Sunday Sermon: The Example of Our Father Abraham (Romans 4:1-8)

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You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

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Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

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Old Testament book on Thursday and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

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Here is Pastor Gabe. Romans chapter 4 beginning in verse 1 is where we are today.

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If you will open up your Bible and join with me there, remember that as we have heard about our sin and need for the gospel,

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Paul went heavy on the gospel in chapter 3 and even in saying that it is not by our works that we are justified, but it is by faith.

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Now to respond to those people who would raise these arguments, well then what's going to become of the law then if it's by faith that we are justified?

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He points to the example that we have in Abraham who likewise, like us, is justified by faith.

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And so we too are justified not by our works, but by faith in God and it is credited to us as righteousness as we've already heard this morning, even in the readings that we've had in our service today.

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So let's come to Romans chapter 4 today. We are looking at verses 1 through 8 at the example of Abraham.

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Abraham, in honor of the word of the King, would you please stand? Romans chapter 4 beginning in verse 1, hear the word of the

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Lord. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh?

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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 counted to him as righteousness.

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Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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

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Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

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You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, we come to our passage today looking at the example that you have set forth in Abraham who believed

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God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. And as we have read in this text, not only

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Abraham, but all of those who do not work, but believe in him who justifies the ungodly, our faith will be counted as righteousness.

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Now what even are the practical implications of this? How does this play out in our lives, and what sort of relief and grace and what other heavenly blessings may be bestowed upon us in knowing that it is simply by faith that we are justified and not by our works?

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There is such an easy tendency in our flesh to even want to do something or help you along as if we could, to help

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God in justifying us, but it is only by faith. You have done this by your grace as a wonderful act of mercy from our merciful

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God that we would be forgiven our sins and counted in fellowship with you, and not just friends of God, but even sons and daughters of God, adopted into your family through all who are in Christ.

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And so may we be blessed to see all the wonderful, glorious benefits of knowing this truth that is laid forth for us in Scripture.

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It is in the name of Jesus that we pray, and all God's people said, Amen. Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had

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Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you.

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So let's just praise the Lord. Right arm. By the way, so I did this last week with Jesus Paid It All.

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I'm not going to ask you to sing Father Abraham at the end of the sermon today. But I was curious about where this song came from.

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As I was opening my text and I was studying the Scriptures for the sermon this week, I thought maybe I would discover that there was something deeply profound behind the writing of this song.

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After all, we sing such ancient hymns that have come from the Reformation, like Martin Luther having written,

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A mighty fortress is our God. Or even when we sing, All creatures of our God and King, that goes back to Francis of Assisi.

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So maybe there was some deep and profound message behind Father Abraham. No, not at all.

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This song was actually written in 1971 as a carnival song by a

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Dutch musician named Pierre Kartner, whose stage name was Vader Abraham.

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Translated from Dutch into English, his name was Father Abraham. He wore a fake beard and a bowler hat and sang this corny theme song that went,

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Father Abraham had seven sons, and seven sons had Father Abraham.

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And they didn't laugh, and they didn't cry. All they did was go like this.

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Right arm, left arm, yeah, and then everything else that you happen to know about this song.

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Now the seven sons line, that's actually biblical. Abraham had a son by his wife's maidservant,

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Hagar, who was Ishmael. A son by his wife, Sarah, who was

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Isaac. And then five more sons with his second wife, Keturah. Seven sons in all.

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Somewhere along the way, the song got adapted into the Sunday school song that we know today, Father Abraham had many sons, and I am one of them, and so are you.

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As we also read this morning from Galatians 3, 7 and verse 29, it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

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And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to promise.

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We've been reading about being justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul has been accused of coming up with a new doctrine, an antinomian doctrine, one that is without law.

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After all, if someone can be justified by faith, then what good is the law to us anymore?

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Last week, we ended chapter 3 with this question. So then, do we overthrow the law by this faith?

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By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law.

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Paul now turns to the example of Abraham. This is not a new doctrine to be justified by faith alone apart from works because it was the same way with our father

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Abraham who was saved. And not just Abraham, but even David testified to this, which

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Paul references in verses 6 -8. The expression, counted as righteousness, comes up in this section three times.

