Scripture Reading: Romans 4:1-8
You may turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter four for our meditation prior to taking the bread and wine in remembrance of our Lord's death on behalf of his people. Romans chapter four, I'll read verses one to eight. What then shall we say that Abraham, our father, has found 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 accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Amen.
Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our father, we thank you for this. God, this word given to the apostle Paul. We thank you for the scripture, the epistle to the Romans. And father, I pray that it would be a blessing to our hearts tonight as we consider afresh the great gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
How we thank you, God, that you sent him into this world on a rescue mission, on a mercy mission. How we thank you that you sent him to do what we could never do in terms of obedience to your law, in terms of death at Calvary as a sacrifice and a substitute. And how we praise you that he rose from the grave, that he is risen as the angels declared, and that he sits enthroned at your right hand. God, may this cheer our hearts and may this encourage us And may this cause us to persevere by your grace and for your glory.
And we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Well,
Introduction
I want to focus specifically your attention this evening on verse five. We're going to look at a lot of passages tonight. We're going to be flipping back and forth throughout the scriptures, primarily the epistles of the apostle Paul. But notice what he says here in verse five.
He says, but to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly. It's a very powerful statement. God is the one who justifies, who pardons their sins and gives a righteousness to those who are ungodly. I think what Paul is doing here, among other things, is explaining and showing forth how great God's grace is as it's revealed in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But before we actually get started looking at these Pauline passages, I want you to turn back for a moment to Proverbs chapter 17. Proverbs chapter 17 is just by way of introduction. I want us to start thinking in a particular direction. I think that if we read Proverbs 17, specifically verse 15, and we read it in light of the gospel, we might be tempted to conclude that God is an abomination to himself.
I mean, there's a lot of people, a lot of Christians that take the book of Proverbs and read a chapter a day. There's 31 chapters. That's not by divine inspiration, the verses and the chapters were added later, but it is a happy, dare I say, accident that there are 31 chapters and Christians can read a chapter a day. Helpfully, a helpful way to be in the book of Proverbs on a monthly basis.
But have you ever gotten the verse fifteen, where it says he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them are an abomination to the Lord. Ever stop for a moment and said, wait a minute, that's exactly what God does do, isn't it? Doesn't God justify the wicked? Isn't that what Paul says, right?
Romans four, five. We just read it. God justifies the ungodly, ungodly, wicked, obviously mean the same sort of thing. And then in verse 15, it says, and who condemns the just?
Well, again, you start thinking about Jesus, the life of Jesus. You start thinking about passages like Hebrews 7. He's holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. You start to read the gospel of Luke.
Perhaps you read Proverbs 17, 15 for your Old Testament reading, and then you find yourself in the passion narrative in Luke's gospel. And you start to think about the fact that Pilate says three times, I find no guilt in this man. I find no guilt in this man. I find no guilt in this man.
And again, your mind is taken back to this passage. It seems as if the just is being condemned. And then you hear that thief on the cross. When by God's grace, he says, stop chastising the son of God.
I'm paraphrasing. He says, we are up here justly. But this man has done nothing wrong. So perhaps you come back to Proverbs 1715 and you say, well, wait a minute.
Sinful men make lots of mistakes and they were the ones responsible for condemning the just man, Jesus Christ. So God is off the hook. And perhaps you're reading more in your Old Testament Scripture reading. You go to Isaiah 53, verse 10, where it says that God the Father was pleased to crush God the Son.
It was the Father who was in charge of the act of crucifixion. He used the means, he used the men, but it was God the Father ultimately responsible for what took place at Calvary. Acts 223, Peter says, this happened according to the predetermined plan of God. So you feel something of this tension here.
Proverbs 17, 15 is precisely what God does do in the gospel. He justifies the wicked and he condemns the just. But in Proverbs 17, it says both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh. We have to ask the question, is God an abomination to himself?
Does God despise himself because he justifies the wicked and he condemns the just? Well,
Imputation Defined
there is a doctrine that we need to understand that relieves this tension that shows that God is both just and the justifier of the one who believes on Jesus. That doctrine is called imputation. Imputation. I don't want you to get scared from big words tonight.
