The Grace of Faith (Romans 3:21-4:8)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.440 --> 00:00:08.029 If you would turn with me to the reading from Romans chapter, Chapter Three, 2 00:00:08.070 --> 00:00:18.469 Verse Twenty Eight through Chapter Four, Verse Eight. For we maintain that 3 00:00:18.589 --> 00:00:22.940 a man is justified by faith, apart from the works of the law? 4 00:00:22.980 --> 00:00:28.699 Or is God the God of Jews? Only he is not God of is 5 00:00:28.780 --> 00:00:33.020 he not God of gentiles? Also? Yes, of gentiles. Also. 6 00:00:33.020 --> 00:00:38.969 So, if indeed God is one and he will justify the circumcised by faith 7 00:00:39.530 --> 00:00:45.450 and the uncircumcised through faith, do we then nullify the law through faith? 8 00:00:46.369 --> 00:00:51.640 May It never be. On the contrary, we establish the law. What, 9 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:56.679 then, shall we say of Abraham, our fourth our forefather, according 10 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:03.119 to the flesh has found? For if Abraham is justified by works, he 11 00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:07.310 has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the 12 00:01:07.390 --> 00:01:15.430 Scripture say? And Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. 13 00:01:15.390 --> 00:01:19.739 Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a 14 00:01:19.819 --> 00:01:25.579 favor but as what is due. But to the one who does not work 15 00:01:26.140 --> 00:01:32.540 but believed in him, who it justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned 16 00:01:32.739 --> 00:01:38.290 as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing upon man to whom 17 00:01:38.370 --> 00:01:46.010 God reckons righteousness. Apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have 18 00:01:46.170 --> 00:01:51.439 been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is a man who sin 19 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:57.319 the Lord will not, will not take into account. Is this blessing, 20 00:01:57.480 --> 00:02:06.150 then, upon the circumcised only, or the uncircumcised also? For we say 21 00:02:06.269 --> 00:02:17.300 faith was reckoned Abraham as righteousness less reading of God's Holy Word? Let me 22 00:02:17.460 --> 00:02:27.300 read once again our theme verse in Chapter Three, Verse Twenty Eight, for 23 00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:31.770 we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 24 00:02:34.930 --> 00:02:38.849 Before we move on end to that, let me say it's been a 25 00:02:38.969 --> 00:02:44.840 long time since I had the privilege to open the word with this congregation, 26 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:50.319 and quite a few years ago, but there were a variety of times in 27 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:54.199 however, one of the blessings of retirement, if I might throw that in, 28 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:00.669 for a pastor, is being able to visit various churches from week to 29 00:03:00.789 --> 00:03:04.430 week, if you can sneak away and get by with it, and see 30 00:03:04.469 --> 00:03:12.550 what others are preaching and how healthy churches are and what one might report back 31 00:03:12.629 --> 00:03:16.539 to the faithful and all of those kinds of things. However, churches which 32 00:03:16.659 --> 00:03:23.819 begin well and Orthodox, there's always a however, you realize on these things, 33 00:03:23.939 --> 00:03:29.330 and maybe even before I say that, I should say that most of 34 00:03:29.370 --> 00:03:35.930 their reform churches that I've gone to and worshiped with, I've been very pleased 35 00:03:36.050 --> 00:03:42.000 and happy with what I found and on balance we are in good shape, 36 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:49.560 that we can always be improved. But there are churches out there who begin 37 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:53.879 well. They start, they've got a plan, they stick with it for 38 00:03:53.919 --> 00:04:01.229 a time, but inside and in times things begin to loosen and churches start 39 00:04:01.310 --> 00:04:09.430 to go astray and many new churches often begin or come out of liberal churches. 40 00:04:09.949 --> 00:04:13.620 After there are those who have gotten tired of the movement out of the 41 00:04:14.139 --> 00:04:17.899 Orthodoxy that they've enjoyed and a new church will begin and they're sort of a 42 00:04:18.060 --> 00:04:23.620 cycle sometimes that we see there. That that I've picked up and one of 43 00:04:23.660 --> 00:04:29.610 the things that I have been and concerned about is churches that begin with a 44 00:04:29.730 --> 00:04:39.600 strong foundation and become basically reformed churches in name but are broadly only broadly evangelical, 45 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:45.560 if that it may be. Even worse. Now, my observation in 46 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:50.480 visiting various churches and always to see one of the weaknesses that I found with 47 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:59.389 the lack of doctrinal preaching. There's a lot of stories, a lot of 48 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:03.589 inspiration, a lot of good preaching, as it were, but they're just 49 00:05:04.110 --> 00:05:10.899 isn't very much talk about doctrine or teaching of it in families anymore. How 50 00:05:10.939 --> 00:05:16.339 many of you catechise your children? And there's there's weaknesses to come and before 51 00:05:16.459 --> 00:05:23.250 long a church begins to decline or forget about things and the evening worship is 52 00:05:24.370 --> 00:05:30.329 stopped because no one was coming or few were coming, and the things are 53 00:05:30.410 --> 00:05:38.680 just dying down. The confession scripture alone is is not stressed that much any 54 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:46.560 word. The Count Can the confessional foundation is it isn't seen evening, I 55 00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:51.269 say evening service, cuts, unbiblical divorces permitted by the session on one occasion 56 00:05:51.310 --> 00:05:57.709 and other things begin to get looser and all matter standard, standard start to 57 