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In verses 3, 5, and 6. And that helps us to kind of outline the passage this morning.

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So, as we look at this together, in verses 1 -3, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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In verses 4 -5, to the one who has faith, it is counted to him as righteousness.

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And in verses 6 -8, even David has testified, it is counted to him as righteousness.

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And this is the argument of the whole chapter. That just as righteousness was counted to Abraham by faith and not by works, so will it be counted to us as well.

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If you want to cheat a little bit and look down at verses 23 and 24, which in the chapter it says,

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But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.

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It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead

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Jesus our Lord. So we are reading something that will be applicable to us all.

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We believe in Christ and it is credited to us as righteousness. And we'll also find in that third point this morning, when we look at the words of David, some application that this may apply to our lives in a readily understandable way.

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So, first of all, it was counted to Abraham. Part 1, as we look at here in these first few verses,

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Paul begins with this question, responding to this argument, What then, shall we say, was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?

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And he's continuing with the arguments that he was responding to at the conclusion of chapter 3. What was gained by Abraham?

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What was obtained? Now, I actually thought this reference to Abraham being our forefather according to the flesh was pretty straightforward.

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It is from Abraham that every Jew, including Paul, is descended. So, in our lineage, and he's talking of himself and of the

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Jews, he is our forefather according to the flesh. But, in looking at my commentaries, apparently this phrasing is a little trickier than that.

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Paul is not merely saying that Abraham is the genetic forefather to the Jews. The reference to his flesh is meaning something that is opposed to spirit.

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In Galatians 3 .3, the law is referred to being in the flesh, or by the flesh.

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In rebuking the Galatians, Paul said, Are you so foolish? Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

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So, here in Romans 4 .1, in context, Paul is in a sense saying, You Jews think ritual services performed purely from piety will merit you something.

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But how was Abraham, our forefather in the flesh, as we are in the flesh?

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How was he able to gain? And the answer to that question should be that he did not gain according to the flesh.

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It was not by his works that were done in the flesh. So, look at the very next verse, verse 2.

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For if Abraham was justified by works, then he has something to boast about.

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He has a reason to glory and boast in himself. Look what I did. Or to quote the

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Frank Sinatra classic, I did it my way. Abraham has something to boast about, but not before God.

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He may be able to boast in being a good person. We encounter that a lot. A person doing great things for somebody else, and then boasting in all the good that they did.

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So, they might look like a great person in the eyes of somebody else. If we're grading each other based on each other's merit, then sure, we know good people.

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We know nice guys because of the ways that they treat others. So, they have something to boast before others, but they don't have anything to boast in before God.

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No one is counted holy because they have done lots of good things. We could basically understand the argument that Paul is presenting here this way.

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If Abraham had obtained justification by his works, he should have something whereby he can glory and boast in himself before God.

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But he had nothing to glorify and boast in himself before God. Therefore, he was not justified by his works.

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God's way of justifying sinners cuts out any and all of our boasting.

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Remember what we read last week in Romans 3 .27. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.

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By what kind of law? By a law of works? No. But by the law of faith.

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This is once again one of those places where the chapter division really doesn't help us much because Paul is still on the same argument that he's been making since the end of chapter 3.

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Only in responding to certain arguments now, he's put forth the example of our father

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Abraham. Let's go on to verse 3. So we ask this question now. For what does the

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Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him.

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His believing in God was counted to him as righteousness.

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And this is, of course, to quote Genesis 15 .6, that chapter which Chris had read for us this morning, in which it says that Abraham believed

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Yahweh, and he, Yahweh, counted it to him, Abraham, as righteousness, justified by faith.

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If you'll remember again back to Genesis 15 .1, God had brought

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Abram out to look at all the stars, and he had said to him that just as you cannot count the stars in the sky, so will it be with all of your offspring.

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You will not even be able to count them. And Abram said, behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household is going to end up being my heir.

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But God said to him, a man shall not be your heir, it will be your very own son who will be your heir.

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And he brought him outside, look at the heaven, number the stars if you are to number them. And then the

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Lord said to Abram, so shall your offspring be. In verse 6, he believed the

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Lord, and God counted it to him as righteousness. Later on we read in Romans 4 .9,

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the passage we'll get to next week, faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. And Romans 4 .22,

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faith was counted to him as righteousness. And as it was credited to Abraham, so will it be counted to everyone who believes.