I want you to follow and track imputation as Paul uses it. Predominantly is a legal term. It is a forensic term. We see it back in Romans chapter four.
You can turn over there. The word impute means to reckon to one's account to credit to one's account. Notice in Romans four at verse three, it says, for what does the scripture say Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him or it was imputed to him for righteousness. It was credited to him for righteousness.
Oh, Palmer Robertson says it this way to account to him a righteousness that does not inherently belong to him. He's not making Abraham a better guy. He is imputing to him a righteousness. It comes through faith.
That's the instrument. And then notice there at chapter four, verse six, David, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from words. Paul is not anti works. Paul is not against you being a good and godly man.
He is with reference to our acceptance with God, or this doctrine of justification. That's what he's trafficking in here. It is apart from works that God imputes righteousness. It is apart from works, it is by grace alone through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.
And this is precisely what I want us to appreciate tonight. This doctrine of imputation. The fact that God credits, or the fact that God reckons, or the fact that God accounts unto us a status, a blessed, forensic, legal status that was not ours by accomplishment, but it was by God's sovereign grace through this doctrine of imputation. Now, when we approach the scriptures, there's
Three Imputations Overview
three imputations that we need to get down. Everybody with me? Everybody following? Haven't lost anyone?
Tried to set up a little tension there to grab everybody's attention. You see that in Proverbs 17, you scratch your head and you say, wait a minute, that is what God does. How does this tension get relieved? It is through the law court metaphor.
It is through what God does. It is through how God has chosen to deal with humanity. He has set up two men as representatives. He has set up the first Adam, and he has set up the second, last Adam, or Jesus Christ.
And so those three imputations that we need to understand are simply these. Adam's sin is imputed to us. Adam's sin is imputed to us. Secondly, our sin is imputed to Christ.
And thirdly, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. This is what I hope will bring great encouragement to your souls tonight as we consider our beloved Redeemer in his work of doing and dying and rising again for his people.
Adam's Sin Imputed to Us
The first thing Adam's sin imputed to us. God didn't test each and every one of us in the manner in which he tested Adam. Adam was a public person. Adam was a federal head.
Adam was a covenantal head. Adam stood for his posterity. Paul says very clearly in Romans chapter 5 that in Adam all died. He says specifically in verse 18 of Romans chapter 5.
Therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. That's imputation. You say, but I wasn't there. I wasn't in the garden.
I didn't reach my hand out. I didn't take that fruit. No, you were in Adam. God judges us.
God deals with us in the person of Adam in that federal head. He stood in that covenant of work. Remember, God gave him a prohibition against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Adam reached out his rebellious hand, he took and he ate. Do you realize what had to take place in order for those words to gain a blessed significance?
Adam took and ate and plunged the race into sin. Christ comes and by virtue of his doing and dying, he now bids us take and eat with a blessed connotation, not like what we find in the first Adam. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? The answer is the covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity.
All mankind descending from him by ordinary generation. That clause does not mean that if you're a test tube baby, then somehow you are immune to this sin problem. I think the ordinary generation is there to speak of Christ. He didn't descend from Adam by ordinary generation.
It was an extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit. But all mankind, notwithstanding, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. Paul repeats this in Romans 5 at verse 19. Notice, he says, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.
There's actually a better way to translate made there. Made isn't bad. We shouldn't excise it from our Bibles, but we ought to realize that what's in view is not necessarily transformation of character or conduct, but rather it is a status. It is that legal declaration made is an imprecise translation of the verb.
The verb is best translated, constitute or appoint. The term does not speak to a moral change within the descendant of Adam. It refers to the change in legal or forensic status of the descendant. That's what Paul is saying.
Amputation for as by one man's disobedience, many were constituted or appointed sinners in him. all died. I was talking to someone yesterday about Edward Fisher's marrow of modern divinity. One of the things that Fisher points out in this sin in the Garden of Eden is that Adam actually broke all ten commandments. You ever been tempted to read through that narrative and say, what's the big deal?
