Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Romans chapter 4, as Paul is talking to us about justification by faith. That's the doctrine that we believe is evangelicals that sets us apart from really all other people of faith in the world. We believe that a person is justified by God's grace alone through the instrument of faith alone in the person of Christ alone. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one can brag
for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. We don't believe that people are saved because they trust in Jesus Christ and are the members of the true church. Whatever that true church conceives itself to be. Whether it's Catholic or Orthodox or Protestant or Mormon or Jehovah's Witness, we don't believe that you're saved by faith in Christ and your church membership in the best church. We don't believe that you're saved by faith in Jesus Christ and through the merits of Mary or the saints. There is no treasury of merit that we pull off of so that those who've gone before us have somehow managed to increase our chances of being acceptable to God because of the good works they did that we can borrow from. We don't believe that you're saved by Jesus Christ and you participate in a social gospel that somehow is meant to make you more righteous than people who don't participate in that social gospel. We don't believe in Jesus Christ and the salvation through a practice of certain traditions, adherence to certain rules depending upon certain ceremonies or any other thing that man can do to add to the one and finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross period. That's what we believe.
Those whom God has affectionately called, he also freely justified not by infusing righteousness into them but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous, not for anything worked in them or done by them but for Christ's sake alone, nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ to them. They thus receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith, which faith they have, not of themselves, it is the gift of God. That's what our Westminster confession of faith says that evangelicals and Protestants believe. Why do we call it justification by faith alone because our confession says, faith, which is thus the receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument, the singular instrument for our justification. And yet it is never alone. In the person justified, it is ever accompanied with all the other saving graces so that it is never a dead work but a faith working through love. Evangelicals do not deny the importance of a true church or of the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us or a baptism or church membership or good works or even the social dimensions of the gospel or of obedience of doing good things. But we deny that any of these can justify us before God. We are justified only in Jesus Christ and simply because we are united to him by faith. When we believe in Christ, our union with Christ affords for us a divine transfer where our sins become Christ for which he pays and his righteousness becomes ours which is a gift. And therefore it is a salvation by grace and not by performance or good works or obedience or the law. For by grace you have been saved through faith it is the gift of God. This is the doctrine that Paul has been expounding since the opening paragraphs of Romans in chapter 1 where he says I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for everybody who believe. From faith to faith as it is written in the Old Testament, the righteous shall live by faith. He is quoting Habakkuk chapter 2. Behold the soul is puffed up and it is not right within him but the righteous man shall live by faith. So he goes on to show how the Romans who were trusting in their gods as immoral or worse than they were were not going to be justified by those gods because they sinned against the light of nature. And the Greek moralists who thought that they would be justified by their philosophy and their moral superiority to those Roman pagans would not be justified by their conscience because they sinned against the light of what they knew was right and wrong or the Jews who thought they were better than the Greeks and the Romans because they had the mosaic law would not be justified by the law because they sinned against the covenant all of sinned and fallen short of the grace of God. No Paul says there was only one good man, one righteous man. He perfectly obeyed the law of God. He paid for all the sins of the world. He satisfied completely the demands of the law and the sense of justice in his father and forever has appeased the wrath of God against all in righteousness and that man is the Lord Jesus Christ. So that Paul says the righteousness of God is revealed in two ways negatively and frighteningly in the wrath of God but positively and graciously in the person of Jesus Christ so that the one who has faith in Jesus Christ receives that righteousness and is saved from the wrath of God. Now the key question Paul has if you'll notice through these first three or four chapters he's anticipating the questions of the Romans and the Greeks and the Jews and he's asking these rhetorical questions and then answering them he comes the end of chapter three and he says well all this talk about being justified by grace through faith and Christ and only by him. This is due away with the Old Testament. Look at chapter three verse 31. