 The title of our sermon this morning is justified by faith, justified by faith. It's a joy to be back with you and it's a joy to be back in our study of the essentials together where we're considering sound theology, systematic theology, our confession of faith, that theology that is essential to the growth and the maturity of the Christian. So over the last several weeks, we have gotten into our section of the essentials where we've been considering our redemption applied by the Spirit of God. That redemption including effectual calling, regeneration, and conversion, conversion including both repentance and faith. Our salvation, our redemption, this great salvation to which we've been delivered is by grace through faith. Paul says for by grace you have been saved through faith and that, the salvation that is by grace through faith, that is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Well saved from what? It's an important question, isn't it? Or saved from whom? It's a critical question. You listen to most professing Christians today, you go to most professing churches today, you may come away thinking that God is the one who needs to be saved, right? Saved from some medieval conception, an angry tyrant that burns people in hell for their sin, saved from being an unbending, intolerant, misogynistic, homophobic lawgiver, or saved from the Bible, or saved from those pesky Bible believing Christians. And God appears to be saved by our modern day or enlightened view of love, understanding of love, love without boundaries, right? Love without accountability, love without conditions, which is all just code, meaning love for sin. But despite the absurdity of all that, it's very obvious in Scripture that we are the ones who need saving. The Bible is crystal clear. We are sinners in the sight of God. We have broken his law. We have offended his justice. We are the ones who are alienated from God. We are the ones who are described in the Bible as enemies of God by wicked works. We are the ones who are guilty. We are the ones who are under the wrath of God. We are the ones who are objects of his anger. We are the ones who are under condemnation, under the curse of his law. How often do you hear that today? Right? How often? Most people are trying to skirt that, trying to say things that are far more palatable. They don't want to get into those things that are unseemly, like hell and judgment. Well, that's what we justly deserve for our sin. That's what you and I deserve for our sin. But to our shame, we simply don't see, or we simply don't perceive that the way that we should, right in our sin, we don't see ourselves as sinners. The way that God, a holy and righteous God, sees us as sinners. We just don't see things quite that way. And when you're living in the world like we live, and you go to professing churches like many do today, where that is not preached, or it's undercut or sidestepped or softened, like the tip of the spear of God's justice, blunted by a faithless, worthless, cowardly preacher or professing Christian, we need to see our sin more the way that God sees our sin. And the Bible helps us to do that. The Bible informs our understanding, if we'll believe the Bible. It's a spirit-wrought, gut-level, heartfelt conviction of that truth, the truth of our own sin, the truth that we are sinners, condemned under the wrath of God, that leads to fuels a love for and an apprehension of the glorious theology of our salvation. One is not possible without the other. The only way that we understand our salvation, the only way that we come to apprehend these glorious truths is in the context of our own sinfulness against God, our own destitute condition. And more specifically, it cultivates, if you will, a love for and a devotion to the one who has saved us, the one who has died for us to save us from our sin. It's an undeniable connection. There's an undeniable connection between our apprehension of our own sinful condition and a devotion for the Lord Jesus Christ, a love for the Lord Jesus Christ, a gratitude pouring out of the heart of the believer for the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He's done. It's an undeniable connection. It's a deep conviction of our sin that provides the critical context for not simply understanding, but for embracing, loving, apprehending, treasuring, living, and obeying the truth. But where do we see this in the Bible? It's an important point, something we should all consider with respect to our own Christian lives. Where do we see it in the Bible? Think with me about the text read in your hearing. Think with me about the sinful woman from Luke chapter seven. Luke chapter seven, the sinful woman comes to see Jesus at the house of Simon the Pharisee. If you'll notice from the text, her sin is emphasized in the text. Her sin becomes the context for the account. She's described by Luke as a woman in the city who was a sinner. Simon calls her a sinner. Jesus says her sins are many. And yet, when she knew that Jesus Christ had come to sit at the table at Simon the Pharisee's house, there was no pride that kept her away. She was stripped of all her self-righteousness, looking for the righteousness of another. There was no self-righteousness that kept her away. She was already broken over her sin, crushed over her sin, and Jesus was to her both Lord and Savior. So in verse 37, what does she do? She brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil. It's a costly oil because it comes in a costly container. It's a priceless, a precious oil. And she stood at his feet behind him, weeping. She began to wash his feet with her