All right, let's turn our attention to the Word of God. We're going to continue on our series in the Book of Romans. We finally have now arrived at Chapter 4. We're going to do verses 1 through 5. We're going to read verses 1 through 8. I'm sure now I will only get through verse 5. Then we're going to dig into it. We're going to be celebrating the Lord's Supper as soon as we're done. So I want to try to get done in time for us to be able to do that. Real quickly, why do we celebrate the Lord's Supper and why do we do Believer's Baptism? There's two ordinances in the New Testament that we are commanded to do. The Lord's Supper we do to remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us on that cross at Calvary 2,000 years ago. So we do that in remembrance of what He did. And that's very important. There's nothing special about the juice or wafer. We are using those elements as part of the reminder of what Christ has accomplished. Believer's baptism. This is important. You listening around the world, this is important. Believer's baptism does not save you. You do not do believer's baptism, then come to saving faith in Christ. The Bible never talks about baptismal regeneration. It's not in there. It's not in any of the 66 canonical books. We get baptized after we come to a saving faith in Christ because it is all about identifying ourselves with Christ in His death, His burial, and His resurrection. You're like a live infomercial when you were getting baptized, and you were letting people say, I am identifying myself with Christ. So don't be misled into thinking that just because you're baptized, you're saved. That is not what the Bible teaches. And we will eventually go through Romans 6, break it down, and I will show you right from the text everything that I share. But this morning, we're going to continue in chapter 4. So follow along with me on the overhead. We're going to read verses 1 through 8. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has found? If Abraham was justified or made right by works, then he would have something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Important thing, that text right there. What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was reckoned or counted to him as righteousness. Now the one who works his wage is not reckoned as favor, but what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned or credited as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works. Look at verse 7 and 8. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds, that's all of us, have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. There it is, right in the text, the gospel again. So let's dig in, let's start at verse 3. And let's kind of, slide 3, let's just work through the text here. I'm going to do something here. I want to take you back a little bit, because I want to keep everything with continuity. So, in verse 17, the righteous God has been revealed. Verse 18 here, the wrath of God. So, look at the text up on the screen. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and righteousness. So, look at these words here. You guys ever heard the word apocalypse? Uh-huh. You know, you're Greek. I'm proud of you. That's apocalyptic. This means, because of the end here, I'm not going to get too greeky on you because Dr. Carter might get excited, but this basically, in the perfect tense, basically for the wrath, the orge, the wrath of God, there's your theos, is continually, look at the stem there, continually being revealed Now look at these words, asebian, ungodliness, and adikain, unrighteousness of the man. You've got to have heard the word anthropos, right? That's the Greek word for man. okay, who suppress, there's your katecho, there's your forcing back, you're forcing back what? You're forcing back the truth in unrighteousness. So, this is really important because I want to make sure, okay, Paul, what did you mean when you said that? I want to take you back a little bit and I want to help you understand what did you mean, Paul? What does the word ungodliness and righteousness mean? So, an unbeliever comes to you and says, can you tell me what these words mean? I want to make sure you know what they mean, but more importantly, what did Paul mean when he said them? Okay, so ungodliness, the word of Sebaiah that you saw, has the idea of being wicked and immoral. The word ungodliness, the whole flow of the text has this idea of total defiance against God and a desire for things that are evil. Think about it. A total defiance towards God and a desire for evil things. That's what ungodliness is. It is in essence living an ungodly life. Literally you have no respect for God or His law. So think through that this morning. That's ungodliness. Are there any parts of our life where we have been defiant towards God and desire evil things because we want our own way? Amen? How about unrighteousness? Okay, Paul, what did you mean by that? He has the word ah and alpha there. So this is against, unrighteous. So that was that which does not conform to justice, doing evil, morally wrong things, illegal things, shameful behavior. So these behaviors is what God is angry about. and is against because man wants to suppress. So the idea of the Greek word katecho means, God, I'm going to force back your truth because I want things my own way. I don't want to bow my knee to you. I don't want to serve you, Lord, so I'm going to force back that truth so I can practice my evil, sinful behavior because I want my own way. How about slide four? How about the Old Testament? Psalm 711. God is a righteous judge and a God who shows indignation every day, or indignation every day. The Hebrew word is Zolam. The church, to give you an idea of this, ever see somebody so angry they're foaming at the mouth? They're almost spitting, they're so angry it's just flowing? Well, the idea here of Zolam means foaming at the mouth. The real anger, God is angry against