Wednesday, December 7, 2022 PM

God, we thank you for this evening. Have a meal, wonderful thing.

We pray that as you have told us the events of history, those from the

Old Testament and seek to apply those truths to our life and ultimately how they point to your son,

Jesus. We are grateful for him. You sending him to die on the cross to forgive us of our sins.

And we're grateful that we have been adopted and that your Holy Spirit makes us more like him.

It's my prayer that this time of study would edify us and make us more like Christ.

In Jesus name we pray, amen. So on the board,

I've written several verses that we'll be visiting. And for context,

I'm gonna read a passage. If you'll turn to Romans four real quick.

Romans chapter four and one through five. But I wanna give a little bit of context.

So what he's talking about here is Abraham. So I'm gonna read that passage on what it's talking about to give us.

This is 15, when God makes the covenant with Abraham. It says, after these things, the word of the

Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not Abram, I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great.

But Abram said, oh Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless.

And the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, behold, you have given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir.

Your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them.

Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. And he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness.

And he said to him, I am the land to possess.

So that's God's covenant with Abram at the time. His name was changed to Abraham. And Romans four is

Paul's commentary on that. So if you're in Romans chapter four, let's read verses one through five.

It says, what then? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does believe God, and it will work, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

So Paul's commentary on the covenant between Abraham and God is that Abraham believed by faith and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Who here has heard of the doctrine, justification by faith alone? That's something that throughout many churches, we say justification by faith alone.

It's by grace through faith, we're saved by faith. So this is Paul's commentary.

Paul wrote Romans and this is his commentary on Abraham who believed by faith.

So if we look at another verse, Galatians 2 .16, this book is also written by Paul and Galatians is kind of his treaty on a group of people that were seeking to work for the salvation.

He kind of goes after this idea that we can earn our salvation by works. So if you look at Galatians 2 .16,

this is what Paul say. The same author as Romans, when he was talking about Abraham says this, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

So that seems pretty straightforward. Paul is saying, we are not justified by works. You cannot be justified by works.

We are justified by faith. If you'll turn another chapter over in Galatians to chapter three.

In Galatians chapter three, Paul is still continuing forward and he references

Abraham. It says, just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the

Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, and you shall all the nations be blessed.

So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Notice there, it talks about the Gentiles being justified by faith and that it even calls

Abraham a man of faith rather than a man of works, right? He was a man of faith.

And so he's referencing that same instance where God made the covenant with Abraham.

So if you'll hold your place there, what we're seeing is through Abraham's life, he believed and it was counted to him as righteousness.

He believed that he would have a son and that through his son, he would have many, many children.

Count the stars if you can. Well, I can't count all the stars. That's many, many stars.

And so his descendants would be like that of the stars. And Abraham believed that and it was counted to him as righteousness.

But along with the children, he also promises him a land and Abraham believes that by faith as well and he goes.

So if you look at, hold your place in Galatians because we'll turn back there. Look at Hebrews chapter 11.

What is Hebrews chapter 11 often called? The hall of faith, right?

The chapter of faith, the hall of faith. So we would expect we'll find testimonies of people who believed.

And that's what we see here. Hebrews 11, eight through 10. It says, by faith,

Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is

God. So here we see, he believed the promise by faith for his descendants.

He believed the promise by faith for land. And we're going through Abraham's life and time and time again, we see him practicing faith that God is giving him faith and it's credit to him as righteousness.

And so all three of these are talking about how we are justified by faith. I put a question mark here.

Let's turn to James chapter two. James chapter two, and let's do 18 through 24.

So James in the New Testament writes this, but someone will say, you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one, you do well.

Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless?

Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son

Isaac on the altar? Hold on a second. Wait, wait,

James, what are you saying? Paul all this time is saying we are not justified by works.

We are not justified by works, we're justified by faith. And he gives Abraham as the example.

And then it seems like James is saying, we're justified by works, look at Abraham.

He uses the same person. Okay, let's hear him out and see what he has to say. Verse 21, was not

Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works.

And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

And he was called a friend of God. Verse 24, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Now, I always found this extremely troubling growing up.

So I grew up in kind of a split home where part of it was evangelical and part of it was

Catholic. And the Catholic side, there was a video series that said questions that Protestants can't answer.