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary we uphold the law. What he's anticipating is the Jewish people, even the Greeks and even the Romans saying, well wait a minute Paul, aren't you a Jew? Aren't you saying that there's one true God who revealed himself to Abraham and Moses and David in the Old Testament and are you saying then that everything that Moses wrote to us or that came from the prophets are in the sacred writings is now null and void because Jesus has suddenly showed up and Paul says oh no on a quite the contrary the work of Jesus Christ and his saving grace makes all of the Old Testament make sense. We do not nullify the law rather we establish it because of Jesus Christ and here's his argument if someone anyone in the world could be saved it had to be Father Abraham the spiritual father of the Jews the spiritual father of the Christians and we learn later on in history the spiritual father of people who claim that they are Muslims the father of all people who believe in one God what about this man how was he saved if Abraham was saved by works then everybody has to be saved by their performance but if Abraham was saved by grace then we all need to be saved by grace through faith because we are the children of Abraham that's how Paul writes throughout the New Testament know then that those who are faith are the sons of Abraham for in Christ Jesus you are sons of God through faith and if you are Christ then your Abraham's offspring errors according to the promise and so when Romans chapter 4 Paul has one long paragraph of 25 verses and one powerful argument for justification by faith alone Abraham but he breaks it down to three powerful points that he makes that if these things were true of Abraham they must be true for you and me incidentally this is my last sermon to you in Romans I'm told that our friend Harry Reader made it through chapter 6 in Romans and then he went to Briarwood I made it through chapter 4 of Romans and I'm going off to Non-Nahlan I suggest you strongly that you not let Kevin De Young preach through Romans for at least 20 years or you lose him too what is this wonderful truth he's saying well he's saying that there are three things that we need to learn from Abraham here's the first one Abraham was justified by a gift from God not something he earned it was a gift from God Romans chapter 4 verse 1 what then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh for Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before God for what does the scripture say what does the Bible say Paul asks Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness now to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift but as his do and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justify the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one whom God counts righteous apart from the works saying blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin Paul's method of argument is simple here it is if there is another way to be saved other than justification by faith in Christ alone than the Jews would have found it because they are the old testament people of God and so they need to look at their father Abraham and ask the question how was Abraham saved because that's the way to do it James boy says Paul begins with Abraham and it is clear why he does so Abraham was the acknowledged father of the Jewish people and with the exception of Jesus himself the most important person in all of the scriptures Abraham is a giant in the scripture he is physically the father of the Jewish and Arab peoples through Isaac and his male respectively he is spiritually the father of all to believe this most Jew and Gentile he is our father in the faith if we have believed in Jesus in the New Testament the origins of salvation are always traced back to Abraham now listen if Paul can show that Abraham the father of all faithful people came into a right relationship with God by faith and not by any amount of human good works his case is proved then the gospel is expounding his truth the true gospel there can be no other but if he cannot prove this truth then the case for Christianity is lost before it begins everything hinges on Abraham now the Lord said to Abraham go from your country and your kindred people move from your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed Genesis 12 1 to 3 in you Abraham all mankind we'll find favor with God Charles Erdman said if Abraham was not justified by works then no one could be if he was justified by faith there could be no other way of justification for any man so Paul what shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh and the answer is well it depends upon whether or not Abraham earned his salvation or just received it as a gift if he earned did he ask something to boast of but Paul says you know Abraham never boasted before God because you see if a person works what they work for is what they do God's doing them no favor by giving them what they deserve but if they receive something they don't deserve something they don't work for something they haven't earned where they don't have enough merit to receive it then it's a gift they are saved not by works but by grace not because they obeyed God but because they believed in his promise and that's exactly what he says happened for what does the scripture say verse 3 Abraham believed God he had faith in God he trusted God and this was counted to him as righteousness now where where does Paul get this idea is he reading his theology back into the Old Testament oh no he's reading the life of Abraham into the gospel turn to Genesis chapter 15 this is where Paul is actually coined when he says what does the scripture say Genesis 15 says this Genesis 15 verse 1 after these things were the Lord came to Abraham in the vision fear not Abram I am your shield and your reward shall be very great but Abram said oh Lord God what will you give me for I continue childless and the air of my house is Ellie Azer of Damascus only the servants an Abram said behold you have given me no offspring and a member of my household will not be my