00:05:57.790 --> 00:06:03.459 go. And My lone observation is that I like to jump into doctrine from 58 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:06.620 time to time because, one, I enjoy it, but be two, 59 00:06:06.740 --> 00:06:15.620 because I think it's absolutely necessary. And what I want to look at is 60 00:06:15.779 --> 00:06:18.649 and work around that. Thung is one of the very important doctrines for us 61 00:06:19.730 --> 00:06:29.529 in the Church of Jesus Christ. Was the long drive down here got dry 62 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:39.360 on the way. I want to have in mind that famous slogan of the 63 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:44.800 reformation. That's where we sort of go back to to where we got established 64 00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:47.550 and and all of us, I think it, that have been exposed to 65 00:06:47.949 --> 00:06:53.949 our churches at all, know of justification by faith alone. It's a slogan 66 00:06:54.069 --> 00:06:58.269 that that has stood the past the time. It needs to be expanded to 67 00:06:59.189 --> 00:07:02.420 fill in what all is involved in that, but it is a clue which 68 00:07:02.459 --> 00:07:09.139 we do have, and the the wonderful thing about it is that it is 69 00:07:09.620 --> 00:07:15.129 simple enough if we keep it simple and explicit. But some have made faith 70 00:07:15.170 --> 00:07:23.810 a work, a good work, that they see their their their faith is 71 00:07:23.850 --> 00:07:26.370 a see it as kind of loose and they have even doing well in the 72 00:07:26.410 --> 00:07:30.240 ankle. I need to move this up some or I'll be in trouble with 73 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:34.720 God, and before long they're looking as a good work rather than SIMP thantly 74 00:07:34.759 --> 00:07:40.839 the receiving of what God has given to us. And that is a dangerous 75 00:07:40.839 --> 00:07:46.189 thing if we begin to boast in anything that we bring. So it's some 76 00:07:46.350 --> 00:07:50.550 of that that kind of danger. I'll thinking we are in the faith that 77 00:07:50.750 --> 00:07:57.029 has that is based on grace and a faith which becomes a work by which 78 00:07:57.069 --> 00:08:03.060 we earn our salvation and are being good or better and thinking that God will 79 00:08:03.620 --> 00:08:07.100 bless us more highly on that basis. Now I want us to keep that, 80 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:13.569 that praise, in mind and I hope to underscore the grace of justification. 81 00:08:13.410 --> 00:08:16.529 It's, you know, the key to the slogan is faith, but 82 00:08:16.689 --> 00:08:22.129 it's centered on grace. It's it's a reception of the grace that we have 83 00:08:22.449 --> 00:08:28.360 as a gift from God, and sometimes we one gets so wrapped up in 84 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:35.519 his faith that the centrality of grace is lost and we think we are really 85 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:41.240 saving ourselves by getting into this justification by faith thing, and that's what I'm 86 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:46.230 wanting to work against from the negative side. Now, my intention is to 87 00:08:46.350 --> 00:08:52.590 examine something all this grace of faith, which is very important and for us, 88 00:08:52.629 --> 00:08:58.980 and the specific text with which I would do this is our text, 89 00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:05.820 verse from Romans Twenty Eight, for we maintain that a man is justified by 90 00:09:07.179 --> 00:09:09.970 faith. And here's the most important thing you can get out of this, 91 00:09:11.490 --> 00:09:18.970 apart from the works of the law. That's where the slip comes in the 92 00:09:18.169 --> 00:09:26.919 grace and takes any thing on our part away. It's all of grace. 93 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:35.759 We are proud of our doctrines of grace that we live by as calvinist or 94 00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:41.029 reform people. But grace is in this and it's that to which faith is 95 00:09:41.309 --> 00:09:46.029 welcoming. But it's not something we do. We are not, we would 96 00:09:46.029 --> 00:09:48.830 not come to faith on our own. It's a gift of God. The 97 00:09:48.909 --> 00:09:52.019 Bible calls it that. It's a faith, is a gift from God. 98 00:09:54.299 --> 00:09:56.779 So we've got to grasp the faith. And one of the most important things 99 00:09:56.899 --> 00:10:01.340 that struck me when I decided to go down this route, and just in 100 00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:07.100 terms of doctrine in the needs, is the that last part of the the 101 00:10:07.929 --> 00:10:13.610 verse. They're apart from works of the law. Every time you think of 102 00:10:13.690 --> 00:10:20.370 justification by faith alone, remember that exclusion. Now there's another interesting part from 103 00:10:20.370 --> 00:10:26.720 the reformation about this that struck me when Martin Luther was producing the German translation 104 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:31.039 of the New Testament, in fifteen twenty one, by the way, and 105 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:35.710 the weas and vacation I had the opportunity to see that Bible that he translated 106 00:10:37.149 --> 00:10:43.470 in a museum and as we were for the five hundredth anniversary of the reformation. 