Romans 4:1-12 - Justification By Faith
Intro A
preacher who had moved away from the truth of the gospel told the following
story to his congregation to explain his outlook on Christianity
A) The story was about a
frog who fell into a pail of milk /
stuck couldn’t climb out & he couldn’t get any leverage to leap out
B) So he did the only thing
that he could do he just kept paddling around & around hoping that he could
be rescued
1) As he paddled around
something amazing took place his paddling churned a pad of butter from which he
was able to launch himself out
C) The moral of this story
& the point of the preachers message was just keep paddling, keep on
working, keep doing your best, & you will make it
D) As sad as that mentality is
it is the Philosophy of many in our society today as well as many people who
attend church - if I’m just good enough
1) Keep on doing my best - keep
on paddling I will make it to heaven
E) The message of the first 3
chapters of the book of Romans is no you won’t !
1) There is none good no not
one ! None righteous
F) And no amount of good works
will make you right before God !
And just when
we about to lose all hope - Paul introduced us to the miracle of Justification
!
A) That a man or woman could be declared righteous apart works & apart
from the Law by simply having faith in Jesus Christ read Ch. 3: 24-26
B) Now to the Jews who hung on
so tightly to their rules Regulations
& to their rituals this would sound like a major heresy / By grace through faith? Works ?
C) So as we come to Ch.4 we see
that Paul reveals to them that this is not a new thing at all Abe Father of
Jewish race & David founder of Hebrew royal family
In v.1-8 Paul
reveals How Abe & David were Justified / v.9,10 he reveals when Abe was
Justified / v. 11,12 Why he was justified
A) Then in v. 13-15 he gives
some practical insights that apply to us
B) 1st How was Abraham justified - V.1-3 4:1
What 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.
3 For what does the Scripture say?
"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness."
C) Paul says Abraham was
Justified by faith, when he simply
believed what God said & the Lord responded by saying You are righteous !
1) The word accounted or
imputed as some bibles read is a banking term that means to take from one
account & transfer to another
D) When we put our faith in
Christ - God transferred our sin from our account & transferred His
righteousness into our account !
1) Was it through works that we
did ? No it was through faith in the finished work of Christ !
E) That is the point that Paul
has been making & he uses Abe as his example -Abe wasn’t justified by his works /
if he was he would’ve had a reason to boast
1) BUT NOT BEFORE
GOD !
Men love to
Boast - Look at me / notice what I did - what I’m doing !
Aaron smartest
big brother in the world … Aaron I’m not going to lie
A) Playing ball growing up there were always those guys
who were so quick to tell you how good they were
1) My dad said to me that if
you are really good you won’t have to tell anyone your play will speak for
itself
B) Abe’s play was great - some great works - room to
boast - but not before God
C) Our works put under the
microscope - our imperfections are revealed - all our flaws are seen ( Counterfeiters convicted by chemical
residue on clothes )
1) We might look good in
comparison to someone else - but the Lord sees everything - sees the motives sees
the heart
D) Not to compare ourselves w/
each other but w/ Christ ! Here is what is awesome put Christ under the
microscope what happens ? His Beauty is
magnified
DD) Put us under the microscope
& all of our flaws & imperfections are seen / put
Jesus
under microscope - His perfection is seen - Beauty magnified
E) That is what happens when
study - Word reveals how imperfect we are & How perfect he is ! Get us to depend on Him look to Him / trust
in Him
F) So Paul says that Abe believed God & it
was accounted to him as righteousness
Now here is
what is interesting : When did God declare Abe
righteous ? Was it in Gen. 12 - When
God told him to go & he left Haran ? No
A) Was it in Gen 13 when he told him his descendants would be like the
dust of the earth & he would be the father of many nations ? No
B) Now both of those were
heroic deeds & huge acts of faith ! I imagine being 75 yrs old & the
Lord says time to up root - go to a land - start a family
1) 75 yrs old is mighty old to
begin a journey across the country on camel & foot - And it is especially
old to begin a family even in those days
C) But Abe went for it & in
Heb. 11 he is commended for his faith because of it - but that is not when the
Lord declared Abraham righteous
1) Nor was it after the time he
took his Son Isaac to the Mts. of Moriah to sacrifice him to the Lord
D) It actually came at a rather
low point - turn to Gen.15
Scene of
Gen.15 / 11yrs have past from time left Haran / 86 yrs old / Sarah 76
Abe had just
returned from rescuing Lot & seems to be afraid -
A) What have I done - retaliation
B) The Lord appears & says V.1 "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your
shield, your exceedingly great reward."