I mean, all he did was eat a piece of fruit. Art usually typifies it as an apple. Does God have a special sort of protective status over apples? That was a positive command that God gave to Adam in that state of innocency in this covenant transaction in this covenant of words.
Let me just read Fisher for just a moment in response to the claim that it is a strange thing that so small an offense should plunge the whole of mankind into such a gulf of misery. Fisher writes. Though, at first glance, it seems to be a small offense, yet if we look earnestly upon the matter, it will appear to be an exceeding great offense, for thereby intolerable injury was done unto God, as first His dominion and authority in His holy command was violated. That's just bad, right?
It doesn't matter how big we may deem the command to be, it is a violation of the commander when we transgress. He goes on to say, secondly, his justice, truth, and power in his most righteous threatening were despised. In the day you eat, dying you shall die. He despised that.
He rejected that holy threatening. Thirdly, his most pure and perfect image, wherein man was created in righteousness and true holiness, was utterly defaced. Fourthly, his glory, which by an act of service the creature should have brought to him, was lost and despoiled. And now Fisher goes on to demonstrate how Adam violated all Ten Commandments.
You say, wait a minute, the Ten Commandments weren't given until Sinai. Well, our confession of faith has it right. That moral law was imprinted on Adam's heart. It was codified or summarized at Sinai, but that moral law transcends the Jewish state or the theocracy.
It is the abiding, valid law of God stamped upon each one of us as image bearers. Here's how Fisher describes it. One, he chose himself another God when he followed the devil. Two, he idolized and deified his own belly.
Paul later will say that some men worship their own bellies as God. Three, he took the name of God in vain when he believed him not. Four, he kept not the rest and estate wherein God had sent him. Five, he dishonored his father who was in heaven, and therefore his days were not prolonged in that land which the Lord his God had given him.
Six, he massacred himself and all his posterity. That's us. Massacred. How does Jesus describe the devil?
He's a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Through his agent, Adam, in the garden, he massacred humanity. Dying, you will die. Spiritually, and the body began to decay.
Genesis 5 then repeats the anthem, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. That is divine commentary, theological interpretation of what transpires in the fall of man. He goes on. The seventh.
From Eve, he was a virgin, but in eyes and mind, he committed spiritual fornication. Eight, he stole, like Achan, that which God had set aside not to be meddled with, and this, his stealth, is that which troubles all Israel, the whole world. Nine, he bare witness against God when he believed the witness of the devil before him. And ten, he coveted an evil covetousness, like Amnon, which cost him his life and all his progeny.
So, what we see in the garden, what we see in the fall of man, or in the plunge of man, if you will, is that Adam stood in our place and in him all died. Now, before you start to say, well, that's not fair, we need to consider these other two imputations.
Our Sin Imputed to Christ
That brings us to the second. Our sin is imputed to Christ. This is a blessing. This is why, in justification, we can be pardoned. of all our sins.
This is why Paul can stand in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch and say, therefore, let it be known to you that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. You ever think it wonderful and amazing in the gospel accounts when Jesus forgives sinners? You ever just stop for a moment and think, what a glorious Savior? Well, hopefully you think that and you stop for a moment and you praise God that you are forgiven in and through him.
But if you think back to that context, where was forgiveness associated with the temple? Jesus is walking around outside of the temple, pronouncing forgiveness on people. Those who were forgiven certainly adored and glorified and praised and worshipped, but those Jews hated it. They thought, who does this man think he is?
Only God alone has authority to forgive sins. And he does that through the sacrificial system, which is connected intimately to the temple. You can see why Jesus outraged those unbelievers. But this aspect is glorious.
Our sin is imputed to Christ. Remember,
The Levitical Sacrifices as Types
in Leviticus chapter one, when the worshipper brought the animal to the temple or to the tabernacle at that particular time, what did he do? He laid his hand upon the beast. What does that symbolize? What does that demonstrate?
What does that indicate? Was it one last pet before he cuts his throat? Was it one last little tickle under his chin before he sends him to his death? Was it one little bond of affection being engaged in just so he wouldn't feel so bad about having to cut the animal's throat?
