Amen. This is.
Truly. All my.
Hope for tuning in we learn from.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Amen.
And pray that is. Life.
You are trusting and anything else.
Please visit us at Key Life. Saveyou.com.
To. Forgive you to perhaps grant to
you eternal life that you understand that none of those
things will save you, that it is only through Christ that a
person, a Sinner is truly saved. You have your Bibles, if you
would. It turned to Romans chapter 4.
I told the man a moment ago when we met for prayer, and I know
that we met a little bit later than normal and that's OK.
How many of you got stuck in a traffic jam and then they're
cool to get stuck in a traffic? Jam on the way to church because
it's interesting that we'll go to the rodeo, we'll go to
stadiums, we'll go to football games, basketball games,
baseball games, and we know we're going to get in traffic
jams. But it's a good thing to see a
traffic jam at church. It's an exciting thing.
I'll just know this. We're working on that.
Hopefully we'll have extended parking soon.
Pray for Montgomery County that they would do whatever they need
to do to get our plans approved right.
But today we're looking at Romans chapter 4.
I know this is a break from what we've been looking at as we've
been in First Timothy, looking at the pastoral epistles.
And I think this is an appropriate break.
I think this is a very important break.
And I want you and I want you to understand what I'm about to
tell you because there are many people who say things like this
and, and they don't really mean them what I'm about to say.
I really mean this and I want you to pay close attention to
it. This might be the most important
sermon that. You've ever heard, and when I
tell you that I'm not just throwing words around lightly,
if you know me, I don't just throw words around lightly.
This may be the most important sermon that you have ever heard.
In fact, this sermon today could be the difference for you
between eternal life and eternal death.
That's a pretty big deal. Do you all agree?
It's not because we're going to be talking about that, that
difference between eternal life and eternal death.
I would say that this is the most important sermon that
you've ever heard. If you're not sure where you
land in either one of those categories.
And we know. This as many are joining us
worldwide, right? It is what we officially know as
Easter Sunday. It is the the day where
unfortunately, many people set aside only this day to celebrate
the resurrection of Christ. We don't do that here at Key
Life Fellowship. If you're visiting with us next
week, we're going to have Resurrection Sunday again.
And the following week, Lord willing, if we're graced with
another week, we're going to resurrect.
I mean, we're going to celebrate the resurrection of Christ
again. We're actually not going to
resurrect them. We're going to celebrate it.
But I'm afraid. In this time, as many are
joining us and remembering the fact that Christ rose from the
great, I'm afraid that unfortunately many are only
acknowledging their knowledge of Christ.
Resurrecting from the great. They're not actually believing.
And when I say believing, I'm not talking about believing in
your head. I'm talking about a true heart
changing belief. I'm talking about true
justifying faith. They're not actually exercising
saving faith in Christ. And.
When you know there's a distinct difference, and unfortunately in
modern church culture, they don't make that distinct
difference. I'll make that distinct
difference. You knowing about the facts that
Jesus died, he was buried and rose again will not save you.
Because there is a difference between saving or justifying
faith and just basic acknowledgement of the
historical and even biblical facts, even though they'd be
true. We can acknowledge the truth but
yet not be in the truth. And so today what I want to do
is I want us to. Understand the difference
between acknowledgement of Jesus versus true justifying faith.
Here in Romans chapter 4, we're going to see what true
justifying faith really is. But before we do that, I want to
just kind of walk through history, some figures in
Christianity throughout time, and the statements that they've
made about this, the fact that people really get caught up
sometimes in being deceived into thinking that just simply
acknowledging Christ will save them, right?
To just say, yeah, I know that he died and I know that he died
on the cross. And yeah, I know that he was
buried in the grave. And yeah, I know that he rose on
the third day. Because some of you, you're here
today just to celebrate that factual information.
And let me just tell you this. It's factual information.
I've been to the tomb. I've walked inside.
It's empty. Therefore, it is factual
information. It is historical information.
In fact, every time you look at your calendar, they change the
way they measure time because of this Jesus.
But knowing those things will not save you.
The Bible's going to show us that today.
John Owen, a Puritan, he said this.
There is a faith whereby men believe the truth of the Gospel,
but it is not that faith whereby we are justified.
He's saying there are people who believe the truth of the Gospel,
but yet they are not truly justified.
They haven't been declared as righteous before.
Holy God. Thomas Goodwin, another period,
he said there's a common faith which is but a neck of assent to
the truth. But justifying faith is a
receiving of Christ. He says there's a difference.
There's a difference between assenting to the truth.
Yes, obviously there was a Jesus and obviously there was a
crucifixion and obviously there was a resurrection.
But just acknowledging those things will not save you.
Thomas Watson, he said a man may have knowledge in the brain, Oh,
please pay attention to this and yet perish.
Hell will be full of people who intellectually grasped the
historical facts surrounding Jesus Christ.
He says, and yet perish. He may know.
Christ and yet not trust in Him. Oh, what a sad thing to know
Christ and to know all about Him and to know the historical and
the biblical facts, but never to trust in Him, never to leave
your life of sin and to cling to Christ and Christ alone.
What a tragedy. Richard Sibbs he says it is not.
Sufficient to have a general knowledge of Christ, but there
must be a closing with him. What?
Does he mean by that there must be this intimate closing?
Must be this relationship. It's not enough just to know.
About him, Charles Spurgeon said there's a faith which is nothing
but a mere belief of doctrine. And he goes on to say this faith
saves nobody. Did you know this?
There will be good, sound, educated theologians who spend
an eternity in the depths of hell knowing all of the answers
theologically, never having true faith in Christ.
That kind of knowledge doesn't save anyone.
He said, well, who are all these?
Guys, are they important to us? Maybe they're not important to
you. What about James, the half
brother of Jesus who wrote the epistle of James?
Here's what he says. James chapter 2 verse 19.
He says you believe that there is one God.
Good. He says even the demons believe
that and shudder. What is James saying?
That many people have settled for the faith of demons.
You have acknowledged that there is a Jesus.
Did you know this? There's no doubt in a demon's
mind that there is a Jesus. There is no doubt in their mind
that he died on the cross. There is no doubt in their mind
that he rose from the grave. They know this to be fat.
There is no doubt to the demon that there is a God.
They know who created them. But yet they don't believe as
God calls us to believe. So in a.
Church culture that is rather confused in a country.
That is rather confused. A group of people that are
rather confused, they think that it's OK and just acknowledging
Jesus, right? Some of you came today and I'm
thankful that you're here. You came to acknowledge Jesus,
and rightfully so. He's worthy of.
Acknowledgement. However, you're acknowledging
Jesus on this resurrection Sunday will not save you.
Don't leave here and think that because you came to church today
and you acknowledge the resurrection of Christ that that
is going to be credited to your account as righteousness.
It will not be so. And So what I want to do today
is I want to tell you things that other people are afraid to
tell you. I want to tell you the truth
because there was a time that I acknowledged Jesus.
I believed in him factually, but I did not know him personally.
And I don't want you to fall into that same trap.
And Paul obviously did not want the believers in Rome to fall
into that same trap as he's going to address them about this
matter here in verses 13 of chapter 4, all the way to where
we'll be looking today, chapter 5, verse 2.