sin. It's serious anger. I'm not going to go through obviously all 17 verses of Psalm 7, but the judgment of the unrighteous will be severe as they stand before Christ the Holy Judge. Church, hear me this morning. God is angry over man's rebellion. He's angry over hostility and ungodliness. He's angry against unrighteousness and lawlessness. Let's be honest this morning. Man has turned his back on God. Pushing, or katecho as we just read, pushing God away from his life because God is not the center of that person's life. His relationship with God is broken. How about slide five? How about Psalm 10.4? Again, Paul using the Old Testament to deal with the Jews as we're learning. The wicked are too proud to seek God. They seem to think that God is dead or there is no God." That's pretty frightening. Think with me this morning, that word proud or the word pride for a morning. Have you ever asked yourself what is pride? If a ten-year-old came up to you and said, hey, can you give me a working definition of the word pride? Well, in slide six, Wayne Mack gives a really good definition here. Pride, look at this, look at Wayne Mack's definition. Pride consists in attributing to ourselves and demanding for ourselves the honor, privileges, prerogatives, rights and powers that are only due to God alone. I love that definition. How about slide seven? Ask yourself these questions. Are there areas of our lives, church, where we are defiant against Holy God? Are there any areas of our life where we're defiant? Are there evil things that we still desire where we're pampering our sin nature? Are there areas of our lives where we still are practicing immoral behavior even though we know better? Do we find it easy at times to ignore God or push Him away when we want our own way? You do the acid test on your life. He says in 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sin, then He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Again, in the perfect sense of the word, continually cleanse us of all unrighteousness. This is why what we have been learning through Romans is so important for all of us. Hear me this morning. Without Jesus the Christ, we have nothing and we have no hope. Zero. So let's review just a little bit of what we learned last week. So we learned that Paul was making the point that there is no distinction between a Jewish person and a non-Jewish person when it comes to being saved. God's way of salvation has abolished all distinctions between people. And Paul wanted them to know, as well as you and I, that we are all saved the same way. The only way is that through the shed blood of Christ on His cross. He then went on to help them understand the importance of the law and how the law fits into God's plan concerning Christ. So, slide 8. Romans 3.31. Paul saying to this young bunch of believers in Rome that are mostly Jewish, do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be. On the contrary, we establish the law. I like how the NLT puts it. Slide 9. Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not. In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law. So look at how Paul finished this chapter. He asked, do we nullify the faith? literally the word nullify in the Greek means are we abolishing it? Are we doing away with it? And Paul answered with the words, may it never be, and I think the King James uses even stronger language, God forbid, God forbid. So Paul is in essence telling them as well as you and I We should not even be thinking this way, not even suggesting such a thing. Even to think this way is sinful. Paul says we fulfill the law or establish the law. So the question we need to ask is, okay, Paul, how do we establish or fulfill the law? Well, the first thing we need to understand here, church, is Paul has been talking about how you and I are made right with the Father. Slide 10. Remember back in Romans 3.28 where Paul says, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the law or the works of the law. Justified. Look at slide 11. Hopefully you're remembering these definitions. Justification is the act whereby God pardons the sinner. He pardons the sinner and accepts that sinner as right in God's sight. Can you think about that? All the simple things you and I have done from childhood to right now, when you come to a saving faith in Christ, He pardons you and accepts you as right in God's sight. That's mind-blowing to me, because we don't deserve a church. By the way, this is a legal declaration given by the Father even though you and I are sinners. Because of Christ, He regards us as right and just. He gives us the righteousness of His Son and pronounces you and I just and accepted in His sight. That should bring us all to our knees. That should bring us all to our knees, church. So then Paul showed us that God's way, not man's way, not the law, God's way of declaring those who believe in Christ actually honors and establishes the law. Why? Church, hear me. Jesus Christ is the only one who has fulfilled and established the law because he's the only one who kept it perfectly. He never sinned. And by the way, the law, you know, we broke into these ten commandments. When you break one of them, you've broken the entire law. That means if I take the Lord's name in vain, I'm also an adulterer. So God's way of salvation and redemption actually honors the law in every way. Remember, Jesus Christ became something He never was before. He became a human being. He placed himself under the law, he kept it perfectly, and he never sinned. That's how, church. Jesus honored the law perfectly and entirely in his life of obedience. And one final point to make here is that Christ honored the law in his obedience on that cross. So we know that the law, we all know that the law demands obedience. We all know that the law pronounces judgment when we break the law. Remember Romans 3.23? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So church, the law, just like our laws in our land, demands a penalty when broken, and it must be fulfilled in every respect. So Christ, by taking upon himself the punishment The bloody, brutal, inhumane punishment for our sins that was demanded by the law, He established and fulfilled the law. So in submitting to the Father, laying upon Himself all of our sin, all of our iniquity, no complaining, no murmuring. That's amazing too. No complaining, no murmuring church. He did something incredible for us. He fulfilled the law on our behalf that we could never keep. So Christ confirms and he reveals what the law says about the holiness and the righteousness of God. Look at Romans 4.1, slide 13 and 14. So Paul then saying, Again, he's talking to the Jews because, remember, they really held Abraham in high esteem. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, is found? The NLT puts it this way. Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? I like how they put that. So this great salvation that Paul has been sharing with us has revealed itself in the coming of Christ into the world, His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection. It is something that was witnessed by the long prophets. Remember Paul's words back in Romans 1.1, slide 15 and 16. A slave. That word bondservant is the Greek word doulos. It means slave. So Paul, I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. Kletos, I am called and as an apostolos. I am set apart, that's where we get our word horizon from, set apart on a new horizon for the gospel of God, which He, that's God, had promised before and through what? His prophets and the Holy Scriptures. And then Romans 3, 21 and 22, a little later on, Paul says, but now, you all know that, noony day, but now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested or revealed. It was witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. for all who believe." And he says right here in the text, there's no distinction. None. So, Church, Paul has been very clear that this salvation, which is through Christ, has been witnessed before by the Law and Prophets. This is why throughout Chapter 3, Paul has gone through a lot of great detail to prove this throughout the entire Old Testament to these Jewish believers in Rome. Here in Chapter 4, Continuing his purpose is to show that the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, God's way of salvation was the same both in the Old Testament times as well as in the New Testament times, which is our time. There is not two different ways to be saved. No. One way to be saved. So Paul is establishing the point that God's way of making a person righteous by imputing or crediting that righteousness of Christ to them and justifying them by faith in His Son and forgiving them, church was the same in both the old dispensations and the new. There's only one covenant of grace. All human beings are saved exactly the same way. There's no difference. There was a difference in administration, but there's only one way of salvation, past, present, and future. So to sum it up, the Old Testament saints were saved exactly the same way as you and I are right now today. we are fellow heirs with them, church." Something else, there's only one gospel, only one eugelion, one gospel, only one way A person can be reconciled with the Father. It is the same now and into the future. Mankind, listen up, will never be able to enter the Kingdom of God by some other way. Don't be misled into thinking that there is another way that you can slip in. That is a lie from the pit of hell. So Paul takes up the argument here in chapter 4 with the Jews. So think about it, Abraham and David were two men that the Jews were very, very proud of. Abraham being the father of the Jewish nation, and David because of the special promise made to him that the Messiah would come through his lineage. Later on, when we hit verses 9-12, next time I'm up here, we will see how Paul goes all the way back to Abraham before Abraham was even circumcised to show the Jews that circumcision was never vital to salvation. So, slides 17 and 18, look at Romans 4-1 again. What then shall we say? That Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh is found? Or, slide 18, what did he discover about being made right with God? So we need to ask ourselves the question, okay, Paul, what do you mean when you use the word flesh here? What was going through his mind? Paul is making a distinction between what is external and what is internal and what is spiritual. So Paul made this point to the believers in Philippi. Look at slide 19 and 20. Look at Philippians 3, 5. For we are true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and we put no confidence in the flesh. How about the NLT? For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us, and we put no confidence in human effort. Church, are you putting any effort or confidence in your efforts? Well, if I go to church on Sunday, I'll be okay. If I tithe, if I do this or that, I'll be okay. What did Paul want them to understand? The flesh is anything that a person tries to rely on that he thinks or she thinks will get them saved. The Jews back then were boasting of their nationality, they were boasting of their circumcision and all their ceremonies and things like that. Today, in 2022, some may boast in their church affiliation. Some may boast that, well, my parents were Christians, so I'm okay. Or they may boast that they were baptized. Doesn't work that way, church. You remember that the Jews would think that, well, hey, I'm a Jew. I'm one of God's people. So in Paul's mind, the flesh is any kind of works or anything that may belong to us on which we would rely on outside of Christ for salvation, something that we would boast about. So that's what Paul means when he talks about the flesh. Look at Romans 4.2, slide 21. For if Abraham was made right or declared right, justified by works, he would have something to boast about, but