On this Resurrection Sunday together, it was a couple of weeks ago, I was studying the book of Romans with a brother in a time of discipleship, and we were going through Romans 4, and we read the end of the chapter, and we were studying it, and I thought, that's what I want to study, and that's what I want to preach on, on Resurrection morning, which turned out to be Resurrection evening, here as we're all together. Man plans his way, but God determines his steps, doesn't he? Okay, Romans chapter four. And what I want to do is just bring you a Bible study together, a sermon from God's word, really asking and answering this question. Why do we celebrate on Resurrection Sunday? Well, why do we celebrate? Why are we people of joy? People with hearts that are filled with not just a daily happiness that comes and go and you're together with family and eating, but a true joy that is given by God, an unshakable joy that is not contingent upon external circumstances. How do we get that? And why do we as Bible-believing Christians celebrate on this Resurrection Sunday? So let's go to the Lord in prayer, and then we'll study Romans chapter four together. Father, thank you for each one here in this room. Thank you that we can worship you together as we together read the word in Romans four, as we sit under the teaching of your word in Romans four, as we want to understand the meaning of the text and apply it to our lives so that we can be grateful and joyful and celebrate and boast in the cross and in the empty tomb of our Savior Jesus. This is, after all, the greatest message of Christianity, the unique message of Christianity, that the tomb is empty and that Jesus is alive. Teach us, we pray, illumine our hearts with the glory of Christ and the glory of your In Jesus' name, amen. On this day, Christians gather all around the world, or maybe it might be more appropriate, they have gathered all around the world to celebrate. But it's not only on this Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, that we celebrate what God has done. We as evangelical Bible-believing Christians can celebrate 365 days a year. We can celebrate 52 weeks out of the year that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. This is our joyous celebration. This is our only boast as New Testament believers. But you and I are not unique in this. Believers today around the world that have worshiped the risen Savior were not unique in this. This was the belief and the celebration of the early church. I think of Acts chapter 13. Paul is on his missionary journey and he is preaching and he loves to say that you put Jesus on the cross, but God raised him from the dead, Acts 13, 30. Romans 10 and verse 9, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. The Apostle Paul knew that, he preached that, he believed that, he wrote that. In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul goes into a discourse about what happens if the dead are not raised and what happened if Jesus was not raised from the dead. And then Paul, after that discourse, says in 1 Corinthians 15, 20, but now Christ has been raised from the dead. He affirms that Jesus has risen. from the dead. In the book of Ephesians chapter one, Paul is writing to the church and he says that God did raise Christ from the dead and God seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. He writes early on to the church of the Thessalonians and he tells them that we wait for God's son from heaven, whom God raised from the dead, that is Jesus. who rescues us from the wrath to come. 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 10. Even the apostle Peter is writing to early believers who are scattered and persecuted for their faith in 1 Peter 1.21 where Peter says that God raised Christ from the dead and God gave him glory so that your faith and your hope are in God. Your faith and your hope are in God. So we learn from God's word and we are exhorted in the scripture to believe in this God, to worship this God, to celebrate what God has done. Psalm 35, David says in verse nine, my soul will rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult. in his salvation. We have every reason to do that today. If David could write that in 1000 BC, we can surely say that in 2018 AD with the fullness of God's revelation that he's given in God's word, that we can rejoice in the Lord, our soul can exult in his salvation. or Habakkuk, the model of Habakkuk in chapter three in verse 18, where after recounting all the suffering that God could bring in his life, he then goes on to say, but I will rejoice in God, the God of my salvation. I will rejoice in God. So for us, we can rejoice. For us, we can exult, we can give thanks, we can and we must celebrate. We rejoice and we celebrate on this Resurrection Sunday. And the question is, well, why can you celebrate? Why do we as evangelical Christians who hold God's word as our only ultimate authority, God's sufficient and clear and true word, why do we celebrate? Well, Romans 4 is gonna help with that. Now, in Romans chapter 1, the Apostle Paul makes it very clear in Romans 1 verse 4 that Jesus was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. He was declared without a shadow of a doubt to be truly divine by his resurrection from the dead. And then Paul is gonna go on to this discourse to lay out for the Roman Christians the great plan of God in redemption. So he begins in chapter 1 by talking about the sinfulness of man, how all mankind, all human flesh has rebelled against God