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Christianity. They say they have something to boast about. They say they have something to offer

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God that He can't accomplish. They are all essentially saying whether it be

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Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, Roman Catholics, they're all saying that they will be able to boast before God and say that they had part in this justification.

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No way! No way! It is all the Lord God. That is what

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He is saying. Whether the works were done with the knowledge of the law or not, they cannot justify.

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V. 3, for what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed

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God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Blessed Paul shows us the right example.

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He points us back to the Scriptures. What do they say? These are the words with great weight.

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These are the words of the living God. Let's go back to these. What do they say? And so that quote,

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Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, that comes from Genesis 15 .6.

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Genesis 15 .6 God promised Abraham an heir. And more than that,

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He promised him descendants innumerable. That is what God promised him.

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And you know what it says? It says Abraham believed God. He simply believed

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God. He had faith in God's promise and it was reckoned, credited, to his account as righteousness.

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V. 4 -5, Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.

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But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

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What is he saying here? Just following the quotation of Genesis 15 .6,

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we have the inspired interpretation of that text by Paul. He demonstrates it through one who works and one who doesn't work.

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This is a literary device to provide us with contrast between the two. Okay? The one who works.

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We might think of an employee, right? We think of someone who trades their skills and time for money.

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I'm supposing when you guys have to go to work tomorrow, and you labor all week at your jobs, you will expect a wage.

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You will expect a payment, am I right? This is legal. This is legal.

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If they don't pay you for the work rendered, that is illegal. It is not credited as a favor.

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When you get your paycheck, do you think of it as an unworked -for gift? Does your boss come up to you with your paycheck and be like, this is a grace.

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You didn't earn this, but we're going to give it to you. That would just be ridiculous, right? You worked for that paycheck.

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You earned that paycheck. That's the man who works. Paul even uses the word karin here, or grace in the

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Greek. For the one who works, his wage is not a grace, but what is due, it is earned.

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The word credited is also, as I said, reckoned or imputed. And that word is often used in sentences related to debt.

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The pay is not imputed to the worker's account according to grace, but according to a debt owed to that worker.

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An employer owes a debt to that worker. This is not saying that working is bad or observing the law is bad.

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Obeying the law is not bad. The question is, what is trying to be gained by this working?

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What is trying to be gained by this working? V. 5, But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

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Now, this is the one who doesn't work. What about the one who doesn't work? This means, okay, it says, but believes.

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See that third to last line? But believes in Him. But believes. I want you to know that belief is not a work here.

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He contrasts everything against work. Belief is not a work. Belief or faith is not the basis of justification, but an instrument.

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An instrument. That belief or faith is not a work of ours, but it must come from outside ourselves.

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We use these verses often in evangelism. Ephesians 2 .8 -9 I'm sure most of you know it.

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For by grace you have been saved through faith, for it is not of yourselves, for it is a gift of God, not according to works, so that no man may boast.

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It's saying there that faith is a gift. Faith is a gift from God.

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No doubt that's what it is. It is distinguished from any work of our own. The debt is not present here in the one who doesn't work.

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The one who doesn't work is owed nothing. Right? All he has is his belief, his faith given him.

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There is no offer. There is no deal struck. The man who doesn't work comes with the empty hand of faith with nothing.

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This faith is an utter reliance on the God who justifies the ungodly.

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He's not good and loving, this man who doesn't work and seeks a favor from God.

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He is dead in his sins, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, living out the debased mind.

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He brings a negative value besides not even working. Then, in the monergistic work of God, which means solely the work of God, regeneration is put on a man who doesn't work.

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Life is breathed onto dry bones, and that man irresistibly runs to the

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God who performed this divine work and believes in this one true God for salvation with the faith given him.

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That's how it goes. You might say, well, I feel like I believed. I feel like I had faith.

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And I would say, yeah, you did. But you know how? Because you were regenerated and God gave you the gift of faith like that.