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Let's continue on to where Paul makes the argument that it's counted to anyone who has faith.

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Consider now verses 4 through 5. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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To the one who works, well then he's earned it, right? And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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Now many of us, many people you may encounter, will approach this very subject as,

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I did something so God owes me something. And that's following with a law that we kind of understand, a law of nature, that if I've worked hard to deserve something, then a worker is worthy of his wages, as is also written in the law.

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So I've worked, you owe me something. And we will point the finger back at God and say, I've done this, this, this, and this, so you owe me.

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To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but his due. But has a person even done work to the degree that God then therefore owes them something?

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Who would dare point the finger at God and say, you owe me? God owes us nothing.

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So how therefore can we claim any sense of righteousness or justification before God?

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It is to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, giving all credit and glory to God.

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It is his faith that is therefore counted as righteousness. We do nothing to earn it, and God certainly is not obligated to give us anything.

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It is a measure of his grace, so that, as we've read previously in Romans 3, he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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Now notice that throughout this argument, Paul sets faith in direct opposition to works.

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Some will argue and have tried to argue that any reference to works does not mean that Paul is saying we don't have to do any kind of work at all, because his reference to works is strictly a reference to the law of Moses.

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Or as it was termed in chapter 3, works of the law. Remember back to Romans 3 .20

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we read, By works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.

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In verse 28 at the end of the chapter, For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

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So the argument then in chapter 4 is that this reference to works carries over and is a reference to works of the law, meaning the works of Moses.

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We could not attain justification by obeying any law of Moses, which is by doing works of the law, but we are justified, this is the way the argument goes, we are justified by doing these other works, fill in the blank, which are not of Moses.

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And all kinds of things end up going in that blank. Like as long as it's not in the law of Moses, it's works by some other means, then we can obtain justification in that way.

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You are justified by blank. And one of the most common ones is you are justified by being baptized.

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That was not in the law of Moses, so that's not among the works that Paul is targeting here.

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But that is a work that you must do in order to be justified, in order to be saved.

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Listen to this from Tim Staples, a former Protestant but now a Roman Catholic and an apologist for Catholic answers.

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He quotes Romans 4, 2 -3 and then he says this, How does it get any clearer than that?

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Abraham was justified once and for all, the claim is made, when he believed.

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And at that point I'm agreeing with the Catholic guy. That's right, exactly. He goes on, not only is this proof of sola fide by faith alone, but it is proof that justification is a completed transaction at the point the believer comes to Christ.

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Amen! I'm ready to call this Roman Catholic a brother. The paradigm of the life of Abraham is believed to hold indisputable proof of the reformed position, he says.

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Yes, come on with us brother, come on in. We'd love to welcome you in. But he goes on to say,

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The Catholic Church actually agrees with the above, at least on a couple of points.

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Listen to this. First, as baptized Catholics, we agree that we have been justified and we have been saved.

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Wait a minute. There's no agreement there. Did you see how he weaseled that in there?

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We skipped something in there. Somehow we went from unbelieving Tim Staples to post

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Roman Catholic baptism Tim Staples. Unbelieving Tim Staples is not justified, but the

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Roman Catholic baptism Tim Staples received makes him justified.

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Consider the statement again, he said, First, as baptized Catholics, we agree that we have been justified and have been saved.

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After baptism, after I did something, after a work was accomplished, now

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I've been justified. He makes every attempt to avoid acknowledging the clear meaning of the text, that it has all to do with faith and only faith.

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He will not say, I believed God and I am justified. He says, as a baptized

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Catholic, I've now been justified and I've been saved. After he did something, but not before.

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But lest there be any confusion, let me jump ahead in our text. You can read with me in verses 9 through 11.

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Look what Paul writes there. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?

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For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him?

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Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but it was before he was circumcised.

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He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

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So how about you? For we say that faith was counted to you as righteousness.

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How then was it counted to you? Was it before or after you had been baptized?

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It was not after, but before you were baptized. It was not after, but before you did anything.

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You are not justified by your works. You are justified by faith alone in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, I will go to the grave on this doctrine. It is not of you.