107 00:10:43.549 --> 00:10:48.669 And writing takes a lot of paper and while it's about the a size, 108 00:10:50.259 --> 00:10:54.419 in this way, sitting there in the under the glass, it's about 109 00:10:54.460 --> 00:10:58.100 that tall. I mean it's like you had a stack of these as your 110 00:10:58.179 --> 00:11:01.259 Bible. It was just an interesting thing. That has nothing to do with 111 00:11:01.460 --> 00:11:05.450 what I'm saying, but I thought you might want to get something that you 112 00:11:05.529 --> 00:11:11.049 might remember out of all of this. But at Inter when Martin Luther was 113 00:11:11.169 --> 00:11:15.289 producing that translation, which was an amazing task, to get it into the 114 00:11:15.409 --> 00:11:20.320 German language so the ordinary people that at least could speak a language could read 115 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:24.240 the scriptures, that have access to it. But one of the interesting things 116 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:28.480 was in when he was doing that, in one thousand five hundred twenty one 117 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:39.909 is he translated the text verse in this way. Therefore, we conclude that 118 00:11:41.070 --> 00:11:48.700 a man is justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law. Same 119 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:50.539 thing, basically, is what I read from my version of the Bible, 120 00:11:52.820 --> 00:11:58.580 except what works instead of deeds. But it's faith alone without the works of 121 00:11:58.659 --> 00:12:05.370 the law. Always remember that when you're dealing with that, that great slogan 122 00:12:05.450 --> 00:12:09.330 we have of the wonderful faith of recognizing that everything we have and the only 123 00:12:09.529 --> 00:12:18.639 thing we have alone is the grace of God. And one of the things 124 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:26.159 even about the translationary. If someone challenges a translation which they have because alone 125 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:31.909 wasn't in the Greek Bible at that time. The the doctrine is clearly implied 126 00:12:31.029 --> 00:12:39.350 by that exclusion apart from the works of the law. Interesting in that is 127 00:12:39.549 --> 00:12:43.539 had luther and the other reformers been willing to move away from that one little 128 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:50.460 word alone in setting forth the doctrine of justification by faith, if they had 129 00:12:50.500 --> 00:12:56.419 taken that out of there, even though it's explicit by the apart from phrase 130 00:12:58.539 --> 00:13:01.690 the writ thereformation probably wouldn't have continued. It just would have gone on because 131 00:13:01.809 --> 00:13:09.409 that was the cutting point. Is it grace alone that saves us, or 132 00:13:09.529 --> 00:13:13.840 do we have some work to offer in order to be saved? And that's 133 00:13:13.879 --> 00:13:18.720 what well, I'll say more at the end about what I'm wanting to hammer 134 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:24.000 hone at that home in that and why. But it would have saved a 135 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:30.149 lot of conflict. But Luther and the reformers were in no quarrel, no 136 00:13:30.269 --> 00:13:37.990 quarter combat at that time in making clear that justification is because of the grace 137 00:13:37.149 --> 00:13:43.379 that is represented in Christ's sacrifice and the whole picture we have there and was 138 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:52.059 exclusive all the works of the law. Now the reformation and recovery of the 139 00:13:52.139 --> 00:14:00.009 Gospel came because they did not let go and kept the battle going William Childs 140 00:14:00.090 --> 00:14:07.370 Robinson wrote in one of his works, Luther grasps the hand of God stretched 141 00:14:07.409 --> 00:14:13.399 out to them in Jesus Christ and Europe woke up to glad tidings of God, 142 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:18.679 our savior, not the church, not Rome, not our works, 143 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:26.110 but God, grace of God as the as the answer here at John Gersner 144 00:14:26.190 --> 00:14:31.750 put it in one of his one of his remarks in his writing, by 145 00:14:31.990 --> 00:14:39.299 one mighty effort the church swept the stables clean of the debris of centuries air 146 00:14:39.500 --> 00:14:46.740 had piled up and the real orthodoxy was not understood until their reformation clarified those 147 00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:54.210 things years now, if we loose famers, a much quote, a statement 148 00:14:54.450 --> 00:15:00.529 was again. Justification by faith alone is the article by which the Church stands 149 00:15:00.570 --> 00:15:03.289 or falls. That's another thing I don't want, I want you not to 150 00:15:03.450 --> 00:15:11.000 miss. That's the battleground. Justification by faith alone, properly understood, is 151 00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:16.080 the article by which the Church stands or it falls. is going to go 152 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:22.909 one way of the other based on that doctrine. This is no mere slogan. 153 00:15:22.029 --> 00:15:28.029 Neither is Sola Fida Fida, the faith alone, the soulas of the 154 00:15:28.429 --> 00:15:31.830 reformation that come in there. But if we fail to understand what Luther meant 155 00:15:31.870 --> 00:15:37.220 by that statement. Justification by faith alone is the article by which the Church 156 00:15:37.340 --> 00:15:43.379 stands or falls. Will never understand why he was willing to give everything he 157 00:15:43.620 --> 00:15:48.899 had or risk everything he had to change the Roman church's practice. That was 158 00:15:50.009 --> 00:15:56.289 the battle line. A curious question for our day is one which is much 159 00:15:56.450 --> 00:16:00.850 there's much confusion, is whether that battle is over. Is the reformation battle 160 00:16:00.929 --> 00:16:07.080 over, my contentions ends. We're still in the battle with Rome and with 161 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:15.000 evangelicalism, a weakening, softening evangelicalism which maybe instead of broad evangelicalism, a 162 00:16:15.320 --> 00:16:22.230 broad evangelicalism or on the process to that. And and there are many people 163 00:16:22.389 --> 00:16:30.070 that begin a new church at times over in all these things and it starts 164 00:16:30.110 --> 00:16:34.980 out well and they're fighting the battle. They go back to the scripture alone, 165 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:40.019 they have a confession that is sound, they practice those things, they 166 00:16:40.100 --> 00:16:45.419 do discipline in the church, they take worship seriously. But then with the 167 00:16:45.659 --> 00:16:48.850 get things begin to weaken and they made of come out of a liberal church 168 00:16:48.929 --> 00:16:53.370 and they start over. But in time it's sometimes it takes along. I've 169 00:16:53.409 --> 00:16:57.210 been in time. Well, not many people are coming in the evening, 170 