03-22-20, Romans 3;19-4;4, Justified

Romans 3:19-4:4
Justified
March 22, 2019
First Baptist Church
Jackson, Mississippi
USA

What’s the number one thing?
The glory of God!
1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV
31Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or
whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Do you know the best thing that you could do
to glorify God?
People try to do all kinds of things to glorify
God, to gain favor with God.
You have seen pictures of people who would
take whips and flagellate themselves until they
bleed.

In India people do strange and horrible things
where they mutilate themselves or bathe in the
filthy rivers or whatever, to glorify God.
People have hung by ropes and hooks and self-
crucifixion in order to glorify God.

Many people have gone on pilgrimages to
glorify God.
Other people have given great sums of money
to glorify God.
But do you know what glorifies God?
Believing God, it's believing God!

Romans 4:3 NKJV
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham
believed God, and it was accounted (imputed,
credited) to him for righteousness.”

Believing God brings glory to Him.
If you introduce a guest speaker and say many
nice things about him and then the last thing
you say is, “But you just can't believe him.”

You see, no matter how many nice things you
might say about the speaker, if you say you
can't believe a word he says, you've just cut the
tap root of his character.

The Bible says that, "He that believeth not God
hath made Him a liar."
The greatest thing that you can do to glorify
God is to believe God.

Faith pleases God because it glorifies God and
because faith pleases God, God rewards faith.
If you want to please God, believe God.

Hebrews 11:6 NIV
6 And without faith it is impossible to please
God, because anyone who comes to Him must
believe that He exists and that He rewards
those who earnestly seek Him.

Well, what is faith?
Faith is not saying, “God prove it to me and
then I'll believe it”.
No.
Faith is response to the nature and character of
God.

Faith believes God, not for what God has done,
but for Who God is.
When my eye is right, my eye responds to light.
When my ear is right, my ear responds to
sound.

When my heart is right, my heart responds to
God and that response is faith.
That faith glorifies God.
If a man could be saved by works, God wouldn't
get the glory.

But when a man is justified by faith, God gets
the glory!
It’s sad how many people want to depend on
faith and works.
There's something about human pride that
says, I want to do it.

Suppose Steve Rives were to say, “Bill, I love
you so much and I just sold a valuable piece of
property and I'm going to buy for you a brand
new automobile, I don't want a cheap one, I
want one worth at least $160,000.00 for you.”
And I said, “Well Steve, thanks a lot, brother,
that's really nice, but, Steve, I can't just let you
give me a car like that, it costs way too much”.

“So, Steve, let me help pay for that car. Uh,
Steve, here, let's see, there it is, here’s a
quarter.”
“Thank you so much, Steve!”

So, Steve has paid $159,999.75 and I've paid
two bits and I'm driving that $160,000.00 car
and somebody says, “Boteler, nice car you've
got there” and I say, “Yeah, Steve Rives and I
bought this car”.
What??
Wouldn't that be ridiculous?

It is no longer a gift; I just got a great deal on an
very expensive car!
Friend, when you add your two bits' worth of
self-effort to the grace of God, you destroy the
whole thing.

You attempt to steal the glory from Almighty
God when you try to add your works to the mix.
If you go to Heaven, you're going to say, “Jesus
paid it all and all to Him I owe.”

And don't get the idea that you can add a little
bit or your two bits to it because when you do,
you try to steal God's glory.
You’re trying to give the glory to yourself.

You say, “Look what I did!”
But the Bible says, "For by grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is
the gift of God, lest any man should boast."

You know what we're going to be singing in
Heaven?
“Unto HimWho loved us and washed us with
His blood!” and “Worthy is the Lamb!”
That's what we're going to be singing, “Worthy
is the Lamb!”

References:
•It'sTime for Some Good News
by Adrian Rogers
Main ScriptureText: Romans 4:1
•Message transcript and recording © 1976 by
Ray Stedman Ministries, owner of sole
copyright by assignment from the author.
RayStedman.org/permissions. Permission
granted 3/15/2020 all rights reserved.