not before God. And L.T. puts it this way, if Abraham's good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have something to boast about, but that was not God's way. Boast. Okay, so the question, Paul, what did you mean when you used the word boast, Paul? Kuklasma, what did you mean? The idea here is to brag. Talk proudly about yourself, lifting up yourself above somebody else. I can do that better than you. What's Paul's point here? What does Paul want you and I to understand? The point is this, if Abraham could have made himself right before God by his own human efforts, he would have something to brag about, to boast about, to be proud about. Now Paul makes the point right here in the text that even though Abraham was a faithful man of God, he still had nothing to boast about as it comes to being saved. No person, no person can claim any special privilege because all have sinned, all have fallen short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one, not even one. How about verse 3 of Romans 4, slide 22. For what did the Scriptures say? And you can highlight this part in your own Bible. In case somebody says, well, the Old Testament people were different than the New. You can say, wait a minute. Let's go to Romans 4.3. Abraham, what does it say, Church? Believed God. Pestissimon. Believed God. And that belief was what? Credited to him as what? There it is, right in your own Scriptures. This is why the Bible is the final authority in all matters of life, faith, and practice, and you can trust your Bible. It will never change, and it never lies to you. Paul's quoting from the Old Testament. It doesn't say Abraham worked for it. It doesn't say he bargained for it. It says he believed. What did Paul mean when Paul used that word, believed? Keep in mind that he's quoting the Old Testament Scripture. Go to slide 33. Let me read something from the Heidelberg Catechism from you, a phenomenal document. It gives us an excellent definition of true saving faith. It says this, true faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true, It is also a deep-rooted assurance. Do you have that deep-rooted assurance that is created in you by the Holy Spirit? It comes through the gospel that out of sheer grace earned for you and I by Christ, not only others but you and I too have had our sins forgiven and we have been made right forever with God and have been granted salvation." Don't forget that, church. Do you have that deep-rooted assurance that when you drop dead, when you are hit with the paddles, you're not coming back? Do you have that deep-rooted assurance that you will be ushered into the presence of God for all eternity? knowing that you cannot earn it, knowing that you don't deserve it, but he paid it all. Jesus paid it all. Paid it all. So what is Paul doing? He's giving them the proof they need. Abraham was saved by faith exactly the same way that you and I are. Abraham trusted the Lord as his means of salvation, and God's Word has settled it. The Old Testament people were looking forward. We're looking back, but it's that same point in time. where Christ died on that cross. Psalm 24, Genesis 15, 6. That's what Paul was quoting to them. They had no argument left. Abraham believed in Yahweh and Yahweh reckoned or counted it to him as righteousness. I hope you see a church Do you realize this is the very first time we see the doctrine of justification in the Scriptures? This is also the very first time we see the word believed or apostissimon in the Bible. It's right here in Genesis 15, 6 church. See, most people thought that justification or being declared right was only found in the New Testament, but here it is smack dab right in the beginning of the Old Testament. Abraham believed God. He believed God. And this word belief, by the way, as it is used here, has all the attributes of trusting God, being committed to God, Abraham was made right, declared right, exactly the same way that you and I are. Slide 25, we're almost done. John 8, 56. Jesus says, you know, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and saw it and was glad. Church, this clearly should show all of us that Abraham believed in God's way of redemption, just as we do. Granted, he did not see it as clearly as you and I did, or I do now, but I believe he did see it afar off. And this clearly shows us then that Abraham was saved by faith exactly as we are, not by works and not because he deserved it. And then we see that word credited to him as righteousness. That's the word legitimate. Reckoned credited the idea there is that you are putting something into somebody's account You're making up the deficiency in somebody's account think about this now I know none of you have ever went to the bank with your bank card put it in and it goes Non-sufficient funds none of y'all ever had that I But if somebody comes and says, here, I'm going to put this in there, so it gets credited to your account, so you now have a zero balance. You owe nothing. Does that make sense to your church? Legitimize, making up the deficiency. You see, Abraham, as well as you and I, have nothing at all to put into our account with God. Absolutely nothing. We are deficient. Without the crimson shed blood of Christ, making up that deficiency, we have nothing. Our works, just like Abraham's, were like filthy rags. So church, hear me this morning. God, in his wonderful grace and his mercy, puts his son's righteousness into your account. He imputes it or credits it to you just exactly like he did with Abraham. What did this do for Abraham? The same thing it does for us. Hear me this morning, don't fall away, I'm almost done. It cleared his guilt, his debt, just as it will clear our guilt and our debt. The Father says, when you come to faith in Christ, all claims against you are cleared. And Abraham had come to understand that God's way of justifying himself was not by works, not by doing something to earn it, but rather by God