Latest / HBCWestminster / 2.5.23 Romans 4:1-8 Pastor Danny Gardner

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2.5.23 Romans 4:1-8 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, Romans chapter 4 and verse 1, if you're able to stand in honor of God's Word, allow me to read our text, verses 1 through 8, and then we'll pray and begin. Romans 4 and verse 1, What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
• 0:29
  Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven.
• 1:00
  Bless the preaching of Your Word by the power of Your Spirit. In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. Well, our review can be brief. Jesus is the goat.
• 1:16
  His blood sprinkled upon the mercy seat has justified us all, just as if I'd never sinned. And the genuine fellowship and friendship we lost with the Father have been restored, offering us atonement so that we are now at one with God. This also makes Jesus the goat. He is the greatest of all time because he accomplished what no one else could.
• 1:41
  we can claim none of the credit and can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are indeed saved by our faith rather than our works. Our love for God, our hatred of sin, our humility, our desire to be in God's presence, our production of spiritual fruit, our obedience to the will and word of God all prove the genuineness of our salvation. But we know...
• 2:08
  That the road to salvation is littered with potholes of confusion, with roadblocks of doubt, with myriad people offering directions who don't actually know where the roads they themselves are traveling will end. And so you might wonder, isn't there anyone who can help the modern believer navigate this soul-strewn highway? Isn't there anyone who's done it before and so can provide us with directions? The answer, of course, is...
• 2:38
  Yes, and his name is Abraham. Romans chapter 4 is one long illustration of saving faith using the life of Abraham. It is unique among the chapters of Romans because the entire chapter really does focus on the faith of that one man. The grounds for this illustration are taken from Genesis chapter 15.
• 3:01
  And verse 6, which say Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. You'll probably notice that we read that exact thing in Romans chapter 4. That becomes the faith, the foundation for the remainder of the chapter. All of the rest of the illustration is based on that one statement quoted from Genesis 15. It's like the author is saying, well, now that we understand the results of saving faith described in chapter 3,
• 3:30
  I want to give you the directions to saving faith by using the life of Abraham, the man of faith. You'll notice in verse 1, what then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, let's say for a moment, church, that he worked his way to heaven, then he has something to what? Boast about.
• 3:58
  He can't. If he really did save himself by his works, then he can get to heaven and stand before the throne of God and brag about his own faithfulness. He can proclaim his own name. He can sing praises to his own name, the name which is above every other name, because he provided for his own soul. But notice what it says. Not before God.
• 4:29
  Do you remember what we talked about a couple of weeks ago? There is no bragging in the presence of God. There is no boasting in the presence of God because there is no salvation by works. It does not work. It continues in verse three, for what does the scripture say? And here's that quote, Abraham believed God and that his belief, his faith, not his works were counted to him as righteousness.
• 4:57
  And you may ask, well, why Abraham? Of all of the men and women of the Scriptures, the Lord could have chosen to use as an illustration. Abraham might not have topped our list. Why this guy? Abraham is actually the perfect choice when you think about it. He is the prototypical patriarch of the Jewish faith, and by extension, therefore, the Christian faith. Abraham...
• 5:21
  lived before Moses, which means he lived before the giving of the Mosaic law. You'll remember this argument the author has been giving. You cannot work your way to salvation by your adherence or your obedience to the law of Moses. The proof of that is a guy who lived before Moses. Do you see what he's saying? Abraham believed and it was credit to him long before Moses.
• 5:51
  ever lived abraham is the one who god called in genesis chapter 12 he received the promise that god would make of him an entire nation meaning and catch this church everybody zone in meaning that abraham wasn't jewish the jews are the descendants of abraham
• 6:15
  And do you remember the argument the Jewish people at the Roman church were giving? We are saved because we are Jews. Do you remember that? And he says, your own father wasn't Jewish. Right? It's a pretty good argument. He is the perfect choice for the proof of salvation by faith. And you can imagine Paul's motivation in selecting him. He was proof that the true message of the gospel was nothing new.
