I invite you to turn with me tonight to Romans 3 and 4. So we begin our reading at Romans 3, verse 21, reading through verse 8 of chapter 4. And it is also my encouragement to you tonight, tomorrow, at your earliest convenience, to re-read it and continue to read through chapter 4. We're not going to read the whole thing. we easily could tonight as Paul continues to press his important point in verses 9-25 of chapter 4. But we're going to read beginning in verse 21 of chapter 3 through verse 8 of chapter 4. Hear now the Word of God. But now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice because in His forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we then nullify the law by this faith? Not at all. Rather, we uphold the law. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. What does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. That is God's holy word. May He impress His eternal truths upon our hearts. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, before a death row execution, the guilty one we know is given one last wish. He's been convicted. He's been tried. He's been found guilty. He has been sentenced to die. And it's then as if, I don't know where it came from, but it's as if society then feels it has to do one last nice gesture for that person and that one is granted one last wish in the form of a meal. Maybe because food is one of the most pleasant things to us as human beings. Maybe because food is comforting. At the Last Supper with His disciples, Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord's Supper. Yet, that Lord's Supper does not signify the last meal of the guilty. But that supper is a meal of celebration as William Godfrey beautifully reminded us last week Sunday morning in the call to preparation. It is the Lord's Supper. It has been given by Him that we are to observe as God has commanded. It is a holy communion. A communion with one another who have a common need. A communion in which we focus together on Jesus Christ. And it is a holy Eucharist, as he said. A thanksgiving as those who are completely unworthy in and of ourselves are made worthy to come all because of the person and work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Indeed, the Lord's Supper, beloved, is a meal of celebration for those against whom the Lord will never, ever count their sins. And to that end, then, the Lord's Supper is a reminder. Indeed, it is a means of nourishment unto greater confidence, and it is a reminder of God's declaration to you and me as believers of justified, of not guilty, of no payment, no punishment due. It is a reminder, a clear reminder of God's declaration to you and me of forgiven that you are righteous in my sight. A reminder of our God's declaration to you and me of our righteousness before God. That's Paul's burden here in Romans. especially these early chapters. For the first three chapters, we know that Paul has explained man's great need, our helplessness, our hopelessness because of sin. And now, toward the end of chapter 3 through chapter 5, his burden is God's perfect remedy in Christ Jesus for that need. His burden is our justification. How man is right with God. How we can once again stand in a right relationship with God. Now, indeed, there are some who sometimes get bored with this doctrine, this teaching of justification. Especially some who have grown up with the beauty of this teaching, have learned all about it in catechism classes at a young age. And they will even say, you know, I know it all already. I've heard that said. I don't need to hear it anymore. And instead, I want to hear about something that is more relevant for my life. For example, I want to hear about the love of God, or I would like to hear about Christian comfort in life, especially in the midst of hardships, or I want to hear about how I am called to live the Christian life. I want to hear something that is more relevant for my life than about this doctrine of justification. Yet, Paul thought it was relevant. because this teaching is foundational to all of his teaching. As Reverend Donovan reminds us in our study of Colossians, as we have considered in Ephesians, in all of Paul's writings, this teaching is foundational. It is relevant for you and for me. It is relevant, beloved, because it has absolutely everything to do with the love of God. There is no justification apart from the love of God. It is relevant for you and me because the truth of this teaching, it alone gives comfort as we still live in that tension on this life, as we still struggle with sin and struggle with breaking the law as Paul teaches in chapters 6 and 7. After he teaches about how we are right with God. It alone gives us comfort of our adoption in Christ Jesus and of our eternal security as Paul addresses in chapter 8. And dear people of God, it is so relevant that it is our motivation for living the Christian life as Paul clearly outlines beginning in chapter 12 throughout the rest of the book of Romans. It is relevant for you and me. This world indeed has observed even celebrated Halloween which focuses on the dark side. It focuses on death. decay but as believers we celebrate the reformation of the church we celebrate the truth of justification which focuses on life in christ and on our righteousness before god first of all accomplished by christ secondly credited to the believer those two points tonight our standing as righteous before God. Paul's burden is that it is all of Christ and it is still so important today because we know there are those who teach that our justification has something to do with us. That we have to do something in order to earn that righteousness before God. It is also important for us today because there are some, even in the Reformed camp, some of you have heard about what is being called the Federal Vision. The elders have been studying this in preparation for synod next summer, the Lord willing. And those who are falling prey to the teaching of the Federal Vision, they start to play around with this teaching. They misuse Scripture and they teach, for example, that we need the obedience of faith or faithfulness