References:
•Tony Evans Bible Commentary,The Advancing
God's Kingdom Agenda.
•Zach Kincaid is a part of the Sharefaith
EditorialTeam. He manages
workoutyourfaith.com and has written on C.S.
Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and general Christian
thought for more than 15 years.

References:
•Zach is a husband, father and collaborator on a
variety of Christian outreach projects,
including films and educational resources.

Romans 1:5 MSG
The Messiah, our Master, through Him we
received both the generous gift (grace) of His
life and the urgent task of passing it on
(apostleship) to others (all nations) who receive
it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus.

Apostleship – the first (ground zero) Christian
missionary in a country or to a people group.
(messenger – apostellein, to send off: apo +
stellein lean)

Romans 1:9 MSG
9 And God,Whom I so love to worship and serve
by spreading the Good News of His Son — the
Message!

The Good Infection
Romans 1:5 MSG
5 the urgent task of passing it on to
others (exposing all the nations)
Romans 1:9 MSG
9 spreading the Good News

The Good Infection
We are in the season of death and resurrection,
living in the reality of SomeOne paying the
wages of our sin and celebrating in the victory
of His bodily resurrection from the dead. (WC
“w/o victory, no survival”)

The natural seasons also celebrate this new
birth, as Easter (4/12) and Spring (3/20) opens
up and the Earth is made green again.
A “good infection”, a term Lewis introduces in
Book IV of Mere Christianity. (compilation of
radio)

C. S. explains that there are two kinds of life.
One life is self-centered and self-seeking.
It does not want to be accountable to anyone
and never wants to be challenged to change.

As a result, it stays well away from anything
that makes it feel unworthy and small,
especially anything spiritual.
It knows full well that the spiritual stuff will
make it change out of its self-centered skin.

It’s ready to, “fight tooth and nail to avoid that,”
says Lewis.
Ah, but what if this mask of death could be
replaced?

Lewis asks us, “Did you ever think, when you
were a child, what fun it would be if your toys
could come to life?”
It doesn’t sound theological but it’s stock full
theology.

“Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real little
man,” Lewis says, explaining that the tin soldier
would think it’s being killed, and he doesn’t
want this new manliness.

Perhaps the stubbornness of the soldier would
prevent us from carrying out the miraculous
change.
But that doesn’t stop God as He pursues us.

Lewis says,The Second Person in God, the Son,
became human Himself: was born into the
world as an actual man—a real man of a
particular height, with hair of a particular color,
speaking a particular language.

The Eternal Being,Who knows everything and
Who created the whole universe, became not
only a man but before that a baby, and before
that a fetus inside a woman’s body.

If you want to get the hang of it, think how you
would like to become a slug right now.
Becoming a slug?
Think about it.
Jesus was begotten–He was born into human
form–to miraculously save all of us tin soldiers!

But here’s the catch.
He became real tin in order to take on the
deadness of our sin and bring us into His
fullness.

Lewis also says that, different from the
transformation of a single tin soldier to a single
human being, Christianity is about the human
race being transformed, and, for those who
believe, we become united in Christ’s sacrifice
and victory.

“It is as if something which is always affecting
the whole human mass begins, at one point
(ground zero), to affect the whole human mass
in a new way,” Lewis explains. “From that point
the effect spreads through all mankind. (good
infection) It makes a difference to people who
lived before Christ as well as to people who
lived after Him.

It makes a difference to people who have never
heard of Him. It is like dropping into a glass of
water one drop of something which gives a new
taste or a new color to the whole lot.”

It’s a good infection!
Jesus is the anecdote (He is the cure!) for the sin
we harbor and for what destroys us.

“Humanity is already ‘saved’ in principle,” Lewis
says. “We individuals have to appropriate that
salvation. But the really tough work—the bit we
could not have done for ourselves—has been
done for us.”

We don’t have to work and perform to be
counted worthy. (He paid)
That part has been accomplished.
Ours is to accept and be willing to be reborn in
Christ, no longer tin but real humans, fully back
in the image of God.

We have not got to try to climb up into spiritual
life by our own efforts; it has already come
down into the human race.
If we will only lay ourselves open to the one
Man inWhom it was fully present, andWho, in
spite of being God, is also a real man, He will do
it in us and for us.