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 run him outside and said look look toward the heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them then he said to him so shall your offspring be look at this powerful statement and he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness God said Abram you go out from your country and go to this new promised land and I will make you the blessings of all the people in the earth through you all mankind will be saved Abram said I need a son to do that if my descendants are to be like the stars of the sea I got to start with one and I don't have one I'm old and I'm impotent and my wife is barren and God said no you don't need to adopt your servant and make him your air I will give you an air look at these stars can you count them Abram said I can't he said that I'm telling you that's as many spiritual children as you will have from your own son from your own body and Abraham believed at nothing more than a promise and it was counted to him as righteousness then if we read on down the story God does an amazing thing he says bring a heifer to me bring a bring a cow a steer and divide it so Abraham cuts it up he makes an aisle way like this folks he puts half of the animal parts here half of the other parts here because he's cutting a covenant he's making a covenant with a superior being he's saying God I will keep my part of this agreement with you or I will end up like these animals I make this pledge in my own blood and God is saying I will keep my part of the covenant or I will be like these animals in my own blood but then an amazing thing happens the usual procedure was the inferior person Abraham walks down between these pieces and pledges his loyalty to the superior agreement God and God then escorts him back down and makes his pledge but what happens in the story God makes Abraham go into a trance so that Abraham is watching what happens and God walks down to Abraham and walks back God is saying I will keep your part of the deal and my part of the deal and if this deal is broken I will pay for it in my own blood and Abraham believe that and he was justified it's an amazing story that God would say to Abraham I'm going to make a covenant with you and I'm going to carry it all myself I will not take your life for the life of your son Isaac but you will break my covenant many times I will pay the blood price for that broken covenant not in Isaac but in my own boy in my own son Jesus Christ all you have to do Abraham is believe me trust me and I will do it and Abraham said I believe you and God said good enough he wasn't the only one like this David believe this Paul says and he quotes David's 30 seconds on blesses the one whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity it literally reads who imputes no iniquity and in his spirit there is no deceit David believe that our sins were not impudent to us if we dealt honestly with God and believed him we would be blessed we would be saved so the Jews will say well that sounds good but then what about circumcision why did God make such a big deal with Abraham about circumcision isn't it true Paul that it is by being circumcised that we become the children of God and through circumcision we are saved you know before we're too hard on the Jews just take out the word circumcision put in the word baptism and you hear what about 75% of Christians believe that somehow baptism contributes to our salvation and Paul says well let's look at that because timing is everything Abraham received justification as a gift Abraham was justified without circumcision look at verse 9 is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised for we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness how then was it counted to him was it before or after he had been circumcised it was not after but before he was circumcised he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised the purpose was to make him the father of all who believed without being circumcised so that righteousness would be counted to them as well and to make him the father of all the circumcised who not merely circumcised but who also walked in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised for the promise to Abraham and who was offspring was that he would be the heir of the world that did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith for it is it is the adherence of the law who are to be ears faith is null and the promise is void for the law brings wrath but where there is no law there is no transgression Paul says look let's go chronologically here you know the story of Abraham chapter 12 he's 75 years old God says follow me and in you all the families of the earth will be saved okay he's 99 years old 24 years later God calls him and he gives him a sign of the covenant circumcision chapter 17 but in between 15 years before he was circumcised in chapter 15 he believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteous do you see that he was called 15 20 years later he was justified 15 years later he was circumcised now ask me the question was he say when he was circumcised or before he was circumcised before he was justified by his faith in God's promise at least 15 maybe 20 years before he was circumcised as Paul said the circumcision was a seal of the righteousness he had by faith God said look if you ever come to the point where you doubt that you are saved by faith look to your circumcision or as Colossian says to us look to baptism the circumcision made without human hands look to the fact that you one day stood on the stage of a church called Christ covenant and you said that you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner and that you receive Jesus Christ as a son of God and save your sins that you gave yourself to the Holy Spirit that you dedicated your children to God and claim the covenant promise and count that day as a guarantee