But Abram
said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the
heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
3 Then Abram said, "Look, You have given
me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!"
C) Abraham says Lord I know you
told me you would be w/ me before / but it has been 11 yrs now - still have no
heir
1) If I died today - my servant
Eliezer would be the heir of my house !
D) SO Lord I’m not really
buying this whole promise thing anymore it has just been to long - I’m getting
to old
E) This was a low point in
Abraham’s life / where his faith was faltering / he was readying to give up !
LORD RESPONDS 4 And behold, the word of the
LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who
will come from your own body shall be your heir."
5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look
now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them."
And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
A) The Lord reaffirms His
Promise to Abe - says Hang in there Abe
/ just trust me a little longer !
1) V. 6 says And
he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
B) It was in this time of weak
faith - that God declared Abraham righteous & James adds in 2:23 that God
also called Abraham His Friend
Bb)Abe believed God once again - grabbed a hold of
the Promise once more & the Lord said
Abe You are righteous & you are my friend
C) So not only was it a time
when Abe wasn’t working/ but it was a
time when his faith was weak & he was doubting/ that God pronounced this blessing
1) Which magnifies that it was
according to God’s grace even more so !
D) God takes the little bit of
faith that Abe musters up & pours out this great blessing upon him
1) Reminds me of the story of
the man who came to Jesus because his son was demon possessed / Jesus said / Just Believe/ Lord I believe help my
E) Just took that mans faith
that was coupled w/ doubt fear & frustration & still healed his son
Sometimes
people ask how much faith is saving faith - answer is Just a little bit ! But true
saving faith will grow over time - see in Abe life / faith grew
A) But sometimes that doubt or
fear or frustration can keep people from really coming to Christ
B) I encourage them to give
hearts to Him ! And the questions will get
answered the doubts will go away - fears will subside / frustrations will be
subdued
1)Because Faith comes by hearing & hearing by the
word - as you give
heart to Him & begin to get in His word Your faith is going to
increase
C) So Abe was Justified by
Grace through faith & apart from works -
1) Next Paul reveals that if it
was going to be by grace it couldn’t be by works because - the reward for work
is a wage & not a gift v.4
4 Now to him who works, the wages are not
counted as grace but as debt.
D) if I am
working for it then it is something that is owed to me / I was saved the old
fashioned way I earned - problem is can’t - works fall short
5 But to him who does not work but believes on
Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness
of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds
are forgiven, And whose sins are covered;
Now Paul uses
David to further his illustration & point !
A) Paul quotes from Psa 32
which was a Psa which David wrote after his sin w/ Bathsheba was exposed
B) For close to 9 months David
was living the life of a hypocrite / thinking he had successfully hidden his
sin !
1) Had Uriah killed / he
married Bathsheba - which actually made him look kind & compassionate
C) But after 8months or so the
Lord sent Nathan to tell David a little story ……..
David YOU
ARE THE MAN - Caught - Guilty
D) What David do he repents - confesses
his sin / and it was then that he writes this Psalm . turn to
Blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not
impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
A) Blessed = oh how happy (
Spurgeon's story man convicted in Spain /execute by shoot him - but he was an
American citizen / wrapped in American flag )
B) But notice what he says in
v. 3,4 3
When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day
long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon
me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
C) Hiding my sin made me ache
inside & it sucked all the life right out of me ! But when he finally
confessed it - restoration took place 5 I
acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I
will confess my transgressions to the LORD," And You forgave the iniquity
of my sin. SKIP TO V. 10
10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he
who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him. 11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; And shout for
joy, all you upright in heart!
