I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 4 this morning, Romans chapter 4. And if you're a visitor, we're breaking from both of our series today. This morning, I wanted to have a sermon and reflect on this month, which is the 500th celebration and anniversary of the Reformation. I thought it was appropriate that at some point during this month, we have a sermon reflecting on justification by faith alone. So we're going to do that this morning. And Romans chapter 4 is a good place to do that. If you're a visitor this morning and you're still looking for that, that's found on page 1197. I'm going to read the first eight verses this morning of Romans chapter 4. This is the word of the Lord. Actually, I'm going to back up in chapter 3 to verse 21. whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law in our text. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. And there ends the reading of God's Word. Well, I thought this morning that it would be good and helpful to pause from our series and reflect on the Reformation, as in many places in the world, especially in Europe, there are celebrations, there are people thinking about the Reformation, and especially, at least over there, its cultural impact. Maybe it's a little bit disconnected for us as we think about the Reformation, but it really shouldn't be when we think about the things that were recovered and the things that happened. It would be interesting, of course, to think about what people are celebrating, if they are. My guess is that many of us say we're not all that interested in the Reformation because it comes with that word protest. Boy, I am tired of protests, aren't you? Protest. We're Protestants. We protested something. It's always been protests, by the way. And we think just another conflict that was ugly. We're tired of that. we consider the reformation uh as we consider it and the things that happened we need to really consider what uh inspired it and what ignited such a thing it wasn't that people just wanted to protest we're good at that we can do that in many ways it wasn't really that it wasn't that that people just wanted to fight over a fine point of doctrine it may have become that later among Reformed Christians. But that's not how it originally ignited. It wasn't just that. It wasn't just a fight. It wasn't some ivory tower of scholastic issues in the academy. That's not what it was. We have to remember this. It's so important as we consider this this morning. What ignited it was a very sincere man who was internally struggling. But he reflected, you see, the internal struggle of many people who were dissatisfied with the church at the time, of many people who were finding no satisfaction, no answers to their real struggles in life. It wasn't some ivory tower thing. This is how we have to sort of begin talking about the Reformation today because I think there's just not much interest in it among Christians. We have to think about what really ignited it. Well, when we think a little bit about Luther and his frustrations, Luther could not find happiness or satisfaction in what Rome had become. He gave it his best effort. He was sincere. He wanted to reform the church, the Roman Catholic Church. So he did everything he should. he tried everything he could. He did the pilgrimages. He said, did the penance. He was in the confessional. He paid the alms. He did the indulgences. He gave it an honest effort and hard work at it. But it came down to one great issue for Luther, came down to one great issue that was reflective of so many at the time that it would break out in this kind of response. In that system, he had come to hate God. That's an interesting thing, isn't it? Luther had come to hate him. Why? It's a strong statement. Because one great issue, God was demanding things of him he couldn't do. Did you ever feel that? I think we all struggle with that at some point. I have these laws, I have these commands, I have these things in front of me and I just can't do them. Now how does that make you feel about God? He was a thinker. It tore him apart on the inside. He knew he wasn't right with God. He anticipated, I'm going to do my best and there's going to be a terrible confrontation on judgment day. That's how he lived. You live like that? Well, I'm sure you're tempted to live a little bit like that. The challenge is, I don't think too many people think today that it's even possible to have a wrong relationship with God. If you're sensitive, you probably do. But for most people, most people who think about God, they don't even think it's possible to have a wrong relationship with Him. And I really believe that most people think God is simply going to make it right in the end. there's really not too much to worry about, you know? As long as we generally do what we can do, as long as we generally maintain the kind of standards that He wants, as long as we keep in step and we don't rock the status quo, and as long as we're good people, we're moral people, that's sort of the general attitude. God in the end is going to make it right. God in the end is going to accept us. What kind of a God wouldn't? That's our struggle. That's where we are. We're kind of far removed from the attitude of Luther, which makes this hard to preach today, doesn't it? If that's the general attitude today of our relationship with the Lord, I mean, it would be really easy if I had people coming in here today weeping and saying, I am really struggling with the question of how is God commanding all these things that I can't do? I can work with that a lot easier, right? But you see, we've lost the holiness of God, and we've