• 6:43
  Paul knew that if he could establish that Abraham himself was saved by grace through faith and not by works, then he could establish a timeless truth, a truth not bound by genealogy or geography or chronology, a timeless truth which could be preached around the world and through all time, even all the way down to 2023 Westminster, Colorado. Abraham was not only the prototypical patriarch,
• 7:15
  faith the book of galatians says that abraham has become the father of all who believe in fact it says in galatians 3 and verse 7 know then that that it is those of faith who are the sons of abraham and so we teach our kids a song about abraham of all people father abraham had many sons i am one of them and so are you do you ever wonder when you were a kid like what are you talking about
• 7:44
  it was galatians 3 that's what he was talking about we believing gentiles have become part of the family of abraham because of our faith exemplified first in the man of faith abraham in fact galatians 3 and verse 9 just a couple of verses later calls abraham the man of faith and so let us before embarking on our journey down the faith road let's take a moment to study the man who will become our tour guide
• 8:14
  Abraham, the man of faith. Hold your finger on Romans chapter 4. We'll come back to that. Turn all the way back to the beginning. Go to Genesis chapter 12. Abraham first appears in the scriptures in Genesis 12 under the name Abram. 2,000 years of human history from creation to the Tower of Babel is covered in Genesis in the first 11 chapters. The first 11 chapters cover 2,000 years.
• 8:45
  But then the author slams on the brakes in chapter 12 with the appearance of Israel's first patriarch, Abram. Abram and then his son Isaac and then his son Jacob and then his son Joseph occupy the remainder of the book's 50 chapters. And so 11 chapters cover 2,000 years. The next 39 chapters chronicle a mere 400 years. One man, the father of the Jewish people and the father of faith itself, changed.
• 9:15
  human history. Beginning with his call, and if you were to read Genesis chapter 12, you'd be reading about the call to leave his father's house in ancient Chaldea, what is today maybe Iraq, go to an unknown and yet undisclosed land of promise. Abram and his wife Sarai, later to be called Sarah, exercised faith in the promise of God. Abram was commanded in chapter 12, get thee out, and yet was never given any reason.
• 9:46
  You can imagine after receiving that very famous call in chapter 12, that Abram would have looked to the heavens and wondered, why? Why do I have to leave? And yet the reason is never given. And isn't that exactly the way the Lord works sometimes? He will give commands without necessarily all the time providing reasons, but you'll notice he will always provide promises.
• 10:14
  go the lord said and i will make you a great nation and what a consolation for losing your country to lose your country the lord promised and i will make you a country unto yourself not only was abraham promised that he would himself be blessed he would actually become a conduit of blessing for all nations even the gentiles would one day call him father abraham
• 10:41
  Works many times that way with us, church, where we are given commands without necessarily understanding the reason, but don't forget God always issues promises. Consider for a moment the Great Commission, and I'm going to paraphrase it, okay? So this is the Danny paraphrase, but Matthew 28, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching. There is the command. No reason is given. A command, but now notice the promise. And I will be with you always to the end of the age.
• 11:11
  Abram picked up and moved his family in faith, and in so doing he passed the faith test. One page over in chapter 13 of Genesis, Abram was now confronted with a choice. He'd been traveling with his nephew Lot, being that there was safety in numbers and all that, and he came to a crossroads. He and his nephew Lot realized that their herds and flocks were too large to continue together.
• 11:36
  He offered Lot his choice of land. And in chapter 13 and verse 8, it says this, Abram said to Lot, his nephew, let there be no strife between you and me, between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. We're kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. Now here is kind of that test of faith. He lets Lot choose. He says, if you take the left hand, I will go to the right. If you take the right hand,
• 12:06
  I will go to the left. The text continues. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley, where the Jordan River is, was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord. It looked like the garden of Eden. Okay? And so when Lot looked up, Abram says, choose anywhere you want. Any land is yours. Lot looked up and said, I'll take the garden of Eden. Right? Abram, you can hang a hard left.