And I wish I had time to go through chapter 3 all the way to
chapter 8, but you'll be thankful that I didn't.
I already caused one traffic jam.
I don't want to cause another one.
Let's read this together as we open the Word of God in Romans
chapter 4, verse 13. Let's see what the apostles
saying to the church and why he's saying this to the church
and why it's important that we distinguish between
acknowledgement of Jesus and true justifying or saving faith.
Why is this important? I believe it's very important
because I believe some people, many people, even people sitting
under the sound of my voice in this room this morning, have
simply acknowledged Christ. But they're still lost.
Their life is still full of hate.
Their life is still full of sin. Their life is still full of
blasphemy, immorality. They've not truly yet been
saved. I pray today that by hearing the
truth that God would be gracious to you, that He would show you
mercy, that He would save you in spite of you, even this very
day. Paul says this to the church at
Rome after covering in chapter 3 the faithfulness of God,
covering the fact that there are no faithful men, there's none
righteous, no, not one. In chapter 3 he goes on and
talks about a righteousness that is through faith and not of the
law, meaning that we can't work our way into right standing with
God. Try as we may, our righteousness
is that of filthy rags before a holy God.
And then now here he is. He's begins in chapter 4 talking
about Abraham. And I'm not going to give you
all of this, so we'll get to a lot of it.
He's going to use Abraham as an example for us.
And we pick up in verse 13 and he says it was not through the
law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise
that he would be heir of the world, but through the
righteousness that comes by faith.
He's saying that Abraham was prior to the law, so it wasn't
the law that established Abraham's righteousness.
For if those who live by by law or heirs, faith has no value and
the promise is worthless because law brings wrath.
And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
What is he saying there? He's saying the law did this
right. When you read the 10
commandments, what do the 10 commandments tell you?
They tell you that you're incapable of righteousness in
and of yourself, right? Let's just go through the 10 in
your mind right now. Have you ever broken one of
them? Yes, you have.
And the word says that if you've broken one of them, you've
broken all of them. And so it puts us all in the
same category. There's none righteous.
No, not one. We are all transgressors, and
the law was designed by God to. Do this to show us the fact that
we are unrighteous and that we need a greater righteousness
that cannot come from ourselves, but a righteousness that comes
only from God himself. So he's making the point that
Abraham was not justified by doing the right things, living
in the law, because the law was designed to bring forth wrath,
right? When you realize I'm a breaker
of the 10 commandments, I deserve the wrath of God.
Is that not true? Anyone here who's never broken a
command of God? All right, how many of you here
have ever broken one of his commands?
Looking around, we're all in the same boat, deserving of the
wrath of God. Why?
Because when the law came forth, we know sin came forth.
Where sin came forth, death came forth, right?
The wrath of God upon sinful man.
He goes on, and he says this verse 16.
Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by
grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not
only to those who are of the law, but also those who are of
the faith of Abraham. He says not only to the Jews who
were born under the law, but also the Gentiles who have
received grace from God and have believed on Christ, and it's
been credited to them as righteousness.
They are and grafted into the promise of Abraham, says he is
the father of us all. As it is written, I have made
you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of
God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead
and calls things that are not as though they were against all
hope. He's going to give you some
backdrop and some background on Abraham in his faith.
He says against all hope. Abraham in hope believed and so
became the father of many nations.
Just as it as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring
be without weakening. In his faith, he faced the fact
that his body was as good as dead since he was about 100
years old. Now, now, bear with me here.
He's 100 years old. He hasn't had a child yet.
And that Sarah's wound, that's his wife, was also dead.
She was probably in her 80s with a dead wound.
Baron. Yet He did not waver through
unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in
his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God
had power to do what He had promised this.
Is why it was credited to him as righteousness.
The words it was credited to him credited to him were written not
for him alone. Pay attention to this he's been
looking at Abraham. He's going to shift gears to you
and to me and to those believers in Rome, but also for us to whom
God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him who
raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to
life for our justification. Verse chapter 5 verse one.
It says therefore. Since we have been justified
through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this
grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the
glory of God. Pray with me, Lord, we thank you
so much for your Word. We thank You for the truths that
we have already seen fly off the pages, Lord.
May they not only enter our ears, enter our eyes, enter our
minds, but may You cause a transaction to occur in hearts.
May the truth of Your Word be absorbed like never before.
And those who do not know. Christ, may you open their eyes
to see the truth, to see that unfortunately they have accepted
just an acknowledgement of Jesus Christ without true justifying
faith. May you use your word to make
that? Clear to them.
May you save them this day. Say cry out to you for the
believer here today. I pray that you would encourage
them by the truths that have already been seen will continue
to be seen during this message that you transform us all for
your glory and we pray all these things in Christ's name, Amen.
So we begin in this text with something very interesting.
Paul begins with the observation of Abraham's faith.
And why do you think he began with the observation of
Abraham's faith? Because there was no one.
There was no one who he was addressing there at Rome.
Not the believers who had come out of Judaism, not the
believers who had come out of paganism.
There was no one there who would ever question the authenticity
of the faith of Abraham. They would not question whether
Abraham's faith was true, justifying faith.
He was the example that God had given of a man who, who was
raised up by the grace of God, counted as righteous, declared
as justified, so that he could bring a people upon this earth
for his name's sake. No one would doubt the example
of Abraham. And so Paul is going to use that
analogy so that we can better understand what justifying faith
really is, right? Because we don't want to accept
just mere knowledge or mere acknowledgement of.
Christ because God requires justifying faith.
And so he goes to Abraham rather quickly here so that examining
their lives. And I pray that you would do the
same this morning. You would lay your so-called or
fought faith or your so-called or fought profession next to the
faith of Abraham and see if that's the kind of faith that
you have in your life. Because if you have any other
kind of faith, it's not saving faith.
It's a wish. It's a hope, it's an acquired
knowledge. It's information that's gone
into your mind and you've stored it there.
But it is not justifying and saving faith.
I know what people are saying, Kirk.
This bothers me. This may cause me to doubt.
Yes, it may. But in the same breath, it can
give you great assurance, in the same breath it can give you
great assurance that you do have this true justifying faith when
you make this comparison. And I would challenge you to do
that. I'm thankful that someone
challenged me to do that long ago when I have settled for just
an acknowledgement of the facts instead of trusting Jesus Christ
as my only hope and my only righteousness.
You see the observation of Abraham's faith.
Let's look at it quickly, verses 13 through 17, we see very
clearly that this was a received faith.
This faith that Abraham has is not something that Abraham went
out looking for. In fact, Abraham wasn't looking
for. In fact, Abraham was looking
toward Pagan idols and he was worshipping false gods.
False deities. God met Abraham right where he.
Was with His grace. This has received faith.
This is a supernatural gift from God.
Let me tell you something. If you have believed and have
been saved, you believe and you have been saved because God has
graced you with that kind of faith.
We know that the man is born into this world with the
capability to acknowledge facts, but you were not in born into
this world with the capability of truly seeking God.
There is none righteous, no, not one, no one seeks after him.
Romans 3 tells us that very plainly.