tears. She began wiping his feet with the hair of her head. She let her hair down, which would have been scandalous in those days. She didn't care about those things. She wasn't concerned about how things looked at that moment. She kissed his feet, and she anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now, start contrast. Who were the Pharisees? Right? The Pharisees were described as those who justified themselves that they were righteous. And so Simon the self-righteous was offended with this woman. He bumbled to himself under his breath to himself in verse 39. This man, Jesus, this man, if he were a true prophet, he would know what manner of woman this is who is touching him for she is a sinner. Simon could certainly point out her sin, couldn't see his own. Jesus, verse 40, knowing his thoughts, knowing his heart, answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. So he said, teacher, say it. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Now tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more? You understand the story, right? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. Jesus said to him, you have rightly judged. Now consider the parable with me for just a moment. It's brilliant, right? The wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is omnisapient. He is God in the flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ, immeasurable wisdom in the parable. The difference between the two debtors is the difference in their monetary debt. One owed a large sum, the other owed a substantially smaller sum. But notice, even though they owed different sums, neither one could pay the debt that was owed. They had nothing with which to repay. Both of them would have been bankrupt concerning their debt. In other words, both equally unable, you could say, both equally depraved, both equally bankrupt. That's an interesting thought, isn't it? One owed a large debt, one owed a small. The amount of the debt didn't matter. Both were equally unable to pay the debt. Interesting, isn't it? Between Simon the Pharisee, this one who would have seen himself as blameless under the law, and this woman who was a notorious sinner. And consider something else with me. The forgiveness of the debt is costly. Think with me, the forgiveness is costly. Who incurs the debt when the debt is forgiven? Who incurs the debt? The creditor does. The debtor does. The creditor incurs the debt when it's forgiven. Now, the Lord intends to take this parable and apply it, apply the principle of it to Simon spiritually. He's going to apply it to Simon. Simon the Pharisee perceives his own debt to be small. Think with me, the woman perceives her debt to be a deep well of iniquity, right? A deep well of sin. To Simon, forgiveness would have been unnecessary. He thought of himself as just. Simon thought of himself as righteous on the side of God, blameless under the law. He justified himself that he was righteous. He sees no need for justification. So this woman, who saw herself as a sinner, forgiveness was a life and death necessity. There was a sense of guilt, a sense of weight, there was a sense of shame, a sense of conviction, a weighty debt of sin. She saw her bankruptcy before God. She perceived it. She didn't merely understand it. It was a gut level conviction. She would have been like the one in the temple. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And she saw the priceless value of forgiveness from God. Now notice with me the contrast between the perspective of Simon the Pharisee and the perspective of the sinful woman. One perspective leads to love, affection, devotion, tears, godward sorrow, repentance, faith, joy, hope, worship, honor, praise, adoration, Thanksgiving. Where does the other perspective lead? The other perspective leads to a cold indifference, a heartless, loveless, callous, apathetic, ungrateful lack. One perspective is a spirit-wrought gut level conviction that we are sinners in need of justifying grace through faith. The other perspective reflects the way that most professing Christians see their sin today. The way that most preachers preach about sin, the way that most teachers teach about sin, the way that most writers write about sin, the way that most professing Christians talk about sin, the way that most people who profess to be Christians see their sin. And, brothers and sisters, it's the way that you and I can far too frequently and shamefully begin to think and act when we ourselves forget the depths of our own sin against God. Isn't that true? We forget our own sinfulness. We fail to see the depths from which we have been redeemed. We fail to see the heights of His mercy and His grace that has been poured out on us. We fail often to see and to fear God as holy and just and righteous and altogether true. And we can forget. But you see, it is a deep conviction of our sin that provides the critical context for not simply understanding, but for embracing and loving and apprehending the truth in faith, for loving the Lord Jesus Christ, for devoting ourselves to Him, heart, soul, mind, and strength, for trusting Him to save us from sin, for trusting Him to save us from the wrath of God, for devoting ourselves to Him as Lord. The one who is forgiven little, in other words, the one who perceives that forgiveness is a common thing. The one who sees their sin is not that bad and God is not that mad. The one who is forgiven little loves little. Do you see the connection? The connection clearly illustrated in Luke chapter 7. We can see the difference between these two perspectives clearly in the different responses to Jesus from the parable. In