in order to stay justified. In order to keep in God's grace. It depends on our faithfulness. And Paul is saying, absolutely not. That's a misuse of this teaching. It is incorrect. And here Paul is drawing from the lives and the experiences of two Old Testament heroes of faith, Abraham and David. Our righteousness before God, first of all, accomplished by Christ. Beloved, we know this to be true, but our righteousness before God is not naturally ours at all, is it? As Paul says in chapter 3.22, this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. From God. And Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, he speaks of a righteousness that he says is not my own, but is through faith in Jesus Christ. And he says it comes from God. Our righteousness before God is accomplished by Christ because of our inability. It cannot be worked for by obeying the law of God. There is no room for boasting not on your behalf, not on my behalf. And if there's anyone who understood boasting, it was Paul. As a Pharisee, he used to boast. He admits that, but no more. And he goes so far as to say that not even Father Abraham was able to boast. Father Abraham was an important example for the Jews and even the Judaizers of that day. He's an important example for all Christians. As Paul goes on in the rest of chapter 4 to press home the point that he is a physical father and he is a spiritual father. But in verse 4, what then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? And those words, in this matter, would be better translated, according to the flesh. What did he discover according to the flesh? Paul's point is, he discovered that he couldn't do it. That he had nothing to boast about before God. Instead, as verse 3 says, what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now that's a quote from Genesis 15, verse 6. The context, you remember, is God taking Abraham out under the night sky, showing him the sky and all the stars, and he says, look at them, count them. Your offspring are going to be more numerous than the stars of the sky. What a beautiful promise to a very old man with a very old wife who had no children. And Abraham believed God. Now we know that Abraham demonstrated his faith often. He also demonstrated his lack of faith, But Scripture seems to more highlight his demonstrations of faith. For example, he demonstrated it by leaving Ur of the Chaldees at God's command. He demonstrated it by practicing circumcision as God commanded. He demonstrated it by at least attempting to sacrifice Isaac at the command of God. He demonstrated his faith, yet his demonstrations of faith were not his righteousness. Those demonstrations did not make him righteous. He too was unable to earn or to work for righteousness and salvation before God. Man is unable because there is no righteousness in sin. Humanly speaking, righteousness before God is an impossibility because in sin, man rejects God as Paul says. He exchanges the truth of God for the lie and it affects everybody. For there is none righteous, no, not one. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Now, there are three metaphors for justification that we find an allusion to in Scripture. And especially at this moment, I want to point out that they point to our sin and inability. That first metaphor is of a courtroom with a judge on the bench. And in that metaphor, we stand completely guilty, guilty, guilty. Now, the second metaphor is that of a marketplace where a financial transaction is to take place, and there we stand completely bankrupt, broke as ever, with no capital, no money to pay off our debt. And the third metaphor is that of a clothing arena where we stand clothed in filthy rags, not able to come to the king's banquet table. And those three metaphors indeed show our need to be justified in the sight of God on account of another. And Paul also points to that condition as he considers David's understanding of the comprehensiveness of sin. He quotes David from Psalm 32 when Paul says, Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. David used three different words for sin to set forth a comprehensiveness of sin. The first one Paul translates as transgressions. The idea of rebelling, going beyond the boundary, going where you're not supposed to go. Boys and girls, if mom says, stay in the yard, don't go outside the gate, or young people, if your parents say, be home by 10 and you're home after 10 or you go outside the gate, you have gone beyond the boundaries of what your parents have said. You have transgressed. The idea there is breaking loose, tearing away from God, going beyond the boundary of safety that God has set. The second word Paul translates as sins, and that's the one we know of as miss the mark with the archery analogy, the bow and arrow and the target, the bullseye. And I'm reminded of the cadets. It's going to change now with the new cadet building, but every year when the young cadets are working on their archery, it seems like the next morning we find arrows in our backyard. Not only have they missed the mark, they've missed the entire target. And really, that's what this is pointing to. Not even trying to hit God's target, but setting up a target, setting up a mark of one's own to deviate from that which is well-pleasing to God. The third word Paul translates simply as sin. The idea there, as we know, is iniquity, crookedness, twistedness, turning aside. We might say ignoring the map that God has set before us. As Isaiah says, each of us has turned to his own way. With these words, David reveals the deadliness of sin because it's opposed to the God of life. And we might say that Paul summarizes those words in verse 5 with the word wicked. That God justifies the wicked. It's an amazing statement because that word wicked is a very, very strong word that is completely opposite of the righteousness that is being credited. Paul is showing a contrast there. Using that very strong word wicked to illumine the awesomeness of the undeserved gift. Beloved, no amount of works will do. In verse 4 of chapter 4, Paul says, Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. Now we