and turned away from God in outright rebellion, and yet all are without excuse. The Jews are guilty. The Gentiles are guilty. In fact, it's so bad that Romans 3 will have a whole litany of Old Testament scriptures in Romans 3, 10 to 18, where he's going to say, there is not even one who is righteous. Not even, not even one. There is not even one who does good. There is not even one who can please God. There's no fear of God before their eyes. Paul will say it like this, that the Jews and the Greeks are all together under the weight of sin. It's like sin is like a 10,000 pound bar full of weights and we're stuck under it and there's no way that we can get out from it in our own strength. Utterly impossible. But then in Romans chapter three and verse 21, Paul is gonna turn the whole letter and he's gonna give the good news because he's given the bad news. And the bad news is that we are so sinful and cannot do anything about it. But Romans 3.21 says, but now, apart from the law, apart from law keeping, Apart from merit, apart from your effort, apart from your ceremony and your sacrifice, the righteousness of God has been revealed. It's been manifested. Verse 22, what kind of righteousness is it? Verse 22, it comes through faith in Jesus Christ. How can a sinner be righteous before God? And the answer Paul gives is the only way that you can be counted righteous is through faith in Christ. You can be justified as a gift by God's grace. Why? Because God gave his son and put him forward as a wrath-quenching substitute so that you might be saved by his blood through faith. All of that leads to Romans 4. Paul is writing to the Roman believers and he knows that there's a lot of Jewish people there in this congregation. So Romans 4 is gonna take the great model of Jewish history, Abraham. And in Romans chapter 4, Paul gives an example that Abraham was saved by faith alone. Really simply, Romans 4 in verses 1 to 8 says this, Abraham was not justified by his works. That's 1 to 8. He is not justified by his works. And then in verses 9 to 12, Paul will say that Abraham was not justified by his circumcision. The Jewish people prided themselves in that right of circumcision, but Abraham wasn't saved by that. And then in verses 13 to 17, Paul's gonna say that Abraham wasn't justified by keeping the law. He wasn't good enough. He did not keep the law to be right with God. But then in verses 18 all the way to 22, he's gonna say in the positive, he was justified by faith. He was justified by faith. And all of that, you see it there in verse 22, this is the conclusion. This is the capstone. This is like the main punch of Paul's argument in verse 22. Therefore, it was credited to him as righteousness. The whole section here is showing Abraham as the supreme Old Testament example of somebody who was saved and justified by faith, alone and not by works. What an amazing thought that Abraham who grew old in his faith, he did not waver in his unbelief, he gave glory to God. He was fully convinced and utterly confident that what God promised, even though it seemed impossible, God was faithful to do it. What a great lesson. Even though you look before you and you say, there's not any explanation for how that could be done. Like Abraham, count the stars, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars. How could that be possibly explained in a human reasoning? But Abraham believed in the Lord's word. And because of God's grace, and through the faith of Abraham, it was reckoned to him as righteousness. But now look at verse 23, and I wanna show you this. It was not for his sake only that it was written, that it was credited to him, but for our sake as well. So now Paul's gonna turn the application now to you and to me. This is not only a nice story about Abraham that happened in 2000 BC, this is actually a very practical and worthwhile story for you and for me to study. Not only for his sake, but for ours as well. It will be credited, verse 24, as those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Here's the great thing. This is talking about Abraham who believed in God against all odds. And God saved him. God did the impossible. God credited righteousness to Abraham all by grace, all by grace, all through Abraham's faith. And it's not just a nice story for Abraham alone, but it's for you and for me, the text says. So let us remember that the Bible is always relevant. The Bible is a timeless book. The Old Testament is full of applicable and useful information. Not only nice stories written generations ago, but as Paul even puts it right here in verse 23 and 24, it's written for our sake as well. for our sake. Because Abraham's story of faith right here that we're going to look at serves not just as a story of historical curiosity, but it's a model, it's a pattern of how God saves people. It's a pattern for how God credits a foreign righteousness to sinners by faith alone. That's important. It is an alien righteousness, external to us, credited to us by faith alone. And that's the point of Romans chapter four, that sinners have only and always been saved by faith. and faith alone. Now, I want to read this. Read with me Romans 4. I want to begin in verse 23 and then I'll just read to the end of the chapter and we will zoom in on those verses here. for our time together. Listen to what God's Word says. Romans 4 verse 23. Now, not for his, not for Abraham's sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also to whom it will be credited. as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He