One of our own race has this new life: if we get
close to Him, we shall catch it from Him.
The Good Infection!

As the seasons change and we see the rebirth of
the trees, flowers and grass, let us be reminded
afresh of the rebirth that Lewis talks about, that
is presented to us in Scripture, of the God-man
Jesus Who came to make all things new.

Romans 3:19-20 NKJV
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it
says to those who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. 20Therefore by the
deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The law was never given to make people
righteous.
It is the knowledge of sin that comes through
the law (Romans 3:20).

Think of the law as a mirror that shows you who
you really are.
While a mirror reveals your messed-up hair, you
don’t pull it off the wall and brush your hair with
it!

Mirrors don’t fix anything; they only show us
what needs fixing.
The law was not designed to fix you, but to
reveal what needs fixing.

Bad News Review
The bad news is what we studied in Romans 1.
And there is more bad news in the first part of
chapter 3.

Romans 1:18 MSG
18 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of
human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying
accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over
truth.

Romans 1:31-32 MSG
31-32 Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s
not as if they don’t know better.They know
perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face.
And they don’t care—worse, they hand out
prizes to those who do the worst things the
best!

Romans 3:9-12 MSG
9-12 Scripture leaves no doubt about it:
There’s nobody living right, not even one,
nobody who knows the score, nobody
alert for God.
They’ve all taken the wrong turn;
they’ve all wandered down blind alleys.

No one’s living right;
I can’t find a single one.
Romans 3:9-12 MSG

Romans 3:19b MSG
19bWe’re sinners, every one of us, in the same
sinking boat with everybody else.
(Tony Evans at Mission Mississippi, different
ships but…)

You’ve probably heard the country song that
says: “If it weren't for bad luck I wouldn't have
any luck at all”, and some folks are feeling
today since they are so glued to the news that if
it weren't for bad news they wouldn't have any
news at all.

But thank God there is some good news and it’s
about time for some good news!
John Newton found some good news.

He was bad news himself, a horrible person and
had bought and sold slaves for years until one
day he found God’s grace, that’s the Good
News, God’s grace!

One day John Newton cried out to God for
mercy and God readily showed him His mercy
and John Newton got right with God.
Later he wrote the song that you and I love to
sing so often, Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me.

The soaring spiritual describing profound
spiritual elation is estimated to be performed 10
million times annually and has appeared on
over 11,000 albums!
When John Newton called himself a wretch, he
wasn't just using hyperbole, he really meant it.

Now, the Good News for us today!
The first two words in our text today from
Romans 3:21 – “But now!”

Romans 3:21 NKJV
God’s RighteousnessThrough Faith
21 But now (that’s Good News) the
righteousness of God apart from the law (our
mirror) is revealed, being witnessed by the
Law and the Prophets,

"But now"
You can almost hear the sigh of relief in those
two words.

After God's appraisal of man's efforts to achieve
some standing before Him, given to us in the
verses previous to this, now come God's words
of relief, God's total answer to man's total
failure.

Paul has concluded his description of what
humanity is like as God sees it - with His ability
to see everything about us.
Nothing is hidden from His eyes, not our
thoughts, not our hearts, not our intents, nor
our motives.

There is clearly no one who can make it in God's
sight.
These words fromVerses 10-12 tell us that:
There is no one righteous, not even one; there
is no one who understands, no one who
searches for God.

All have turned away and together become
worthless.There is no one who does good, not
even one. (Romans 3:10-12 NIV)
That is God's appraisal.

"But now," Paul says.
But now a righteousness from God, apart from
the law, has been made known, to which the
Law and the Prophets testify. (Romans 3:21
NIV)
This is God's great "nevertheless" in the face of
man's failure.

This Gospel, therefore, is dealing with
something tremendously significant.
It does not have to do only with what happens
when you die.

This is one of the reasons why hundreds of
churches today are half-empty; so many people
do not know that self-worth is what the Gospel
is all about.
Young people today are looking for a sense of
worth.

They want to be loved.
People desperately need to know that their dad
loves them, that their mom loves them, all of us
identify with that feeling of needing to be
loved.

