3-16-08 Sermon Justification by Faith
Lets go back a couple of Sundays and use our reminiscence to
recall past events
1. Sun Mar 2nd Lesson Power of the Gospel
- Paul writes his letter to this new church (in ROME!)
- Romans 1:8 “For I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of thorough out the whole world.”
What did this church have that the others didn’t?
I must needs see Caesar (Paul’s landmark of his ministry)
- Acts 25:10 Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews I have done no wrong, as you very well know.?
- where he soon after lost his head at Nero’s chop block to a sword
Every Christian will have their Caesar or Golilaths
We all have a destined purpose for our lives
- our purpose is being a Christian (yes)
- but even, more than that, our purpose: to take the gospel even further
- someone we have to stand before (our own Caesar)
Who will be the last person I will be sent to minister to?
There will be a last person to witness to A last sermon to preach
- who could that be to?
- a last sermon to be preached
2. I recall Sun March 9th, Lesson “Need for the Gospel”
- good news deliverance from the wrath of God Rom 1:18
- The gospel reveals that the only way to have
- a right relationship with God
- is through faith in Christ
- for all have sinned and came short of the glory of God.
3. And today “JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH”
this statement is second only to the resurrection of Christ Jesus
- because:
- any good named person could have been born
- any good named person could have died for us (even in war)
- only one laid his life down (freely, no man took it)
- only one had the power to raise it back up again
1st most powerful word is resurrection
2nd most powerful word is this word Justification
- there is not a more powerful word in the Word of God
- justification: as if you had never sinned
The atonement blood: Accepting it by faith is our justification
“Him that justifies the ungodly” Rom 4:5
Abraham was hand picked out of an ungodly nation:
- A nation that was judged at the tower of Babel
- all men were warped and vile
- the destruction of the tower of Babel
- was a judgment for their continuous sinning
- all wrapped up in the flesh (carnal, Idolatry)
- no body there served God
Abraham (found in that condition) grabbed hold of God by faith
- and would not let Him go
Abraham, you are going to be a wonderer
- you will follow even when you don’t understand
- God snatched him up and gave him an opportunity of a life time
Abraham: A type or shadow of the Apostle Paul
- a vile man a murderer a persecutor
- God snatched him up and Paul never let go
- and God gave him an opportunity of a life time.
The Jews under the law believed that
- their biological relationship with Abraham was their justification
- he was the founder of their faith
- they associated circumcision with justification
It was very powerful to say
I am a Jew by birth
my father was father Abraham
I was circumcised according to Jewish customs
I am justified because I have kept all of the law
- thus a confidence in human works
This issue is still alive today
- many Americans believe, being American makes them Christian
- some base their claim on a heritage alone
- like born into a certain family
- some base their claim of I was baptized when I was 12
- some believe because they joined a certain church
- or a certain denomination
They believe that the faith of their parents was imparted to them
Justification is a gift! Based upon the fact that we believe
- based upon the fact that we have faith
- (to trust Jesus to live it through us)
QUESTION: why couldn’t Abraham boast?
- he brought nothing into it!
QUESTION: Who do unbelievers serve?
ye cannot have two masters
QUESTION: how do they serve this Jehovah God?
With Abraham, it was God who took the initiative
- God invited him to go on a journey
- to look for another city
- whose builder and maker was God
- a city that has foundations
Rom 4:7 Those who follow his example of faith are children of Abraham
Rom 4:8 “God would justify the heathern through faith”
even Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Could not make the grade
“all of their righteousness ended up as filthy rags”
all good men, but they had to Jesus to Justify them.
in 1964 at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas
I was ordered to make my bed
The TI (Training Instructor) used a quarter to illustrate
How tight the covers had to be drawn
The quarter had to bounce up and hit the top bunk
I wiggled and pulled, tucked and twisted and pulled
- sheets and blankets stretched as tight as they would go.
- all to no avail
- the TI must have been off in the distance doing a belly roll
- laughing at my sweat and useless efforts
In frustration I gave up
- I was doomed, might as well take defeat like a man
- I fell asleep on the bed
That TI never returned
he knew how impossible it was to bounce the quarter that high
Sunday morning, in Suday School class is a good time
- for somebody to get saved
- you have tried to live how your parents taught
- and ended up in total disgrace
That’s alright Jesus took the curse of the failure for you
- rest in him He must live that life through you
Jesus has to carry you across the river of life
Cursed is the man who cannot live the Law
- Through Jesus only, can one (be born again)
The Jews demanded that all Christians be circumcised
they believed one must be a Jew first, to inherit the promise
Paul taught that a new Christian need not
surrender themselves to
the requirements of the law
grace alone was their justification
Gal 3:10 “For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse:
For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which
are written in the book of the law to do them:
Example: every law keepers “righteousness was as filthy rags”.
Gal3: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”
Rom 4:13 (Abraham was made an heir before his circumcision.
when he said “I will”.
V14 If the law can make heirs, then faith would be void.
V15 where there is no law, people were not aware of sin
- the law is our schoolmaster (taught us right from wrong).
Rom 4:16 (circumcision doesn’t produce righteousness,
- neither did the law.)
Gentile Christians can claim Abraham as their forefather.
Rom 4:17 (not according to the flesh
- but according to faith
God calls things into being way before some even see it.
- the object of his faith is God
- Abraham’s faith rested in God
His faith was manifested by his complete trust in God
- and his obedience to God’s will
Rom 4:18 Faith claims a promise
- and acts on it in-spite of conditions
Conditions make fulfillment seem impossible
Faith drags the justification salution across the impossible bedsprings
Sarah’s childlessness looked like an unchangeable situation
- all odds ; physically, against nature
- against scientific principals
Faith focuses on God not on the circumstance
V19 (Faith brought life out of death)
When you give God the glory first
- you are saying he is bigger than your problem
V20 Abraham was fully persuaded
(21) that God was able to do what he said he would do
V22 sums up Paul’s argument for justification
You might consider answering the following questions, concerning Abraham:
Questions: staggered not?
Question: Fully persuaded?
Question: Abraham believed?
There is a divine remedy for sin, what is it?
Is a right standing with God possible, If you believe in justification?
How was the law our tutor or schoolmaster?
What does justification do? It sets us free from the bondage of trying
to come into a right relationship with God on our own works.
Through justification, God imparts righteousness into our lives.
- Justification means: as if we had never sinned
We can be set free from past sins and failures
The law revealed our sin
- and exposed our own helpless nature
- to rid ourselves of its misery
The law exposes the disease lying just below skins surface
grace kills the disease (of sin)
- the gospel supplies the remedy
Justification through the merits of God’s son
- Jesus came into our sinful world
- Jesus allied himself to sinful man (became man)
- he alone fulfilled the laws diligently strict requirements
- even so far as death for the guilty one
- because of his sinless life
- we are regarded as just (justified)