crediting the righteousness of his son to his account. So, slide 25 again, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Let me ask you an honest question. Do you rejoice over the fact that Christ did that for you? Be really honest with Him. Do you realize this was God's plan from all eternity past? Imagine this, a gazillion years before He even created earth or time or anything, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit had a plan at their appointed time to redeem you and I. That fascinates me. In the beginning, the Word had already existed, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. They had a plan, and they executed it. And the only reason I won't be burning in hell, and you won't be burning in hell, is if we have come to a saving faith in Christ alone for our salvation. Slide 25-26, I guess. Romans 4-4. Not to the one who works his wage, it is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. And then slide 26. When people work, their wages, their earnings, they're not a gift. There's something they've earned, right? You work, you get a paycheck, something earned. So let me try this illustration, and hopefully it won't make my wife upset, because I used to own a cleaning and restoration business. If I was hired to clean a carpet, And I did the work and was paid for the work. The person who I cleaned the car for had paid me. Not because he was gracious towards me. He's paying me because I did the work and he owes that to me. I did the work, presented him with the bill. He had an account that he owed. He pays the account. So his bill owed is not a matter of grace. It's a matter of debt. It is what is due me. So Paul puts this in a positive way, 27 and 28. But to the one who does not work, the one who does not work, but, now look at this closely, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. In the NLT, slide 28, But people are counted as righteous, not because of the work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners." I believe this is one of the strongest verses in the Scriptures concerning justification ever made. Not by works, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly. Hear me, I'm just about done now. If a person were able to save himself by his own works, his own efforts, then salvation would never be a part of grace. And the sacrifice of Christ made on the cross would be in vain. But yet again, Paul, again, making it clear to us that is not how you and I are saved. He says, but to the one who does not work, the one who does not try to get saved by human effort, but believes in Christ who justifies, who declares right, who pardons you and accepts you as right. Hear me, until a person comes to see himself as the ungodly sinner that he or she is and confesses that that person is ungodly, they cannot be saved. Why? Because they're still trusting in their own goodness. So then, you are justified, meaning you are declared right the moment that you come to saving faith in Christ alone for your salvation. Church, this means that your mouth is stopped. You have no ability on your own and you recognize it to make yourself with God, right with God on your own. Your mouth is stopped. You now come to the place where you're not trusting in anything or anyone else for your salvation. You realize that you're a sinner. You realize you're a lawbreaker and you are on your way to hell. Think about the person Paul is describing for you and I here. Notice that he doesn't work, meaning he has no good works to show. He can't recommend himself for anything. I can't recommend myself to anything to God, neither can you. There's no good in me, there's no good in you. We're all ungodly sinners. There's no work that we can do that will be credited to our account to give us a credit that will equal the righteousness of Christ. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You know, Paul, talking in slide 29 to the church at Ephesus, says this. Paul, with a confession here. Among them, we too, Paul says, we formerly lived in the lust of our flesh. That word is epithemia, yearning after the things that are forbidden. We indulged in the desires of our flesh. We indulged in the desires of our mind. And we were by nature children of wrath, just like everyone else. So for those of us who are Christians who look back, we can clearly see that we were never godly. Let's be honest. Here's an acid test. Have you ever told a lie? What do we call a person that tells a lie? A liar. Have we ever taken something, doesn't matter how inexpensive it was, from somebody that did not belong to us? When a person steals, we call them what? A thief. Anybody ever use God's name as a cuss word? Ever look at anything any other person would lust in their heart? So by our own omission, we're lying, thieving, stealing, adulterous people that blaspheme God's name. If we were to stand before God on Judgment Day, would we be guilty or innocent? The Bible says what? All have fallen short. The payment for sin is death. Romans 6.23. We're guilty, but then you have but God. You have but God, noony day. We have no way of justifying ourselves. That's, you know, and there's no special secret prayer in the Bible that if you pray, you're saved. Call out to God. on your face and your hands and knees and repent and ask God to forgive you. Ask Him to shower you with His grace and forgive you for your sin. Because if you confess your sins, He is then faithful and just to what? Forgive us of our sins and to continually cleanse us from unrighteousness. Your Bible will never lie to you! Ever! So hear me this morning. Tithing doesn't save you. Being baptized will not save you. Being born to Christian parents will not save you. We have nothing in of ourselves to offer God. The only thing we can say is we are pronounced free and acquitted before the Father only by the righteousness that is provided to us from Christ. I'm going to ask you to bow your heads this morning. Close your eyes.