And so when we get that knowledge of the facts, we can
come to a conclusion that true justifying or saving faith, just
as it was in the life of Abraham who became Abraham, must be a
gift that is received from God. Abraham's faith, obviously in
those verses 13 through 17. I need not read it to you again.
You've read it with me already. But obviously we see this.
It was not based on his own works.
It was not based on his own good deeds.
It was not based on him keeping the 10 commandments or the six
hundred 613 other commandments of the law that was.
Based solely upon the fact that God had graced him with the
faith that God requires for a person to have in order to be
saved. Justifying faith is
supernatural, therefore must be given by a supernatural God.
It is a gift of his grace. Did you notice I met an atheist
not too long ago who understood this.
Sadly, many in the church don't understand this and they think
that that faith is just an obligation, right?
That that God is obligated to give us enough faith to believe
He's not saving. Faith is a gift.
And this atheist that I met not too long ago, even he understood
this. I talked to him for a long time.
We had a great conversation. We talked about his life, we
talked about Christ, We talked about many things and it was
very kind and it was very cordial, but it's also very.
Sad. You know what he said?
He said. I was raised in a Christian
home. I went to Christian School.
I used to attend church as a young man.
And I see all the people around me who have such great faith and
I really admire that. I thought to myself, how sad.
And he acknowledges other people who have true faith, yet he
can't believe. So I asked him before we
departed. I said, hey, do you mind if I
pray for you? Is there anything I can pray
specifically about? I find it interesting that an
atheist said, yeah, pray for me. Who do I pray to?
But even an atheist has to actively deny the truth and the
reality of God that he knows is in his heart.
I said, you mind if I pray for? And it's interesting.
I've talked to lots of atheists, and you know what?
I've never had one of them turn me down for prayer.
I said, what can I pray for? Here's what he said Pray that
God would gift me with the faith if he wants me to have it that
other people have. Even this atheist understood
that true justifying and saving faith is a gift.
That is received from God and from God alone.
He actually asked me that if it was God's will that he would
give me this faith. May it be so.
I prayed exactly that. Or grant this man the faith to
believe. You know how Why?
I know that's important because had God not given me true
justifying, saving faith, I would have never believed.
I would have only acknowledged. So he knows more of this atheist
than many Christians about how faith is a gift from God.
I want to make clear that basic head knowledge of any historical
account, even of an account of Jesus, recognition of that and
acknowledgement of that, doesn't have the power to save you.
There must be a God wrought, God-given faith in order for a
man to be justified, to be deemed righteous before a holy
God. That's what Paul says in
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. You know what?
Well for it is by grace you have
been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves.
People ask ask me this all of the time.
What is he talking about there? Is he talking about grace being
a gift or is he talking about faith being a gift gift?
My answer to you is yes, it is by grace that you've been saved
through faith and this is not from yourself.
It is the gift of God. What is the is the gift of God
grace through faith that he would.
Grace you with the faith to trust in Him, truly believe, and
to truly be saved, He says not by works so that no one can
boast. If Abraham could have somehow
worked his way to God, what would Abraham have done?
He would have bragged about it. If Kirk Hall could have somehow
and still could somehow work his way to God by all the good
things that I do, I know what Kirk Hall's pride would do.
It would well up inside of me and I would say to myself and
probably to everyone else, look what Kirk has done.
But can I tell you that's not true justifying faith?
True justifying faith can't say look what anyone has done and
has to say. Look what God has done.
It is received. It's a gift, just as it was in
the life of Abraham. It is in the life of those of
you who truly believe. Secondly, we see Abraham's faith
as we observe this example. Not only has received faith
being from the grace of God, it is relentless faith, relentless.
Look at verse 18 of that text and see how relentless this
faith is. And true, justifying faith is
relentless. It says against all hope,
Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many
nations. Just as it had been said to him,
so shall your offspring be. Here we see Abraham's relentless
faith. True, justifying, saving faith
will be relentless. Why?
Because God is not going to back down.
And He is the giver of this faith.
He is the one who has ordained it, and He has instituted it in
you. Therefore it will be relentless.
Says against all hope Abraham in hope believe.
You say that doesn't even make human sense.
You're right, it doesn't against all hope, right?
I'm 100 years old. My wife's 80 something years
old. Her wound is dried up, barren.
But he was relentless. He was relentless.
And his faith in God, he trusted in God's unseen hand, God's
ability over anything and everything that he could see.
Right, Because Abraham looked at his life and he said, you know
what, I'm getting old. I looked at his life.
He didn't. Tell her this, I promise.
But he thought she's getting old.
But I'm still going to trust in God.
I'm going to trust in God when everything seems hopeless
against hope. Abraham in hope believed that
word believe is pistuo. In the Greek it means this.
It means that he put all of his trust in God, that that there
was no other option. He was trusting in not himself,
not in his wife Sarah, not in the timetable of their lives.
He was trusting in. God relentlessly true justifying
true saving faith will relentlessly trust in God It'll
trust in God when everyone mocks you It'll trust in God when
everyone laughs at you when you become persecuted when you
become the butt of every single joke that is told.
True believer will relentlessly trust in God against all hope.
Abraham in hope believed. So we see that his faith, as we
observe it, is received and graced by God, A gift,
relentless, completely trusting in God's promises over even what
he sees. And it good to have that kind of
faith where you can trust in the promises of God instead of the
reality that your eyes claims to see.
We see, thirdly, that Abraham's faith was resolute.
Verse 19 makes it so clear. Without weakening in his faith,
he never backed down. Without weakening in his faith,
he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was
about 100 years old, and that Sarah.
'S womb was also dead, yet he did not waver through unbelief
regarding the promises of promise of God, but was
strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully
persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.
Oh, like Paul, he said, I know whom I have believed, and I am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which he has delivered
me until that day. Knew this Abraham, resolute
without weakening or wavering in his face, Faith steadfast,
persevering through every obstacle, every thought
roadblock he had. True justifying faith.
You know this true justifying faith will continue to believe
no matter what, confident in exactly what God promised Paul.
Alludes to this reminding us of the promise that God made to
Abram. He took him outside in Genesis
chapter 15, Genesis 15, verse 5. If you want to turn there, you
can. But he took Abram outside and he
said look up at the heavens and count the stars.
He gave Abram an impossible task.
He said count the stars if indeed you can count them.
The interesting thing about that is God knew exactly how many.
Stars were in the sky. Abram didn't have the ability to
do that, he says, if indeed you can count them.
And he said to him. So shall your offspring be, he
said. Abram, you see all these stars,
You can try to count them, but you won't.
And I'm going to bless you through the faith that I have
given you. I'm going to bless you with
descendants that outnumber these stars.
Now, Abraham could have constantly focused on everything
that he was seeing that we in our life would call reality.
However, true justifying faith does not live in the world's
reality. True justifying faith lives in
the promises of God. He knew what God had told him.
He knew God, said Abram. Look, look up at the stars.
I know you can't count them, but I know exactly how many are up
there. You don't.
That's OK. Just know this that your
descendants just like I promised.
You will be like these stars. And what did Abraham do?
Well, true justifying faith always does this.
He remained resolved. His faith was resolute.