verse 44, verse 44, Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon the Pharisee, Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, no customary greeting, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in here. You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, Simon, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Now notice carefully with me what the Lord says. Her love wasn't the basis on which she was forgiven. I want you to see that from the text. Very important. But forgiveness or pardon for her sins was the basis on which she loved. Very important distinction. Her love wasn't on a basis that she was forgiven or wasn't the basis on which she was forgiven. Forgiveness or pardon for sins was the basis on which she loved. The verb translated are forgiven in verse 47. Do you see that in verse 47? That verb are forgiven is in the perfect tense. The perfect tense communicates a past completed action. It's done in the past. In other words, her sins, which are many, have already been forgiven. That's what the grammar of the text is communicating. They've already been forgiven. She had been forgiven before she ever walked into the room. This woman is a forgiven sinner before she ever comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. What brought her to the room? Love. Why? Because she'd be forgiven of her sin. Forgiveness is in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is forgiveness with God. What compelled her to this act of faith, this act of devotion and worship and gratitude. What compelled her? Love compelled her. What was it that was being poured out of her heart as she stood behind the Lord at His feet, weeping, wiping His feet with her hair, pouring out fragrant oil upon His feet. It was love and love and gratitude pouring out of her heart for the forgiveness that she had for her sins in Christ Jesus. Lord is essentially saying here, we can see the fruit of her faith. We can see the fruit of her faith. Her sins are forgiven because we can see that she is loved like someone who has been forgiven. Love, her love, her devotion, her worship, her praise, her gratitude, all evidences of a living, thriving, vital faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The love that she shows to the Lord here is the fruit of pardon. It's the fruit of forgiveness. She doesn't come with a work in order to earn forgiveness or to get forgiveness. Notice the Lord's words. She comes in faith believing that there is forgiveness with the Lord and being forgiven much, she loves much. Having already been forgiven much, she now loves much. Verse 48, then he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Now notice it's the same verb tense. It's perfect. Your sins have been forgiven. That's what it's saying. Verse 49, and those who sat at the table with him again to say to themselves, who is this who even forgives sins, then he said to the woman, your faith, here it is again, perfect tense. Your faith has saved you. It's already saved you. Go in peace. In other words, your love for me, Jesus said, and the good works that you have done as a fruit of that love is not the cause of your salvation, but the evidence of your salvation. Now a couple of weeks ago, we looked at a text in James chapter two where James is essentially saying the same thing, isn't he? Faith without works, James says, is dead. So we see that Abraham was not justified, James says, by works or by faith alone, but by faith and works. And what James means by that is what the Lord is saying here. Think with me of two forms of that word justification. Justification is something here in the text that for this sinful woman has already taken place. She has received forgiveness of her sins, and now the evidence of her faith is that she loves much. James would say her love is evidence that she has faith, and her faith is affirmed or attested to by her love. Does that make sense? Your faith has saved you. Your love was the evidence, the Lord says, go in peace. I want to give you two very important observations from the text. There are many, we're going to restrict our consideration here to two. Two very important observations from the text. The first is this. The faith that saves is a repentant faith. The faith it saves is a repentant faith. Notice from the text the tremendous weight of indebtedness that the woman senses and feels and acknowledges. The acknowledged weight of guilt and shame provides the context in which the woman now treasures the blessedness of her forgiveness. There is a deep conviction of sin, and there is a turning from sin to Christ. James Buchanan in his classic work on justification says this. He says what is needed in this study, the study of justification, is neither great intellectual ability nor much scholastic learning. In other words, we don't simply need to understand, but he says what is needfulness study is a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God. To understand justification, to understand our salvation, to understand our redemption, we need a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God. A conviction of the fact of sin as an awful reality in our own personal experience, of the power of sin as an inveterate evil, cleaving to us continually and having its roots deep in the innermost recesses of our hearts and of the guilt of sin, past as well as present, as an offense against God which once committed can never cease to be true of us individually and which however he may be pleased to deal with it has deserved his wrath and righteous condemnation. Amen. You have violated the law of God. God is offended with your sin and