who was delivered over because of our transgressions and who was raised because of our justification. So why do we celebrate on Resurrection Sunday? Why do we celebrate not just on this Sunday, but every day of the year? Why do we have a living hope? I wanna give you five reasons. And these five reasons are just single words. And these are words or concepts that come out of these couple of verses. You can jot them down or you could remember them. We celebrate because of these five reasons. And these are five words that really bring us to the heart of the gospel. Number one, we celebrate because of imputation. We'll talk about that, imputation. Number two, we celebrate because of faith. Faith, salvation is by faith. Third, we're gonna look at this. We celebrate because of resurrection. Resurrection. Fourth, we celebrate because of substitution. Substitution. And then fifth, we celebrate because of justification. Now, I wanna walk through very briefly. We don't have the time to go deep into all of these five topics. These are gonna take us right to the center point of the gospel, right to the Mount Everest of the gospel, right to the very climax of the gospel. But we wanna scratch the surface of these wonderful and rich and biblical concepts tonight as to why we celebrate. Number one, we celebrate because of imputation. imputation. You see it right there in in verse 22. Therefore, it was credited, it was imputed to Abraham as righteousness. Now, not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited. I love this. The simple point here is that the gospel teaches that there is a righteousness that can be downloaded into your account that has nothing to do with your merit, nothing to do with your achievement, nothing to do with your deservedness, nothing to do with your accomplishments. It is God reckons, he imputes, he grants into your account a righteousness to believing sinners. I love how in verse 24 it says, for our sake also to whom it will be reckoned. That's really the repeated word, the repeated phrase in Romans 4 and Romans 5, that righteousness can be reckoned to your account. That answers the question of all religion. How can a man be right before God? This is the answer right here. It can only be reckoned. The man can only be righteous through the reckoning, the imputed righteousness of Christ. It's like an accounting term. It's like a credit to our account. In fact, it makes me think of a couple of months ago, they were doing all kinds of work outside our home and our street. And I received a letter and received bills after that for a few months, and there was a large credit to our account. Because of all the work and all the labor that was going on right outside our driveway, I get a bill in the mail and here's what I owe. Negative. I've not received that before. So I was very grateful to see that. I get another bill the next month. I owe negative. And that happened for a number of months. And I thought, this is amazing. I have been credited. I didn't do anything to deserve it. I didn't merit it. I didn't ask for it. I didn't do anything to accomplish or achieve it by my own effort. It was given to me and credited to my account. Now, sadly, I'm paying the bill again. It didn't last forever. But that's what the gospel does. It is a credit to our account before the eyes of an infinitely holy God. It's actually an accounting term. It's an accounting term that means that God imputes, He downloads the full and the perfect and the alien righteousness of Jesus Christ. One of Martin Luther's favorite phrases, was that I've been saved by an alien righteousness. That's a good thought. Not my own. Like the blog that I read earlier said, I have been saved by works, just not my own. I've been saved by the works of another. and they have been reckoned to my account." So I don't reckon it, God does. It is an undeserved crediting to one's account. And here's the glorious thing about imputation. It is all of grace. It is all of grace. Turn the page with me just to chapter 5. Really, really quickly. Romans chapter 5 and verse 18. You and I know that. We get it. "'You and I have sinned.'" Verse 19 continues, "'Even so, through one act of righteousness, "'there resulted justification of life to all men.'" Verse 19, "'As through the one man's disobedience, "'the many were made sinners, "'even so through the obedience of the one, "'the many will be made righteous.'" How are you made righteous? But through the righteousness, through the obedience, through the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So back to Romans four, when Paul says that we have been credited, it is a gospel that is all about being credited with the righteousness of God through faith. Here's the great news, it is a forensic righteousness. Forensic meaning it's law, courtroom language, it's a divine righteousness. It is an instantaneous righteousness. You and I can't do anything to improve it. But it is an instantaneous, full and complete download into our account at the moment of saving faith, God reckons you as righteous. And as I said earlier, it is an undeserved righteousness. The same God who credited faith to Abraham as righteousness will also credit righteousness to you and to me if we believe upon him, if we trust in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. If you've trusted in Christ, if your hope rests in him and him alone, all of the perfect obedience of the divine Son of God is reckoned downloaded, credited, imputed to your account in full. That's