• 12:35
  Go up into the wilderness of Judea where it is desolate and barren and dry and where cactus can't even survive. You go hang out in the dirt. I'm taking the Garden of Eden. And Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley. Abraham gave his nephew first pick. In so doing, exercised faith in the Lord, even when it looked like following the Lord could possibly end in poverty rather than in...
• 13:04
  prosperity he passed the faith test one chapter over chapter 14 his faith is tested again that same nephew lot ran into some trouble he was captured he was hauled off into what was probably intended to be slavery but his uncle abraham came to his rescue rallying his men who worked for him and mind you these were shepherds not necessarily soldiers they went to war against lots captures captors and they won
• 13:34
  They defeated the kings that had kidnapped Lot. And in rescuing Lot, Abram also plundered those same kings. And so that one day became extremely wealthy. On his way home, Abraham was confronted by a man named Melchizedek. You read about him in chapter 14. Melchizedek was the priest king of Jerusalem. He was representative of the Lord. In fact, some even believe Melchizedek maybe was a pre-incarnate.
• 14:02
  pre-incarnate manifestation of the Lord Jesus himself. But this time, Abraham's faith was tested when he willingly tithed. He gave a tenth of his newly won treasure to the Lord. Would he keep his wealth? Or would he recognize the source of true wealth and offer it back? And again, we see in chapter 14, he passed the faith test. A few chapters later, in chapter 17, his faith was tested again when the Lord promised he and his wife Sarah a son.
• 14:34
  That's not necessarily remarkable. I mean, sons are born every day. It wouldn't be so strange. Except that Abraham at the time, we read, was 99 years old. And you'll think, well, man, okay, that's old. I mean, that's a little strange. Maybe the more important question is how old was his wife? Maybe his wife was really young, right? But you continue to read and you realize that Sarah was 10 years younger than her husband. So Abraham was 99. Sarah was...
• 15:03
  89 the point is they were way past childbearing years hallie and i my wife and i were 34 years old when she was pregnant with our third son chase we checked into our first doctor's appointment we knew we were pregnant it wasn't our first rodeo we walked into the hospital they asked how old hallie was she replied by saying i'm 34. they immediately said and i quote oh
• 15:32
  That classifies you as a geriatric pregnancy. Geriatric, that's the word they use. In fact, another couple came to me who was pregnant when they were 35. After the last service, they said, that's exactly what they told us. Geriatric, 34? It had been five years since Zach, our middle son, had been born. We found that those two facts, that there was a five-year gap.
• 15:57
  Plus, we were in our mid-30s. Those two facts gave people this strange license to ask the most awkward and personal questions. Like, oh, you're pregnant. Were you guys trying? You're like, how is that any of your business? That is none of your business. I mean, we started getting asked these questions so often that I came up with some...
• 16:27
  really funny answers that I'm happy to share with you after, but I can't share it from the pulpit, okay? Hallie told me, Hallie told me I wasn't allowed to share them anymore. Here's another one. She said, we had people come, you're pregnant. Was he an accident? You're like, accident? First off, have you not read this book? Like, there are no accidents. And how is that any of your business?
• 16:53
  It's none of your business. Mind your own business. A couple has a kid in their mid-30s and we think, wow, they barely made it under the wire. Can you imagine if this Sunday, this morning, if a 100-year-old man and his 90-year-old wife dropped off their newborn in the church nursery? It doesn't happen. It doesn't happen.
• 17:20
  They were so old, in fact, that when Abraham went home to relay to his wife the promise he had just received, she literally laughed out loud. He comes home and he says, listen, sweetheart, you're pregnant. She laughed. She did not believe it. She thought it was a joke, but the Lord wasn't joking.