Well, far, far deeper than the need to feel that
some human being loves us is our need to know
that God loves us and that we are acceptable in
His sight, that we have standing and value and
worth to Him.

Something about us, that bit of eternity planted
in our hearts by God Himself, bears witness to
us that this is the ultimate issue.
Somehow life can never be satisfying if that
question is not settled.

Therefore, this Good News comes with
tremendous relevance today.
What God is offering is a gift of righteousness --
His own perfect righteousness, that cannot be
improved upon - a perfect value.

By faith in Jesus Christ, God gives us a sense of
worth and acceptance and there could be no
better news to mankind.
Paul says this righteousness is apart from the
Law.

That is to say, it is not something that you earn;
it is a gift.
You cannot earn it by doing your best to be
pleasing to God and anybody who approaches
God on those terms has already failed.

There is no way anyone can measure up to
God's standards.
The sweetest, dearest little lady that you know
of cannot make it because God knows her
heart.

Romans 3:22-23 NKJV
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith
in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.
For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God,

When Paul says that all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, he means all.
No exceptions.
And when the standard is God’s glory, God’s
righteousness, it makes no difference if we miss
by an inch or a mile.

If two men are running to catch a ship and one
man is an hour late, while the other is ten
minutes late, who is in a worse situation?
After all, they both missed the boat!

It doesn’t matter if you are “better” than your
neighbor.
Your neighbor is not the standard.
God is the standard, and we all fall short.

Romans 3:24 NKJV
24 being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
The cross answers our problem, for through it
we are justified freely by His grace.

Justification (just-as-if-it-didn’t-happen) is a
legal concept meaning that in God’s courtroom,
He pronounced us innocent of all charges.
Just how does God do that?

Jonathan Cahn inThe Book of Mysteries says
that it is even better than “just as if we never
sinned”.
In God’s redemption through the blood of
Jesus, it has become that we never sinned!
How can that be true?

The first recorded miracle of the Messiah was
the changing of water into the best wine.
The best wine is only the best if it has been
aged.
So, it had to be given a new past.

Since God gave a past where there was no past,
He can also remove a past where there once
was one!
He changes your past and by that He changes
reality, you become a new creature!

God brought time into existence and He can
bring time out of existence!
It is as if you never sinned in the first place.

The impossible becomes the reality, the guilty
become innocent, the tainted become pure, the
rejected become those who were always
beloved children and our sins, which were as
scarlet, become as white as snow!
Isaiah 1:18; John 2:1-11; 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21;
1 John 1:8-9

He does this through what theologians call
“imputation” —taking Jesus’s perfect record
and crediting it to our accounts.

The redemption that is in Christ Jesus through
His blood, released us from spiritual bondage
by paying the price, an amount that was way
too high for us to pay (and was continually
gaining interest - like a loan shark transaction).

Romans 3:25-26 NKJV
25 Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His
blood, through faith, to demonstrate His
righteousness, because in His forbearance God
had passed over the sins that were previously
committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present
time His righteousness, that He might be just
and the Justifier of the one who has faith in
Jesus.

Christ is the One Who accomplished something
that does the work of redemption.
Ephesians 1:7-8 NIV
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the
riches of God’s grace 8 that He lavished on us.
With all wisdom and understanding,

Here we are brought face-to-face with the
cross, with the death of Jesus, and the apostle is
underlining this fact.
Many churches are given over to following the
teachings of Jesus but hardly ever refer to His
cross.

If you find a so-called Christianity that does not
emphasize the cross, you are listening to
"another gospel" which is not the true Gospel.
The real Gospel is based only upon the
redemption which Jesus accomplished in His
cross.

Paul now gives a brief explanation of how and
why this redemption works. "How" is found in
the opening words ofVerse 25, and "why" in the
verses that follow.

Romans 3:25-26 NIV
25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,
through faith in his blood. He did this to
demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance
He had left the sins committed beforehand
unpunished – 26 He did it to demonstrate His justice
at the present time so as to be just and the one who
justifies the man who has faith in Jesus.
Give very careful attention to these words.