It was a legal declaration. It was a transfer. In his putting of his hand upon that animal, his sin was on the animal. When the animal is killed, when the animal is sacrificed, his sin is dealt with.
You see that when you get to Leviticus 16. The high priest on the Day of Atonement, on Yom Kippur, goes into the Holy of Holies with blood. He doesn't go in there alone. He takes off all of his beautiful attire.
He goes in there simply in linen on that one day out of the year. He goes with blood to pour it on the mercy seat. After he does that for himself, because he's a sinner, after he does that for Israel, there's another goat. And they bring that goat in, and then the high priest lays his hand upon that goat.
You know what he does? He confesses the sins of Israel. What's he doing? He is putting them on this goat.
He is doing a legal act. It is forensic. It is declarative. It is something for the people to see.
Having confessed that sin, having laid his hand upon the beast, he then drives it out into the wilderness. What a beautiful picture. If you were standing there at Yom Kippur and you had the faith of a true believer, your heart would have rejoiced. There goes my sin.
Now, ultimately, you would know that this isn't the end. We're looking forward to the Lamb of God, who actually does take away the sin of the world. These were tithes. These were shadows.
These were pictures and symbols until the time that Messiah would come.
Isaiah 53 and 2 Corinthians 5
Our sin is imputed to the Son of God. Isaiah 53, verse six, it says, and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. It's beautiful, only Christianity has this answer. All of the philosophical systems and all of the world religions can tell you, clean up your act and do better.
But they can't take care of sin. They can't atone for sin. If you are here this evening and you have not come to Jesus, you've got sin. Not to say that Christians don't have sin, but their sin by God's grace is forgiven.
You have unforgiven sin. You are burdened. You are heavy laden. You are weighed down.
This is why it is gospel and treaty. In Matthew 11, Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. He's not talking about you worked an 80 hour work week last week and you're tired. No, he's talking about your way down and laden with sin, corruption, evil, wickedness, vileness, all of the muck and garbage associated with sin.
Come to me, he says, and I will give you rest. Here it tells us that God has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. John Gill explains that is God the Father against whom we have sinned, from whom we have turned and whose justice must be satisfied. He has laid on Christ, his own son, the sins of all his elect ones, which are, as it were, collected together and made one bundle and burden of, and therefore expressed in the singular number, iniquity, and laid on Christ and were bore by him even all the sins of all God's elect.
He says a heavy burden, this which none but the mighty God could bear. He laid on him the iniquity of us all. And then, of course, Paul's statement in Second Corinthians, chapter five, we consider our sin imputed to Christ. Second Corinthians 521 for he.
This is speaking of God, the father made him speaking of God, the son who knew no sin. Now, knew no sin does not mean he had no idea what sin was. knew no sin means he hadn't engaged in it. He hadn't committed it. He hadn't ever had a lustful look.
He never engaged in hard adultery. He never stole. He never cheated his employer. He never lied.
He never coveted. He never broke the Sabbath day. He never dishonored his parents. He didn't even dishonor lawful authority, which was a wicked authority in the Roman Empire.
He never took the name of the Lord as God in vain. He never made an idol. He never had another God before him. He never, ever once engaged in sin.
Look at what the text says. God made him Christ who knew no sin to be sin. Again, remember, Doesn't mean he was a sinner. It's imputation.
It's legal. It's forensic. This is why when we say that Jesus or God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us, doesn't mean we automatically become spotless, pure and perfect. We are declared righteous.
Jesus was declared to be sin. Jesus, who knew no sin, was made sin for us. Next time you read your Bible, these gospels or the gospel accounts and then the epistles, just underline or make a mental note or write down in your little prayer journal or your handbook or whatever it is you keep there, your little iPod or your iPad or whatever it is God has given you to keep track of these things. You know how many times there's a for us? in these letters.
Jesus wasn't made sin for himself. Jesus wasn't made sin because he was a political insurrectionist. Jesus wasn't made sin because he was a revolutionary. Jesus wasn't trying to put it to the man.