lost an understanding of hell. We've lost an understanding of justice and righteousness. We're just not there. Well, I think at these moments, we need to stop and return to the heart of what Romans teaches us about this relationship with God and how it's even possible. And maybe we'll begin to understand Luther a little bit more, and maybe we can be probed and prodded and pricked in such a way that it will help us to now step back and look at Luther in a way that we can relate to him. To celebrate today a gospel that is so wonderful to us. To understand the height, width, and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. That's where I wanted to look at Romans chapter 4 with you. There's so much in the book of Romans. What do you pick if you're going to talk Reformation? You could do any of it. But I thought Romans chapter 4 somewhat helps with the struggle that I just described with Luther's internal struggle and our lack of it. At this point in the book of Romans, Paul has made a beautiful presentation of justification by faith alone. It's easy to sort of say these things in theory, isn't it? We have to get that down. But it's then different to begin to take it and apply it to real people and see what it looks like. And his last thought of chapter 3, he was addressing, in theory, the theology of the little bit. In other words, what I mean is, if we hear the doctrine of justification by faith alone correctly, it has taken everything from us. and given us everything in Christ. Well, if that's the case, it has caused some problems because our natural default mode is to hold on to the little bit, a theology of the little bit. Let me just capture the summary of these chapters as he moves to chapter 4, and you'll see why that's so important. In Romans chapter 3, he had been building and showing the utter depravity of the human nature And when he breaks in in chapter 3, in chapter 321, a glorious statement is made all the way back from Romans 1, 16 and 17. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed. He finally works and gets back to that point. And in Romans 321, he says, but now a righteousness from God apart from the law is revealed. a righteousness that comes by faith that was when the scales fell off luther whoa whoa whoa this is not this is not me trying to achieve that standard what god is saying to us if we'll listen to him and have the spirit of god and ears to hear and eyes to see is that he makes available a righteousness that meets the standard for us outside of us as a side note if you ask my wife she'll tell you the story that she grew up in the christian church and she heard justification her whole life said but it was a this is this is a great story it was an elder one day the pastor was absent it was an elder who got up and read a sermon on justification and at the right time in her life at the right moment she said whoa I get it I get it God's providing this for me I never knew that before she grew up in the church was my very experience too at 21 I grew up in the Christian Reformed Church just like many of you these things were said to us but due to the hardness of my own heart I never heard it and when I heard it it was a weight off so this is what Paul's been telling us. God, think of the message for a minute that we have here in the description of God's work of salvation for us. Think of the whole work that's been described in the book of Romans that you know about. God of his own sovereign will before the foundation of the world chose you for salvation. Election. According to his purpose of his will. Because he decided to do it. he decided in the fullness of time to give an answer to you because of your problem he gave his son and his son came here and he lived the law perfectly and he gave his son his righteousness making the great declaration that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life but i want you to know something that even your belief is a gift from god so that you're not going to go boast about that even that or yeah even that faith a gift so chose you gave his son gave you the gift of faith opening your eyes so that you could receive his son and then we're told putting this together god supplied that righteousness, made it available to you, gives you the faith that is nothing more than a baby resting in its mother's arms, trusting and receiving, and you are forever made right with God through faith so that you are saved and will never have to face the judgment of God. We get to Romans 8, no condemnation, no condemnation. He wants you to live that way, to think that way, Not one work you do. You don't lift up one hand to get this yourself. It's not a single step of good that you did. It's all of him and through him and to him so that all the glory would be to him, right? And when you're declared righteous, it's over. It's done. Heaven's yours. It's stored up in heaven for you. It's as good as you're already there. I mean, that's awesome, isn't it? Now, you can anticipate people are going to mess with this, don't you think? It's default mode to fall back into the Galatian air. Luther loved the book of John because he said the whole message of salvation is right there. No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. That's grace alone. You're not even making the choice on your own. This is a work of God that you believe in him, John 6. That's faith alone. I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall live, I am, that's Christ alone. He who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life, that's scripture alone. Show me the Father, have you asked that, Philip? You've seen me, you've seen the