why Jesus can look at you, even as a sinner, and he can see you as being righteous before his very eyes, because you stand righteous, clothed in the merit of another. So you can take your account with all of the debts that you and I have heaped and are still heaping up, the incalculable debt that it is, that the punishment and the repayment and all the guiltiness that's there, and we can all say that it was reckoned to the account of Christ on the cross, he bore it in full, and God imputes the righteousness to you and me, all of that merit of Christ. Roman Catholics have what they call a treasury of merit. It's tragic because there's only one perfect merit that we need. And it's not a treasury that somebody needs to try to find and attain and get a part of today. It is the merit found in the Lord Jesus Christ that is granted instantaneously at saving faith, all by God's grace. So the first theological point that we see in verses 23 and 24 is this concept of imputation. Why do we celebrate? Here's just one reason. Because of imputation. Imputation. Another is faith. Number two, faith. Now, this is how Paul writes it, right here in verse 24, that it was also for our sake written, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in him, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Just very simply, salvation is through faith. It is through faith and faith alone. Well, here's the question, what's faith? Let me just remind you very briefly, very simply, Hebrews 11 reminds us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. What does that mean? That means it is a steadfast. That means it is an unwavering. That means it is a commitment. It is an allegiance to what isn't seen. namely Christ. It is a commitment. It is an unwavering, steadfast resolve to cling to Christ and to Him alone. I love how verse 24, in really kind of a unique way, the New Testament usually says, believe on Christ. And yet here, verse 24 says, believe on Him, the Father, who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. What does it mean? to believe in Him who raised Jesus from the dead. Well, we must believe in the biblical Jesus, that God raised this Jesus. You must believe in the biblical Jesus and who He is and what He accomplished at Calvary and that He actually died and He actually was buried and He actually was raised again and He actually is seated at the Father's right hand and He will come back. to judge the living and the dead. Look at how Paul says it here. We believe in Him who raised Jesus. Here's saving faith, our Lord. Saving faith means that you call Jesus Lord. It means that you trust in Him as Lord. It means that you bow the knee in surrender, in allegiance, in commitment to this. We believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord, and then the phrase, from the dead. We must believe in that. So faith is to trust entirely in the biblical Jesus. It is to submit to Him as King, and to rely upon His resurrection. Rely upon His resurrection. That Jesus would spell it out even more. John chapter eight, He would say to people who claimed to believe in Him, John 8, 31, if you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. Or the book of Hebrews chapter three says that we are partakers of Christ. We are united to Christ if we hold fast. That's saving faith. If we are clinging to, if we are holding fast our assurance firm until the end. Full allegiance. Total surrender, clinging to Jesus Christ alone. Somebody might say, there's no way that a dead sinner, lost in his sin, as Sean mentioned, dead in our transgressions, how could he do that? Answer, he can't. That's why Ephesians 2 verse 8 says, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And that faith, is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of work so that no one may boast. So it is to reject all other trusts and it is to cling to Jesus Christ alone for all of our hope and all of our salvation. This is God's way of salvation. In the Old Testament and in the New, for you and me today, anywhere in the world and all of human history, the only way to be reconciled to God is through faith, faith alone. Now, we celebrate because of imputation. We celebrate because salvation is by faith, and that's good news. It's good news that Paul would say in Romans chapter three that we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. We glory in that. We celebrate that salvation is simply and solely by faith, by faith alone. So we celebrate because of imputation, faith. Third, we celebrate because of resurrection. That's fitting for today, as we remember and especially celebrate Resurrection Sunday. But look at what Paul says right here in verse 24. He says that we believe in Him, that is God the Father, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. So much has been written on this. You and I understand it. There have been so many books and articles and essays that are written that give such great ways to word the hope that we have in the resurrection. This is our Christian health. This is what makes Christianity unique. This is what distinguishes you and me from every other religious person in the world. Because we believe in a Savior who lives. We believe in a Savior who did not succumb to the power of death and stay there. But he triumphed over the grave. I love the way one lady once put it. She said, why am I a Christian? I'm a Christian because my Savior is alive. And because of him, I live. He is in heaven and he lives for me. Now, if you would, I want to build on this