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He regenerated you. You are no longer dead. He removed a heart of stone. Gave you a heart of flesh. And in that regeneration, you had faith in the living

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God. It may have been small, but it was saving faith. It was saving faith.

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That's what I'm trying to get at. It is akin to groveling at the feet of Christ, grasping at His feet as you lay on the ground, on the floor, pleading for mercy to Jesus.

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And God justifies the ungodly. He justifies the ungodly just like that.

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Justifies is a judicial or forensic term. Like a judge in a courtroom, the

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Lord of glory slams the gavel down examining the perfect work of Christ on our behalf and how

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Christ took the guilt sentence. And He looks to you and says, justified.

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Justified. Done. Justified. It means declared righteous.

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Declared righteous. This is not that... Listen closely. This is not that righteousness has been infused into us.

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Okay? That is not what this is saying. God's righteousness has been applied onto us.

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Alright? It is external to us like a robe covering blemishes or a fresh snow covering a dung pile.

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Actually, Martin Luther uses that analogy like the first snow of the winter, fresh and white, covering the farmer's dung pile.

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That is what is occurring. Justification. And this is not to discount our new nature.

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Okay? That analogy is just to differentiate from the ongoing work of sanctification.

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Justification is done. It's done. Sanctification is the ongoing process where you are becoming more like Christ.

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You are becoming more holy, more sanctified. That's where He is by the power of the

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Spirit making you more righteous, more like Christ. But the righteousness of justification is an application outside of you.

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Okay? Just remember that. It's not an infusion with us. We didn't become worthy now to be saved.

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Does that make sense? We didn't become worthy now to be saved with what Jesus did.

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We are unworthy in the application of His righteousness. Remember that phrase I said?

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God's righteousness. That's what Luther feared, but the thing he feared was exactly what he needed most, the righteousness of Christ our

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God. For the man who doesn't work for us, our faith has been credited or imputed to our account as righteousness declared right before our holy

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God all by the Word of Christ. V. 6 -8 Go to the next slide if you will.

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Thank you. Just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom

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God credits righteousness apart from works, 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. Paul is not departing from Genesis 15 and Abraham.

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He is establishing further validation from a Psalm of David, Psalm 32.

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This blessed man, it appears, is a man who does not work as well. He doesn't work.

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This general statement referring to man is to represent all of us.

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All of us. Man, woman, and child. Paul gives us, again, the inspired interpretation of an

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Old Testament passage. We see in this Psalm quotation a non -imputation of sin.

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I know I'm using a lot of big words here, but there's a non -imputation of sin.

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What am I getting at? The blessed man has done no deeds, but he is blessed because his sins have been forgiven.

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His sins are covered. The word means hidden or concealed.

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But by what? Paul sees this non -imputation of sin as an imputation of the righteousness of God.

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That's how he interprets it. The only way one can be forgiven, he is covered in God's righteousness.

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The non -imputation of sin to us then leads us, according to this passage and others, of an imputation of our sin to Christ.

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Let me unpack that real quick. What is he saying here? The non -imputation and imputation.

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We're saying that our sin is not imputed to us, but there is an exchange.

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Our sin is imputed to Jesus Christ. And then in exchange,

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He imputes His righteousness to us. There is an exchange. So our sin in Christ is not imputed to us.

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It is taken upon by Jesus Christ. That is what we're talking about.

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Because think about it. Sin can't go unpunished, right? If that were the case,

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God is not a benevolent and just judge. He cannot let wickedness go unpunished.

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It's not that Jesus stayed in heaven and then one day

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God decided to pardon sinners. Then He would be unjust.

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Does that make sense? God is so holy, He must punish sin. Otherwise, He is no longer holy.

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A righteous judge in a small town, if he let a murderer go free, there would be public outcry.

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People would say that's not a just judge. That's not a righteous judge. So likewise, God cannot let sin go unpunished.

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But that's the thing. Our sin was imputed to Christ. So we aren't simply pardoned and sin is just evaporated.