Father. This is to the glory of God alone. I mean, it's all there. Not like those souls were made up later. The substance of him was always there. The whole message has always been a single message in the Bible of justification by grace through faith alone as a work of Jesus for you because he loves you. But you see, it's offensive. If you look at John 6, this message shrunk the church considerably. It completely cast people on the mercy of the Lord and it made them beggars. It's really hard. It's really hard for us Americans. That's why we're not weeping coming in here. It's really hard for us Americans who, in all of our efforts, have done so well and we've been so successful and we've been so prosperous to hear that kind of message. It just doesn't work for us. It doesn't work. Paul's saying, if we understand justification by faith alone, all boasting is removed, and the conclusion of the matter is, a man only will be before God standing there on that day because he was justified freely by his grace apart from the works of the law. That's the doctrine. That's the doctrine. Now, is that just some theoretical thing that's out there? Paul knew this would be hard for people to grasp. Paul knew it would be hard intellectually. Paul knew it would be hard theoretically. And how much more difficult when people don't even care about doctrine today? What do you do with that? See the challenge? well you have a whole epistle in the new testament devoted to a church that departed from it to say that your trajectory in life your path in life will be one of going from hearing this news rejoicing in this news to being very tempted to go away from this news and go back to a doctrine that you are saved by your works you don't believe it read the epistle to the galatians which dr godfrey's going through in sunday school well here's why i chose romans 4 this morning i do all that background to say, he takes two people that were the greatest of all figures in the Old Testament to prove this to you. Living people, people you know, people you've studied. It's beautiful. Now, if you're preaching this to Jewish people, you know who are going to sideline this truth by calling it antinomian and all that, which they did, that you're advancing some new doctrine. Paul was accused of a strange new doctrine. Paul said, let's begin with looking at a figure and ask if this has always been the central message of the Bible. And the greatest figure, I suppose you could say, humanly speaking in the Bible, if you were to talk to a Jewish person and say, who do you think is the greatest man in the scriptures? They would openly tell you, well, it's Father Abraham. His goal in doing this was then to ask the question by raising now in chapter four, two figures, because on the testimony of two witnesses, something is established. That's what he's doing here. He has two figures that he's setting in front of us. First is the great Father Abraham, and he's asking a simple question with Father abraham what did abraham discover in life that's a great question what did abraham discover that's what we have in front of us it's quite a statement what did the old testament saints really believe did they believe this thing that we hold to did it just come about in october of 1517 that's what we're accused of this thing just came out in 1500 that's just dangerous to hold something like that and paul's saying what do you mean 1500 he wasn't even thinking 1500 they're saying this thing just came out in a d 35 or 50 or whatever no no no no no this thing's always been there. And so then he raises this figure, this great figure that we know in verse 1 of Abraham. What shall we say that was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? What shall we say that he understood, that he gained? Paraphrase it like this. What did Father Abraham discover in this life about himself and his need. What did he discover? Abraham is held out as the greatest figure in the Old Testament. There were a lot of great men in the Old Testament. You know that. There was Moses. There was Elijah. There was Daniel. There were all sorts of great men. And he begins here with Abraham because Abraham among the Jews was held as the most highly esteemed the jews thought that that by simply being a son of abraham you were guaranteed the inheritance the jewish writings are not unclear about it for instance jewish teachers taught that abraham was the only truly righteous man of his generation you can find that they taught he was the one that brought back the Shekinah glory to the nation of Israel. At age three, they believed he began to serve God. All of his righteousness, they said, was made totally complete by his circumcision. Listen to the prayer of Manasseh. Therefore, thou, O Lord God of the righteous, has not appointed repentance for the righteous. Wow. For Abraham, that doctrine's always been under assault by the way for abraham isaac and jacob who did not sin against you but you have appointed repentance for me who am a sinner huh you see how they held these figures out by the way another big problem during the time of the reformation that everyone was praying and looking to men the book of jubilee second century bc abraham was perfect in all his deeds before the lord and well pleasing and righteousness all the days of his life you get the point that's the thought i mean they believed in justification by abraham so the jews he was a perfect saint and the jews saw their blessedness as flowing right through that line they were the people they were the family abraham was a moral man now i think you can appreciate what paul's doing here i don't think it's that hard to