And they would bring up this verse. Protestants believe in justification by faith alone.

But look here, James says, you're justified by works and not by faith. That every word that comes from the mouth of God is good for edification, it's true.

So it's not contradictory. So what's happening here? And there's two things

I want to point out. One is kind of a word study, but then I also wanna look at the examples.

So the first example, we have Romans is written by Paul, Galatians is written by Paul, okay?

Paul, when he's talking about justification, he uses an example of Abraham when he's young, right?

God makes a promise and Abraham believes that promise, but he doesn't have a son yet, that son hasn't happened.

And then many, many, many years pass, I think he's like 75, and then when he's 100 years old, he has a son much later, right?

James, if you look at the passage here, he brings up an example of Abraham offering up his son,

Isaac. So they're talking about two different instances in Abraham's life.

So when he's younger, he believes, and it's counted to him as righteousness. At that point, we would say he's been justified, he's been saved.

Later on in his life, he's already been saved, but we see that he's acting in a way as if he's saved, he's being obedient, he's following God.

So an example that I like to use is, there is a man that was accused of stealing something, and they take him before the court.

And the judge says, you've been charged with this, and they hear all the evidence. And he says,

I don't find you guilty of this crime, you're justified, I declare you not guilty.

So in the eyes of the state, in the eyes of the law, this man is declared not guilty.

But there's some people that don't quite believe it. So he has been declared justified, he is justified.

But there's some people that don't see it yet. They're like, I want some evidence that this guy didn't do it.

When evidence comes forward, and this guy is put in a position where he could have stole all these different things, but the man lives in such a way that shows he's not a thief, he has no desire to steal anything, then he is justified in this other man's eyes.

It's proven to him that, oh, he's not a thief, I can see his character, okay?

There are different uses of the word justified. And so over here, and looking at it now, that green may not show up as well as the black does on the white board.

But there are three uses of the word justified. The way that Paul uses the word justify in Romans and Galatians would be the third, to declare or pronounce one to be just or righteous.

I'm gonna write it in black. So all of these here, the answer is righteous.

Righteous, okay?

So one is to render someone righteous. The second one is to show, exhibit, or give evidence that you are righteous.

And the third one would be to declare or pronounce one to be righteous.

And so when we see the examples being given, Paul is speaking about Abraham early on in his life, when he's been called out of somewhere that to go to a place that's not his home, to believe in promises that don't happen for years in the future, and he's going off of faith.

He's believing those. James, obviously he knows this passage because he quotes it.

You would think justified by works, don't you know what Paul wrote earlier?

Yes, he does. Because he says, you see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works.

And scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

So James knows this. But James is talking about a time where Abraham had already been believing the promises for years and years and years.

And now he's being tested. He's being asked to do something by God. And he continues to believe

God, and he offers up his son. That would be an evidence that he believes.

It's showing him to be righteous. And so you could say he's justified, not for salvation.

James is not talking about you are saved by works. He's saying, you show that you have an active and living faith.

Paul is talking about justified to be declared or pronounced to be righteous.

Paul is talking about being saved by faith. And James is talking about showing that you've been saved.

That's right. And often you'll see faith right next to works in the

Bible. But the question is, what are we talking about? If you're talking about salvation, we are justified, saved by faith alone, apart from works.

So you all know this, and I bet you can finish the verse. Ephesians 2, eight through 10.

For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works.

So that no one can boast. So if we can say we are justified, saved by works, then there's something that we could do to make a save.

Then we could boast. And Paul says, no, you cannot be saved by works.

But then James, when he says, Abraham was justified by works, he's using it in a different way.

So there's kind of the word study to get technical. But then this was the part that made me extremely excited.

So I just quoted Ephesians 2 there. So from that, we can see that salvation is not by works, it's by faith.

Two, faith is a gift. It says that this is not of your doing, it's a gift from God.

That faith that you had to believe that grants you salvation, that is a gift from God. Then it says, after that, it says that we are his workmanship created for what?

For good works. In the same two verses, we are not saved by works, but we are saved to good works.

So we are his workmanship created for good works. And those works were created beforehand, in times past for us to walk in them.

Go to Hebrews 11. So we've already been in Hebrews 11.