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It is all of Christ. You can go to the grave on this doctrine, and you will rise again.

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Believe it. We can be saved. We are saved by grace through faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ, not of works. And that's

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Ephesians 2 .8. Now, I had been raised to believe in justification by faith and not by works.

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But even when I got older and I labored to understand this doctrine more fully, it was Romans 4 .5

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that really sealed it for me. To the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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This is such a critical text to this doctrine of justification by faith alone that Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century

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American Puritan, wrote a book on it completed in November of 1734.

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He wrote 50 ,000 words just expositing these 20 words in Romans 4 .5.

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In the book, Edwards made the following four points to note about this verse. So I'm taking 50 ,000 words and condensing them to a single page on my sermon.

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So, point number one, justification respects a man as ungodly.

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Now, what do we mean by that? This is evident by these words, Edwards said, "...that justifieth the ungodly, which cannot imply less than that God, in the act of justification, has no regard to anything in the person justified as godliness or any goodness in him, but that immediately before this act

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God beholds him only as an ungodly creature." It is absurd,

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Edwards went on to say, giving this illustration, to suppose that any kind of good thing in us or any good thing that we do is ground for our justification.

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It would be just as absurd to assume that Christ gave sight to a blind man on the ground that that blind man had sight prior to be given sight and not on the ground of God's mercy.

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When the disciples came upon a blind man and said to Jesus, who sinned, this man or did his parents sin?

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How did this man become blind? What was Jesus' response to them? Neither.

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But so that you would know the power of God. And then Jesus heals the blind man by his mercy, not because the man did something to receive his sight before Jesus gave him his sight.

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And so just as it was seen, no pun intended, in the miracles that Jesus did.

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This merciful grace of God. And so it is also seen in the fact that we have been justified by faith.

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It is not in anything that we have done beforehand. And the very fact that we read this, that we are justified by faith and not by works is, as Edward said, to imply that we were nothing but unjustified, godless sinners before the act of justification that was done by God's grace.

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Number two. This is very clearly not about the ceremonial law.

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The context gives no occasion for it, Edward says, but to show that by the grace of the gospel,

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God in justification has no regard to any godliness of ours.

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Him that worketh not and him that is ungodly mean the same thing,

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Edward said. So to him who does not work and to him who is ungodly, they are synonymous expressions.

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Therefore, not only works of the ceremonial law are excluded in this business of justification, but works of morality and godliness altogether.

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We do no act to deserve and therefore receive. It is all of God's grace.

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Number three. The faith here spoken of, by which we are justified, is not meant as the same thing as a course of obedience or righteousness.

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To quote Edwards here, when the scripture speaks of our believing on him who justifies the ungodly or the breakers of his law, that means believing on God as justifier, which is a different thing than submitting to him as a lawgiver, especially believing on him as a justifier of the ungodly or rebels against the lawgiver.

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So it is not necessary for us to understand the depths of God as the lawgiver in order to be justified, but simply that we have broken his law and are sinners deserving of wrath and having done nothing righteous or even understanding that we must do something righteous.

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Yet we believe God and through this faith he has declared us righteous.

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We are justified by faith. Number four. The subject of justification is looked upon as destitute of any righteousness in himself.

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Edwards says, quote, the phrase as the apostle uses it here and in the context manifestly imports that God of his sovereign grace is pleased in his dealings with the sinner so to regard one that has no righteousness that the consequence shall be the same as if he had, unquote.

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So let me summarize for you here what Edwards means. It's as if when

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Jesus died on the cross for my sins that God looked at Christ dying on the cross and he saw me and he treated

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Christ dying on the cross as if Christ were me, the wretched sinner.

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But when I believe, when I look upon the cross and I believe

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God that through that sacrifice my sins are forgiven and I am made right before God, then

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God looks at me as if he were looking at Christ.

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Though I've not even done anything yet that would look like Christ, yet he looks at me as if I were his own son and this is the beautiful measure of justification that we receive by faith in Jesus Christ.

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Where the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 .21, for our sake he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

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Same sort of illustration is given there. Jesus dies for us, God regards him as if Jesus had lived my life.

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But he looks at me and regards me as if I had lived Christ's life though I've done nothing in any way that even looks like that.