say what paul is doing here what did abraham discover about himself when abraham lived and he walked and lived what did he discover about himself in other words what did he discover about his own nature how did he live what did he do what did he learn what did God do for him? And the question is, what did the greatest figure in the Bible outside of Jesus think? Was he justified by faith or was he good enough as a moral man to make it? Well, Paul draws the conclusion. Abraham was justified by works. He's got something to boast about but not before God so if anyone is saying you're justified by works you have nothing to say to God you cannot boast if the great Abraham had some good works and the basis of his righteousness that he could boast then what would God have done with that we'll look at that here in a minute. We tend to think that these Old Testament saints that we study were so good. And this is where I think the Bible really crushes us. It's not G-rated. I'm looking at the lives as a pastor, and God tells me to do this, of a whole bunch of people, And I'm studying their lives, and I'm preaching their lives, and they're messy. Messy. What if your life was put here, and I'm preaching your life? Have you ever thought about it? I've preached Lot in the cave. I've preached Judah and Tamar from this pulpit. Rahab the harlot. Messy. I've preached Noah drunk in his tent, naked, and the mess that caused. I've preached Jacob's thieving life. I haven't done it, but I will, I promise. I'll get to Samson one day. You think God's telling you something? You think God has a message for you in this? You think God's tearing down our nice, neat, pious lives, and the picket fence that's out in the front, and everything mowed and kept nice? think God's attacking that? Of course he's attacking that. Because we're covering it. Real messy lives of spiritual giants that we idolize are put right in front of us. And do we listen to it? The greatest of the Old Testament figures ran down to Egypt, away from the promised land in fear, a Jonah-like moment, pawned off his wife to Pharaoh twice. You ever done that to your wife. Tried to produce the seed himself. Went into another woman, Hagar, totally abused. In our day, he would be labeled a predator. In our day, Hagar would say, hashtag me too. Let me introduce you to Father Abraham, a moon god worshiper. A story of lies, sex, and deceit. A Hollywood movie. what did Abraham read about himself what did he learn about himself what Romans has concluded there's none righteous no not one I believe Abraham learned he was the chief of sinners didn't he greatest figure in the old testament what does God say what does scripture say this is verse 3. What is the testimony of Scripture regarding Abraham? It's right here. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Probably one of the most significant verses in the Old Testament about how somebody's right with God. Paul was saying that at the moment God came to him and said, Abraham, look at the stars. Look at the sand. I'm blessing you. I love you. Cuts that covenant, remember? In the heart of that, Genesis 15, 6. Remember what happened? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. What was accounted to him for righteousness? What has Romans been telling you? But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, is revealed. The righteousness that comes by faith. Galatians says this. Abraham quotes the verse, 15, 6, believe God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify you, the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham. So Abraham sat there and knew the scriptures and it was preached to him justification by grace through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone. That's the message. It was like God took a giant blanket over Abraham and covered him that's the first example this morning that's the first example now there's one more there's one more maybe that's still a little bit out there it hasn't really set in so there's one more he wants to give now i have um remained married to my wife i love my wife I didn't do the stuff Abraham did. If we feel disconnected from Abraham, what sin do you think might really bring this home? This might get a little uncomfortable. Everyone knows here, the strongest sin that might really bring this home is sexual sin. Well, it was the same problem with Abraham. We understand that. we get that. But Paul does something a little bit different now. There's one example, one example that Paul now gives here that will likely have a much different kind of effect on us than Abraham. Maybe not. Depends on where you are. Look at verse five. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted to him for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed is the man whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Who? David. The greatest king in the Old Testament? What did he understand? What did he learn? Well, not much until something happened. Not much until something happened. And it happened one late afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful. Ever looked at a woman? And David sent and inquired about the woman and one said, is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David sent the messengers, took her. She came to him and he lay with her. You know, that's the context of Romans 4. that's the context for a long time of his life he didn't realize much of anything nothing they had nine months together with a baby before he knew anything came to worship sang the song God will accept me in the end I'm his child one day a prophet comes the Lord comes to him and says i anointed you king over israel