Book of Romans - Ch. 4, Vs. 7-25 (08/22/2004)

I would like for you to open your Bibles to Romans the 4th chapter beginning at verse 7 saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

Dennis, what's the difference in forgiving iniquities and covering sins as used in this verse?

Alright, the next verse, blessed is the man to whom the

Lord will not impute sin. David, the thought just comes to me that we are of the group that does not have our sins imputed to us.

And tell me once again, David, what impute means. That's right.

Well, that's true, but I think this verse is talking about us, but I see something new.

Greg, if this is blessed or blessed that does not have his sin imputed to him, are there people in the world that their sin is imputed to them?

Then you're saying that the sin is not theirs.

Is that what you're saying? Well, let's talk about it a little bit.

Dennis, what do you think verse 8 really means? Alright.

Debbie, would you come up here on the front?

I guess that's Debbie. Well, you don't have to sit on the front.

Now, what you all are saying is true.

Our sin, then John, is not really ours, is it?

Alright. The sin that an unsaved person commits is really not his, right?

You're having a little trouble with that. Yes, but it's really not his sin.

You see how you all are thinking? You should think the same way about righteousness.

You have no question about the sin. I sinned and therefore I pay for it.

That's true. But it was not yours. It was imputed to you from Satan.

It's his sin acted out in you and you have to pay for it. It's God's righteousness acted out in you and you have to pay for it.

Way, way, way back in the beginning, sin was imputed to Adam.

And it's been all of these years. We were born in sin, which is right, but it's not our sin.

But we have to. Yes. Absolutely.

That's right. Now, no, we're not accountable for Adam's sin.

We're accountable because of Adam's sin. Yes. Yes.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

He does impute sin to certain people. We call them the lost.

Now, the point I'm trying to make is we should look at our righteousness just as firm as we do our sin nature.

It's mine. It's yours. It's ours. The righteousness. But now the point

David brought up, Satan infused in me his nature.

God infused in me his nature. Which one do you see when you look at me?

The sin nature. He's there.

Believe you me. Destroyed your image of me.

Well, you get your thinking right. The man to whom the

Lord will not impute sin means that sin was imputed to each one of us.

It's not our sin. It's Satan's sin. And impute means it's given to you to use as your own and you have to answer for it.

Any other questions? All right.

That's right. That's right.

Okay. I'll move on. Just thought

I'd throw that out. It's not my sin.

It's the devil's sin. All right.

Now don't go out here saying that Roses said that we don't sin. We do sin.

We're born in sin. But it was an imputed birth to me. Imputed unrighteousness to me.

But I have to answer for it. Sure.

Absolutely. There always will be. What? That's right.

That's right. We are of the blessed people. It says blessed is the man to whom the

Lord will not impute his sin. He does not impute my sin to me.

But he does to someone that is of the other seed. All right.

9. Paul is asking the question, cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also?

For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

Now, Dennis, was

Abraham a Jew? What was he?

There was no Gentiles. He was a

Syrian. Lots of people think that Abraham was a

Jew. No, he wasn't. Who was the first Jew, David? All right.

What? Yes. John, who was the first Israelite?

What? John? Yes.

You don't know? You know where?

No. You're not only wrong, you're real wrong.

Boy, that has the taste of Adam in it.

No, it was Jacob. Jacob was named

Israel. Everybody else?

Yes. Yes. As far as the

Jews were concerned. All right.

It's evident that Abraham was justified while still in uncircumcision.

So, Dennis, was the law of circumcision given in Abraham's life?

Yes. That's right.

Now, I have another question. Does faith exercise you or do you exercise faith?

Dennis? Can't be both.

It has to be one or the other. David? That's correct.

Or you could call faith up anytime you wanted it. Can you call on faith anytime you want to,

Dennis? John?

Boy, there's some wise acres here this morning. Yes. You get up, call on it, call it up anytime you want to.

That's right. Well, not exactly.

Well, you said one word in there to call on faith.

You can call on faith. You just can't call it up and use it. Well, you do use it, but it's after the fact, not before the fact.

I That's what

I'm saying. Yes.

It is the faith that is working in me that enables me to do a certain thing.

And depending on how strong I believe that as to how far I can go.

Did I answer your question or did they?

All right. One other question.