my sin against him. He is offended outside of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are an object of his anger. If you're sitting here today, you've never turned from your sin to trust Christ alone. You are an object of the wrath of Almighty God. An anger, a wrath that will find ultimate expression in your torment in hell forever. That's what your sin justly deserves. Do you believe it? It's what the Bible says. The word of the living God testifies to you of this truth. It's rare to hear that today. Can't be. That is a necessary truth to preach. But that black backdrop is the context in which the woman of Luke chapter seven turns to Christ in faith. And notice the contrast between her and Simon the Pharisee. Simon the Pharisee doesn't see it. Jonathan Edwards drives the point home. Listen, the bow of God's wrath is bent. The arrow made ready on the string and justice bends the arrow at your heart and strains the bow. It is nothing but the mere pleasure of God and that of an angry God without any promise or obligation at all that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. He continues, the God, holy God that holds you over the pit of hell much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire abhors you and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath toward you burns like fire. He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight. You are 10,000 times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince. And yet it is nothing but his hand, his offended hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else that you did not go to hell last night, that you were suffered to awake again in this world after you close your eyes to sleep. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yay, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell. Now most people today we consider Edwards a madman for words like that, but listen folks, that is Bible truth. And for you to do away, to wipe aside or to set aside the words of Edwards on this point is to set aside the biblical testimony of God's perspective of your depraved condition. These words biblically illustrate God's holy hatred for both sin and sinner. Do you have any sense of that? If not, you won't apprehend the glories of justification. If not, it might explain why you, having obviously been forgiven so little, love so little, we need an apprehension of our sinful condition. We need an understanding of who we are apart from Christ. We need an understanding of the depths from which we have been saved. God's relationship to man is regulated by his law. The universal relationship of God to man is not as a father to his children, but as that of a lawgiver and judge to fallen and condemned rebels. The same God who loves the world as his creation is also a holy and righteous judge. Abraham asked the question. He said, will not the judge of all the earth do right? Will not the judge of all the earth do right? Of course he will. Absolutely he will. And he said, will not the judge of all the earth do right? Will not the judge of all the earth do right? Of course he will. Absolutely he will. And God's very nature, God's very character, God's law demands, requires justice. And the justice due our sin under the law is death. The soul whose sins shall die. Physical death is an indication of that, that we will die eternally, a spiritual death. If we do not turn from sin to put faith and trust in Jesus Christ, everyone dies physically. And your physical death points to that ultimate spiritual death. That's at this point. And it's against this horrific backdrop that the love of God in sending his only begotten son into the world shines forth in brilliance. I remember when I bought a wedding ring for my wife, and I was looking at that. And of course, when you're standing there, they're trying to sell you the absolute biggest diamond they can sell you. And everything to me looked big. All the price tags looked really big. They bring the diamond out, they set it on the counter, and they put down, this is masterful salesmanship, they put down the black velvet on the countertop, and they polish that thing up, you know, and they set it on the black velvet and the diamond just sparkles, right? It's like, wow, you know, if you think about our sin that way, our sin, our destitute condition, our bankruptcy before God, our rebellion against him is the black backdrop behind which it provides the context for the brilliance, the glory of the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the context in which that glory is magnified, do you see? And the more we understand our sin, the more the glory of his grace is magnified. God has made provision for our sin and the person in work of his own son. He has made a way for us to be forgiven that we might have peace with God, which is an awesome thought. And this forgiveness, the forgiveness comes at an infinite cost to himself. Who incurs the debt? He does. He does. This is the doctrine of justification. The second observation from our text, the first observation, the faith that saves is a repentant faith. The second observation is this, the faith that saves is a justifying faith. It's a justifying faith. Look at verse 50. Verse 50, Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you, go in peace. This woman received pardon for sin and peace with God on the basis of faith. This is a blessed benefit of our justification, peace with God. Those who turn from sin to put repentant faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are justified by faith. Paul would say in Romans chapter five, verse one, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This