If you would turn now in your Bibles first to Psalm 32, and then we'll turn to Romans chapter four, the first Psalm 32. This is one of those penitential Psalms, the Psalm of David. This is the word of our God. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found. Surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. And now if you would turn to the New Testament, to Romans chapter four, as we continue our series through this great epistle. Romans chapter 4, I'll be reading verses 1 through 12 again. Our focus will be on verses 4 through 8, with more of an emphasis on 6 through 8. I realize we did in part look at verses 4 and 5 last week, but we need to have that again to properly transition. So Romans chapter 4, beginning at verse 1. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? 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 due. and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. 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. Blessed is a man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. 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 believe without being circumcised so that righteousness would be counted to them as well. and to make him the father of the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy word. One of the things that we've been looking at in particular these number of weeks now as we've gone through Romans is this question of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It is the pivotal doctrine that brought about the Protestant Reformation. Though, of course, Luther himself had to come to the realization that Scripture is the ultimate and final authority for us. And that's how he ultimately, with a little push from Augustine about a thousand years prior to him, was able to revive the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Now we've been stressing for quite some time as we've looked at particularly at that last half of chapter 3 and now beginning in chapter 4 as we looked at Abraham about the reality that what is transpiring in our justification is that righteousness is being reckoned or imputed or counted to your account, and that comes to you through faith in Christ. That's the simple description of what justification is. We take our own Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 33, which, by the way, I would encourage all of you to memorize this. But I'm still going to read it, even though I have it memorized. What is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein He pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. That is perhaps one of the best succinct definitions of the doctrine of justification that we have. Please understand, it's not as though we came up with this doctrine based on the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. Rather, the authors, the framers of the Confession and Catechisms, looked to Scripture to determine the best way to describe what the Bible itself has to say about justification. Now, again, it's important to remember some key categories to help us with this key doctrine. We need to remember that justification is not making us righteous. What it is, is declaring us righteous. That is an exceptionally important distinction. We are legally declared righteous, and it is God himself who legally declares us righteous. And the basis for that is not our own works. We cannot merit salvation. We cannot merit this justification. This righteousness that comes to us, comes to us by what we call imputation. It is credited to our account. Well, where does it come from? It comes from Jesus Christ, who lived An entire life here on Earth. In perfect obedience to God's commands so that his perfect righteousness is credited to the account of those who have faith in him. That's much of what we've been talking about so far, and we're going to keep on talking about this. We looked last week in particular to Abraham because what Paul does, he brings up Abraham and he brings up what scripture has to say about it. Abraham, he goes back to Genesis chapter 15 verse 6 when answering the problem that Abraham saw. How could these things be? How could I have children of my own? How is this possible? Somebody else in my household is going to end up getting all of this. And God promises that a son from him would come. Of course, we know that that is Isaac and that ultimately it is really fulfilled in Jesus Christ, our Lord. But God promised it, and we're told that Abraham believed in the Lord, and God credited that to him as righteousness. So Abraham, the Jew of Jews, is listed for us as an Old Testament example that justification, that declaration of righteousness comes through faith alone, not by any pious works on his part. So in other words, this doctrine of justification, as we spell it out using theological terms, is not actually a new doctrine. Paul did not just come up with it out of nowhere. It existed in the time of Abraham. In fact, we can argue that in the garden after the fall, when God graciously provided skins of animals for Adam and Eve, that that was actually a redemptive historical picture of the need of something outside of us to cover our shame and our sin. Namely, the righteousness of Christ. Now, maybe you picked up on this when I read the shorter catechism question. We have been emphasizing Christ's righteousness imputed to us in justification, and that is the heart of it. But the thing about that is, it's not the only thing. It is not the only thing that we deal with when we're talking about justification. The catechism question rightly indicates that it's an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth, or to use more modern English, pardons all our sins. That's the other side of justification. We are declared righteous, but also, as we're declared righteous, he pardons our sin. That's a lot of sin. And he pardons it. He forgives it. He covers it. It is in his sight as judge. It's as if it's gone. and you need not worry about it if you trust in Christ. As I mentioned last week, we were looking basically at a two-part kind of sermon, with Abraham being last week, and now David this week, proving this doctrine of justification by faith alone. And so just as last week, our point is pretty much the same. that Paul demonstrates from the Old Testament, or excuse me, Paul demonstrates that the Old Testament testifies to the doctrine of justification by faith alone. We're gonna look at this under two headings. First of all, as somewhat of a review, righteousness imputed. But secondly, sin forgiven. So righteousness imputed, and then sin forgiven. So first of all, righteousness imputed. Look again at verse four. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Remember last week, I brought this out with respect to wages. that if your boss, it's payday, and it used to be in the days before we had direct deposit, that you would have your paycheck either in your little cubby box or your boss would hand you your paycheck, whether it was weekly, every other week, whatever the case may be. But imagine, imagine if you will, your boss hands you the paycheck and tells you, this is my gift to you. And you open it up, and you're expecting a bonus. And lo and behold, it's my usual pay. This is what I'm expecting. That's not a gift. You earned that. You lived up to your part of the deal, the contract that you signed. So for your boss to say that that would be a gift, No, that can't be the case. So it is with our works. Those who work. If we work for righteousness, then it's not a gift. It can't be a gift. But for the one who believes. The one who has faith. Faith in Jesus Christ in his person and in his finished work. That is a gift. It is the greatest gift you could ever possibly receive. You receive all that Christ earned, perfect righteousness, eternal life, union and communion with him. All of these blessings that we receive by faith, for the one who believes in Him who justifies the ungodly." And see, that's another point we need to recognize, is that it is God who justifies the ungodly. Now, you can justify the godly, if such an individual actually existed, They don't, but just hypothetically speaking, you have an individual who wants to be justified by their works. All it takes is living a perfectly sinless life, perfect obedience to the commands of God. Well, that seems simple enough, doesn't it? It's absurd to think that we could perfectly obey God's commands. We cannot ever by works be godly. And yet, God justifies, He declares righteous those who are ungodly. That's you and me, folks. You who have faith in Him are still ungodly. but He justifies you, He declares you righteous, He looks upon you and sees not your ungodliness anymore, but the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is as though you kept every command perfectly. And that's why you will never be more justified than you are now. You'll never be less justified than you are now. But you will stand before God perfectly righteous. Abraham was the example that Paul set forth. Abraham justified by faith, not by works. But now Paul moves to another Old Testament example. And that example is David. David speaks, you notice in verse six. You might think this is a bit inconsequential, but verse six begins with, just as David. Keep those simple English words in mind, just as. Because on one sense, it looks as though Paul is using David to describe something different. And I suppose technically you could say he is, but they are things that belong together and that we must never separate. So David is being compared to Abraham and just as Abraham, David now speaks. What does he speak? Both the justified by faith and not on account of any good works, both of them. both of them. Now, that's important for some others who profess faith in Christ and think that through the ages there are different ways of salvation. There are different dispensations by which men were saved. But the truth of the matter is, Abraham, before Sinai, justified by faith alone. David, after Sinai, justified by faith alone. But David here speaks to us. We need to emphasize what we mean here by speaks. Remember, Paul is now arguing from scripture. He is arguing from the basis of what God's word says. That means what he is about to cite, David speaking, is understood to be scripture, to be understood as God-inspired, God-breathed words for us. What Paul is about to do is cite David, which shows that Paul is continuing to cite scripture. And of course, he cites from Psalm 32, which we read earlier. Particularly, he cites Psalm 32, verses one and part of verse two. Now Psalm 32 is, as I mentioned, a penitential psalm. And part of the key to understanding this is that many recognize the possibility, a very real possibility, that Psalm 32 is also connected in some way to David's sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah the Hittite. Now we certainly know Psalm 51 is because that's in the title. We can't be dogmatic about Psalm 32, but nonetheless, David is concerned about his sin. He's concerned about sin and how it is dealt with, and thus it's a penitential psalm. But notice that Paul indicates that David is speaking of blessing, blessing. Now, it is possible, as we understand this here, particularly as we look at verse 6, just as David also speaks of the blessing, it could be blessedness. Some translations have blessedness, other translations have blessing. It's not that big of a difference. But it does help give us the sense of the state of an individual who rests in God's grace. They are in a state of blessedness. But to receive grace from God is a blessing. So it really doesn't make much difference. It really just depends on your nuance and your area of emphasis. but it is a blessing for one to whom God counts as righteous apart from works. So David now becomes the example. Ungodly individuals counted as righteous in his sight. David is further proof of what Abraham proves for us. righteousness from God apart from works. Cannot stress this enough how important it is to understand. But it's also important for us to understand that the righteousness we receive is not the only thing involved with justification. And that actually brings us to our second point. sin forgiven. As I mentioned, Paul is citing David from Psalm 32, and we see this here in verses 7 and 8. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is a man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Paul cites these, and really from the Septuagint is where he's getting this. The Septuagint, again, is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Now, just a couple of minor things, and they're not all that consequential. It doesn't really change the point of what Paul is saying, nor does it change in any way what David is saying. You'll notice that it, as we have it here cited in Romans, it's blessed are those, plural, In the Hebrew, it's singular, blessed is the one. But it really doesn't make much difference because every one that this applies to, it ends up becoming plural, conceptually. That doesn't make much difference. The word blessed. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven. And in verse 8, blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Blessed has the idea of a beatitude. You could somewhat loosely translate the word blessed as happy, but it's more than just happiness. Things make us happy and then that fades. but it's a state of ongoing contentment, yes, but a feeling of joy within us that we've received something that we don't deserve and we get to hang on to that. Our state is one of pure joy in that regard. Blessed, it's a beatitude. Now, I also want you to notice at least as we have it here in Romans. You have lawless deeds, which in the Greek is just a single word, you have sins, and then you have sin. If you go back to Psalm 32 and you look at the original, what you have are transgressions, sin, and iniquity. This tells us a couple of things. First of all, David, in his psalm, was attempting to be as comprehensive as he could. In fact, what we don't have here in Romans is the second half of verse 2, where it talks of deceit being in our hearts. David is trying to be comprehensive. Every possible way to describe sin, he does. Transgression, sin, iniquity, all of these things. This also tells us that because Paul only uses two words and not three, Paul recognizes that the words are all interchangeable anyway. They're related words. Sure, we can make some distinctions. Transgression, sin, iniquity. But they all fall under the category of the general concept of sin. And David was comprehensive. It makes no difference. Don't try to split hairs. Don't try to say, well, it wasn't a transgression. It was just being something that was unequal. We do this kind of thing when we call our sin merely a mistake. Oh, I made a mistake. No, a mistake is saying two plus two equals five. Sin is breaking God's law. It is. Omitting what you're supposed to do or transgressing what you're not supposed to do. It is comprehensive, and we cannot minimize sin. Lawless deeds would correspond to the original Hebrew, transgressions. Sins with the word for sin, and that final word, sin, with iniquity in the Hebrew. But notice what David says, and what Paul is trying to emphasize. those whose lawless deeds are forgiven." Forgiven. What is forgiveness? Most of us, I'm sure, have heard the expression, forgive and forget. And people have tried to attribute this to what God does when He forgives, that He just forgets your sin. Well, that's not accurate. First of all, God can't forget. It's not possible for Him to forget. We also know that He doesn't just simply forget our sins because our sin was punished at the cross. Justice was satisfied at the cross. But what does forgiveness mean? It means not holding it against a person. Not holding it against them. That's why when we see in Jeremiah, I will remember your sins no more. That's not forgetting. That's not holding the sin against them, bringing it to remembrance against the individual. But some of you may say, well, yeah, I understand all that, but you know, as I think about it, I've forgotten most of the sins that people have committed against me. Well, first of all, that's because you're finite. But the truth of the matter is, if you get into the habit in terms of your own forgiving of other individuals, of not bringing it up against them, in time, you will forget. You can't make yourself forget something. Okay. I'm going to forget this. Now, the more you try to forget, the more you're bringing it to remembrance. Forgetting just happens. We're kind of passive when that takes place. So when we speak of forgiveness. It is God not holding sin against you anymore, not bringing it to remembrance against you anymore, because it's been paid at the cross. Is it any wonder then why David would say, blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven? What a blessed state that is to know that the sins against an infinite God are forgiven. That's the forgiveness. But he also continues, as Paul has it here, citing from the Septuagint, those whose sins are covered. Covered. Very similar to the Hebrew word that David uses. The word can mean, of course, to cover, but also to conceal or to hide. Out of sight. Now that, of course, makes sense, given the fact that it runs parallel with the word forgiven. In Nehemiah 4, verse 5, the word is used and runs parallel with blotting out. But here's the thing I want us to all recognize. We're blessed when our sins are covered. We're blessed when our sins are concealed and hid. But it is not us who covers and conceals and hides the sin. In fact, you can't. If you try to conceal or hide your sin from God, you are just like Adam and Eve hiding in the bush. It's absurd to think that you can, but God does. He takes and hides your sin from