He knew what God had promised him, and he trusted in what God
had promised him over what he saw, what other people might
think. Because, you know, there were
the skeptics. Can you imagine the people
making fun of Abraham? They're like the people who make
fun of us, who believe that Christ is going to return as
he's promised. And.
With him, he's going to bring the Saints who have gone before,
and there will be justice and there will be judgement for the
wicked. Oh yeah, we still preach that
here because it's still in the Bible.
We still believe it. Why?
Because God has promised it. Abraham resolute in that
believing what God had promised, and the next thing that we see
about his faith received relentless resolute.
His faith. Faith was redeeming.
It is only this kind of faith that actually saves a person.
This is all. There's only this kind of faith
that actually is credited as righteousness.
Verse 22 of that. Romans chapter 4 text.
It said This is why it was credited to him as
righteousness. It was credited to him because
he continued to believe relentless, resolute in his
faith, and because of that, that gift that he had received from
God by His grace. God granted that Abram was
justified by this faith. What does that mean?
To be justified means to be declared righteous.
Abraham was declared righteous not based on any good thing that
he had done. He was not declared righteous
because he never sinned, because he had sinned.
In fact, I told you he was a Pagan idolater.
He was declared righteous. Because of the faith that God
had given him that he received, that relentless faith, that
resolute faith, and that redeeming faith that only God
can work. He was justified because of this
faith. Abraham was redeemed by grace
alone through faith alone in God alone.
Genesis 15-6, it says this Abraham believes the Lord and he
credited credited it to him as righteousness.
Abraham walked out that night. The Lord let him out, said look
at all the stars. Can you count them?
No, I really can't count them. I know how many there are.
Your offspring. You're going to be this many.
And you know what? Abraham, in his own strength,
could not have believed. Such a crazy thing, but yet
Abraham with the faith that God gave him, Genesis 15-6 says that
he believed the Lord, and that the Lord credited it to him as
righteousness. Abraham, now justified by faith,
credited as righteous not because he was righteous, but
because his faith was in a righteous God.
And Abraham's faith procured for him and proved to us that his
justification and his redemption was legitimate, that this truly
was true. Justifying faith.
Romans 4 If you read above where we are right now, what does
Scripture say? Abraham believed God and was
credited to him as righteousness.
Now to the one who works, wages are not.
Credited as a gift, but as an obligation.
He's saying God was not obligated to save Abraham
because of his works. Watch what he says next.
However, to the one who does not work but trust God, who
justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as
righteousness. Abraham, the ungodly, trusting
in God by faith. That's why Paul uses this
example. He says, I want you to observe
the faith of Abraham so that you don't get caught up in just
thinking that you can acknowledge God, or that you can
acknowledge the crucifixion of Christ, or that you can
acknowledge the resurrection of Christ as we're doing today.
But I want you to understand that there's so much more to it
than that. I want you to see Abraham's
faith for what it really is. Received relentless, resolute
and redeeming. And so the observation of
Abraham's faith that he starts with gives us an idea of what
true justifying faith really is. Now what I want you to do is I
want you to look at your life compared to the faith of
Abraham. Why would I want you to do
something that crazy? Because that's what the
scripture calls for. That's what this whole passage
is all about. Watch what happens next.
Watch the transition. Paul now moves from the
observation of Abraham's faith, and he's going to actually move
to the believers there at Rome. And in moving to the believers
there at Rome, here we are 2000 years later receiving the same
lesson he's moving into. Our lives.
So you know what he's doing. He's saying, Curt, you examine
yourself alongside of Abraham. Ivan, you examine yourself
alongside of Abraham. Jacob, you examine yourself
alongside of Abraham. Brandy, examine yourself
alongside of Abraham. Make sure that you're not going
to fall into this trap as so many fall into that.
They just simply have settled for acknowledging the facts
about God. Scripture's clear.
A fool has said in his heart that there is no God.
You have to be an absolute fool to deny the Creator.
Look around you. All of you will walk into a
Walmart at some point in time, and you don't have to know the
contractor, but you know there was a builder.
Yeah, you'll look around at this magnificent world that God had
created by his spoken word, and you deny that there was a
creator. Something is dreadfully wrong
with you. You are a fool.
And that doesn't come from me. That comes from a holy God who
says that a fool has said in his heart that there is no God.
He's denying the obvious. He's refusing to acknowledge the
basics. But then he doesn't want us just
to stop there. He wants us to understand that
simply acknowledging the basics will not save you.
So he turns this to the believers.
After using Abraham's faith as an example, Paul now makes this
personal to all those professing believers there in Rome.
Now, he didn't make the mistake that we often make in the
American church. The American church makes this
mistake. You make the mistake of thinking
that just because someone professes Christ that they're
saved. That's an incorrect assumption.
You know, the apostles never made that assumption.
They addressed all of them as if they were to examine themselves,
to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.
I would encourage you to do the same.
Why? Because your heart is
deceitfully wicked. You have.
You might have been deceived for a long time into thinking that
just because you have acknowledged Christ
historically, biblically, factually, somehow you're saved.
And again, I remind you, that won't save you.
And Paul's going to do a very good job of helping us
understand that. After using this example of
Abraham's true justifying faith, he wants the believers there in
Rome to lay their lives next to it.
To do an examination, the first thing that you need to do is you
need to examine the object of justifying faith.
What is the object of justifying faith?
Well, the object of all real justifying faith is this.
There's only one answer to God. Faith that He is Creator, He is
Sustainer, He is Redeemer, He is Savior, He is Lord.
And so justifying faith must be faith that is directed toward
God, and no one or nowhere else. Don't direct your faith toward
the church. Don't direct your faith toward a
ritual in the church. Don't direct your faith toward
an individual in the church. Especially not me.
I can't save you. Oh, if I could save you, I
would, but I can't. I couldn't even save myself.
The object of real justifying faith is God himself.
So justifying faith must be directed and must be rooted in
God and in nothing else. This example that Abraham sets
for us. That's an example that we need
to see here today. When we talk about the object of
justifying faith, it is faith in a few things, one of them being
God's promises Abraham has commended because he trusted in
God's. Promise.
Are you trusting in God's promises?
Trusting that which God has spoken in His Word?
What has He spoken in His Word concerning you?
That whoever believes in him will not perish, but have
everlasting life? Have you trusted Him for that?
Have you trusted Him in His Word?
When He tells us that we must repent, we must believe?
Have you? Have you trusted that?
That's factual information. You trusted that.
That's biblical truth that is straight from the Word of God,
what He has promised. And if we don't believe that,
we'll perish and we'll be judged for every sin and every sinful
deed and word that we've ever spoken or thought.
The object of justice justifying faith begins with trusting in
God's promises. Please make note of this, your
eternal salvation. I told you this is the most
important sermon that you have ever heard.
Your eternal salvation rests in the reliability of God's Word,
His promises. Do you trust in them?
Do you truly trust in Jesus death, burial and resurrection?
You know the essence of the gospel.
That's what Paul says in First Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3
says for what I received, I passed on to you as a first
importance or utmost importance, that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures, that he was buried and that he
was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
Have you trusted in the gospel of Jesus Christ that the only
hope that you a Sinner has is the death, the burial, and the
resurrection of Jesus Christ? Have you laid everything down at
his feet? Resting only in Him who
justified have you? Or do you do the American thing
where you just acknowledge the facts?