woman has peace with God. The Lord Jesus Christ tells her to go in peace. How can a sinful human being, an enemy of God by wicked works go from being an enemy of God to being at peace with God? That's the question. How can we be right with a holy God? This is a work of justification. Justification by faith is so important, so critical to the gospel, to the biblical message, right? To God's revealed testimony, so critical that Martin Luther referred to it as the article of faith on which the church stands or falls. J. I. Packer described the doctrine of justification by faith as atlas, bearing the weight of the world upon his shoulders. Listen to these words. The Bible teaches that God elected men in eternity in order that in due time they might be justified through faith in Christ. It's a purpose for his election. He renews their hearts under the word and draws them to Christ by a factual calling in order that he might justify them upon their believing. Their adoption as God's sons is consequent on their justification. Indeed, it is no more than the positive aspect of God's justifying grace. The church is to be thought of as the congregation of the faithful, the fellowship of justified sinners. And the preaching of the word and the ministry of the sacraments are to be understood as the means of grace only in the sense that they are means through which God works the birth and growth of justifying faith. A right view of these things is not possible without a right biblical view or understanding of justification. So that when justification falls, all true knowledge of the grace of God in human life falls with it. And then as Luther said, the church itself falls. In other words, when Atlas falls, everything that Atlas is carrying on his shoulders crashes to the ground with him. The word justification is a legal term. It's a legal term. Just or justified is a word used in the Bible to refer to anyone who is accepted in the sight of God as righteous, like this woman in Luke chapter seven on the basis of her faith. Justification is a legal term. It's a forensic term that refers to a single act or a declaration by the judge, by God. In justification, a sinner is declared to be righteous. But considering the justice of God, the holiness of God, how can a holy God declare a sinful man to be righteous? How can a sinful man be declared just? Does God just arbitrarily sweep sin under the rug? No. No, God declares a sinful man to be righteous or just on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ as a substitute for his people. Listen to the London Baptist Confession of Faith, our confession in chapter 11, article 3. Jesus Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified. This wasn't some potential salvation. He didn't make forgiveness of sins possible. He actually discharged the debt of all those that were given to him by the Father. And he did this by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross undergoing in their stead, on their behalf, the penalty that was due to them and made a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in their behalf. It's an awesome statement. The penalty that is due our sin is laid upon Jesus Christ, our substitute. God the Father accepts this work of Christ on behalf of those whom Jesus Christ came to save. And the basis on the basis of that work on their behalf, the penalty, the guilt of their sin is removed. His perfect obedience is credited or accounted to them. And God declares those in union with Christ through faith to be righteous in his sight. That's justification, declared to be righteous. Listen to our confession, chapter 11, Article 1. Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely, by his grace, justifies. He doesn't do this, the confession states, by infusing righteousness into them so that they could be justified on the basis of their own righteousness, right? It doesn't make them righteous, but he does so by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous. Now, this accounting them as righteous, this seeing them as righteous is the confession states, not for anything wrought into them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone. That's why our faith needs to be in Jesus Christ. We trust him for his righteousness, for his work, what he's done in our place. The confession says, not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing or accounting Christ's active obedience under the whole law and passive obedience in his death for their whole and soul righteousness by faith. His righteousness becomes our righteousness by faith, which they have not of themselves, the confession states, it is the gift of God. Now notice, from our confession, think with me, two elements necessary to our justification, two elements. One, pardon, pardon, the forgiveness of sins. Two, imputation, the accounting, the crediting of our sins to Christ and Christ's righteousness to us as our own. Pardon and imputation, two elements necessary to our justification. Now, both pardon and imputation are provided by the grace of God through the means or the instrumentality of faith, and this is glorious, glorious. Notice the words of Jesus Christ to the woman in Luke chapter 7 verse 47, her sins which are many are forgiven, perfect tense, past completed action. Why? Because her sins were laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ and he satisfied the justice of God in her place. Verse 50, your faith has saved you, perfect tense, past completed action. Why? Because Christ's righteousness has become her own righteousness. Go in peace, the Lord says, present ongoing reality. Why? Because