00:16:57.250 --> 00:17:06.519 will cancel even in church and before long this, the discipline of the church 171 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:15.710 disappeared, disappears even with serious moral things or doctrinal things, and and discipline 172 00:17:15.829 --> 00:17:21.910 is not used in the church, and then people are not learning doctrine of 173 00:17:22.029 --> 00:17:25.630 any kind and it's just sort of a feelgood sort of thing. You know 174 00:17:25.750 --> 00:17:30.259 the thing. We see it all around us and it's a certain a problem 175 00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:36.539 that is very serious. But the battle does not seem to be over in 176 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:41.859 Rome. It's with Rome, it's with evangelicalism. Roman Romanism, at least 177 00:17:41.900 --> 00:17:45.130 since the end of the sixteen century, is not a brand such of the 178 00:17:45.170 --> 00:17:51.049 true church at all, because grace alone was cut out. That's why we 179 00:17:51.569 --> 00:17:57.569 can't buy that. Romanism is at Best Occult Without The Gospel. If reformation 180 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:06.200 theology is correct, a consistent Roman Catholic cannot be saved and will perish in 181 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:12.589 hell. Now let me also say if Rome and the pope are correct, 182 00:18:14.630 --> 00:18:18.950 you are all lost. If you believe what I think you believe, you 183 00:18:19.069 --> 00:18:23.910 are condemned to help. The battle is still there. I'm not trying to 184 00:18:23.950 --> 00:18:30.980 be bombastic or insensitive, ormain, but any Catholic worth their choice salt would 185 00:18:32.019 --> 00:18:34.619 agree with me on that. In fact, one did, interestingly, in 186 00:18:34.700 --> 00:18:42.490 a small gathering in a radio reformation weekend program on the radio and we were 187 00:18:42.569 --> 00:18:49.890 discussing Catholicism and Reform Theology or prior reformation theology, and and it was a 188 00:18:51.009 --> 00:18:56.200 part of that program back several years ago to try to get Rome and protestantism 189 00:18:56.359 --> 00:19:00.480 together again. And and the Catholic man agreed when I when I helped spell 190 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:04.759 out what his position was, and he agreed to it, that this is 191 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:10.829 true in and that both of these we can't both be true one of this. 192 00:19:10.910 --> 00:19:14.430 One has to be right and the other wrong on that. So the 193 00:19:14.750 --> 00:19:19.430 battle is still there. One of the reasons we street see this strange ignorance 194 00:19:19.470 --> 00:19:26.420 among Protestants of time is even in our comfortable reformed churches, is that. 195 00:19:27.900 --> 00:19:36.380 But we've never been free from the continuing fight of Orthodoxy. We're always even 196 00:19:36.420 --> 00:19:41.210 in our presbyteries and general assemblies or sometimes our sessions, we have to battle 197 00:19:41.289 --> 00:19:45.529 over these things, happily in a good setting, but to be sure we 198 00:19:45.650 --> 00:19:53.079 are on the right path, a battle continues. An interesting sidebar story to 199 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:59.279 all of that that I think is worth mentioning again as an example of where 200 00:19:59.319 --> 00:20:04.160 people are, where the battle is. World magazine and I think of what's 201 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:11.190 several years ago, made a report on the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. These 202 00:20:11.230 --> 00:20:18.470 are men, maybe women to who are in broadcasting and they specialized and religious 203 00:20:18.509 --> 00:20:22.740 broadcasting. So you can imagine that most of them are church whore anded to 204 00:20:22.859 --> 00:20:26.579 some extent, whatever it might be, and ought to know something. But 205 00:20:27.220 --> 00:20:36.089 apparently someone put up in the organization put up a survey, a informal survey 206 00:20:36.289 --> 00:20:41.250 was given with different questions, and the different people that were there at that 207 00:20:41.529 --> 00:20:47.529 conference or convention were to give agree or disagree, and one of the state's 208 00:20:47.809 --> 00:20:55.960 statements was this justification is a process by which I am made wholly by God's 209 00:20:55.960 --> 00:21:06.190 spirit. Twenty four out of twenty six respondents indicated agreement with that statement. 210 00:21:07.990 --> 00:21:15.869 Ninety two percent of these religious broadcasters, the religious media, had affirmed a 211 00:21:15.069 --> 00:21:22.460 thoroughly Roman Catholic statement. And we are infused that. We were infused with 212 00:21:22.579 --> 00:21:29.099 righteousness rather than having the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith 213 00:21:29.140 --> 00:21:33.730 alone, wherein God looked on it as though it were our good works, 214 00:21:33.890 --> 00:21:40.289 but it isn't. We don't become wholly to become a Christian. We become 215 00:21:41.170 --> 00:21:45.809 holier as a result of that, but that's not the basis of our becoming 216 00:21:45.849 --> 00:21:51.359 a Christian, and so we've got to be careful where the battle is. 217 00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:57.640 Justification is a process by which I am made wholly by God's spirit. How 218 00:21:57.680 --> 00:22:03.309 would you have answered that survey? Do you know for sure what the Gospel 219 00:22:03.349 --> 00:22:08.710 is? How would you answer the survey? Many may be most that of 220 00:22:08.829 --> 00:22:15.230 Professing Protestants, would give a version of Rome's answer. Maybe not that particularly 221 00:22:15.309 --> 00:22:18.980 one, but it would be on that side. They deny the Gospel, 222 00:22:18.420 --> 00:22:22.900 works will be in there. It will be something they've done. That is 223 00:22:22.019 --> 00:22:27.900 part of it and that's why ecumenicalism is possible. Is We've got the weakening 224 00:22:27.940 --> 00:22:34.009 in what maybe we're once solid churches but are no longer so. For Most 225 00:22:34.089 --> 00:22:41.890 Protestants, religion has replaced Christianity. Now, and if you understand what I 226 00:22:41.970 --> 00:22:47.319 mean by that, for