Jesus wasn't trying to lead an ungodly uprising. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. All of our sin, all of our iniquity, all of our filth, all of our garbage, run through the commandments, every one we've broken, whether in commission or omission, every single one we have trampled on, we have trashed, we have jumped on, we have scorned. God took those and laid them upon His Son.
Our sin is imputed to Christ. Now, of course, God punished Christ as a result. That's how we explain what appears to be a tension between 1715 and the Passion narratives. God imputed, God declared, God engaged in this activity as the means by which he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith. in Jesus.
Christ's Righteousness Imputed to Us
The third aspect, and one unfortunately challenged a lot in our day, is that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. You see, if we're forgiven of our sins, as Machen says, we're right back before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Our sins are gone, but we haven't actually accomplished or haven't actually gotten the righteousness that secures everlasting life. But in Christ, that righteousness is imputed to us that does, in fact, secure everlasting life.
M.T. Wright, one of the leaders in what's called the New Perspective on Paul, says that this idea of the imputation of Christ's righteousness, he said, what are we to imagine? Is this some cosmic law court and righteousness is like a gas or a vapor or something that's just out there that the judge then gives to us? Remember, brethren, ridicule is not refutation.
Ridiculing a position is not answering it biblically and exegetically. Others in the federal vision deny this whole doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Not everybody in the federal vision, not everybody's consistently the same in that movement, but some of our leaders do say that the imputation of Christ's righteousness is not taught in the Bible. These men somehow, nevertheless, swear affinity to the Westminster standards which uphold everywhere this doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness.
So we're just going to survey some passages. We're already in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, after it says that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. He then goes on to say that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Again, not transformation of character, but a change of status.
Imputed vs. Infused Righteousness
This is the heart of the Protestant Reformation, Catholics thought that we have an infused righteousness. That means we're getting better, and the fact that we're getting better will help us to stand before God on that day and hopefully be justified. The reformer says, no, it is imputed righteousness. Now, of course, after the imputation of righteousness, there is moral transformation.
There is sanctification. There is a pursuit of holiness. Pastor Thomas said this morning, for those who wickedly conclude that if justification by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone is true, then the justified will live any old way they want. He says, no, Golgotha won't let you.
Calvary won't let you. You will think on your Savior. You will remember these doctrines. And brethren, this is what I am convinced of.
The more firmly you understand these truths, the holier you will be. It's when we mess it up. It's when we think our work somehow complete the package that we fall into Phariseeism, that we break the law of God. It's a very odd situation. grace is that which promotes holiness.
I've read it before, I think it bears reading again. How does Paul answer the charge that his gospel leads to antinomianism? How does Paul answer the charge that his gospel will lead to more sin? What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Romans 6.1. What does Paul say? He says, certainly not walking people off.
No, he gives them more gospel. He rehearses to them the fact that they died and were buried with Christ. He answers with gospel. Is Paul loony?
Is he not? Is he out of his mind? Doesn't he realize the very charge they're making that he's denying the law and he's going to answer not with law, but gospel? Yes, gospel.
The gospel that justifies produces the glorious truth of sanctification and Christian living. Now, later on, Paul will say, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its loss. Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness. But the first step, the first leg in the battle against this charge is gospel.
It's what Jesus has done. It's what Jesus has freed you from Michael Horton. Sometimes we forget. This is the quote I said I've read recently, but again, I think if you get it down, it will be helpful.
Sometimes we forget that Paul was accused of being an antinomian, an antinomian that is of inviting people to sin that grace may abound. But instead of retracting the doctrine of justification that he knew would provoke that question again, the apostles simply explained how the gospel is the answer to the tyranny of sin as well as its condemnation. The gospel of free justification is the source of genuine sanctification, not its enemy. Yet that is counterintuitive to us.
It is gospel logic, not the logic of works righteousness. This righteousness is imputed to us by God in this wondrous act of justification. Having been justified, we not only have peace with God through our Lord Jesus, but now we pursue holiness. We want to live like our Redeemer says.