understand that work analogy. Even boys and girls at a young age understand it. If you are promised to get paid if you do some work, once you've done that work, that payment is owed to you. The wages are owed to you. That payment is obligated to you. It's not a gift. A gift is free. A gift is for doing nothing. And a gift expects nothing in return. Now, beloved, when it comes to the works of the law, those works earn something too. But not what many think. Not what we should want. As the Bible says, even our best works are as filthy rags, stained with sin. And Paul says there's wages for it. The wages of sin is death. And we give proof, each one of us gives proof every day of our inability to earn God's favor, to make ourselves right in God's sight. And the obligation that we earn is an obligation that we ought not want to collect. Boys and girls, when you've done something wrong and your parents promise you a punishment that's going to come later, No doubt, as I used to do, you used to hope beyond hope that your parents would forget that promised punishment. But God cannot. God will not forget that punishment because He is just. Our righteousness before God is accomplished by Jesus Christ because of our inability and because of God's justice. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah comes face to face with the holiness of God, that holiness which reveals man's unholiness. And Isaiah learns, and we are to learn there too, that God's holiness cannot and it will not be tolerated. God's holiness cannot and will not tolerate unholiness and sin. It cannot exist with unholiness and sin. And instead, God must be treated as holy. If you remember Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, the Bible says they offered profane fire to the Lord. They played around with worship. They experimented in worship their own way instead of how God commanded it. And they were consumed. God killed them in an instant with no offer of a last meal. We read about that in Leviticus 10. And there God said, Among those who approach Me, I will show Myself holy. I will reveal My holiness. Then he goes on, in the sight of all the people, I will be honored. Nadab and Abihu did not honor God. God held up His holiness. He held up His honor. He snuffed them out, which showed His honor. It demonstrated His holiness. God's justice demands that sin be punished. It is impossible for man to satisfy God's justice it can only be accomplished by Christ because of Christ's perfection. Because of His sinless life. Isaiah says He had done no violence nor was any deceit in His mouth. The writer of Hebrews says He was without sin. He perfectly kept and fulfilled the law of God earning righteousness for you and me, earning eternal life. And that way too, he alone was able to offer the perfect sacrifice. Peter says we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. God poured out His punishment on Christ. Paul says in chapter 3.25 again, God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. With His righteousness, Jesus Christ offered that perfect sacrifice and He satisfied God's justice against sin and accomplished our righteousness. And, beloved, it is ours because in the second place, it is credited to the believer by faith. Credited to the believer by faith. Credited as the great exchange. Now, that word credited and the whole thing that Paul is teaching us here, it is really to make us excited because it is an amazing transaction. That word credited is a bookkeeping term we know dealing with the account of Christ and the believer's account. It's called imputation. It's also spoken of as reckoned. It is such an important truth that Paul is driving home that he uses the word for credited at least in some way 11 times in chapter 4 in verses 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 22, 23, 24. And there are two important details with regard to this idea of crediting that we need to understand as we consider it. First of all, that word is used to indicate what a person considered by himself is not and does not have apart from whatever is credited. And the second detail is that the one then who is reckoned considered, or that one is then reckoned, considered, regarded to be it or to have it. Now think of a checking account. I can write $100 or even a million dollars for that matter in my checkbook ledger. It may look good as I open my checkbook, I can write it there, but it's meaningless if the actual $100 or $1 million is not put in the bank and is not credited to my account as being mine. Paul is teaching here with these two details that what is credited was not there before, but is a reality now. Credited as the great exchange. And we speak of it as double imputation. First of all, my sin counted against Christ. My sin, the cause of my fullness of wickedness and emptiness of righteousness, has been taken by Jesus Christ. Paul says He became sin for us. It has been credited to Him. It was not His before. He took it as His very own. He suffered for it. He paid for it. Isaiah makes that clear. For our iniquities, for our transgressions, He was pierced. He was bruised. He was Christ. As we look forward to coming to the Lord's table, let that sink in for a moment. Meditate upon it. For ours, not His own. But it all belonged to you. It all belonged to me. That which disqualified us in His sight. That which made us despicable in the sight of God. Has been credited to Christ. And in return, Christ's righteousness is credited to me. It's given to me as my very own. It can be credited to me because my sin is no longer in my account. You know we're not talking about being sinless, that we no longer sin. That's not the point here, but how we stand in a right relationship. That sin, God no longer sees it in my account. That was David's confidence of what God had done. Along with those three terms that point out the comprehensiveness of sin, he uses three words of how God deals with it. Pointing to the wide scope of salvation or of justification. First, forgiven. To lift off. As if to lift off a heavy burden. To remove a heavy burden and send it away. That which was so clearly mine has been