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Our sin has a consequence. And that consequence is death. The wages of sin is death.

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And someone had to die. And Jesus Christ died in your place. That's the reality.

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That's the reality. He is the victim of our sin crime and He is the judge.

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Can a criminal absolve themselves from their own crimes? No. And no one could ever work enough to pay off eternal crimes against an eternal

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God. We need the offended judge to cover and forgive our sins. That's the two -way imputation.

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An exchange of our sin and His righteousness. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.

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Blessed is the man whose sin isn't credited to His account. You can have your sin or you can have the righteousness of Christ credited to your account.

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We can't work, but Jesus works perfectly. The psalm then demonstrates blessedness in the forgiveness of sins is not a reward for works, but a gift of the glorious grace of God by faith.

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The blessed man is a believing man. The blessed man is a believing man. Move on to v.

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9. Is this blessing then on the circumcised or the uncircumcised also?

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For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. We're coming back to Paul's point with the patriarch

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Abraham. What he asks is if this is for the circumcision or uncircumcision.

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And I don't think he's trying to get us to think necessarily of Jews and Gentiles, although the blessed man could be either one.

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Paul is trying to get us to think of the context of Genesis 15. How was this faith credited to him as righteousness?

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That's what v. 10 says. It says, how then was it credited? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised?

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Paul says not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.

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You see, many would love for it to be when he was circumcised, especially the

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Judaizers. They would love for this justification to be at another point in Abraham's life.

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Maybe when he was commanded to leave his homeland of Ur and he obeyed.

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Maybe when he was commanded to offer up Isaac on the altar and he obeyed.

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Maybe when he performed these works and he obeyed God. No. Paul says no.

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It was Genesis 15 when Abraham simply believed God's promise to give him an heir and descendants innumerable.

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And that's what the context of Genesis 15 even confirms. That right after this,

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God cuts a covenant. He cuts a covenant with Abraham and has Abraham fall into a deep sleep.

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Why do I say cut a covenant? What does that mean? What does that mean? A little side note. That's how a covenant was made.

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You'll see it if you read Genesis 15. All these various animals were obtained by Abraham and they were cut in half.

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I forget. There might have been a pigeon, a dove, a bull, a goat.

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All these animals were cut in half. A covenant was cut. Essentially, two parties walked through the gap between these animal halves.

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Essentially, what you are saying is if I don't uphold my end of this agreement, may what happened to these animals happen to me.

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That's how serious a covenant was in the Old Testament. But the fascinating thing is this.

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Abraham didn't walk through the animal halves. God put him to sleep. God walked through the animal halves.

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God is the only responsible party for that covenant. It says that a flame went through.

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Just like when He would lead the Israelites as a pillar of fire by night. He walked through the animal halves

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Himself. He didn't make Abraham walk through it. That's amazing. He will uphold the covenant.

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Because if we had to uphold this covenant of grace, we would fail every time. We need

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God to uphold this covenant. He is the only responsible party. And this strengthens the argument that Genesis 15, that when

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Abraham believed God, he was declared righteous because it was not of his work. God's righteousness is imputed to him.

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It was not a work of Abraham, but a work of God. So when was this declaration of righteousness made?

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Not after he was circumcised. Not after that work, but before that,

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Paul says. Paul emphatically points out before the work and sign of the covenant, his faith in God was reckoned to him as righteousness.

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That changes everything. Verses 11 -12. Thank you.

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It says, "...and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them."

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Boy, I hope you don't walk away going, did my pastor only talk about circumcision? There's a whole lot of that going on here.

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But I hope that I'm explaining enough about what's going on. Because circumcision is seen as a work.

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That's what we're trying to get down to. Did he perform this work first? It says

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God? He didn't. He didn't, right? God covenanted to Abraham after his belief in God's promise and gave him the sign of circumcision in Genesis 17.

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And it was a seal of the declaration, it says, of the righteousness that God gave him.