with you briefly. Go to 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Now this is the great resurrection chapter. Evidently there was some bad teaching going on in the Corinthian church. And in this letter, the apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthians and he says, Now, I have to clarify, I have to make known the clear, simple, foundational gospel for you. I wanna talk about this resurrection, and let's just begin in verses one and two, and let's just say the resurrection of Jesus is perfect. It's perfect in verse one. I make known to you, brethren, the gospel, which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. It is a perfect resurrection because it is the good news. Right here in verse one, Paul says, I'm gonna tell you the gospel, the good news. You and I know good news. When good news happens, you talk about it. When a baby is born, you talk about it. When a grandbaby is born, you talk about it. When something that is worthy of celebration and joy happens, you talk about it. Well, that's what Paul does in verse one. Here's the gospel, the good news of which I tell you. He's gonna talk about the resurrection of Christ. It is a perfect plan of God. The resurrection, is also preeminent, not just perfect, but preeminent. Look at verse three, for I delivered to you as of first importance, never forget the resurrection is a core doctrine. It's not a peripheral thing that we can agree to disagree. Maybe there wasn't enough historical proof, and I don't know if I'm quite there. I don't know. This is vital, and under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit guiding Paul's hand, he says this is of first. This is of preeminent importance. What's the gospel? Verse three, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried, that shows he was really dead, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. That leads us to another element of the resurrection. It is perfect, it was preeminent, it was also prophesied. that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Did you know a thousand years before Jesus came, there was a king in Israel who wrote in Psalm 16 about one that would rise. That is to say he would not see decay. And we know this is so clear because Peter preached it in Acts chapter two, that Jesus did not see decay. David saw decay. Every other person who's died has seen decay, but not the Lord Jesus. It was prophesied in the Old Testament, this resurrection. It was a perfect resurrection. It was a preeminent resurrection. It was a prophesied resurrection. We could also say it is a supernatural resurrection because in verse four, he was raised. It's a passive. Theologians call it a divine passive. That is to say God raised him up on the third day. He was raised. Who raised him? God. God raised him up. God did what was impossible. No one else can give life from the dead. No one else can conquer the grave. No one else can triumph over the grave. God has that power. It also leads me to this. It is a very public resurrection of Jesus. Look at verse five. Paul's gonna continue and say, and then he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12. And after that, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now. But this is a very public, this isn't some guy rising from the dead last week in the quietness of his own home saying, I died this week. and I rose up from the dead. Why? Because I said so. No, no, no. Here's 500 plus witnesses who can verify and validate, I saw him in his life, I saw him on the cross, I saw him being put in the tomb, and now he's alive. He's alive. It was a very public resurrection. which also, the resurrection of Jesus, is life-giving. Look, let your eyes skip down to verse 20, 1 Corinthians 15, 20. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, that's Adam, By a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive." This is the great hope of the resurrection. That just as Jesus lives, He gives life to all of His people. If you're a Christian today, it is due to the fact that Jesus is alive from the dead. You are a Christian. You are a partaker of eternal life because you serve the living and the risen King. By the way, all of this is just one more point. The resurrection of Jesus is also very practical. It's also very practical because Paul writes in verse one of Corinthians chapter 15, I make known to you brethren, the gospel, which I preached to you, which also you received in which you stand. We stand in this. This is our hope. At the end of the chapter, verse 58, therefore, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain. Verse 58. The resurrection is very practical. This is what gives you and I hope to keep serving, to keep working, to be steadfast, to be immovable, always abounding in in God's work. Beloved flock, back to Romans 4, you and I can glory in this. You and I can, you cannot, you and I can get this. We can go with this. We can tell others of this. We can get strength by this. We can, we can go on in the fear of the Lord through what has been revealed in 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 4, that we believe in him. who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. It's historical fact, and it's true. We celebrate, number one, because of imputation, number two, because of faith, number three, because of resurrection, now number four, a fourth reason why you and I can celebrate today, number four, because of substitution. Verse 25, he who was delivered over because of our transgressions. Delivered