This is the heart of the Gospel and the ground
of assurance.
Many people, even though they become
Christians, struggle with assurance.
They do not rest upon the fact that these words
are true, so they are filled, often, with a
struggle of doubts and uncertainty.

They have a sneaking suspicion deep inside,
that perhaps, despite all these wonderful
words, God is still not quite satisfied; if
something should happen to them, they think
that they might be lost.
Pay very careful attention to Paul's argument
here because this is the answer to that struggle.

First, verse 25 says that God has accomplished a
propitiatory sacrifice: God presented Jesus as a
"sacrifice of atonement" (that is the phrase
here) through faith in His blood.

His words, "sacrifice of atonement" are really
translating a single word in Greek (hilasterion
for you Greek students) which is translated
"expiation" in some versions, and "propitiation"
in others.

We need to understand their meaning because
this is the heart of the Gospel: Expiation is that
which satisfies justice; Propitiation is that which
awakens love.

Both of these terms are involved in the death of
Jesus, but expiation does not go quite as far as
propitiation.
Propitiation carries us clear through to the
awakening of God's love toward us.

That is why "propitiatory sacrifice" is a better
translation than the word "expiation."
Let’s illustrate the difference: In these days, we
often read of industrial accidents.
Let us say that someone has been injured in the
course of his work and has been partially
paralyzed.

The company is at fault, having neglected to
provide safety equipment, thus creating the
conditions that put this man in danger, so the
company is held accountable for the man's
injury and subsequent paralysis.

Therefore, the court awards this man a
tremendous sum of money to be paid by the
company.
When the money is paid, the company has
expiated its wrongdoings; it has satisfied the
demands of justice.

It no longer has any responsibility toward this
man; it has paid its costly debt and that is what
expiation means.
But that does not say anything about how the
man feels toward the company.

He may yet be filled with bitterness,
resentment, even hatred.
He may spend the rest of his life abhorring the
name of that company even though it has given
him all the money he could possibly use.

The debt has been expiated but it has not been
propitiated.
What Paul is saying here is that human sin has
injured God, just as that man was injured by the
negligence of the company.

Our sin has hurt and injured God, and justice
demands that we be punished for that sin in
some way.
In the death of Jesus that punishment was
accomplished so that God's justice was
satisfied.

If you read this as expiation, that is all the cross
means.
In a way, it means that it paid God off, so that
He no longer holds us to blame but that is not
all that Paul is saying here.

The word means also that God's love has been
awakened toward us and He reaches out to love
us and grants us the feeling of worth and
acceptance and value in His sight even though
we committed an offense towards Him.

That is what propitiation means, that is what
the death of Jesus does.
It did satisfy God's justice, but it went further; it
awakened His love, and now He is ready to pour
out love upon us. (Romans 5:5)

Romans 5:5 NKJV
5 Hope does not disappoint us because God has
poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy
SpiritWhom He has given us.

Paul shows us why this had to happen,
beginning in the middle ofVerse 25.
Romans 3:25b NIV
25b He did this to demonstrate His justice,
because in His forbearance He had left the sins
committed beforehand unpunished --

But the cross settles all of that.
The cross says that God remains just.
All the stored-up punishment amply deserved
by the human race is now poured out without
restraint upon the head of Jesus on the cross.

God did not spare His Son one iota of the wrath
that man deserves.
Just because Jesus was His beloved Son, He did
not lessen the punishment a single degree.
All of it was poured out on Him.

That explains the cry of abandonment that
comes from the cross, "My God, my God, why
hastThou forsaken Me?" (Psalm 22:1, Matthew
27:46, Mark 15:34 KJV).

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus faced the
possibility of being shut away from all love, all
beauty, all truth, all warmth, all acceptance, the
possibility of being forever denied all that
makes life beautiful.

There He faced the eternity of emptiness in the
judgment of God, and this is what He
experienced on the cross; all of it was poured
out on Him.

Paul's argument is that He did it to
demonstrate His justice at the present time --
so as to be just and yet be free to extend love to
us who deserve only His justice.
That is the glory of the Good News of the
Gospel.