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And that is being justified by the grace and mercy of God through faith and not of works.

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And I cannot emphasize that to you enough that it is not by our works.

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It's not by what we have done that has merited the grace and goodness of God.

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And you might wonder to yourself, well brother Gabe I've not really even understood that doctrine until just now.

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Reading it in Romans chapter 4 and hearing you explain it, it's not by my works. I did not do anything.

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I believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. So was I not saved until now?

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I just now understand it because of the way that you've explained it. Well that's the wonderful thing by the grace of God.

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You don't have to be a deep theologian to be saved. He already by his mercy and grace had shown favor toward you because you looked at Jesus and you said, that's what

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I need. And though you may not have understood the depths of your sin or the beauty and glory of God's grace toward you,

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I barely even touched the corner of the mountain on understanding these things.

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And yet though you did not even understand the depths of it, yet he loved you anyway.

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And by his grace counted you as righteous through faith.

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We believe God and it is counted to us as righteousness. And in this,

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Abraham is our example. Just as Abraham had believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, though he had not yet done anything to exhibit any kind of righteousness.

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So God will extend the same blessing on you and I if we believe.

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And that brings us finally to verses 6 -8 in this passage where it is further, this is further solidified by the testimony of David and it's also here as we look at this passage that we are going to make some application.

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So look at verse 6 and I'll read verses 6, 7, and 8. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom

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God counts righteousness apart from works. And then Paul quotes Psalm 32 verses 1 -2.

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In our text in Romans, we have it read to us this way. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

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Let's look at the whole psalm. The whole nature of this psalm is to praise God for his forgiveness. So if you have your

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Bible open, turn with me over to Psalm 32 and we'll look at this together. Psalm 32.

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It says in verse 1, and this is what's quoted for us here in the text of Romans 4. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord, Yahweh, counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

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Going on to verse 3. For when I kept silent, David said, my bones wasted away, through my groaning all day long.

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For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

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Selah. David is feeling weighed down by his sin. So that it's even taking a physical toll on him.

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When we understand the doctrine of justification by faith alone, when we understand that we are forgiven by faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ, how much meaning and purpose that gives to us. There are so many different implications that we could certainly go to on this.

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Knowing that God loves you, sent his son to die for you, and now looking upon Christ, my sins are forgiven, that has meaning and purpose in your life.

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I know what my life is for. I was made to glorify God. And now

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I am a son or a daughter of God and I can't help but praise God because of the goodness he showed to me even when

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I was a child of wrath and I was completely undeserving of it. So knowing that we've been saved by faith gives us glorious purpose in this life.

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Knowing that God loves us and is looking after us and caring for us. Secondly, we can also see that there is life after death.

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There's an answer to our death problem. This life isn't just all there is and then

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I die and I become worm food. But there is actually life for me after this, in that Jesus did not just die, but he rose again from the dead.

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And as he was raised with a glorified body, so as the scripture tells me, I also will receive a body like his.

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And I will be able to dwell in the presence of God, not only in the present when I can call upon God anytime

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I want, but forevermore, from everlasting to everlasting, I will be able to glorify

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God who exists in eternity and I will be brought into that place with him and will dwell with him forever.

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Where sin and death will be no more, no more grief, pain, sorrow, any of these things. I've got hope for something beyond the struggles of this life.

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An answer to our death problem, life forevermore with Jesus Christ. That's another practical application to this.

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But I think sometimes we don't think as much about the wonderful relief it is to know that our sins are not counted against us.

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And what kind of hope and sustaining that gives us in knowing that. And you can't receive that in any way but by faith.

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You can't know that in any way but by faith. There's nothing tangible to give to you. Here's your token.

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Your sins are forgiven. I stamped it and printed it right here on this token I'm giving you.

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There's nothing like that. We don't receive anything like that. That I can therefore show my medallion, my gold medal, here's what

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I've been given to know that my sins have been forgiven. It's looking at Christ. It's believing in Christ and knowing in this that our sins have been forgiven and God does not count anything against us.

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Hence why Romans 8 .1 becomes such a beautiful and even relieving truth.

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And though mankind may hate me,

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I may have relatives of my family that hate me, I know that God does not count anything against me. And what a relief that is.