over. Martin Luther read this verse and he said, Christ's death is the death of sin. And Christ's resurrection is the raising up of righteousness. One theologian of the past century said of Romans 4.25, this verse is a comprehensive statement of the whole gospel. And I love it because in verse 25, there are two verbs and they're both passive. That means God did the work. He was delivered over and he was raised up. What does that mean? God delivered Jesus over And God raised him up. God did it. God did the work. All glory to God for what we're going to see in verse 25. Look at it here in your text. He who was delivered over because of transgressions. Christ was given over? Delivered over, handed over to die. because of our sins. We broke God's law. We are the transgressors. We are the ones who in 1 John, the apostle John says, sin is lawlessness. We're guilty. We've broken the law. We are guilty. If we build on this, Amos chapter 5 says our transgressions are many, Amos 5, 12. Isaiah 53 says that our transgressions are punishable. Isaiah 59 says our transgressions are with us. Galatians 3 says that our transgressions are exposed. Ephesians 2, our transgressions destroy, they destroy. And yet, as Romans chapter four is gonna tell us, all of our transgressions can be forgivable. They can be forgiven. Oh, what a great thought to hear the glorious reality of Colossians chapter two and verse 13. When you were dead in your transgressions, God made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all of our transgressions. This is what David said in Psalm 103, and in verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. What a great God. That as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed all of your many transgressions from you. Now look with me carefully at verse 25, this little word, he who was delivered over, he who was handed over, he who was given over. It's a Greek word, it's actually a technical word that's used often in the New Testament letters. That it's a word that means giving someone over for judgment that they deserve. It's Romans 1. God gave them over. God handed them over. That's the same word. It's a technical word that means I've given you over for the judgment that you are worthy to receive. It's a judicial, a forensic, a courtroom, a very deserved judgment. This is why we talk about penal atonement, the penal substitutionary. What does penal mean? It means penalty. It means penalty. This is what the Bible says our sin deserves. This is the glory of Isaiah 53. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him. It's the same word in Romans 8 and verse 32, where the apostle Paul says this, that God did not spare his own son, but God delivered him over for us all. So let your mind imagine this. that in a courtroom, you have God the Father and you have the guilty sinner, you and me. And all of the many, many countless sins and lawless deeds and transgressions that you and I have heaped upon ourselves. And then we see Jesus into the courtroom coming in as the sinless one. And yet he voluntarily, he willingly comes and he takes our place to bear the full divine blow of infinite, angry, eternal punishment for our sins. And God the Father says, well then go. You're guilty. because of our sin credited to him. He stood as the guilty one, the guilty criminal in our place. God delivered him over for our sins. What an amazing phrase, isn't it? To meditate upon that, to think on that, that God would deliver his own son and count him as guilty and treat him as guilty and judge him as if he were guilty. It's a profitable place to even ask, has God delivered his own son for your sins? Has God delivered his own son over? for your transgressions, so that you might be cleared and cleansed and forgiven of all of the guilty deeds that you have done. To all who believe in his name, gives the right to become children of God. That's the hope of the gospel. How do you know that God delivered his son over for you? You say, how do I know? How do I have that assurance? Well, the Bible is so clear. Look at the next verse, Romans five and verse one. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. We have peace with God. That's the substitution. That's the glory of the gospel. And friends, you and I can celebrate today. We can have glad hearts and joyful hearts knowing that Jesus Christ was delivered over for our sins. We can celebrate because of the imputation. We can celebrate because of faith. We can celebrate because of Resurrection, we can celebrate because of. Substitution, now finally number five, and just briefly, as Paul ends Romans 4.25, we celebrate because of justification. Justification. Jesus was raised because of our justification. Why was Jesus raised from the dead? Here's the point of this phrase. We are guaranteed to be reconciled. We are guaranteed to be at union, at peace with God through Jesus Christ and the work that he did on the cross. How key is the resurrection? How important is it? Is it a peripheral doctrine? Is it a side doctrine, an optional doctrine, a secondary doctrine? Paul connects the resurrection with justification. It's a very core doctrine. It's a very central doctrine. This is the very heartbeat of Christianity right here, that we are justified through faith in the resurrected Lamb of God for us. God raised Jesus up. Think of it this way, not only did Jesus die for us, take our sin away, but Jesus also rose up for us and He lives for us. That is our justification in His life. A dead Savior is a powerless Savior. The