Romans 3:27-29 NKJV
Boasting Excluded
27Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By
what law? Of works? No, but by the law of
faith. 28Therefore we conclude that a man
is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the
law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is
He not also the God of the Gentiles?Yes, of the
Gentiles also,

Romans 3:30-31 NKJV
30 since there is one GodWho will justify the
circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised
through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law
through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary,
we establish the law.

Romans 4:1-2 NKJV
Abraham Justified by Faith
1What then shall we say that Abraham
our father has found according to the
flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works,
he has something to boast about, but not
before God.

Now what that means is just simply this—that if
Abraham could be saved by being good, he
could boast about it, he could glory in his own
salvation and he could say nice things about
himself.

But that wouldn't be saying nice things about
God.
But when Abraham believed God, he gave God
glory.

Adrian Rogers was playing football against
Daytona Beach in high school and there was
about three inches of water on the field,
coming up over their shoe tops.

Their uniforms were soaking wet, the Daytona
QB put a pass in the air and Adrian’s defensive
tackle, who was very overweight, had that pass
just land between his bulging side and his thick
arm and got stuck there.

He looked down, saw it and put both arms
around it.
He had intercepted a pass, first time in his life.
He was the slowest man on the field, but he ran
that thing back for a touchdown!

They blocked every man on the Daytona team
three times in order for him to get into the
endzone.
When he ran, the tackle would say: “Right leg,
left leg, right leg” - but he ran it back.

Adrian had to share a room afterward and all
night long he heard about him running, and
making moves, running that ball all the way
back down that field.
Adrian said he'd hate to spend eternity with a
guy bragging about how he got to Heaven.

We want to spend eternity with people who are
giving the Lamb all the glory as we sing, “Unto
HimWho loved us and washed us with His
blood”.
“Worthy is the Lamb!”

Romans 4:3-4 NKJV
believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.” 4 Now to him who works, the
wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

It'sTime for Some Good News
By Adrian Rogers
Main ScriptureText: Romans 4:1

Now what is grace?
What is a definition of grace?
Grace is the unmerited favor and kindness
shown to one who does not deserve it and can
never earn it.

You will be saved by grace or you won't be
saved at all.
Now the Good News is the grace.
In Romans chapters 1, 2, and 3, Paul has been
telling us about the bad news, about sin,
wickedness, degradation, depravity, all of the
things.

He's been talking to the heathen, he's been
talking to the hypocrite, he's been talking to the
Hebrew, he's been talking to humanity, and he
summed it up in Romans 3:23, "For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God."
That is the bad news that makes the Good
News good.

Romans 4:1-4 NKJV
1What then shall we say that Abraham our
father has found according to the flesh? 2 For if
Abraham was justified by works, he has
something to boast about, but not before God.
believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.” 4 Now to him who works, the
wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

We're going to see the Gospel according to
three men: according to Abraham, according to
David, and according to Paul.
We need to see the grace, the Good News, that
was discovered by Abraham.

The very word that says what did we say then,
why has Abraham our father as pertaining to
the flesh has found, you see that word has
found?

The word “found” is the word we get our word
“eureka” from.
It speaks of a discovery; Abraham made a
discovery.
If you haven't been going to church very long,
you might say, “Well now, wait a minute, who is
Abraham?”

Well, if you were a Jew you would know who
Abraham is because Abraham is the brightest
star in the Hebrew heaven.
Abraham was the first of the Jewish nation, of
the Hebrews, and Abraham was the premier
saint, he's the beginner of the Jewish race.
You can say the founder of their faith.

They held Abraham in highest esteem, and in
the Jewish mind, if anybody could behave
himself into Heaven, it would be Abraham.
If anybody could get to Heaven by doing good
works, it would be Abraham.

But the Bible says here thatAbraham believed
God.
You see it in verse 3, and that was counted to
him for righteousness.

Now all that is doing is just quoting Genesis 15:6
and it talks about Abraham and it says he
believed the Lord and He counted it to him,
that is, the Lord put it on his account for
righteousness.

Now you see, God had called Abraham when he
was a heathen in the land of Ur and said, “I want
you to go into a land that I'm going to give you,
and just, I want you to go!”