• 17:40
  They determined to name their son Isaac, meaning laughter, or one who laughs. I always like to imagine Isaac as a teenage young man introducing himself to people for the first time. They would ask, what's your name? And his reply, well, my parents named me Punchline. I'm like the butt of a bad joke. Everyone who meets me laughs when they hear my story. And just a few chapters later, Isaac, Punchline, was born. Abraham passed the faith test.
• 18:10
  Again, I'm going to take an aside. Can I take a moment here to mention that it is okay to be the age that you are, even if that's old. The Lord can use you when you're old in ways that he could never have used you when you were young. Did you know that one of the most difficult tasks a pastor is called to is the convincing of the people under his care that it's okay to be their own age?
• 18:44
  It seems at times that everyone in the church wants to be somebody else's age. The young always want to be old. They want the privileges and the freedoms that older people enjoy. And the old always want to be young. I had an actual conversation with a man here at Highland on his 80th birthday. Happy birthday. How old are you? I'm 80. And he said, but don't you dare call me old. And I'm like, well, listen, man, if it doesn't count when you're 80, like when can I start calling?
• 19:13
  I mean, 80. And so allow me to enlighten us. In fact, allow me to offend everybody in the room, okay? I'm going to. Listen, if you're under the age of 40, then guess what? You're young. You're young. And please don't be offended when I say that there are some things you do not know about life. You don't know about marriage. You don't know about parenting. You don't know about the world. And there are some people in here right now, older than you, who could genuinely enlighten you.
• 19:47
  If you're young, humble yourself. Ask questions. If you don't know what to do, ask questions. There are people in the church who can help you. If you're over 70, then guess what? You're old. And please don't be offended. Please don't be offended when I say that there are some things you just can't do physically anymore. And that's okay.
• 20:21
  There are some young people in the room right now who, if you would just humble yourself and ask, would be willing to help you. If you're between the ages of 40 and 70, then guess what? You're middle-aged. I didn't know what else to call it. I kind of bristle under that too. I'm like, how dare you? Well, listen, your age is in the middle. You're middle-aged.
• 20:49
  And what does that mean? It means you're going to help a lot of people move because there are people older than you who don't want to lift up heavy things and the people who are younger than you can't afford a truck. All right, so you're just going to help a lot of people move. That's just what happens. But listen, you're middle-aged and there's no reason to have a crisis about it. Things have turned out okay. You're here after all. Your life's not perfect, but it's pretty good. And here's the really great news for everyone.
• 21:23
  In all three of those categories, no matter which one you are, the Lord can and will use you in remarkable ways because you are the age you are. Notice I did not say despite the age that you are. Your age is not a hurdle. It is a blessing that the Lord, if you will allow him to use it, will use for his glory and the advancement of his kingdom. You can minister in ways and to people that no one else can minister to. In school.
• 21:53
  on sports teams, at work, in your neighborhood, at clubs, at the rec center, and yes, playing cards around tables on Wednesday afternoons in the fellowship hall. There are people who will hear the gospel from you because of your age and station in life, who would never hear the exact same gospel from me simply because of who you are and because of who I am. Your age will never restrict the Lord's ability to use you for his kingdom.
• 22:24
  unless you sit around and sulk about it. And then you can waste years of gospel ministry because you're just sitting around wishing you were somebody else's age. When you feel too young to be useful, consider the Virgin Mary, who was a mere 13 years old when she conceived. She was the equivalent of an eighth grader. When you feel too old to be useful, consider Sarah.
• 22:55
  who was 90 when she gave birth, the equivalent of a great-grandmother. And so may I encourage everyone in the room to enjoy your age. Use your age for God's glory. You only get to be this age once. The Lord will only be able to use you at this age once. But I digress. Turn a few more chapters to the right. Look at chapter 22, perhaps the most famous test.