very fact that God raised His Son from the dead is a validation. It's a certification from God. that all of the work of Christ, not only in dying and taking our sin, but everything that Jesus did in his whole life was enough, perfect, satisfactory, so that by faith in that Savior Jesus, we are declared to be justified through the work of Jesus. God raised him from the dead to show That work is good. That work is sufficient. That work is perfect. That work is enough. A decayed Savior is an impotent Savior. But there is a risen Savior who is a mighty rock. He's a life-giving King. He is a glorious Redeemer and even a soon-coming Lord. I have a book on my shelf written by a man named Christopher Ash, and he said, the resurrection proves that Jesus' wrath-absorbing propitiation was accepted, and therefore it assures us of our justification. The resurrection of Jesus proves to us that God is able to do what he has promised to do. What is that? To give life. to us sinners. He gives life to us. Now, we might read Romans chapter 4 verses 23 to 25 and pull out these five concepts and say, well, here are five key concepts, important key words that describe how we relate to God in the gospel. Imputation, faith, resurrection, substitution, and justification. Here we see the freeness of the gospel. As Sean mentioned in his own testimony, he was not a man who deserved the gospel to come to him. But by the matchless grace of God, he happened to be at the perfect place at the perfect time to hear the message of the gospel and where the spirit of God convicted him of his sin. That's the freeness of the gospel. Any sinner can come and be reconciled to God through this work. of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter how bad somebody's been. It doesn't matter how religious somebody thinks he may have been. It doesn't matter if somebody grew up in the church and didn't really live a rebellious life outright. The freeness of the gospel, whereby a sinner can be right and at peace with the Holy God. We learn about the importance of salvation by faith alone. We gaze upon the atoning lamb, our substitute. We glory in this resurrection of Christ. Maybe I can take all that we've talked about so far and kind of package it in this brief summary of the gospel. all that we've talked about from Romans 1 to 4, and then zooming in in those final verses, let me summarize everything that we've talked about so far with this, that God has a law. And he has a law, and God himself is unswervingly committed to, he is uncompromisingly holy and just and righteous in upholding his law and his own character. But you and I, by virtue of the fact that we are human beings, we are, though we are made in his image, and image bearers of God, we have sinned, we have rebelled. We have dirty, vile, corrupt, viper-like hearts that have rebelled against God. We are guilty before God, we are lawbreakers before God, and God sees our hearts as if it were the light of day. And so God then must and he will punish all lawbreakers with an infinite and a holy and a just and, let it be said, a good and a fair wrath. Not because God is some cosmically angry deity, but because he is so uncompromisingly committed to his glorious character. He has to punish sin and sinners. But in his marvelous grace, as we read about in Romans chapter three, God has provided one escape and only one escape. God only had one son. He's the savior of the world. There's only one refuge, one rock, one savior, one atonement, and it's found in the biblical Jesus, the Lord of Glory Himself. The Bible says things like this, that you must repent of your sin, that is, turn to God. You must turn to God in Christ. You must follow Him as your King. You must follow Him as your Lord. You must follow Him as your Master. And even as Jesus Himself said in Luke 9, you gotta do that every day. Every day. But it's a wonderful thing because it all comes to us by God's grace. And when we get the gospel and the Spirit of God opens our blind eyes, we see the darkness of our sin and we see the beauty of our Savior and we say, I will follow Him and I will serve Him. It's like what one author said. When Jesus died, he bore the penal consequences. That is the punishment, the consequences of sin when he died. He bore the consequences of sin in our place as a substitute. I like this. He says, it is a case of exclusive place-taking. Jesus did not share. He did not share in the punishment that we deserve. He took it all. He took it all instead of us. And it is because Christ bore God's wrath in our place that He is able to save us from it. And that Jesus rose from the dead assures us that His life is reckoned to us, and that we are saved by His death for our sin, and that we are saved by His life in our place, and when God looks at us, we are justified, declared right in Him. So, we can celebrate. We can celebrate, we can exult, we can worship Him. For he was delivered over for our transgressions, but he was raised up for our justification. Amen. Lord, thank you for the clear word that you have given in Romans chapter four. Thank you, O God, for the clarity of the gospel. Thank you for the lucid nature of this message of hope and this message of eternal life. As we go from here this evening, O God, may we celebrate, celebrate as those Christians who believe the Bible, who say that Jesus, my Lord, died for my sins and he was buried And he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, for our justification. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.