We hate the sin that still is in our heart. We lament, and we moan, and we repent, and we forsake, and we ask God to be merciful to us. All the while, though, realizing our acceptance with God depends on the death and resurrection of our beloved Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1.30, another place that highlights the fact that Jesus is our righteousness. 1 Corinthians 1.30, But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness. I mean, Jesus, just you know, we just see his righteousness.
We just want to model our lives after him. We want to wear our WWJD bracelets and whatever Jesus does, that's what we want to do on the heart of the believer. That should be there. The fact that he has become unto us our righteousness means This doctrine of imputation, God has taken that righteousness and credited it to us, accounted us as righteous.
Just when Abraham believed God, what did God do? He accounted it to him as righteousness. Same thing. Romans, four, six, we saw the imputation of righteousness apart from works.
Notice at the end of Romans, chapter four, verse 20. Speaking of Abraham, he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. Look at how Abraham is described here. This is the kind of faith that you and I ought to press onward for and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform.
And therefore, it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now, notice verse twenty three. Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. But also for us, right?
God has been in the business of saving people in the same way, always by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Abraham didn't have as much data, but the data he had, he believed when he told Isaac the Lord will provide. He was thinking of Jesus. Abraham rejoiced to see my day, Jesus says.
And what happens when Abraham and Isaac come down? They see that ram caught in a thicket. Another promise, another confirming word from the living God that he would send Jesus to deal with our sins. But also for us, verse twenty four, it shall be imputed to us who believe in him, who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification.
Romans five. We read verse eighteen a look at verse eighteen B. You have the work of the first Adam and the work of the second Adam. We saw the work of the first Adam in verse 18.
Therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. So even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men. Notice this resulting in justification of life. In Adam all die.
In Christ, all shall be made alive. Notice verse nineteen, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous, constituted, appointed, righteous. And then Romans six teaches us that genuine righteousness flows as a result in the life of sanctification.
Imputation is a word you might want to write right next to Proverbs 17, 15. And then, of course, Matthew 3, 15, when Jesus comes to be baptized by John the Baptist, John says, I should be baptized by you. Jesus says, permit it to be so, for we must fulfill all righteousness. Why?
Because sinners need a righteousness. Sinners need to be clothed in the righteousness of another, and it's Jesus Christ alone who brings that. Well, brethren, that is, in a nutshell, imputation. Adam's sin imputed to us, our sin imputed to Christ, and Christ's righteousness imputed to us.
Sometimes people say, oh, this kind of stuff, you know, we hear this all the time. We need to hear it all the time. When Pastor Thomas this morning pointed that or Pastor, you know, Pastor Thomas was talking about that gas station, I looked at that gas station as these doctrines. Right.
I need to pull in there every week. And get that hose in me to learn about the truth of the gospel. You know, a lot of times we say, well, we need more practical preaching and I'm not against practical preaching. Soon we're going to be in Matthew five to seven.
You might be saying, can we have something other than practical preaching? Sermon on the Mount doctrine is intensely practical. We need to get that in our heads. We need to understand the basis upon which we stand before God.
When that is down, then everything else, hopefully by the power of the spirit and the word of God, will fall into place. These doctrines are intensely practical.
Application: The God Who Justifies
Going back for just a moment in closing to Romans 4, 5. Romans 4, 5, but to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. John Murray said this with reference to Romans 4, 5. The description given in verse five, him who justifies the ungodly, is intended to set off, this is a great Murray word, the munificence.
That means characterized by great generosity and liberality of the gospel of grace. He justifies the ungodly. It exhibits the munificence of the gospel of grace. He says the word ungodly is a strong one and shows the magnitude and extent of God's grace.
His justifying judgment is exercised not simply upon the unrighteous, but upon the ungodly. He says verse five is a general statement of the method of grace and is not intended to describe Abraham specifically. We have here rather the governing principle of grace. It is exemplified in the case of Abraham because he believed in accordance with that principle.
Douglas Moo comments on Romans four or five. He says the one who justifies the ungodly is justly famous as a succinct and bold statement of Paul's conviction that our standing with God is holy of God's free grace. Jonathan Edwards, that God. in the act of justification has no regard to anything in the person justified as godliness or any goodness in him. But that immediately before this act, God beholds him only as an ungodly creature.