He didn't even really tell him where he was
going, he just went out under orders, under
sealed orders.
But then the Lord appeared to him, and this
time he was a very old man.

He was childless and his wife Sarah, had gone
through menopause and her womb was past
reproduction and the Bible says that it was
dead, that is, she could not reproduce and have
a child naturally.

But God came to Abraham and said, “Abraham,
I'm going to give you a son and through that son
you're going to have, you're going to have many
children. As a matter of fact, look up at those
stars, Abraham, you see all those stars, can you
count them, can you, Abraham? Well, Abraham,
you're not going to be able to count the number
of your descendants. I'm going to work a miracle;
I'm going to work a miracle in your life.”

Rather than arguing with God or doubting God,
the Bible says, “Abraham believed God.”
And God said, “All right, that's what I want and
I'm going to put you down as righteous.”
Abraham believed God and it was counted to
him as righteousness.

What did he believe God for?
He believed God for a miracle son.
Jesus is a miracle Son, born of a virgin!
And Abraham, as you see, this all just pre-
figures Jesus.

He believed God for a miracle son and he also
believed in GodWho could bring life out of
death.
Jesus come out of the grave; He also came out
of death!

Just as God gave life to Sarah's dead womb,
Abraham just believed this.
He had an incredible faith in God.
It pre-figures the Gospel of God's miracle Son,
His death, burial, and resurrection and Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for
righteousness.

What does salvation by grace do and why, what
did Abraham discover?
First of all, salvation by grace respects God's
glory.

How did Abraham become righteous?
Not by circumcision or the law.
Abraham believed God, and because of that, he
was credited with righteousness.

God told Abraham something and Abraham
took Him at His word.
That’s the essence of faith.
Abraham wasn’t saved simply by believing
something but by believing SomeOne – God!

Faith is merely a channel to get to its object. (by
grace through faith)
It doesn’t matter how sincere or passionate
your faith is if the object is wrong.

Back in the 1980s, there was a tragic case in Chicago
where someTylenol had become laced with cyanide
and seven people died.
Those involved believed they were just getting pain
medicine, but their belief was insufficient: the
contents of the bottles couldn’t be trusted.
It is the object of our faith, and not our faith itself,
that matters.

Romans 4:4-5 NKJV
4 Now to him who works, the wages are not
counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who
does not work but believes on Him who justifies
the ungodly, his faith is accounted for
righteousness,

Salvation is not a transaction; it comes to the one
who does not work, the one who believes on Him
Who declares the ungodly to be righteous.
It’s a gift, plain and simple.
If you just reach out your hand and take it then it’s
yours but if you work for it, you dismiss the gift
and treat it as a wage that is earned.

Many people will stand before God and list their
credentials: I worked my head off; I went to
church every Sunday; I helped the needy; I read
my Bible.
But God will not grant salvation as something
owed.

Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV
8 For by grace you have been saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

The Plan of Hope & Salvation
John 3:16 NKJV
16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send
His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved.”
John 14:6 NKJV
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Romans 3:23 NKJV
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23a NKJV
23a For the wages of sin is death,
• Death in this life (the first death) is 100%.
• Even Jesus, the only one who doesn’t deserve death,
died in this life to pay the penalty for our sins.
• The death referred to in Romans 6:23a is the second
death explained in Revelation 21:8.

Revelation 21:8 NKJV
8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually
immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the
lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
• Anyone who’s lifestyle is one or more of the sins listed in Revelation
21:8, will experience the “second death” if they do not repent.
• To Repent means to turn around, to go in the opposite direction,
to turn away from sin and to come to Jesus.
Romans 6:23b NKJV
23b but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:8 NKJV
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Revelation 21:7 NKJV
7 “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be
his God and he shall be My son.”
• Romans 10:9-10 explain to us how to be overcomers.

Romans 10:9-10 NKJV
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and
believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the
dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation.
Romans 10:13 NKJV
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be
saved.”

Have questions?
Would you like to know more?
Please, contact First Baptist Church Jackson at
601-949-1900 or http://firstbaptistjackson.org/contact/

03-22-20, Romans 3;19-4;4, Justified

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