cut off and sent away as far as the east is from the west. Cast into the depths of the sea, as Micah says. We think of the scapegoat. The priest put his hands on the head of the scapegoat to represent the sins of the people being placed there. The scapegoat sent out of the wilderness to death, as it were. the sentence, the curse, the punishment is canceled, lifted off of you and me. And then David says, covered. Whose sins are covered. Think of the blood of the sacrifice again that is sprinkled on the mercy seat. The mercy seat that was on the top of the ark and in the ark was the law of God. And that blood being sprinkled on the mercy seat signified covering the broken law, removing it from God's sight. So the people were no longer exposed to God's wrath. Not with a cover that's temporary, that can be removed and expose that sin again, but with a permanent cover. We are the ones who cover each other's sin against us with a temporary cover, just in case we need to get at it once again. And to dig it up and to stick it in someone's face. But David says in the third way here, that God doesn't do that. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. Will never charge against him. God will never, ever, never, ever try to collect a sin payment from us as believers. Because again, there's no longer any sin in our account. It is already paid in full. He remembers it no more and in my account is now the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. It was not there before, but it is really there now. Think of those three metaphors again. The courtroom. He has been charged with my guilt and God has declared me and you not guilty with His righteousness. Think of the marketplace. He has borne that heavy load and paid my debt and filled you and me with His riches. Think of that clothing arena. He has been covered with our sinful rags and we are clothed in His robes of righteousness and His righteousness is ours by faith. Paul says in verse 5, His faith is credited to Him as righteousness. And we know that Paul's not talking about the faith itself. That's not the righteousness. He's talking about the content of faith. He's not talking about faith as a work as the Roman church teaches. He's not talking about our faithfulness as Federal Vision teaches, but the content, the person and work of Jesus Christ, His righteousness. Again, as Paul says in chapter 325, God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood, pointing to that sacrificial death. Now, Scripture is clear, and we don't have time to consider that tonight, but it's clear, and I trust you know that, especially in the New Testament, Paul brings it forth in Peter that Abraham and David had faith in the Christ to come. They had faith in the seed of the woman to come. Faith is that instrument we know. It is the hand and the mouth of the soul that receives the benefits of Jesus Christ. As Paul says in chapter 4.13, the righteousness that comes by faith or through faith, it receives Christ's benefits. And therefore, that faith as an instrument is also confident of our righteousness before God, accomplished by Christ and credited to the believer by God's declaration. That's what justification is. God declares something wonderful. Paul says God credits righteousness. He declares. It is sovereignly spoken. He says of you and me as believers, you're not guilty. Instead, you are righteous. I see you as righteous and it's a timeless declaration it cannot be changed no one can change that status that we enjoy in the sight of God we are justified once and for all by Christ's perfect work because God's declaration stands we don't stay justified because of our faithfulness indeed we are called to be faithful that's part of that sanctification And this justification, this righteousness in the sight of God is humbly believed. It's an amazing truth like the promise to Abraham. God simply says believe. It's not difficult. He doesn't say, now go out and do something impossible and prove yourself worthy. Just believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that righteous status then is gratefully practiced, isn't it? Paul says to Titus, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Paul clearly teaches that we are called to put on the new man. To live out that faith. Indeed, justification is relevant. It has everything to do with the love of God. It is our comfort as we continue to struggle with sin that that sin will never ever count against us. It is our motivation. What a motivation to continue throughout this life to put sin to death more and more. It is a motivation to fight temptation. Boys and girls, young people, you're tempted just like I am, just like the oldest person here is. We are all tempted and we do fail. But yet, this truth of justification, our righteousness, what a motivation to fight. That when you are faced with it, you say, I will not do that. Because Jesus Christ shed His blood for my sin. Because God sees me as righteous. And therefore, how can I sin and do what is unrighteous? Dear people of God, there's nothing more thrilling than this great exchange from death to life. This is that good news of great joy as Reverend Overman reminded us last night. That great joy accomplished by God Himself. The world is blind to the truth of that thrill of darkness that it makes light of. Because the world does not understand the true eternal horror that awaits those whose accounts are filled with sin before God. But all those who are justified in Jesus Christ alone by faith, who believe in Him humbly, they have God's timeless, enduring, declared words, You are mine, and you are righteous in my sight. And therefore, believer, gaze upon the Lord's table. the Lord's Supper given to those whom He has made righteous. Come, partake of this holy communion with those who share that common righteousness in Jesus Christ alone. Celebrate that holy Eucharist by which we express our thanksgiving to God for Christ's righteousness, freely credited to us, by which He has made us worthy to come, not as a last wish for the guilty, but to celebrate the eternal truth of our eternal fellowship with Jesus Christ. Amen.