Yeah, he died, He was buried, and he rose again.
Yeehaw. Let's have an Easter egg hunt.
The sad fact is many Americans will spend an eternity in hell
because they did not cling to the promises of God found in His
Word. True justifying faith will have
for the object of their faith God, and God's promises
everything that He said. They will believe that it is
true that He is able to do all that He has eternally promised.
What has He eternally promised? As I've already said, John 316.
What does he make so clear here that we need to know?
For God so love the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have
eternal life. He goes on in 17 and 18 to tell
you that if you don't believe, you are condemned already.
And some of you entered into this room condemned already.
You came in condemned, yet you acknowledge the resurrected
Savior because it is Easter. But you've never placed your
faith in his promise. You've never believed again,
that word believe means to no longer trust in you or anything
else, but to put full complete trust, abandoning everything
else and trusting in God and his promises alone concerning your
salvation. You trust in those things.
You trust that Jesus is who he says that he is, who he said
that he was in John Chapter 11 there when he's talking to
Lazarus sister. And he tells her a very
interesting thing Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and
the life. The one who believes in me will
live even though as they die, and whoever lives by believing
in me will never die. And he asked her this question,
Do you believe this? Not?
Do you acknowledge this, Not do you in your mind receive this?
He said, do you believe this? Do you believe this more than
anything else in all the world? That's true.
Justifying faith. That's true, justifying faith as
prescribed by Jesus himself. And so the object of justifying
faith being God, God's promises, but also God's power.
Abraham here believing in in God who is powerful.
Isn't it interesting that in today's time many of us don't
believe in the power of God who claimed to be Christians?
Paul uses the example of Abraham because he believed in the power
of God. He's telling these people here
wrong. Believe in the power of God.
It's important that you do because it's that power that God
has that raised Jesus from the dead.
Ephesians one tells us that Ephesians 1 Paul says in verse
19 and his incomparable great power for us who believe that
power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he
raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in
the heavenly realms. The same power that raised Jesus
from the dead is the same power that raises you from the dead
spiritually and one day will raise you from the dead
physically and you will be glorified through that power in
His presence for all eternity. How do I know this?
Because God's Word promises it, and God's power will complete
it. And do you trust in that more
than you trust in your next paycheck?
More than you trust in your career path?
More than you trust in CNN or Fox News.
Or whatever it is that you watch.
You trust in his power, true saving faith, trust in God's
ability to raise the dead. Do you trust that?
You trust not just in the factual information that, yeah,
Jesus rose from the grave, but do you believe that that was a
display of the power of God and it was a display of the power of
God so that you can believe and trust in that same power?
It is that power that raises us. So the object of justifying
faith is God. We we exercise that in trusting
God's promises, God's power, but also trusting God's propitiation
unless a theological word that in many of you you don't care
anything to know about, but you should.
A propitiation is that atonement that Jesus Christ made on our
behalf at the. Cross Paul here in instructing
the believers there in Rome. He says the words it was
credited to him were not written for him alone.
He turns it to them. It's for you, 2 but also for us
to whom God will credit righteousness, for us who
believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to
life for our justification. You see there trusting in God's
promises, trusting in God's power to deliver us from death,
but also trusting in God's propitiation, the atoning work
of Jesus Christ, just as we sang it a moment ago, singing,
proclaiming about the blood, the precious atoning work of Jesus
Christ. Do you sing those songs just
because you've always sung those songs?
Do you acknowledge the lyrics to those songs just because you're
familiar with them? Or do you really believe that?
Because there's a huge difference, isn't there?
Trusting in the propitiation of Jesus Christ is atoning work and
actually just only acknowledging it?
And again I've met. Many many, many people who will
acknowledge Jesus crucifixion, they haven't truly trusted in
him. They know that Christ went to
the cross. Yeah, they have still not gone
to Christ and how sad that is. Are you trusting in God's
propitiation that true saving, justifying faith that depends
wholly on the atoning work of God through Christ at Calvary?
Romans chapter 3 verse 25. You back up a little more in
Romans. I told you we could read 3
through 8, but it says this in 25.
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through
the shedding of His blood to be received by faith.
And He did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in
His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand
unpunished. He did it to demonstrate his
righteousness at the present time so as to be just.
And the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus, who's
going to be justified? Only those who have faith in
Jesus who's going to face the justice of God, because he is
going to be just and the justifier, who's going to face
the justice? Of God, the wrath of God in
hell. Those who do not truly believe
in Christ with this justifying saving faith, they just
acknowledge the information about Christ.
And is it the American church plagued with this, the
acknowledgement of Christ without surrendering to the
lordship of Christ, the object of justifying faith being God,
God's promises, His power, His propitiation?
Do you trust only in the atoning work of Jesus Christ to save a
wretched? Sinner, I can tell you this,
that's the only hope that I have.
I'm not going to get to God on my good works.
Why? Because my good works are flawed
by this guy. The only way that I'm going to
be in right standing with God is through the atoning work of
Jesus Christ and trusting in that and that alone and in that
a person is then justified by their faith in the atoning work
of Christ, not just simply their acknowledgement that Christ went
to a cross. Some of you have told the story.
It is that time of year, right? You told it to your children.
Jesus died. He was buried.
And today we celebrate the fact that heroes.
But in telling that story, all you're doing is giving your
children facts or history lesson.
You're not telling them about anything that you have
personally experienced in your life.
What a sad testimony to the American church who never, ever
challenges anyone to look beyond just mere acknowledgement of
Christ and looking to see what true, justifying or saving faith
really is. Are you?
Trusting in his propitiation, his sacrifice, his
substitutionary atonement. Do you, do you believe that
Jesus really died in your place so that you can live, you can
live a full life here and you can live an eternal life?
Do you really trust in that? Do you just hope maybe that
it'll happen? It's interesting.
I talk. To people about Christ.
Now ask people about their relationship to Christ.
They'll profess Christ. Yeah, I know, Jesus.
Oh yeah, so. So why do you?
Think that Jesus is going to allow you to have eternal life?
And you know what they say? Because I've been pretty good.
That's a lie. Hatched straight from hell.
You haven't been pretty good. In fact, the word of God is very
clear that you're a transgressor.
I'm a transgressor. There's nothing righteous.
No, not one. We must trust in something
greater than us. We must trust, we must trust in
something greater than us by the faith that God has given us to
trust in the atoning work of Jesus Christ, His propitiation.
In doing so, we put our faith in the one true God as our
Redeemer, as our salvation. Jesus covers this in John
chapter 3 verse 14. He says just as Moses lifted up
the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up
that everyone who believes may have eternal lives in him.
Son of Man lifted up on that cross as the atoning sacrifice
for all who would believe in him and all who do truly believe in
him. They are saved.
The object of justifying faith, God.
God's promises, God's power, God's propitiation.
But also God's pronouncement. Where would we be without God's
pronouncement? What do you mean by
pronouncement? He has made a decree.
He has made a declaration concerning those who truly have
justifying faith. Verse 25.