Most Protestants religion has replaced Christianity, and if you 227 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:51.480 don't understand that difference, you may be part of the problem, not necessarily, 228 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:56.720 but you may not have have got that down. But religion in this 229 00:22:56.960 --> 00:23:00.950 sense, as usually used, is what man does you talk about? A 230 00:23:00.990 --> 00:23:04.670 religious man, a religious book or you did something religious, you had you 231 00:23:04.750 --> 00:23:08.869 know you're talking. You may be promoting us out of the other. But 232 00:23:10.029 --> 00:23:18.660 religion is something we do. Christianity is what God does to save us from 233 00:23:18.660 --> 00:23:26.690 utter damn nation. It's a big difference and and that's again a part of 234 00:23:26.730 --> 00:23:32.970 the battle. Christianity is what God does to save man. Most Protestants think 235 00:23:33.089 --> 00:23:37.289 salvation is by being religious. They'll tell you that. I've knocked on a 236 00:23:37.369 --> 00:23:42.519 lot of doors and talked to a lot of people within churches, good members, 237 00:23:42.599 --> 00:23:48.319 solid members, there every Sunday, and ask the question what their trust 238 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:55.789 is, and it's not the right answer. And there are many people that 239 00:23:56.390 --> 00:24:02.430 we need to ourselves, and others are families, to be firm in our 240 00:24:02.549 --> 00:24:07.150 doctrinal position, not just our faithfulness or hard work, to serve in different 241 00:24:07.190 --> 00:24:11.579 ways or do things for the church, but to have the right faith and 242 00:24:11.779 --> 00:24:25.809 defended overwhelmingly. Sadly, the overwhelming conviction of the counterfeit Christian is God grades 243 00:24:25.890 --> 00:24:33.730 on a curve and I'm good enough to make the cup. I'm as good 244 00:24:33.849 --> 00:24:38.799 or better than my neighbor or even that guy that's sitting next to God. 245 00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:44.440 If God is fair, he'll take me. That's a kind of answers you 246 00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:48.599 get. In essence, it may be neader than that, but that's what 247 00:24:48.799 --> 00:24:53.789 I hear so frequently if I'm asking a person about what they are counting on 248 00:24:53.910 --> 00:25:03.349 for their salvation when that time comes before the judgency, overwhelmingly they're trusting themselves 249 00:25:03.390 --> 00:25:10.980 and not the grace of God, which we receive and accept as a gift 250 00:25:11.180 --> 00:25:21.019 by God's grace. Thus we conclude that a Roman Catholic is as likely to 251 00:25:21.140 --> 00:25:25.250 be saved if there is a heaven or hell, or a good Protestant one 252 00:25:25.289 --> 00:25:30.569 who is doing religious things. Now I want to get to the meat of 253 00:25:30.609 --> 00:25:34.329 this topic before the run out of time here, but after a shamefully long 254 00:25:34.529 --> 00:25:40.279 introduction, if you will, I want to just set before us the a 255 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:45.839 shorter catechism question, which is this, by the way. The shorter catechism 256 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:51.589 is for people that aren't to I mean on the original version, that for 257 00:25:51.670 --> 00:25:53.950 people aren't too smart. That's nothing exact words, but that what it means. 258 00:25:55.269 --> 00:26:00.470 The larger cat a Chism is people that are are more able and to 259 00:26:00.670 --> 00:26:04.539 take things that way, and that a shameful thing. I'm sad to say. 260 00:26:06.460 --> 00:26:10.579 I fit in that passage to a large degree, as many of us 261 00:26:10.660 --> 00:26:15.700 do, but that's again the kind of things we work with this but this 262 00:26:15.900 --> 00:26:19.930 is the shorter catechism. Question number eighty six. What is faith in Jesus 263 00:26:21.009 --> 00:26:27.890 Christ? Simple question. This answer the short one. Faith in Jesus Christ 264 00:26:29.049 --> 00:26:33.359 is a saving grace. It's a grace. It's not a work whereby we 265 00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:40.480 receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he's offered to us in 266 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:45.720 the Gospel. Now in that three points are given. It's a saving grace, 267 00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:49.549 it's not a word. We receive and rest on him alone for salvation. 268 00:26:51.589 --> 00:26:53.390 And the third part of it, and any kind of breaking it down, 269 00:26:53.549 --> 00:26:59.190 is it's offered to us in the Gospel. Now, well, I 270 00:26:59.269 --> 00:27:03.619 can cover is the first of those points, but you understand the risk. 271 00:27:03.740 --> 00:27:07.740 But the important thing that I want to get across is this side the grace 272 00:27:07.019 --> 00:27:12.500 that is in the Gospel, that is in faith. If you are trusting 273 00:27:12.740 --> 00:27:17.769 faith, it's a gift God gave you and it's a and the grace is 274 00:27:17.849 --> 00:27:21.809 a gift. It's not something you earned in any way. We're back to 275 00:27:21.890 --> 00:27:25.730 that point. Apart from works of the law, you need to cut that 276 00:27:26.289 --> 00:27:30.880 tail end off of that leaving it there. But make a copy of a 277 00:27:30.920 --> 00:27:33.759 let me say that, and carry it with you when you're doing the justification 278 00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:41.960 by grace alone, apart from good works. That that's the key on that. 279 00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:45.309 But anyway, first of all it's a saving grace, we're told. 280 00:27:47.190 --> 00:27:55.190 Now let me illustrate a controversy or a discussion that still exists around it's often 281 00:27:55.630 --> 00:28:02.859 cut pops up one place or another of people is if you could could give 282 00:28:02.940 --> 00:28:08.259 one concept by which to discern whether you or someone else in the is, 283 00:28:08.339 --> 00:28:12.009 in the large picture, how to cut someone down to what they are so 284 00:28:12.130 --> 00:28:22.329 you know what you're doing with would be to break it down to to this 285 00:28:22.410 --> 00:28:27.279 kind of a question. which comes first, faith or regeneration? I don't 286 00:28:27.279 --> 00:28:30.400 know if you've ever heard that question. It pops up at times. In 287 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:34.599 fact, one of my favorite things is John Gershner was a best professor I 288 00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:40.359 ever had and probably impacted more ministers in this country than any but at any 289 00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:45.670 rate he tells a story in his conversion as young man out east. He's 290 00:28:45.710 --> 00:28:49.589 a memory. Well, he's been dead for several years now, but he's 291 00:28:51.869 --> 00:28:57.859 was for a long time very active in the reform faith and he would he 292 00:28:57.980 --> 00:29:03.700 became a Christian, he said, in our Manian church out east when he 293 00:29:03.859 --> 00:29:07.859 was a young man and took it very seriously. And studied and read the 294 00:29:08.099 --> 00:29:11.490 Bible and went to church and all. And then when he couple years later 295 00:29:11.650 --> 00:29:17.849 in college, the first year he was in some Bible, Bible Studies and 296 00:29:18.289 --> 00:29:26.160 and prayer groups and all, and he went to some of the meetings and 297 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:29.920 was regular in church and his Bible again and he felt he would pretty well 298 00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:33.759 conquered it. I imagine he had, except for Mistak or two along the 299 00:29:33.880 --> 00:29:41.309 line, because he is that kind of a mind. But the doctor or 300 00:29:41.509 --> 00:29:45.109 one of the professors was welcoming the new students. I think it may have 301 00:29:45.190 --> 00:29:48.269 been just a class that one of the two, but he tells the story. 302 00:29:48.390 --> 00:29:52.579 He was he was in the group there and DR or, when they 303 00:29:52.619 --> 00:29:56.900 came in, on a blackboard had written which comes first, faith or regeneration, 304 00:29:57.740 --> 00:30:03.059 and Gerston was all worked up and he he got his hand up the 305 00:30:03.099 --> 00:30:11.529 board anyone else did, and and gave the question that faith came first because 306 00:30:11.569 --> 00:30:15.809 he'd grown up in the arminian background of you know you you have to do 307 00:30:15.049 --> 00:30:22.279 something before you are are regenerated. Was the point for you to become. 308 00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:29.240 I don't know what they think would be added in that way, but at 309 00:30:29.240 --> 00:30:37.150 any rate the professor use me gave him a rough time and ever question that 310 00:30:37.230 --> 00:30:41.430 had come up with he couldn't deal with, and that's the point at which 311 00:30:41.470 --> 00:30:47.910 he became a Calvinist, and he tells that story to this day of how 312 00:30:48.029 --> 00:31:00.740 his genuine conversion to grace was able to get the job done. So that 313 00:31:00.099 --> 00:31:03.059 had always caught me as kind of a curious thing. But here's here's the 314 00:31:03.410 --> 00:31:11.170 what's involve, Falk let me illustrate in its way. He does any child 315 00:31:11.369 --> 00:31:18.680 of Adam possess sufficient ability, power, spiritual desire and wisdom to offer faith 316 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:25.319 as his contribution to his salvation, after which alone God will reward his faith 317 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:33.349 with regeneration and resulting salvation? Do you understand the question which comes first? 318 00:31:33.430 --> 00:31:40.430 Faith or regeneration? Or is every child of Adam so depraved and dead in 319 00:31:40.670 --> 00:31:47.259 sin that the only the sovereign, unilateral act of God regenerating him by the 320 00:31:47.420 --> 00:31:52.259 power of the Holy Spirit, who was dead in spiritually, can enable him 321 00:31:52.380 --> 00:32:01.170 freely to embrace Christ and to have faith in the promise of God? As 322 00:32:01.250 --> 00:32:06.450 a member of the church or Presbyterian Church, one would hope we would be 323 00:32:07.369 --> 00:32:15.720 instinctively knowing the answer to that question. The first view is known as arminianism. 324 00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:22.039 Or Semi Pelagianism, and it's a view of Roman Catholicism but is also 325 00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:30.869 behind much of what evangelicals say. The view of regeneration precedes faith, is 326 00:32:31.029 --> 00:32:40.789 calvinism. We must be brought from the dead, regenerated before we can do 327 00:32:42.109 --> 00:32:50.819 or have anything. You now in is important to realize the reformation is not 328 00:32:51.019 --> 00:32:57.420 just in opposition to Roman Catholicism but against our menionism and what theology teaches. 329 00:32:57.700 --> 00:33:02.049 And there's not a question of a arguing or wanting my theology versus theirs in 330 00:33:02.170 --> 00:33:07.450 a General Way. But if it's the issue of salvation or not, it 331 00:33:07.690 --> 00:33:12.920 has to be a battle that we're in. Now let me attempt to give 332 00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:16.160 it maybe a silly illustration, and I did it as a time when, 333 00:33:16.559 --> 00:33:20.400 one of the few times in my thirty seven years in the same church of 334 00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:25.440 having a the children come up because I was preaching to the Westons or confession 335 00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:32.150 and I got an object lesson every every every week for the children particularly, 336 00:33:32.269 --> 00:33:37.230 but it really helped the grit old people better, but for the children to 337 00:33:37.589 --> 00:33:43.579 have some image of what was being talked about that they might envision. And 338 00:33:45.539 --> 00:33:49.740 I might say, well, I'll say that at the end let me go 339 00:33:49.980 --> 00:33:52.900 on here, but anyway, I've got some really good news for you. 340 00:33:52.299 --> 00:33:55.329 I'm sure you're good will be glad of that, but it maybe will help 341 00:33:55.410 --> 00:34:00.569 illustrate my issue here. I've got from really good news. I've got a 342 00:34:01.410 --> 00:34:07.650 million dollar