• 23:26
  of abraham's faith came when the lord commanded him to take his son punch line up the hill sacrifice him as an offering in the moment that command made no sense at all isaac was supposed to be the son through whom the lord would make abraham's nation isaac was miraculous isaac was abraham's only true hope and now the lord was demanding his life
• 23:52
  But Abraham believed in chapter 22. He took his only begotten son. That is the wording that is used. His only begotten son bound him, laid him up on the altar, raised his knife and prepared to kill his son when the Lord stopped him and praised him for his faith. Chapter 22 and verse 12, the Lord said, do not lay a hand on the boy. He is literally standing at the altar with his knife in the air.
• 24:21
  nor do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. This act is why Abraham is included in Hebrews chapter 11, the famous hall of faith chapter. Hebrews 11 even gives a little glimpse.
• 24:49
  into what abraham was thinking when all of that was going down hebrews 11 and verse 17 by faith abraham when he was tested offered up isaac he would receive the promises was in the act of offering up his only son of whom it was said through isaac shall your offspring be named and now here's where we get a little glimpse into his thinking do you ever wonder would he really have gone through with it was he actually going to kill his son look what it says
• 25:18
  He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead. Was he going to kill Isaac? Yes. He was prepared. He knew the promise of God that it would be through Isaac and nobody else that he would be blessed and that nation would come. And now he was demanding Isaac's life. And so he thought, you know what? He keeps his promise. No matter what, he keeps his promise. So if he tells me to kill Isaac, he must have plans to resurrect him from the dead.
• 25:47
  That must be how he's going to do it. And so he walked up that hill and he tied up his son and he laid his son on that stone tablet and he raised that knife fully expecting to see a miracle. He was ready to offer to the Lord his most valuable possession. He passed the faith test. And keep in mind, Abraham wasn't perfect. If you read his whole biography recorded in Genesis, you'll know he made all kinds of big time mistakes.
• 26:18
  But when his faith was tested and with the Lord's help, Abraham passed. Turn back with me now to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4, imagine the faith journey being a road that we all must travel. At the head of this road are a whole host of tour guides, each offering his or her services. You can purchase maps or ask directions from any one of them.
• 26:45
  But it's difficult telling who among them actually knows the way because they so consistently contradict one another. Some of them are saying, when you come to the fork in the road, go right. And others are saying, no, don't go right, go left. Some of them are saying, go over the hill. Some of them are saying, go around the hill. What am I supposed to do? Who am I supposed to believe? And then among the crowd tucked into the back, you see among those tour guides, an old man wearing a worn out name tag, which reads, Abraham, man of faith.
• 27:13
  The other tour guides are louder and flashier and better dressed. They've got gleaming white teeth and plastered on smiles. One or two of them even have television programs where you can listen to them, give directions on those Sunday mornings where people just don't feel like getting out of bed.
• 27:31
  They're bold and in your face, trying to convince you to buy from them or to heed their advice. They are certainly more attractive and better spoken, but in your heart, you know that this Abraham guy knows what he's talking about. He knows the way because he's walked the path before.
• 27:52
  And so you walk up to him and ask him for directions. And he doesn't provide you with a map, nor does he draw directions on the ground with a stick. He simply gives four pieces of advice from his own experience. And these pieces of advice, the directions that Abraham gives, will be our study this morning and next Sunday. Four things he says. First, beware of layaway lane.
• 28:18
  Beware of layaway lane. Don't think that you can pay off your own sin a little bit at a time. That's not how it works. Second, don't get caught on ceremony circle. Faith does not depend upon any religious ceremony. You'll just end up driving around in circles forever. Third, the blow right past formalism fountain.
• 28:45
  Everyone else will stop and splash around in the cool water, and it will appear as though they are free to leave. But once you enter that fountain, you can never get out. You'll be trapped in a never-ending cycle of legalism. Fourth, and finally, go right through the no-knowledge tunnel. They say it's dimly lit in there, I know, and sometimes it doesn't even make sense, but trust me, faith often rests in a promise.