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to
live for our justification. Well, let's make the
resurrection to death, the burial, the resurrection of
Jesus Christ personal here. He did that for the
justification of all who will truly believe in him.
We say God's pronouncement here. What is it that he has decreed
those who have true justifying faith in Christ?
He has decreed that you are righteous and truth be told, He
decreed that you were righteous and that is why He gave you the
faith to believe so that His grace can be on display.
Pronounces those who are in Christ as justified.
You know what justified means, Church?
It means that God looks at you and declares that you are
righteous. He declares that you're
righteous and I know what you're going to say, but I'm not.
You're not. But if you're in Christ, you
are. And that's then causes us to ask
the next question. Well, just how righteous am I?
Well, there's not anything called kind of righteous.
You are declared as righteous as the Lord Jesus Christ.
When God declares you righteous, you stand in His presence, you
stand in His Kingdom, clothed in the full righteousness of Jesus
Christ. Imputation.
He atone for you. That's expiation.
And because of that expiation, He is now imputed to you, His
righteousness. If you trust in that and that
alone to save you straight from the word of God.
God decrees and he declares, and those who truly have faith in
Jesus Christ are 100% righteous. I know if you're like me, you
say, well, I don't feel righteous.
No, you won't. In this life open, in the life
to come, you will be made whole and you will be made complete.
You will dwell forever clothed in the white garments of the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 3. Paul says this in verse 2828.
For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from
the works of the law. You can't get there by doing
good things, can't get there by doing right things.
You have to be justified apart from the law.
And who is the one who justifies?
It's God Himself. As we put faith in Him, we put
faith in His atoning work there at the cross.
We believe and we trust in that and that alone He.
Says Those are those who have been declared righteous.
These are those who the object of their justifying faith is
God. God's pronouncement.
Nothing in my hands I cling, simply nothing in my hands I
bring, excuse me simply to the cross.
I cling naked. Come to thee for dress helpless
Look to thee for grace foul I to your fountain fly.
Wash me, Savior, or I die. True justifying faith.
Let's trust in God's pronouncement that God has
deemed us righteous apart from any work that we can do based
solely on faith in Jesus Christ. His death is burial, His
resurrection. Galatians 216 reminds us know
that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by
faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have power.
Or excuse me, we have put our faith in Jesus Christ, that we
may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of
the law, because by the works of the law no one will be
justified. That's for all you people who
think that you can acknowledge Jesus Christ one day of the year
and then try to do enough good the rest of the year that
hopefully when you pass from this lives, you'll be declared
righteous. And it's simply and biblically
just does not work like that. Now I know there are people at
other places whose they don't mind making you comfortable as
you're on your way to hell, but I'm not one of those.
I want you to hear the truth. Why?
Because I'm concerned for your soul and I don't want you to
eternally perish. I know this.
Everyone in this room, myself included.
One day you were going to meet death or disappointed unto man
wants to die, and after this the judgement.
The question is, how will you stand before God after that day?
Will you stand before God with this acknowledgement of facts?
I acknowledge that you died and that you buried, and that you
arose again. Sadly, that won't save you or
you stand there clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ
because God has declared you justified, because you have
truly trusted in Jesus Christ and Christ alone.
See the object of justifying faith, God himself.
And that's why it's so important that we understand good theology
that Christ is the God man, that He was truly and fully God.
He was truly and fully man. And we don't compromise on the
deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was God with us, Emmanuel,
just as Scripture said. And so when I put my faith and
my trust in Christ, I'm putting my faith and my trust in God,
just as Abraham, that example that we saw earlier did.
And then that is where we find justification.
Third Point that I want us to look at today is the outcome of
justifying faith. And I want you to look deep into
your life. You see this in your life.
The outcome of justifying faith is simply this chapter 5 verses
one and two. Therefore, therefore, he's given
us the example of Abraham's faith.
He's. Encouraged us as believers to
make sure that the object of our faith is where it needs to be,
in the promises of God, the power of God, the propitiation
of God, the pronouncement of God, that we're depending on God
and God alone. If you're depending on anything
else for eternal life, for forgiveness of sin, you've
missed it. But this produces an outcome.
He says therefore in verse 1 of chapter 5, since we have been
justified through faith, since this has happened.
He's assuming here that you have true saving faith, since you
have been justified. Through faith we have peace with
God. Through our Lord of Jesus
Christ, you have that peace through.
Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which
we now stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
What? He begins with this
justification by God. I don't need to repeat that
again. It is God who justifies the
Sinner. Romans 4-5 However, to the one
who does not work but trust God, who justifies the ungodly, their
faith is credited as righteousness.
It is the ungodly trusting in the holy God to justify them.
That is the only hope that you have.
Romans 833 I told you I would read 3 through 8 if I had time.
If anyone wants to beg me, I'll stop and we'll go back and start
at 3 verse one. No, no beggars.
Romans 833 says this. Who will bring any charge
against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies. It is God who is the justifier.
Paul again saying that is the outcome of true justifying
faith. You will be justified before a
holy God. God declares you righteous.
Now that seems crazy, doesn't it?
It seems crazy to me when I think about it.
It seems crazy because I know what I deserve.
And I think if we really got down to today, all of you know
exactly what you deserve. We all deserve death and we all
deserve hell. We all deserve judgment because
we all have sinned against a holy God.
That doesn't make God bad. That makes us sinners.
I want you to see today that there's a God who justifies the
Sinner that you're standing with.
God doesn't have to be a bad standing that you're standing
with. God can be this, that He has
declared you and made you righteous through faith in Jesus
Christ. Therefore, since we have been
justified through faith, how are you justified today?
How how does your standing change true faith in Christ?
It's the only way a Sinner is justified.
Your standing with God is based on His decree, not on your
deeds. And all who truly believe have
been deemed justified, and all who have been deemed justified
have. Truly believed I don't care
which way you want to work that and.
What he decrees can't be undone. Oh, this is the outcome of
justifying faith. It cannot be undone.
Isaiah 46 verse 10. Isaiah testifies to this fact.
Speaking for the Lord here, He says My purpose will stand.
Whatever God purposes will stand.
And God His purpose to raise up for Himself a people of
righteousness through the seed of Abraham.
Be those people from the Jews, be those people from the
Gentiles. They will be that number that He
showed Abram in the sky that night.
And how will they become that number?
They will be justified by a holy God.
Believing in Him and Him alone. He has decreed this.
And once you are declared justified by faith in God
through the Lord Jesus Christ, there's nothing you or anyone
else can do to undo that. I am in my standing now.
I know in my state I am not yet there.
I'm being sanctified. I'm being made more like Christ
every day. The Spirit reminds me of that
constantly. Hey Kirk, that thing in your
life that doesn't look like Jesus, Jesus at all at all.
Trust me with that. Repent of it, confess it, get
rid of it. That's my state.
But in my standing, I am 100% righteous.
In the presence of God, because my faith is in the righteousness
of Jesus Christ and that alone. My faith is in a God who
justifies wicked sinners by his own decree, and He has decreed
that in my life. How do I know that?
Because I believe I believe in Christ.
He is my only hope. The outcome of justifying faith?