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To know that our sins have been forgiven and God is not holding them against us. It even has practical and physical effects on us which we don't think about so much.

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Continue on here in this passage. Verse 3, When I kept silent, my bones wasted away.

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Through my groaning all day long, for day and night your hand was heavy upon me.

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My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah.

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Verse 5, I acknowledge my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.

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I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

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Selah. Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

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Surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me.

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You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

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Just as we read in Genesis chapter 15, God saying to Abraham, I will be your shield.

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And so we know that God is not just counting our sins against us.

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Double negative, but did I get that right? He's not counting our sins against us. But more than that, He is also our hiding place.

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He preserves us. He surrounds us with shouts of deliverance.

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Reminders that our sins have been forgiven and we have been made right with God. Now this does not mean that we won't ever experience some kind of depression or anxiety or whatever could be equated with those words.

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We would not ever experience anything like that again. Charles Spurgeon, who was a very godly man and a wonderful preacher, struggled with depression his entire life.

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And it is believed that he died in his 50s in part because of the kind of physical toll that his depression and anxiety took upon him.

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David we read about in the Psalms. I soaked my couch with my tears all night long.

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When will God come to me? We refer to Jeremiah as the weeping prophet.

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A man who wept for the state of Judah and asking for God to deliver them.

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He felt it in his bones, the love and affection that he had for his people. Later on as we read here in Romans, we're going to get to Romans chapter 9, where Paul talks about the deep grief that he feels for his own brothers and sisters in his

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Jewish lineage. My fellow kinsmen. And I watched them continue to reject

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God. And the grief that causes him in his spirit. So we may still very well experience that in this life.

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It doesn't mean that all of that is gone. We're still feeling the effects of the fact that we live in a world that has fallen.

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And is subject to the corruption of the curse that God has placed on all of creation because of man's rebellion against him.

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But there are many people whose depression... I'm not going to say this is every case.

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So please understand me when I say this. But there are many people whose depression has been brought on to them by their sin.

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And they look for relief from that in a pill, in therapy, in drugs and other substance abuse.

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Even trying to indulge other passions of the flesh. They may even play that out in taking advantage of other people.

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And if I can make them feel lower than me, then maybe I will feel better about myself and about my situation.

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When really the answer that they need is Christ. The pill may take away the symptoms, but it doesn't cure the disease.

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And the only cure for the disease is the blood of Jesus. And the kind of relief that a person experiences when they know, my sins are forgiven and they're not counted against me anymore.

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And that has very practical, real life implications. For any person who knows that God has forgiven me.

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And so David says in verse 8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go.

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I will counsel you with my eye upon you. This is as if the voice of God directs

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David in his way. But not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.

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Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who what?

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Trusts. Trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the

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Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy all you upright in heart.

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If there's any practical application, if there's any effect that this doctrine has on you, and by doctrine

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I mean the doctrine of justification by faith alone and not by our works. If there's any practicalness of this for you today, one thing that it should certainly bring up in you is joy.

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It is knowing with great gratitude and praise and appreciation unto

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God. You've forgiven me my sins. You count my debts against me no more.

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They have been blotted out of your book. I am not a child of wrath that is still under the judgment of God, but by His wonderful grace and mercy to me,

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I have been forgiven, and I have been made a child of God, and I have been given the promise of everlasting life with Him forever.

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And not just that, but being made a fellow heir of the kingdom of God with Christ Jesus.

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We will reign together one day. We get to reign with Christ on His throne.

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Does that make you excited to think about? Does it give you a joy and a meaning and a purpose that you did not have before?

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But now I know I live my life not to attain something that my works could never have attained anyway.

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I live my life in joy and in praise to the God who saved me.

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And so we read once again in Romans 4, 4 through 5,

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To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but his due. And we would work, and we would work, and we would work to get to where we think that we finally earned something and discover that we're no closer to the end of that labor than we were when we started.

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But, verse 5, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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Just as David has written, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

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And as children of Abraham, and therefore children of God, God does not count our sins against us.

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We have been made righteous in Jesus Christ. You've been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes, a presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

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For more information about our church, visit our website at ProvidenceCasaGrande .com.

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On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening. Join us again