• 29:14
  That flies in the face of what is natural and normal, but that's okay. Because the way that God works doesn't always make sense. Beware of layaway lane. Don't get caught on ceremony circle. Blow right past formalism fountain and go through the no-knowledge tunnel. So let's look at Abraham's first piece of advice. Don't turn on to layaway lane. And oddly enough, that's exactly the path that all of the other guides said you should take.
• 29:43
  Notice verse 4. To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. To the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Notice those two words, which are opposites. They are being played against each other. Works and faith. Faith and works.
• 30:08
  cannot be uh enjoined they cannot be put together they cannot be balanced these two things are on the opposite sides they are completely separate from each other faith and works it's hard to tell who invented layaway and in what year but during the great depression of the 1930s
• 30:31
  The major department stores decided that their customers were having a hard time paying for items over the course all at once, and so they just devised this plan. Rather than paying all at once, you can put it on layaway. You pay a little bit per month, and when it's paid off, then you come to the store and pick it up. Layaway became a very normal thing. Everything changed slightly in the 1950s. When a man named Frank McNamara was dining out in New York City, he forgot his wallet.
• 31:00
  He decided what we needed was a way of paying for things without cash. He decided that what people needed was a card. He said, I want to be able to give somebody a card. On that card, a number is recorded. They can write down that number and I can pay with credit. The diner's club card was invented. It took about 30 more years for the credit card to really take hold. But when it did, the use of layaway diminished almost overnight. The biggest difference between those two.
• 31:28
  with layaway you don't take the item home until it's paid for with credit you take the item home immediately but with a catch you are also charged interest
• 31:42
  Today, many don't even bat an eyelash at putting their purchases on credit rather than paying with cash. In fact, many businesses are going entirely electronic. They won't even accept cash for payment. I was at a coffee shop this week here in town. I walked up, big sign on the door says, we don't take cash. You don't have your card, you're not getting coffee, right? That's the only thing they take. They don't even deal in cash.
• 32:07
  Layaway and credit really changed the way consumers viewed money. Almost exactly 100 years after that invention of layaway, we now live in a society which has become more concerned with price per month than with price itself. It doesn't matter to me how much it costs. How much is it going to cost me per month?
• 32:34
  I can remember the first time I ever used a credit card in my college years. That reality came screaming home. I was slapped with a $428 credit card bill. Now looking back, I'm like, oh, for the days of $428 credit card bills, right? Man, that's nothing. But at the time, it was way more money than I had. I'd been charging things on this card. I wasn't even paying attention to what I was actually being charged. I just thought I'll pay for it.
• 33:04
  Later, this morning, we take that thinking and apply it to our souls. That is verses 4 and 5. Verses 4 and 5 are an attempt to put our souls on credit. Does that make sense? I'll pay it off later. Or I'll pay it a little bit at a time.
• 33:23
  i'm putting my soul on layaway i can pay off my sins month by month or day by day i can put my soul my salvation on credit there are a couple of problems with that first we never stop charging the card we never stop sinning we're always adding to our debt and second just like with credit cards the interest is so astronomical
• 33:50
  The pain that is caused, the consequences of sin, the fallout of foolish living is so astronomical that even if we could just stop sinning overnight, even if I stopped sinning right now and for the rest of my life lived a perfect sinless life, I still could never pay off what I owe. I'm reminded of the old adage. My senior pastor used to say this all the time growing up. He would say this, sin will take you farther. I don't know where he got it.
• 34:19
  sin will take you farther than you wanted to stray keep you longer than you wanted to stay it'll cost you more than you wanted to pay sin always hurts more than you think john macarthur has worded it this way men have always taught and thought that you buy salvation on the installment plan that you can earn your way along but paul tells us that's not so the whole thing was paid at once at the cross of jesus christ and look at these
• 34:47
  Beautiful promises of Scripture recorded in the book of Hebrews. Chapter 7 and verse 27. Jesus has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for His own sins and then for those of the people. Since He did this, what does it say, church? Once for all when He offered up Himself. A couple chapters later, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered. What does it say?