she's been declared righteous. She's been declared just in a single act of God. She's been declared righteous in the sight of God. God sees her as righteous and having been justified by faith. She has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was formerly an enemy deserving only of his wrath. An object of justice who would have suffered the torments of hell forever has now become a friend to God. A daughter in the kingdom transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love conveyed from one reality to another reality by the person in work of the Lord Jesus Christ and that through her faith, through her believing, through her trust in the Lord, do you see? Notice this justification is not a process like sanctification. It's not making someone progressively more and more righteous over time. Justification is a single act. It's a legal declaration by the judge at a point in time for all of time. You never lose it. It doesn't change the person like sanctification or like regeneration. It changes the status of a person in a moment on the basis of faith in Christ forever. In other words, it's not an act in a person. It's a statement about a person and that statement declared by God. Now, why is that so important? Why is that so important? It means that the claims of justice upon the sinner have been satisfied. Amen. Glory to God. There is no longer any claim against you who will bring a charge against God's elect. It is God who justifies. There is therefore now no condemnation. Because of what Jesus Christ has done for you, you are no longer under the curse of the law forever and ever taken out from under the curse of the law. It's handwriting of requirements that were hanging over you. They've been nailed to the cross. The justified man stands just. He stands as righteous before the judgment bar of God. Why? Because he is clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. As just in the sight of God, you are justly and righteously entitled to all the blessings, all the hopes, all the promises, all the glories. Do the one who is himself perfectly righteous. That by faith in the captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. And understand that faith does not merit or earn that status. That is a blessed status. The glorious status. The faith didn't earn it. Faith didn't merit it. We're not justified on account of our faith. We're justified through the means of our faith. Faith, as one put it, is the condition of our justification. We are justified on account of the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, including his active and his passive obedience, all that he did and all that he suffered. BB Warfield says this, the saving power of faith resides thus not in itself, but in the almighty Savior on whom it rests. It is not then strictly speaking even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. Well, where is else is this taught in Scripture? There are so many places, multiple places, but one place that very clearly teaches this truth is Romans chapter 4. Turn with me to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4. Listen faster now because we're running out of time. There's so much to be said. So much to be said. Romans 4. Paul spends the first three chapters of this letter indicting the entirety of mankind under a death sentence for their sin. And like the real life experience of the woman in Luke chapter 7, this reality, the reality that the entire world is guilty before God provides the basis or the foundation for the Gospel message. And Paul gets to the Gospel message clearly at the end of Romans chapter 3. And from this we know there can be no true apprehension of the good news, unless the bad news of man's sinful and destitute and wretched condition isn't first established. We need to understand our sin condition. We must be stripped of any self-righteousness before we sense our need for the righteousness of another, namely the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So look at Romans chapter 4 beginning in verse 1 then. Having indicted the world under sin, having introduced the Gospel, Paul then comes in Romans chapter 4 verse 1 to the subject of our justification through or by faith. Verse 1, what then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? Abraham is the quintessential model of a man who was justified in the sight of God? If Abraham wasn't justified in the sight of God, no one was to a Jew, right? Abraham is the quintessential model of a man justified in the sight of God. Let's look at Abraham then. Our forefather, according to the flesh, what did he learn about justification? Well, let me give you a hypothetical situation, Paul says, verse 2. If Abraham was justified by works, then Abraham has something to boast about, but not before God. Listen, if Abraham was counted righteous, if Abraham was justified by his own effort, right, the strength of his arm, his own work, then he would have good reason to boast. If it was anything that Abraham did, then he would have something about which to boast. He would have merited his own salvation, but Abraham has no reason to boast before God, Paul says. He doesn't have any reason to boast before God. Four, verse 3, what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And the verb there, it was accounted, that verb refers to the doctrine of imputation. It means to credit to one's account, to be reckoned to, or to be attributed to. The one to whom something is reckoned, the one to whom something is imputed is then treated accordingly, right? If I reckoned to your account 10 bucks, you'd be treated like you had 10 bucks in your