you. but also what we see here in verse 8. Blessed is a man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. This is actually language that is similar to what we see concerning what we've already seen in justification, that righteousness is counted toward us who have faith. What David says and what Paul is reiterating for us is that also tied with this is that your sin is no longer counted or reckoned or credited to your account. Your sin is gone. And all of this is to help us understand that twofold aspect of justification. We receive righteousness, Christ's righteousness that is outside of ourselves, but we also receive the forgiveness of sins. We receive pardon. Now, many of you have heard me describe what sometimes people describe justification for as, as a means to help us remember. Justification, it's just as if I'd never sinned. That's the pardon. It's incomplete by itself, which is why we've been looking at Romans in such detail, to fill in that missing part, as it were. But nonetheless, when you are justified, it really is just as if you've never sinned, because your sins are forgiven. Your sins are covered. Your sin is not reckoned to you. It is not imputed to you. Well, then where does our sin go? It went to the cross. It went to the cross. And this is what Paul brought up earlier in chapter three. At the end of chapter three, we have these remarkable words. And really, there's no good place to start, so I'm just gonna read a good chunk of it. from chapter 3 beginning at verse 21. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. Where did your sin go? It went to the cross. Jesus was the propitiation. Remember, we have stressed this word time and again. We stress it when we looked at 1 John. The idea that Jesus himself was put forth by God to turn aside the wrath of God that we ourselves deserved. the wrath that Paul started to speak of in chapter 1 verse 18, the wrath that you and I deserve Christ for. That's why your sins are no longer upon you. He took them. And in the same manner in which you are declared righteous, that His perfect righteousness comes to you, Christ on the cross has our sins credited to His account, and He died in our place. My friends, this is the heart of the gospel. This is not just theology in the abstract. though we are very careful to make sure we say it correctly, that we are careful to make sure that what we say concerning the doctrine of justification fits within the biblical testimony of what it is, nonetheless, it is for your heart. It is so applicable because it applies to you who have faith. You who have faith can stand before God assured of your salvation because you're clothed in Christ's perfect righteousness. There's not much more applicability than that. But more than that, you have his righteousness. What of your sin? It was punished on the cross. That's why when we speak of justification, we can rightly say, it is just as if I'd never sinned. It's not saying you never sinned. In fact, you still keep sinning. I still keep sinning. But before the eye of God, because of what Christ has accomplished for you and for me, through His death, you stand before God as though you were perfectly innocent. You stand before God as though you kept every single moral command of God perfectly. because Jesus did it for you. You're forgiven on account of what Jesus has done. You're pardoned on account of what Jesus Christ has done. We are about to participate and partake of the Lord's Supper. which is in part a memorial to what Christ has done for us. It is to remind us of his death that in him we have the forgiveness of sins. His shed blood cleanses us. And this, my friends, should move our hearts to worship Him, to praise Him, to live a life of gratitude for that which He accomplished and gave to us in pure grace, all of grace. He is worthy of our praise and our worship. When there are times you struggle with your own faith, you struggle with your own assurance, part of what the supper does is to remind you Christ accomplished that which you could not do for yourself. In Christ, you have forgiveness. In Christ, you have pardon. Abraham was put forth as the example of one who received righteousness. David is put forth as the one who speaks of pardon. And Paul connects the two with our English words here, just as. Your righteousness received from Christ cannot be separated from your pardon from your sins. The two go hand in hand. And because of all that Christ has done, my friends, you can be assured your sins are forgiven. You can be assured that you will stand before God as though you perfectly kept God's law. That should be assurance. Yes, but I sin every day. Your sins were nailed to the cross and your faith may be weak, but it's still faith. And it's faith that gives you Christ and all His benefits. If there be any here today who do not know Christ, I urge you, flee to the free offer of the gospel. Flee to Jesus Christ who will forgive your sins. Confess your need of Him. Confess that there's nothing you can do apart from Him. And you know what? He will in no wise cast you off. He will accept you and embrace you as His very own. That's the hope of the gospel. This is why Paul said in chapter 1 verse 16 that he's not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of sinners like you and me. That's where our hope rests. That's where our justification lies. That's where our pardon comes from. Christ and Christ alone. Amen. Let's pray. Our great God and Father in heaven, we do thank you for your word and what it teaches us, reminding us that not only do we receive Christ's righteousness, a glorious truth, but by his death, we receive pardon. We receive forgiveness. We receive cleansing from sin. Oh Lord, how we give you praise and thanks that you have shown such grace to sinners like us. And may the truth of this great doctrine move us to worship you and to serve you each and every day. We pray all this in Christ's name, amen.