Dennis, was

Abraham called because God knew what he would do or was

Abraham called because he was a good servant? Well, is that why he called him or was

Abraham what he was because he was called? All right.

Ask a man this past week and I think he got it backwards, but I didn't belabor the point.

All right. Abraham did what he did because he was called, not because he was good.

10. How was it then reckoned when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision?

Well, he answers his own question, not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet been uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all of them that believe through, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.

Now it's a good thing that Abraham was called when he was uncircumcised.

And because that fitted me in under the covenant, I must confess that I do not understand why circumcision.

We say the word and we all know what it means, but I don't really know what it means.

And the father of circumcision to them that are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father

Abraham, which he had been yet uncircumcised for the promise that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

There are those, I got a call early this morning, what's the difference in seven -day

Adventist and us? Well, the main difference is that they are trying to live the law.

Anytime that you put anything ahead of the blood of Christ, you're wrong.

Purely and simply wrong. Abraham, God saw to it that the promise was made before the circumcision.

So it was not a reward for obedience. Can you see that?

It was a free gift. The faith of Abraham was a childlike dependence on the naked word of God.

For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith was made void and the promise made of none effect.

The outcome of the promise based upon the law would have been that grace would have been of no effect.

Because the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression.

Now, I want to be sure that we understand this. Where no law is, in other words, if there is not a law against or for a certain thing, then you cannot violate that law.

It's no law in the church that you can't sit on the front pew. Well, by your sitting on the front pew, have you broken that law?

No. There isn't any law concerning that. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be by grace.

It is of faith that it might be by grace. To the end, the promise might be sure to all of the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that which is of faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

Now, Russell, tell me, in what respect is

Abraham my father? All right.

Therefore, it is of faith that it might be by grace to all. To the end, the promise might be sure to all of the seed.

All of the seed. What is all of the seed, David? Yes. As it is written,

I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed, even

God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were, who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be.

The confession of evil works is the beginning of good works. When Abraham was taking

Isaac on a three -day journey up to a mountain,

Isaac carried the wood. What was it that Abraham told his workmen when they left them at the foot of the mountain?

John, Debbie, and Dennis said,

We will return. Now, John, with that in mind, what do you suppose

Abraham thought when he raised his knife to plunge it into his son,

Isaac? Russell, how old was

Isaac at this time? Yes.

So he could have resisted him, couldn't he? This is a story of the faithfulness of Isaac to his father.

A beautiful, beautiful story. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now did, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.

The word staggered. Brandon, what does the word staggered mean?

All right. It means in this case to lose your balance.

He didn't stagger from belief to unbelief and back again. He just believed.

He didn't consider the possibility of unbelief.

That's faith. Tremendous faith.

He did not waver back and forth. And being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

Now, Greg, what does fully persuaded mean? All right.

Can you give me an example? All right.

Give me one that I can see physically, but you're not standing.

Fully persuaded. All right. I always run to the park when

I think of this. They just painted a park bench and put a fresh paint sign on it.

Being fully persuaded, you don't have to go and stick your finger in it. Fully persuaded.

You know that it's painted. Being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

Now, who are we talking about, Joy? That's right.

And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. There's that word imputed again.

It was given to him for righteousness. He didn't own it.

Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our

Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses, was raised again for our justification.

When I was a youth at home, I would go to the grain elevator, which my father was the manager, and I enjoyed climbing to the very top of that grain elevator, 100 or so feet, and spending time looking out over the flat fields of ripe wheat.

If you can visualize in your mind just fields of ripe standing wheat, and they would sway in the wind.

And as far as I could see, I could see them bending, and I couldn't see the wind, but as it blew across, it would bend the stalks of wheat as the wind approached, then it would go back.

So, it was like a wave on the ocean. You could see it moving across and going out of sight.

As the wind blew from a different direction, maybe there would be a gust from the north and one from the east, but the wheat would bend whatever way the wind told it to.

It would cost the wheat nothing to bend with the pressure of the gentle breeze.

And if the wind blew from a different direction, as I said, the wheat would bend in that direction.

Many years later, now, I see a picture of the perfect faith in the soul of a believer.

It responded to the slightest presence of the hand of God, and no matter which way it blows, it responds.

Well, that's what little I have this morning. Dennis dismisses, please.