account, wouldn't you? And then people would come after it, you know, somebody would want it. If you had no money in your account, you'd be reckoned to someone who had no money in their account. You'd be treated accordingly, right? The verb it was accounted refers to the doctrine of imputation, reckoned, attributed to, and that person to whom it is imputed is treated then according to that imputation. With respect to Abraham, Abraham, it is said, believed God. That's it. Abraham believed God, trusted God, entrusted himself to God. And for no other reason, but faith alone, his faith was reckoned or accounted to him by God as righteousness. The Lord made promises to Abraham. And Abraham simply responded in faith, taking God at his word, believing God for his promises. He believed God. He followed the Lord wherever he led, even out of Ur of the Caldees, even up to the mountain with Isaac, his son. Abraham followed the Lord. Even at the point of sacrificing his own son, he lifted the dagger. Abraham did not waver in his faith. He trusted the Lord. And through that faith alone, through that faith, God credited Abraham, imputed to Abraham righteousness. Righteousness, it was not his own. Where did that righteousness come from? It was the righteousness of God, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that the Lord earned through his perfect life and perfect obedience. Now, Abraham then was justified on that basis, forgiven, declared righteous. And here's the explanation for that. Look at verse four. Here's the explanation. Now, to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. See? But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. In the clearest of terms, Paul contrasts what it means to work and what it means to believe. These things are opposites. Right? They're being contrasted. It's black and white, one or the other, left or right. Right? Works or faith, mutually exclusive. They can't go together. The working one, that's verse four, is entitled to a paycheck. The working one earned it. See that? The payment for services rendered then, if it's payment for services rendered, it's not grace. He's owed that payment. If you're my employer, I'm your employee, I work a week for you. What do you owe me at the end of the week? A paycheck. It's debt to you. You owe that to me. It becomes an obligation. Right? It's credited due to an obligation. The employer is indebted to the employee for the work that he has done. He owes the working one a fair wage. But in an entire contrast to that, right? Two opposites, to opposite ends of the spectrum, entirely contrasted to that, opposite is the one who only believes. It's not the working one, but the believing one. These are polar opposites. There cannot be any confusion between them. The opposite of working so as to earn payment is believing such that it earns or merits nothing. Faith earns, merits, nothing. Opposite of working. It incurs no debt. It incurs no obligation. It is not in any way a working. In other words, brothers and sisters, the purpose or intention of our salvation is to glorify God and not to glorify man. How is that done? Through the infinite wisdom of God and declaring a redemption that is through faith, upon this faith alone in him who justifies the ungodly. In other words, not trusting in his own righteousness, but acknowledging his own ungodliness, not trusting in his own righteousness, but trusting in the Lord who justifies the ungodly, it's his faith and not any works that is reckoned to him as righteousness. Now, you can, and many have, like you go witnessing, I witnessed a guy not long ago who, Church of Christ and believed in baptismal regeneration, have to be baptized, baptism, washing away original sin, necessary to salvation. Listen, no matter what verbal gymnastics you try to do with that, you cannot escape the reality of justification by faith alone in Christ alone that Paul lays out here clearly in Romans chapter 4. No matter how you stack it, whatever you add, anything, even if you add faith as a work, if it's not a gift of God born of effectual calling given through regeneration, then it is a work of your own believing. Why did you choose Christ? Because I decided, right? It's a work. There's no work here that justifies the ungodly. No work. It glorifies God alone. It is through faith alone. The righteousness that is being accounted here is the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's on that basis that Abraham himself is declared to be righteous. John Murray said this, he said, God cannot but accept into his favor those who are invested with the righteousness of his own son. If you have the righteousness of God's own son credited to you, God can't do anything but in him welcome you into his favor. It's a beautiful thought. While his wrath is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, his good pleasure is also revealed from heaven upon the righteousness of his well beloved and only begotten son. And it's on this basis that God justifies the ungodly by faith. Look at verse six. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes or credits or accounts righteousness apart from works, verse seven, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Now from verse six through eight, you have to ask yourself, who is the blessed man? Who is the saved man, the blessed man from verses six through eight? One, he's the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works on the basis of his believing alone, on the basis of faith alone. He is the one whose lawless deeds are forgiven. Do you see the two elements of justification? Pardon for sin and the imputation of our sin to Christ and the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us. And the blessed man is the man who has no sin ever, the grammar there. No sin ever and forever imputed to him. In other words, his own sin imputed to another. We see that more clearly in Romans chapter five. Our sin imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ who bears the penalty of our sin on the cross, in his body on the tree. His perfect life, perfect righteousness accounted to us as righteousness. God doesn't simply disregard the sin of the ungodly. He imputes our sin to Christ who pays the penalty for sin in full upon the cross. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God and him. Because our sin is imputed to Christ, the righteousness of Christ may be imputed to us who believe the debt of our sin having been paid by the sacrifice of by the sacrifice of our substitute. Well Paul asked the question, verse nine, does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised also? That includes us, for we say, referring to Gentiles, right? Does it come upon the Jews only or also the Gentiles? We say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. You can find that again, Galatians chapter three, verses five through nine. How was it then accounted while he was circumcised or uncircumcised? In other words, did he work to get it? Did faith come as a result? It's a matter of putting works on one side of the equation or the other. Did works in any way come before faith? Were works in any way meritorious of justification? No, Paul says, not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith. James would say it's a faith that works. Faith while he had, while he was still circumcised. And this will happen that he might, verse 11, be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised. That righteousness might be imputed to them also. And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. Galatians three says that scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel of justification by faith to Abraham. So all us, all of us who have the faith of believing Abraham might be justified with Abraham and raised with Jesus Christ. Look at verse 13, the promise that he would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law. That promise was through the righteousness of faith. All the promises of God in Jesus Christ are for those who have the faith of Abraham. All of the promises inherited by those who have the faith of Abraham. For if those who are of the law are heirs, then faith is made void and the promise made of no effect because the law brings about wrath where there is no law, there is no transgression. So much more that could be said. It'd be great to walk through this whole chapter. We'll do that at some point. In conclusion, look at chapter five, verse one, the implications of this for you and I, this justification by faith. Chapter five, verse one, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also through the Lord Jesus Christ, we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. What grace is he referring to there? Justifying grace. We have access, ongoing present reality, ongoing active access to justifying grace, access to that grace through faith in Christ. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. In living the Christian life, we need access to grace, don't we? We need to meditate on what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. We need to meditate on the gospel. We need to meditate on justifying glorious realities in him. And we need to rely upon the Lord for that grace in which we stand positionally in order to live practically for him. Not only that, verse three, then as a result of standing in that justifying grace, we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Brothers and sisters, we have been forgiven much. Let us love much. We've been forgiven much. Let us devote ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been forgiven much. Let us proclaim, shout the gospel. We've been forgiven much. Let us love one another much. We've been forgiven much. Let us serve much. We've been forgiven much. Let us rejoice much. We've been forgiven much. Let us hope much. We have all these blessings in Christ and we've been forgiven much. Let us stand in the justifying grace in which we have been placed by God and access that by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. I want to pray, ask you to pray silently and go before the Lord and consider have you been forgiven of your sin? Has the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ been accounted to you as your own? Have you been declared just in his sight? If not, turn from sin, place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. He stands ready and willing to pardon. And if so, brothers and sisters rejoice with me in the glorious truth of our justification and let's live with grateful hearts for him. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we love you and we are grateful to you for this glorious salvation that you have given us in Christ Jesus our Lord. I pray that like the oil that was poured out from the alabaster flask of that woman in Luke chapter seven that love and devotion and gratitude and service and preaching the gospel and hope and joy would pour forth from the hearts of my brothers and sisters here who've been saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. If there's anyone here Lord who doesn't know you, God, I pray that you would grant them repentance and faith. They would be made just in your sight for the glory of our great Redeemer. We pray all these things in his blessed name. Amen.