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Basically, circumcision, he's saying, was a sign of the righteousness that God applied to Abraham.

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Nothing that he did of himself. That faith was before circumcision, so his descendants would not be according to the flesh, but of those who believe by the same faith.

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Even those who are uncircumcised. Verse 12, our last verse. And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father

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Abraham which he had while uncircumcised. So, Abraham is father to those who believe by faith and are circumcised.

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And Abraham is father to those who believe by faith and are uncircumcised.

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Both there, the commonality there is they believe by faith. It doesn't matter if they're circumcised or uncircumcised.

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So this is where the inclusion of all types of peoples come in.

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In other words, the crediting, the reckoning, or imputing is for both Jews and Gentiles.

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It's for us all. All who believe by faith. We are the descendants of Abraham.

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You, my friends, if you are in Christ today, you are a star in a sky chock full of other stars.

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If you have believed in Christ today and you are found in Him, you are a sand grain on the beaches of the world full of them.

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Full of them. All because of our merciful King Jesus. I'm wrapping up here.

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This is my conclusion. 19th century theologian Charles Hodge says, By the righteousness of Christ is meant to be all that He became, all that He did, and all that He suffered to satisfy the demands of divine justice and merit for His people, the forgiveness of sin, and the gift of eternal life.

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The righteousness of Christ is commonly represented as including His active and passive obedience.

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This, brothers and sisters, makes our justification possible.

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His passive obedience is His vicarious atonement, His substitutionary death on the cross.

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You could also call it His submissive obedience. He received the penalty for something of which

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He did not partake in. Does that make sense? That's why it's passive. He didn't sin at all, but He received the penalty of sin.

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That is His passive obedience. His passive obedience then covers our active disobedience.

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And His active obedience is His perfect and comprehensive compliance to the entire law of God.

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These components together, they make up what's called the righteousness of Christ. How can

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God justify the ungodly? By imputing those things, the righteousness of Christ, to your account.

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That is how. If you are in Christ, this is the righteous robe you receive.

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Do you realize that? Given to you is the righteousness accomplished on the cross and in His keeping of the law flawlessly.

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Atheists say the God of the Bible is a cruel tyrant.

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Blasphemy, I say. Fallacious. False. How is it that we have a

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God so merciful to cruel people? We are like the crowd pressing in upon Him, hoping to touch the hem of His garment.

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And in our crawling, and in our reaching, and in our scraping, Jesus Christ picks us up and gives us the very thing that gives

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Him the right to the throne. He gives you His righteousness. This is unbelievable.

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Unbelievable. Praise God.

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His righteousness. He gives you that. This is why we are called co -heirs with Christ.

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We have been given the right to be called sons and daughters of the Most High God. What grace.

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What grace. Don't you see it now? If the Creator and Judge of all the earth slams down the gavel and declares you righteous by His Son, what can one do to remove the verdict?

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How can one remove this declaration? If His work has been applied to your account and it is over, it is past tense, how can you undo it?

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My friends, this is the assurance we have in Christ. A legal statement has been made concerning us and there is no more sentence of death and prison of hell.

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That is justification by faith. A faith given. A righteousness from God credited to our account.

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And a pronouncement of debt paid. And if this is foreign to your experience and you don't have faith in the

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God who justifies, today is the day of salvation. Repent and believe, my friends. Let's pray.

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Father, we bless Your name. We praise You, God. We thank You, Lord. We could never obtain the righteousness necessary to appease

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Your wrath. On the contrary, Lord, we have been found to be rebels, those who have turned against You, Lord.

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But You saw it fit in Your great love with which You loved us, Lord. In that while we were still yet sinners,

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Christ died for us. Thank You for that sacrifice, Lord Jesus. Thank You for making the payment by Your blood on our behalf.

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We will never taste hell now because of Your work, Jesus. We will reign in Your presence forever.

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We will be with You forever. And we thank You. We praise