Is that simply justification? By God with God means He's
declared you as righteous, and once He has declared that, He
will never declare you as anything else again.
Have you ever thought that right?
Because people don't teach you right in the church.
Ohio. I really blew it last weekend.
I'm probably not righteous in God's eyes anymore.
Well, if your faith is in you, you're not.
You never were. But if your faith is in Christ,
you're just as righteous as you were before you blew it.
And you're as righteous as you always will be, and you are 100%
righteous in your standing because of what Jesus Christ has
done for you and did for you there at the cross.
And he proved that it was valid by his resurrection.
That's why we celebrate today of justification by God.
The second outcome of justifying faith is this peace with God.
Oh, what a statement. In a world longing for peace,
peace in any form, shouldn't we want peace with our Creator?
Since all we have in our sinful nature's hostility toward our
Creator, since we're unacceptable in our natural
selves, should we want to be reconciled to a position of
peace with God? Isn't it true that all of us at
one time were once alienated by our sin?
Romans 510 makes that very clear.
We were once enemies of God. But when we were God's enemies,
we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son.
How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved
through his life, alienated enemies now reconciled at peace
with God? Right, because the sinful mind
is what hostile to God. And because we've been rescued
from that, there's no more hostility.
The wall of hostility has been torn down by Christ, cautions
121. Once you were alienated from
God, and we're enemies in your minds because of your evil
behavior. That's for all the the liberal
thinkers. You think we're all just
children of God? No, you're not.
Apart from true justifying faith in the work of Jesus Christ,
you're alienated from God. You're an enemy.
Of God because of your. Own sinful minds and your evil
behavior. Watch what he says next in verse
22. But now He has reconciled you by
Christ's physical body through death, to present you wholly in
a sight without blemish and free from.
Accusation. How did he do this?
Well, he went to the cross, and he who knew no sin became sin,
so that you might become the righteousness of God.
What an exchange. Christ bore our sin.
He bore the wrath of God upon his back.
That we deserve because we are sinners, and then we receive
righteousness and peace with God.
What a gracious God. Why would you not run to a God
like this and put all of your faith in all of your trust in
him? What a gracious God who would
take a bullet for me. When I deserved the bullet, He
went to the cross. When I deserved the suffering he
bore. When I deserved to die, he died
in my. Place and he gives me peace,
peace with God. Then I'm reconciled that there's
no longer any hostility. Well, Kirk, that must be because
you're a pretty good dude. No, that's because I'm an awful
scoundrel who God loved, and he displayed his love and the fact
that while I was still a Sinner, Christ died for me.
Oh, don't think for a second that Kirk Hall cleaned his life
up. God rescued me from the mud and
the mire, and he set my feet on the solid rock.
It is he who has done this work. It is he who has made me at
peace with him, not the other way around.
What assurance that we have when we understand this peace with
God. And then he goes on and he says,
therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Lord, through whom we have now gained access by faith
into this grace in which we now stand.
Well, the outcome of justifying faith, the justification by God,
peace with God. And then he tags this on their
grace from God into this grace in which we now stand.
I know many of. You think that grace is just a
salvific thing, right? We receive grace at salvation.
No, you received grace before you were ever in this world.
You continue to receive grace upon grace upon grace upon grace
if you're in Christ. Grace from God into this grace
in which we now stand. What is he talking about?
Of course he's talking about the gracious salvation that we have
in Christ. Fact that Romans 623 is
explicitly clear when it says for the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He says you have salvation when you deserve death.
How gracious is that? It's more than that.
How about this? How about communion, Constant
communion and fellowship with the Father, with the Son, with
the Holy Spirit, all according to his will and his plan that he
worked out in Christ Jesus. And he graces us with that,
'cause I can promise you this, I don't deserve that.
I deserve to be exiled from the presence of God for all
eternity. And had Christ not intervened,
that's exactly what I would have received.
I know what. Modern thinking is, oh, Kirk,
don't beat yourself up so bad. No, it's the truth.
And isn't it interesting that we live in a culture who they might
say that they want truth, but they don't really want truth.
That's the truth. I deserve damnation and He gives
me life and righteousness and grace and communion with
himself. That's why heaven is going to be
so grand. Oh, don't be so shallow in your
thinking of heaven. Many people say I want to go to
heaven so I can see this and see that and see this and see that
I. Want to go to heaven so that I
can find commune with my savior face to face?
The one who rescued the scoundrel who deserved the
hottest depths of hell. Yet He saved me by His grace,
allowing me to commune with Him not only in this life, but for
all eternity. I don't think we long for that
enough. Oh, that day when He, he wipes
every tear from our eyes, Oh, how long in eternity will that
take for Jesus to walk up to every single believer who has
ever truly been justified and personally wiped the tears from
their face as they worship Him, knowing that without him and his
grace, they would have never had salvation.
They would have never had communion with God.
What about the eternal assurance that He gives us by his grace
right? What Jesus describes in John
chapter 10, our eternal. Assurance and I don't make any
apologies for believing that nor thinking that because I read
Jesus words plainly. I give them eternal life and
they shall never perish. Anyone who he gives eternal life
will never perish. He says no one will snatch them
out of my hand. My Father who has given them to
me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of my
Father's hand. You know what grace I have?
Every night I lay my head on a pillow.
You can ask my wife, it doesn't take me 3.
Seconds to fall asleep. Why is that so?
I'm justified by God. I have peace with God.
I walk in the grace of God. I have that eternal assurance
right as everybody else is freaking out.
Oh. Man, are we going to get naked
by the Iranians? Are we going to get nuked by the
Chinese? Are we going to get nuked by the
Russians? Listen, I hope it hits my house
first. Why?
I'm confident in Christ. I'm confident of the eternal
life that He died so that I could have it.
Eternal life that He paid for on the cross.
I am confident of that. I have that assurance that His
sacrifice is enough. Oh, what grace that we have an
eternal assurance? I feel for the people who think
that they can somehow lose eternal life once they've had
it. It wasn't very eternal, was it?
No, what God says is eternal is eternal.
You can rest in that. You can have full assurance.
No one will pluck you from his hand.
What about more grace like this promise?
Preservation. Did you know that God promises
to preserve all of us who have truly been justified by grace
alone, through faith alone and Christ alone?
He promises. Promises to preserve us until
the end. We're not going to mess this
thing up. That's good news for me, a guy
who messes lots of things up. But haven't you heard some
incorrect thinking and some incorrect teaching that made you
think that? Oh, you.
Can mess it up, blow it one final time and it's all gone.
Not according to the word of God.
You can if you're in Christ. Here's what he says.
First Peter chapter one, verse 3.
Praise to God for a living hope. Why is that hope alive?
Because that hope rose from the grave.
Ascended into heaven where he's seated at the right hand of the
throne of God. He says praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and his great mercy has given us
new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead and into pay attention to this, an
inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you who you who
through faith are shielded by God's power, just as Abraham was
until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be
revealed in the last time. He says you are secure until
Jesus comes back and then you will be doubly secure.
There's nothing that can take that away from you that promised
preservation that God keeps for us.
Philippians 16 Paul says being confident of this that he who
began a good. Work in you will carry it on to
completion until the day of Jesus Christ.