• 35:13
  Once for all by his own blood. Chapter 10 and verse 10. We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. One more time. Once for all. The Lord has provided full salvation as a free gift. It can't be paid for. And listen, church, it can't also be paid back. You don't even owe him anything. But this new message that salvation comes not by family lineage nor by sacrifices and offerings.
• 35:43
  but by faith was wholly foreign to them. It probably made about as much sense to them as it does to us that I can have eternal life for free. I can remember my high school economics teacher declaring, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody always has to pay. And so when you get the little thing in the mail that says congratulations, you're pre-approved.
• 36:15
  And when you get the phone call, is this Danny? Yeah, this is Danny. Congratulations, sir, end call. I didn't do anything. I didn't win anything. I'm telling you, when they knock on the door and they say, we can offer you free windows. We can give you a free roof. You're like, well, then how are they paying your salary? Somebody's paying you to knock on my door. Somebody is paying for something. And so when we receive this salvation by faith, it makes no sense to us.
• 36:45
  And so we will erroneously try to pay it back by our own works. Now look what he says in verse 6. I like what he says, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. If you like to circle words or phrases, circle those words apart from works.
• 37:12
  A couple weeks ago, we circled the words apart from the law in chapter 3 and verse 21. These two phrases, apart from works and apart from the law, mean exactly the same thing. The author has been describing how a man can be made right with God apart from the law. Not by his or her good works, but by their belief.
• 37:35
  And friends, it is not church attendance, nor is it baptism, nor is it faithful giving, nor serving in the kids' ministry. It's not even Bible reading and daily prayer. None of these justify you before the Lord. It is only the blood of Jesus Christ shed once for all. The author does then his quotes King David using this benediction, first recorded in Psalm 32. By the time it was written in Romans, this benediction was...
• 38:05
  Already a thousand years old. As we read it today, it is 3,000 years old. And look at verse 7. He says, blessed. That word for blessed means supremely happy. Supremely happy are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven. Can I get an amen from all the forgiven people in the room? This is good news. Are you glad your lawless deeds are forgiven? Are you not supremely happy? He continues, blessed.
• 38:35
  Blessed are those whose sins are covered. We'll sing songs about how Jesus' blood covers our sin. Yes, supremely blessed indeed. Verse 8, blessed is the man against whom, and I like this last word, against whom the Lord will not count his sin. The only way to pay off your own sin a little bit at a time is to know exactly how much sin you've got to pay off.
• 39:06
  What's the number? What am I shooting for? And the only way to know exactly how much sin you've got to pay off is to count it. And here the Lord says, it's forgiven. It's covered. I'm not even going to count it. Like, well, just out of curiosity, Lord, I mean, what's my number? How many sins? How big? How big's the pile? I don't know. I'm not counting it.
• 39:37
  And we know that in the omniscience of God, he knows all things. So I'm not trying to diminish that in any way, but you understand the concept here. Why count it? It's already been paid. The number doesn't matter. The number is meaningless at this point. Is it 1,000? Is it 10,000? Is it 100 million? I don't know. It doesn't matter. The Lord does not count it against you. So what difference does it make? Beware, church, of layaway lane. In order.
• 40:08
  to avoid that wrong turn that false religion we had to turn our backs on the very direction that every single false religion teaches including many who claim the name of christianity we cannot pay off our sins a little bit at a time the only way to be justified in god's sight is to believe and our faith romans 4 says will be credited as righteousness would you pray with me lord
• 40:37
  Give us that faith. Give us saving faith. Help us this morning and next Sunday as we navigate the road to faith, following the tour guide, Abraham, the man of faith. Lord, help us to rest, not on our own works, which we know will never save us, but rather on the works and merits of Jesus Christ, who offered himself freely, who became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And in this truth, we rejoice. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.