home, how's here in the best area of Tuston, and I'm 343 00:34:07.769 --> 00:34:14.440 offering it as a gift and I'm also I'm I'm throwing in a ninety thousand 344 00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:17.440 dollar Jaguar so you can play around and show off that you've got some wealth 345 00:34:17.440 --> 00:34:22.119 or something, and there's a trust fund that's going to be set up so 346 00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:25.670 you can keep the expenses up so you can maintain these things and enjoy them. 347 00:34:27.590 --> 00:34:30.190 Now that's a pretty good offer for someone, and the only thing that 348 00:34:30.710 --> 00:34:37.510 the person has to do is to be willing to receive it. That's pretty 349 00:34:37.510 --> 00:34:40.099 good news for someone. There's people that would murder and sell their souls for 350 00:34:40.219 --> 00:34:45.940 that deal on the spot. In our day. That's really good news, 351 00:34:45.940 --> 00:34:52.460 isn't it? Well, maybe here's the rest of the story. The person 352 00:34:52.659 --> 00:34:58.010 to whom the offer is made is a John Doe, laid out on a 353 00:34:58.210 --> 00:35:04.650 slab in the county morgue. You describe to him how nice the House is 354 00:35:05.130 --> 00:35:08.880 and and and the car, how great it is, and all you have 355 00:35:08.960 --> 00:35:13.960 to do is receive it. Tell me you receive receive it. And he 356 00:35:14.039 --> 00:35:20.880 didn't say anything. He's dead and your tible. You know, maybe if 357 00:35:20.920 --> 00:35:22.789 I add some to make it richer, you know, throwing, throwing a 358 00:35:23.230 --> 00:35:29.349 some other things, and try to to make it easier. Just raise your 359 00:35:29.389 --> 00:35:31.230 hand. That's that's good enough. Lot of churches have people do they do 360 00:35:31.389 --> 00:35:40.380 raise your hand and you can have it and nothing. He's dead. And 361 00:35:40.539 --> 00:35:45.420 you try some more and maybe sing a verse or two of a him. 362 00:35:45.539 --> 00:35:51.170 That works in some churches. And nothing happened. If you try that, 363 00:35:57.130 --> 00:36:04.440 maybe, and here's the rest of the story, there's a reason why he 364 00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:07.119 doesn't give the answer. And that's why I wanted to mention the children, 365 00:36:07.199 --> 00:36:10.000 because because by the end they were getting all wrapped up to say he's dead 366 00:36:10.159 --> 00:36:15.199 each time. They got the point, I think on that one, and 367 00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:21.230 that was why I like that such. But that's what happens. Dead people 368 00:36:22.190 --> 00:36:29.750 cannot bring themselves back to life. That's not in our power. Well, 369 00:36:29.829 --> 00:36:36.380 you say, it's the same thing with every in the spiritual realm of every 370 00:36:36.420 --> 00:36:39.059 childhood had him. By the way, there's no one that is accepted from 371 00:36:39.179 --> 00:36:45.460 that and we can dead in sin. We can do no spiritual thing affecting 372 00:36:45.539 --> 00:36:52.690 our salvation. Only God can, and do that now. If you must 373 00:36:52.929 --> 00:36:59.050 first exercise faith even though you are dead spiritually, there is no gospel. 374 00:36:59.769 --> 00:37:05.039 That's a sad bad news. A church that believes that is wrongly named evangelical. 375 00:37:05.400 --> 00:37:08.800 There's no gospel there. If a church that offers the dead corpse in 376 00:37:08.880 --> 00:37:14.760 the House and the car and the money is not good news. If you 377 00:37:14.840 --> 00:37:21.070 are dead, and this is what luther correctly discovered, there's no salvation based 378 00:37:21.110 --> 00:37:27.190 on righteousness man does, including faith. Righteousness is a gift of God, 379 00:37:27.510 --> 00:37:30.019 and even our faith is a gift of God. We've got to remember that. 380 00:37:30.420 --> 00:37:36.539 And it's apart from works of the law. No one comes unless the 381 00:37:36.659 --> 00:37:42.820 father draws him. The good news is that the father does draw and the 382 00:37:42.900 --> 00:37:46.409 father does give the gift of faith through his Holy Spirit. Jesus saves in 383 00:37:46.610 --> 00:37:52.210 whole, not in part, and this is done by making this is is 384 00:37:52.329 --> 00:38:00.840 done by making spiritually dead men alive or born again or regenerated. which comes 385 00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:09.000 first? Faith or regeneration? Until we are alive, we get nowhere. 386 00:38:10.280 --> 00:38:15.150 Praise God that he is good to those whom he has chosen and will see 387 00:38:15.150 --> 00:38:22.429 us to the end, the perseverance of the saints. I could spend a 388 00:38:22.590 --> 00:38:27.300 half hour, half hour just reading in verses of scripture which teach this doctrine 389 00:38:27.380 --> 00:38:30.500 in one way or another. They time to do if God said at once, 390 00:38:30.539 --> 00:38:34.820 it's sufficient. But just let me mention one verse. You might want 391 00:38:34.820 --> 00:38:39.500 to test yourself. One Romans four five, if you want to look at 392 00:38:39.579 --> 00:38:44.530 it at in your leisure. You may want to think about it if there's 393 00:38:44.610 --> 00:38:52.210 five words in that one verse that are exemplary of the grace part of the 394 00:38:52.250 --> 00:38:58.159 verse setting forth the grace of salvation. But back to the text, verse 395 00:39:00.280 --> 00:39:06.559 Romans Twenty Eight, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart 396 00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:10.670 from the works of the law. The phrase apart from the works of the 397 00:39:10.710 --> 00:39:16.309 law excludes anything we might do. That's what I hope is is hit into 398 00:39:16.389 --> 00:39:22.949 our minds somehow, and that is why we say it is by faith alone, 399 00:39:22.989 --> 00:39:28.940 a faith that is itself of the grace of grace and rests in Jesus 400 00:39:29.019 --> 00:39:38.170 Christ alone. No Sin can preclude you from salvation. Nothing stands between the 401 00:39:38.449 --> 00:39:46.889 sinner and God except the sinner's good works. That's a hangar. That's a 402 00:39:46.929 --> 00:39:52.440 stumbling block. There's our good works get in the way and until we can 403 00:39:52.559 --> 00:39:59.679 really say what we hopefully sing correctly, nothing in my hands. I bring. 