something you can see and feel to guarantee that you were trusting in God to save you by his grace through his son Jesus Christ we do it all the time we talk out of both sides of our mouth we believe that a person is only justified through faith in Jesus Christ but my baptism had something to do with it you know it did not your baptism was given to you as our little confession of aces as a sign and a seal that is a symbol and a guarantee that God's promise is true it doesn't even say that much about you it's as everything about God I will be a God to you and to your children after you to a thousand generations and you will be my people therefore circumcise yourself put a mark on your flesh to remind you of the promise God made to you to remind you of how faithful God is to remind you that there's nothing you can do but trust in God's covenant grace you and your children that's what Paul told the Philippian jailer when he said what must I do to be saved he said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved you and your household and that day it says he was baptized both him and his household if justification came by circumcision then the Old Testament lies it's not true because it said in chapter 15 of Genesis when Abram was about 85 years old or so that he was justified then how can it be so the 15 or 20 years later when he's 99 he was circumcised and that when he was justified now which time was he justified when God gave him the promise or when he went through the ceremony Paul says timing is everything he was declared righteous by God without circumcision so that listen to this wonderful promise so that Abraham could be an example to all those who were circumcised as infants in the Jewish synagogue or who had never been circumcised as infants in the city of Rome or Athens or Washington DC a God for both the circumcised and the uncircumcised the Jew first and also the Greek the covenant people and the pagans they all go to the same God claiming the same promise in the same Savior that they will be justified because they trust in Jesus and nothing else so the question becomes is this really reasonable and Paul says it is Abraham was justified through a rational trust in God Paul says there are four things that Abraham did that you and I must do and none of them defy reason in fact all of them call upon a rational mind here's the first thing Abraham believed that God was a supernatural being that God could do whatever he wanted to do because he was God chapter 4 verse 16 that is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring not only to the adherence of the law but also those who share the faith of Abraham who was the father of all of us as is written I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of God the God in whom he believed who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist Abraham believed two things about God that God can get life to the dead
and that he calls into existence the things that do not exist Abraham believed in Genesis 1 and 2 the God took a bunch of dust and made a person who was dead then breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living being if God can bring life to a dusty hunk of clay and make it a living being then God can bring life to a soul dead in sins no problem that God calls out of existence the things that are not and they begin to exist God said let there be and there was it shows no problem for God to say here's a dead body with a dead womb out of the deadness of the impotent man in that van woman I will bring the life of Isaac it's no harder for me to do that than it was to make Adam out of dust it's not a problem all I have to say is let it be and it will be when we say that we don't believe that God can justify a person simply trusting in Jesus Christ we are saying we don't believe that God is God but is no harder for God
to sacrifice himself for me and raise that boy from the dead then it was for him to bring a dead womb to life resulting in Isaac or dead hunk of clay to be all of mankind this is not too difficult for God we must believe that number two we must believe God in the light of honest assessment of our own condition this is where Abraham is very rational verse 18 and hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations as had been told so shall your offspring be he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the beariness of Sarah's womb it's a powerful statement and hope he believed against hope meaning in spite of his hopeless situation he says the God just curious can I ask a question how many hundred year old men who have a 99 year old wife who's never been able to conceive how many people like that have you given a baby too and what's the answer none but does that mean I can't Paul is not asking you and me to look beyond the hopelessness of our human situation do you think for a second I'm going to ask you a question you want to answer this for yourself but I want you to verbally answer this about me do you think I'm a perfectly righteous man how many say yes well that's kind of discouraging but isn't that the truth and how can he take somebody like me and say you know I'm going to treat you like Christ our hope is not irrational it is rational because it's based on a reasonable basis John Stott to be sure faith goes beyond reason but it is always firmly rational as its basis in particular faith is believing or trusting a person and its reasonable depends on the reliability of the person being trusted it is