God didn’t
require David to perform 1000 hail Marys or to walk on coals / go lay out in
the hot desert sun for days
A) He simply
said You have confessed your sin
& repented of your sin & by my grace I am going to forgive you of your
sin & declare you righteous
B) So David like Abraham was declared righteous by
simply placing his faith in the grace of God that was able to forgive Him &
to restore him
1) Grace is a gift that can’t
be earned it can only be embraced through faith !
C) So that is how Abe &
David were Justified - By Grace through faith & apart from works - Back to
Romans
As we come to V.
9,10 Paul further reveals when Abe was declared righteous that it was before he
was circumcised/ illustrate that justification is universal.
9 Does this blessedness then come upon the
circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was
accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How then was it accounted? While he was
circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
A) Circumcision was the sign
that God gave to Abe & his descendants that they were the people of God !
It marked them as his people
B) Now we noted in ch. 2 where
Paul showed that the mark didn’t mean a thing if they were not acting like the
people of God
1) Worthless as an engagement
ring would be for a girl who was carrying on w/ other men !
C) Here in Ch. 4 Paul is using
Abe’s circumcision to further illustrate that Abe was Justified by faith
because it was before he was circumcised
1) In fact it was at least 14
yrs before he was circumcised
D) Then Paul adds in v. 11 that
He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the
faith which he had while still uncircumcised,
E) In other words the Lord
looked at Abe when he showed faith in Him / even though it was weak at the time
and said You are righteous / your my friend
1) And I am going to make you a great nation - and I am going to give you
this seal as a sign of my promise to you
F) This is what people fail to
realize about circumcision is it is a sign from God that He is going to keep
his promise
1) It marked them as the People
of God
The Lord has
marked us who have been declared righteous by exercising faith in Jesus Christ w/ a seal as well -
the H.S. in our Hearts
A)And the H.S. is
the guarantee to us that God is going to keep his promise to us
to take
us to heaven !
B) And The presence of the H.S.
which will result in us bringing forth the fruit of the H.S. is an evidence
that we are born again
C) See an example of this in
the life of David / 1Sam. 16
Scene : Samuel goes to house of Jesse Pick a new
King ( David overlooked )
A) God looks at the Heart - God
could see what others don’t - God saw David’s heart
B) To Jesse & David’s
brothers he was just a little rugged shepherd boy- but God saw His big heart
for the Lord !
C) 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed
him in the midst of his brothers; and the
Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.
D) Now note
how David is described shortly after this : "Look, I
have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty
man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person; and the
LORD is with him."
How ? By grace
through faith / When ? Before
circumcision / before the Law
Lastly why
? TO MAKE HIM THE FATHER OF MANY
that he might be
the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that
righteousness might be imputed to them also,
12 and the father of circumcision to those who
not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith
which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
A) God had another reason in
mind beyond the personal salvation of Abraham - Abraham would become the Father
of those who Justified by faith
1) Aaron am I related to Moses
- answer is yes in a general sense
A) And we are all related to Adam - sin / But Abraham is referred to as the
father of those justified by faith !
B) This opens up the whole
picture & puts it into focus - that
when The Lord spoke to Abe & said he was going to be a great nation
1) He was speaking not only
physically but spiritually !
For the
promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his
seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if those who are of the law are heirs,
faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,15 because the law brings about wrath; for
where there is no law there is no transgression.
C) Abraham’s seed according to
the law was Isaac - Seed according to
the righteousness of faith was Jesus
1) Paul makes this really clear
in Gal. 3:16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not
say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your
Seed," who is Christ.
16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be
according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but
also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all