Again, this is called the hall of faith, right? And he quoted Abraham believing and believing

God's promises but look at Hebrews 11, 17 through 19. The author of Hebrews is

Paul, because I think that that would be really neat, but we'll see.

I can ask who wrote Hebrews? Some think it was Paul, but what does he quote here?

He says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son of whom it is said through Isaac, shall your offspring be named.

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

So hold on a second. James says that Abraham was justified by works when he offered up Isaac.

The writer of Hebrews says, yes, Abraham being obedient to God, doing a work was an act of faith.

So even in our work, we've already said that faith is a gift, right? Our works are done in faith.

So if faith is a gift and our work is done in faith, work is also a gift.

Our works are also a gifting to us for us to bless others. This discussion that goes around, well, are we saved by faith or are we saved by works?

Kind of misses the mark. We are saved by faith to good works, but both are a gift from God.

Both of them come from God. It's not as though the faith comes from God and then

I've got to make it happen. I've got to show or evidence that I believe so much that my acts of service prove that I'm a

Christian because we talked about them showing or exhibiting that we have faith. But even that is all of God.

It's belief, it's faith. Like we think the verse that says that we love

God because he first loved us. And there's chapters, verses that talk about those that love me will keep my commands, right?

This is an act of faith. It's out of love for God and love for our neighbors that we do these work and it's all grace.

It's all a gift. They're not meant to be fighting against each other in our lives.

And so another thing I'd like to point out is because it's a gift, real quick turn to Revelation 19.

I think it was several weeks ago that Michael talked about the parable of the wedding feast where the groom invited people to come and they didn't come.

And so he said, go out in the highways and the byways and find anyone you can.

And one interesting thing about that story is they go around and there was someone there at the wedding that wasn't wearing the right clothes.

He wasn't wearing the wedding garments. And in that lesson, I thought it was so interesting because the clothes for the wedding were provided by the groom.

The groom offers the clothes. And so the person that was there at the wedding feast didn't care enough to wear the clothes that the groom had offered.

And this was a guest. This was just someone that had been invited to the wedding. But take a look at Revelations 19, seven through eight.

The writer of Revelation, John, just got talking about the wedding feast and he says this, "'Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory "'for the marriage of the lamb has come "'and his bride has made herself ready.

"'She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure, "'for the fine linen she wears "'is the righteous acts of the saints.'"

God provides us with the righteous acts of the saints.

It's a gift from God. And notice here in the discussion about, are we saved by works?

Are we saved by faith? The clothing doesn't make her the bride. The clothing was a gift to her, right?

The acts of righteousness are a gift to her that she wears because of who she is, because of who she belongs to, but they don't make her the bride.

It's God who calls us and makes us the bride by faith. That's what we're saved by.

And because of who we are and who we belong to, we wear righteous acts.

It's what we do. So we're saved by faith and that makes us who we are. And because of who we are, works is what we do.

And so to sum it all up and to bring it back, we're saved by faith.

We're saved to works. Both faith and works are a gift for us to do.

Let me just read these to you. Philippians 1, 6, and I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Who started the work in you? Jesus did, and he will finish it. Philippians 2, 12, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now so much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is

God who works in you, both to will and to do in his good pleasure.

Again, in Hebrews 12, one through two, therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto

Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

As we walk this Christian life, and as we obey God, and we serve

God, and we work, let us look to Jesus, because he worked and he served, and he's working in us.

It's all grace, it's all faith, and he gives it to us.

Let's praise God for that. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for the work that you are doing.

Help us not to strive in our own flesh, and even out of a desire to serve others, we get entangled in maybe who's watching, or what's in it for us, or all of the things that have to get done, even if we're not doing them out of a selfish motive, we get overwhelmed by the work that needs to be done.

Let us look to Jesus. Let us look to the work that he did, and rest in him, so that we may continue to walk in these gifts that you've given us.

Help us to be grateful for the gifts you've given us. Help us to be grateful for the service and obedience of others.

Help us to show it outwardly, when others serve us.

Maybe be grateful and tell them. Help us to find ways to serve and honor and be faithful to you, knowing all along that it was you that purchased us, that died on the cross, paying for our sins, saving us by faith, so that we would be free to work, and to glorify you in all of these things.

It's in your son's precious name, in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.