That's how we are. That's how God views us. He doesn't say, hey, good on you for showing up at church. I'm going to save you.
He doesn't look at you and say, good on you for reading your Bible. I'm going to save you. Good on you for going to that school or listening to that music or not going with those people. Good on you.
I'm going to save you. It doesn't say good on you that you've been circumcised. Good on you that you call yourself a reformed Baptist. Good on you that you read Robert Raymond.
I'm going to save you. God is dealing with a mass of ungodly sinners. Wretched, vile, helpless, guilty. We're going to sing that at the end of worship this evening.
In an anthem of praise to the man of sorrows. that calls us to say, hallelujah, what a savior. Because of Christ, we are cleansed. We are justified. We are sanctified.
We are blessed immeasurably because of God's free, unbounded grace. Now, personally, I can't think of anything more calculated to send people into this world to live a life of holiness than a consideration of what God does in the gospel. It is gospel that we need. It is the truth of the cross.
It is Jesus, him dead and resurrected that we need continually.
Call to the Lord's Supper
Brethren, I hope that as we eat tonight, as we drink tonight, your thoughts, your mind, your heart is taken heavenward and you consider what the Son of God has done for you, what the Son of God has engaged in on your behalf. And if you are not a Christian tonight, please don't take these elements. Please do not take the bread and wine. They're given for Christians.
They're given for those who have believed. Those who, by God's grace, have come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But I do want you to see what goes on. I do want you to see what it is to have this relationship with the Son of God.
One of the early Christian documents, the Dedeke, said that at the time, the Eucharist, at the time of the Lord's Supper, Unbelievers were excused. This wouldn't work well today in the seeker-sensitive environment. Unbelievers were welcome to stay in the service and to hear the preaching of the Word. But at that time, when they were going to take those holy elements, when they were going to commune with their blessed Redeemer, the unbelievers were asked to leave.
I'm not going to ask you to leave tonight. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. I'm going to ask you to consider these truths that we have set forth. You're a sinner.
You say, well it was all Adam's fault. Yeah, and now you sin. You're constituted a sinner and now you sin. You break all the laws.
You violate God. You don't do what he says. You have rebelled and rejected him. I don't care how young you are.
I don't care how old you are. In fact, the Psalms say the wicked are estranged from what? The womb. See, no man Apart from the inspiration of the spirit, whatever dare say something like that would be tarred and feathered.
Oh, how dare you? That's a cute little innocent baby. God knows best. God says the wicked go estranged from the womb speaking lies as soon as they are born.
Pastor Thomas in one of the sermons yesterday said, you know, I never had to sit down with my three daughters and teach them how to be selfish. I never had to sit down with my three daughters and teach them how to say mine. I never had to sit down with my three daughters and teach them on how to insist on their personal rights. Those things come naturally, don't they?
And oftentimes that's baby's first word. We're waiting for mommy or daddy. We hear no. What explains that he's in Adam and as a result, he's a sinner.
If you are here tonight, you have not come to Christ. That is your station. That is your place. That is your position.
But the good news is, is that God has sent his son as a sacrifice. God has sent his son as a savior. And he is calling men everywhere to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you shall be saved.
What good news is that the best news there could possibly be. Well, let us pray and ask the Lord's blessing upon our time of communion together.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your gospel. We thank you for good doctrine. We thank you for the Apostle Paul and the way that he teaches us so many great truths about you, about the Lord Jesus, about our salvation. And I pray, God, these things would make our hearts glad and they would indeed promote in us a desire to pursue holiness, a desire to glorify and honor you. but as well that constant realization that when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous.
God, we pray that more people would come to know Christ as Lord and Savior. We pray that more people would look and live, that more would believe the gospel of free and sovereign grace. And I pray for the children here, and I pray for the young people. I pray God that they would have a genuine desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, because he is altogether lovely and chief among ten thousand.
And we just pray this now in his most blessed name. Amen.