404 00:40:00.199 --> 00:40:05.639 You all know the him I suspect and and what it says just but 405 00:40:05.840 --> 00:40:10.710 it is we were to boarder, we bring nothing with us in this whole 406 00:40:12.110 --> 00:40:19.869 issue. We're justified by grace and not works. Dear Congregation, that's the 407 00:40:19.989 --> 00:40:25.500 Gospel. And do you see that great divide between us? There's the Gospel 408 00:40:27.420 --> 00:40:31.699 and there's another Gospel that is no gospel. There's a gospel in the papacy. 409 00:40:31.980 --> 00:40:37.690 There's a gospel and Arminianism, there's the Gospel and your good works, 410 00:40:37.650 --> 00:40:46.409 substituting religion for Christianity. All of these things opposite one another and we may 411 00:40:46.449 --> 00:40:52.199 be a part of any any one of these things are a part of not 412 00:40:52.639 --> 00:40:57.400 fighting against him strong enough. But that's a great divide. And please, 413 00:40:57.679 --> 00:41:00.840 please, please, one day, when you are at the point of death 414 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:06.510 and your pastor of Russias through the hospital room or to your home to to 415 00:41:06.710 --> 00:41:10.710 and you still have your mind functioning clearly, and he asked You, ask 416 00:41:10.789 --> 00:41:15.510 you of your hope and what you are trusting and he wants to see and 417 00:41:15.710 --> 00:41:21.260 hear clearly, for your sake and his, that you are ready to leave 418 00:41:21.380 --> 00:41:25.340 this life for eternity. Don't look at him and say hopefully, what is 419 00:41:25.699 --> 00:41:31.969 said so frequently, I've done the best I could. That's a lie. 420 00:41:34.449 --> 00:41:37.250 None of us do the best we can, and if that's what we're hoping 421 00:41:37.329 --> 00:41:43.210 on, we're in sad shape. You want to lie on your lips when 422 00:41:43.210 --> 00:41:52.039 it's time to meet the Judgment Day. Don't tell him you've been a faithful 423 00:41:52.079 --> 00:41:57.119 church member, etcetera. Don't tell him you've tried to keep the commandments. 424 00:41:57.559 --> 00:42:00.880 Don't tell him you've tried to lead a good life. I hope you have 425 00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:05.789 been faithful and obedient and will be such. God requires that of us, 426 00:42:06.230 --> 00:42:12.949 but please don't tell him that you're hoping you will get to heaven by something 427 00:42:13.630 --> 00:42:17.860 you have done. Some of you are probably thinking, why is he pounding 428 00:42:17.940 --> 00:42:24.659 such an obvious theme? Doesn't everyone here know that this is an Orthodox Presbyterian 429 00:42:24.739 --> 00:42:30.889 Church? For going to say many of you here probably cut your teeth, 430 00:42:30.050 --> 00:42:37.010 theological teeth, on that stuff. Don't I know that you know reformation theology? 431 00:42:38.610 --> 00:42:45.119 No, I don't know. Your pastor doesn't know that not necessarily I 432 00:42:45.280 --> 00:42:49.079 don't know because I see so many church, good churches, that do not 433 00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:52.679 know and I talk to people. I've knocked on a lot of doors. 434 00:42:52.239 --> 00:42:55.440 People go to church every suny. They know the Bible better than I do, 435 00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:02.429 but you ask about their hope and it's it's that what we're cutting off 436 00:43:04.989 --> 00:43:08.429 or what we're hanging to. It's what is cut off from our grace. 437 00:43:08.590 --> 00:43:14.860 In that justification, my faith alone, apart from works of the law. 438 00:43:15.260 --> 00:43:21.380 It's apart from that and I don't understand why people do not know, in 439 00:43:21.579 --> 00:43:27.099 part because they're not taught doctrine sufficiently in our churches. It's not just the 440 00:43:27.250 --> 00:43:30.849 person's or the families. We've got catechisms, we've got all of the tools, 441 00:43:31.889 --> 00:43:37.849 but it doesn't get done so frequently and if they fall back on the 442 00:43:37.929 --> 00:43:43.599 will filthy rags of their own righteousness and hey, oh, I you know, 443 00:43:43.679 --> 00:43:45.559 I do the best I can. I think I'll be all right with 444 00:43:45.760 --> 00:43:50.960 God. He'll take me. I'm better than all those people in the church. 445 00:43:51.639 --> 00:43:54.599 They won't get it. That won't save it. And when you pass 446 00:43:54.710 --> 00:43:59.150 from the valley the shadow of death, please do not come for yourself and 447 00:43:59.230 --> 00:44:04.070 deceive yourself by telling me or anyone else about your good works. Tell me 448 00:44:04.230 --> 00:44:08.750 Christ and Christ alone. Cling to Jesus only and hope in him is if 449 00:44:08.829 --> 00:44:16.260 Christ is your righteousness, you have all things. If Christ alone is what 450 00:44:16.460 --> 00:44:21.980 you look to, that is what is there. When you're thinking justification by 451 00:44:22.099 --> 00:44:30.409 faith alone, don't look at your faith, look at Jesus Christ. I 452 00:44:30.570 --> 00:44:37.170 don't understand why so many, even in good churches, do not know that 453 00:44:37.329 --> 00:44:45.000 it will not save him. Tell me Christ and Christ alone when you pass 454 00:44:45.400 --> 00:44:50.960 through the Valley of the shadow of death. That is altimately what the reformation 455 00:44:51.159 --> 00:44:55.750 discovered and gave to the world. That's the essence of it. It involves 456 00:44:55.829 --> 00:45:00.469 the whole counsel of God. But the heart of the matter is justification, 457 00:45:01.269 --> 00:45:08.659 God's grace. Rome and much of Evangelicalism has missed the gospel of justification by 458 00:45:08.739 --> 00:45:15.139 the Merit of Christ received by faith alone, just receiving the gift. Were 459 00:45:15.179 --> 00:45:22.929 not bringing any work where God owes us anything? No, not. I 460 00:45:23.130 --> 00:45:28.809 do the Best I can, but Christ, Christ only and Christ completely, 461 00:45:30.170 --> 00:45:37.119 even my faith. God's Gift of grace to me for Christ's sake, for 462 00:45:37.280 --> 00:45:43.440 we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the 463 00:45:43.480 --> 00:45:51.030 law. Grace alone, the grace of our faith, which is our salvation. 464 00:45:51.070 --> 00:45:52.869 Let us pray