You have that confidence. That confidence is a grace.
That confidence is the outcome of true justifying faith.
I know that the work that God started in me, he'll finish.
Why? Because he said so.
And I also know that this is not a work of Kirk.
It is a work of God and that that work of God will be
complete according to the will and plan of God, period.
I rest in that. Oh, the grace from God that we
have received in this grace in which we now stand, gracious
salvation, communion and fellowship with the Father, the
Son, the Holy Spirit, eternal assurance, promise,
preservation. What about this, the constant
and abiding power of the Holy Spirit in your life?
Contrary to what some false teachers claim, if you're a
believer, the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you.
He is the indwelling Holy Spirit.
In fact, if He does not dwell inside of you, you've not yet
been saved according to Romans chapter 8.
You just go back and read it. So we rejoice at the grace of
the Holy Spirit living in US, convicting us, leading us,
guiding us into the righteousness that Christ died
for us to have. Where would the believer be
without the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit?
What a grace from God, the outcome of justifying faith.
God Himself came to live inside of me, the third person of the
Triune Godhead, living in this once deemed scoundrel wicked
center, who has been cleansed by the power of the atoning work of
Jesus Christ. And now I am the Temple of the
Holy Spirit, a dwelling place of God.
Wow. What an exchange is made here?
From God to the rich, the outcome of justifying faith,
grace from God, peace with God, justification by God, and
lastly, hope in God. It says through whom we have
gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand and
we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
This is hoping in God, not just in this life, but for all
eternity. Are you hoping in God for all
eternity? Are you trusting in that hope,
the hope of future glory and eternal life?
Did you know that's what Jesus promised?
He promised you eternal life. He promised you future
glorification. Are you hoping in that?
Are you longing for that? Are you longing?
For the return of Christ, so that you can see these things
come to pass. True justifying faith will be
longing for that. Paul said this.
There's a crown of righteousness that awaits me, but not just me,
but for also. All of those who long for his
appearing, why are we long for the appearing of Jesus Christ?
Because we're groaning for redemption.
We're groaning for glorification.
Just as creation groans, we too groan.
Even so, come. Lord Jesus come changes your
only hope of future glory and eternal life.
Colossians 3/4 When Christ you as your life appears, then you
also will will appear with Him in glory.
Oh to think about that, to experience the glory of God with
Christ, that Christ would share in His glory with us.
To know that all the sufferings of this life will one day be
worth it in that first second of sharing in the glory of Christ.
2nd Corinthians 417 testifies to that.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an
eternal glory that far outweighs them.
All the struggles, all the pains, all the sickness, all the
death, all the things we face in this life, we'll shrink in
comparison to the future glory that we have been promised in
Christ. But what hope we have in God of
that future glory? Why?
Because we've been justified, we count on the promises.
We count on the fact that because he has justified us in
Christ, He will also glorify us in Christ.
Romans chapter 8 verse 30 says, and those he predestined He also
called. And those he called he also
justified, right? True, justifying faith.
Those he justified, he also glorified.
Notice that he's talking in the past tense here.
He also glorified. Look around you.
Are any of you here glorified yet?
Let me help you. No, you're not, but you will be.
You will be. So what can we say in response
to this? As Paul goes on in Romans
chapter 8, God is for us. Who can be against us?
Our hope is in God. We've been justified through
Him. We can count on His promise of
eternal hope and eternal glorification.
Those He called He justified. Those He justified, He did also
glorify. We are as good as perfected if
we have true justifying faith. Remember, that's not just a head
knowledge or an acknowledgement of Christ.
There's a full out trust in Christ and Christ alone.
Those who trust in Christ have the promise of sharing in His
glory. Romans 817 speaks is this, Now
we are children. If we are children, then we are
heirs, heirs of God and Co heirs with Christ, if indeed we share
in his sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.
And I want you to stop and I want you to ponder that for a
second. Those who have true justifying
faith have been forgiven of all of their sins.
They have been declared as righteous before Holy God.
They will inherit eternal life in heaven as promised by the
Word of God. They are completely washed and
cleansed and covered through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ and then for all eternity.
They will share in the glory of Christ.
What does that even mean? What does that even mean to
share in His glory? I can't even begin to fathom the
glory of Christ in heaven at this moment.
What does it mean that I get to share in that first John?
John says it like this, dear friends.
Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been
made known. But we know that when Christ
appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as He is.
Oh, what hope that we have in God, the promise that we will
one day be like Christ, sharing in His glory for all eternity.
I noticed some of you. That doesn't excite you, that
doesn't thrill you. Why?
Because you simply accepted just acknowledging Christ and you're
not engulfed in Christ. My prayer for you today.
So you would trust in Christ as the only hope that you have.
Hey, you would no longer just let him be a historical fact
Bible story, but today He truly would be your justifying Savior
who justifies sinners only through faith in Him of the
thought. That Christ bore my sin and my
shame, taking it upon himself, bearing the very wrath of God in
my place, what I deserved, so that I would be able to share in
His glory for all eternity. What hope He gives to those who
believe. Have you believed?
Have you believed and, and by this have you experienced the
outcome of true justifying faith?
Paul's giving us here the evidence of those who are truly
justified. Do you have that evidence in
your life? Do you, are you confident in
your justification by God and before God?
Are you confident in do you walk in the peace that you have with
God? Those who are in Christ, are you
experiencing his grace time and time again?
Overwhelmed by it? Remember when grace used to be
amazing in the church? They used to sing about it.
Now it's almost like entitled grace.
How sweet the sound. So we think we're entitled to
everything. Is your hope resting in God and
God alone? Oh, that's a great indicator for
you. If you have true justifying
faith today, do you have no hope in anything else?
It's a true believer, hopes and nothing else.
So what do we do with all this? Well, we've taken an in depth
look at true justifying faith today on purpose.
Hope I didn't cramp your schedule.
Why we done this? I can tell you why I've done it
because I care about your soul. I'm thankful that someone cared
about my soul enough to take the time to explain to me the
difference between just acknowledging the facts about
Jesus Christ and true justifying faith in Christ.
Now you know the difference, I hope, if I've done my job,
because it's only the kind of faith that Abraham had, the
only, only the kind of faith that Paul describes that will
save a Sinner. Do you have that kind of faith?
Because unfortunately, and I know this is not popular in our
time, but unfortunately, many people will spend an eternity in
hell having acknowledged Jesus without truly being saved by
Jesus. Because to simply acknowledge
him and his work, even his work of resurrection that we
celebrate today, it's not true justifying faith, But you come
to Christ today, but you come to him as your only hope and your
only plea for eternal life and forgiveness of sin.
Will you repent of your unbelief and repent of your sin, and
trust in Christ and Christ alone?
Father, we thank you for your word.
It has gone forth, and it will accomplish that which you have
set out for it to accomplish. May it Pierce the hearts of the
wicked, may it draw them unto yourself, and may they be
declared righteous by Your holy Word.
May they trust in Christ. May they receive all that you've
promised those in Christ and will give you all the glory and
honor and praise for it in Jesus name, Amen.
You've been listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry
podcast. Join us each week for more
teaching from God's Word.