always reasonable to trust the trustworthy person and there is no one more trustworthy than God as Abraham well knew and as we are privileged to know even more confidently than Abraham because we live after Jesus Christ raised his front from the dead because promised and did so we can look at the hopeless situation and be honest about it that leads us to the third thing Abraham did he trusted the character of God who always keeps his promises verse 20 no unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God but he grew strong in faith as he gave glory to God being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised what a marvelous truth this is the heart of the whole argument here God is not a man that he should lie know the son of man that he should change his mind has he spoken thing will it not come to pass has he promised and will he not do it you see there's one thing God can't do he cannot lie and fail to keep his promises that's the one thing in the only thing he can't do not that he'd ever want to because the author of Hebrews says when God made a promise to Abraham he had no greater one to swear by than he swore by himself saying surely I will bless you and multiply you and thus Abraham being patient waited and obtained this promise for people swear by something greater than themselves so that all their disputes on oath is therefore confirmed in a final way but when God desired to show more convincingly through the errors of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose he guaranteed it with a nose so that by two unchangeable things God's unchanging character and God's unchanging oath by two unchangeable things in which it's impossible for God to lie we have fled to refuge might have strong encouragement and will faster the hope before us in Jesus Christ when God says I will save you if you trust in Jesus Christ look at me folks look up here this is what he does I swear by myself I swear to God God says I will save you I will justify you I will bless you if you simply cling to Jesus Christ in faith and Abraham said if God makes a promise to me that's good enough because Abraham did a fourth thing he trusted in the purpose of God which was to save all mankind to his own descendant to Abraham's son that is why faith was counted to him as righteousness but the words it was counted we're not written for his sake alone but for ours also it will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord who was delivered up for our transgression and raised for our justification see Abraham realized that there was a connection I want you to hear me there's a connection between the person of God the purpose of God the plan of God and the promise of God the person of God the supernatural being can do whatever he wants to do what does he want to do he wants to save mankind as a gift for his son today I have made the my king and I make this decree I have begotten thee ask of me the nations of the earth and I will get them to you as your inheritance they're very ends of the world for your own possession the person of God has a great purpose he wants to save humanity for his son so he makes a plan a plan that involves Abraham that Abraham will begin a family that will become a tribe that will become a clan that will become a people that become a nation that will become Israel and out of that mass of Jewish humanity one little boy will be born one day who will save us all both God's son and Abraham's son God and a Jewish man in one person and then he makes this promise you believe that you believe that and you are redeemed you don't believe that and there's nothing else I will do for you you will come to my son Jesus Christ and you will love him and trust him and believe in him or you won't come to me at all this is my promise this is my plan this is my purpose and I swear by myself believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved you and your children trust my promise and I will count you as a righteous person worthy to live with me forever thanks be to God for his promise and for his champion Jesus Christ let's pray father we now see how all through the old testament you were building everything to the person of Jesus Christ and his atoning work and you've made it easy for us you've released us from a covenant of works by which we would have to obey you perfectly in order to be saved or somehow a tone for all of our sins by all of our good works which we could never do we look at that hopeless situation as hopeless as an impotent man and a barren wife of having a child and you have given us the hope of Jesus Christ that in him all mankind will be blessed in him all who trust in your great promise of the gospel will be saved in Jesus Christ we shall all be made righteous because we have faith in him there's something about us Lord we need to be honest with you there's something about us that always wants to earn your favor we acknowledge this day that that can never be done and that only one has earned your favor
Jesus Christ and now we believe who you are a great and gracious God we believe your character that you are giving and gracious forgiving God we believe your plan to save us by grace since we can't be saved by works we believe your promise that if we receive the gift of Jesus Christ we shall be united to him and all that belongs to Jesus resurrection in glory and blessing will be ours as well give us this gift today the gift of repentance and faith give us the assurance of your promise that is we now at this moment believe in Jesus Christ we will be justified once and for all and save from our sins forever we have nothing to boast of but we boast in the Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have been saved and we do so in Jesus name amen