now think of all that the lord's given you i anointed you king over israel i gave you the house of israel and judah and if that had been too little i would have given you a lot more why have you despised the commandment of the lord to do evil in his sight here's why i'm thankful for the example because this one really gets to the heart doesn't this one really gets to the heart that's why you have psalms inspired for us on this one we pick up the psalms and what are we getting from the psalms when david writes well we're going to get to forgiveness but that's not the first thing he describes you know what he describes he carried around a lot of incredible guilt in the course of his life for this after that sin was exposed psalm 32 he will say day and night your hand was heavy on me all my strength was dried up i'm weary i'm weary my of my groaning all the day you killed a man and you took his wife imagine the guilt of that sin it's just true that everyone here is carrying it to some degree and now this is getting a little more open isn't it it's it's starting to really set in I hope. Everyone who's here has something in the past or even in the present they're weighed down by it so overcome that they're either unable to let it go or they live in terrible guilt and shame and it's still a lingering source of pain in the stomach every time you think about it isn't there's no one here without a path no one and your sins you never escape you're not getting away with it it always comes back to bite you there's no one here without sins that have not done damage in some way to either you or your family or somebody you've hurt and they have great consequences in this life. They agonize the heart. Adultery, divorce, physical abuse, stuck in pornography, fits of rage, anger, theft, murder. Do you know I read the story this week of a woman who was in the church her whole life and it came to be found out later that she had Murdered a man, and the police, when they came, wrote it up as an accident. And for 40 years, she carried it. She carried that while she sat in church and listened sermons. Guilt with what we've done to mom and dad. A family or friend. I'll never forget, in the ministry, a man who was unfaithful to his wife, and at the end of his life, he was absolutely terrified. terrified what was he doing that whole time wasn't it taken away from him what did he hear what did he hear what widow doesn't rehearse right now in loneliness and deal with some kind of guilt did i get you there did this passage get you there this is where the rubber meets the road so that what does David say to us today? Remember what David did? Nathan told the parable, he said, you're the man. And David said, in a moment of eye-opening, I've sinned. I've sinned against the Lord. That's the greatest thing, isn't it? That's the greatest guilt. This God who's given us everything. Now we can talk Luther. Now we can get to Luther. Now we can know why the Reformation happened. The church didn't deal with that guilt. The church didn't give an answer to that guilt. It's heaping on in more works. Saying you have to do things to be right with God. He says, I can't. I've tried. I've given it my all. I can't handle the guilt. That's what we're celebrating. Of what the answer was. And it won the heart. And here's what it was. David describes it here. Blessedness of the man. Look here at what he says in chapter four. Blessed are those. This is Psalm 32. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom God, the Lord, will not count his sins. Blessed is the man whose sins are let go. The imagery of the goat, put on the goat, the goat would run out in the wilderness, you'd never see it again. As far as the east is from the west, he's cast them from us. Blessed is the man whose sins are sent off and whose lawless deeds are covered. He didn't just send them away, he covered them by the blood which was celebrated in the day of the atonement and that all pointed to Jesus, the gospel that was preached to David. Here's the summary, the most wonderful news God's given you. Happy, blessed is the man. In this life, the one to whom the Lord will never impute his iniquity. He's never legally going to hold that against you because the righteousness of Jesus has been legally imputed to you. He lifts up his hands and he says, When you believe, all your sins are dealt with. They're forgiven, and I give you my son. Think of the paralytic who was dropped down, and you can imagine Jesus standing there in the crowd, son, forgiven, are your sins? Two figures put before you today to establish the truth by the testimony of two witnesses, David and Abraham, and what did they learn? They were sinners saved by grace. And what does that say about us? Well, what have you learned about yourself? That's kind of an important question today, isn't it? If you haven't learned what Abraham and David have learned yet, and you're still full of pride, and you're still confident in yourself, the Reformation doesn't mean anything to you. Because justification doesn't mean anything to you. I had a 71-year-old man write to me this week from Cape Town, reading all these reformed disputes in our day that are telling us that salvation is by works. That stuff's going on. And that you can be saved in the final judgment, being justified on the final day through your works. This stuff is being said. This man was torn up in his heart. They're confusing me, he said, as he wrote me, from the selfless act of Jesus. Why would they do that? it's not just that Christ has pardoned us. He's totally declared you righteous forever. It's over. He's not taking that from you. You're not going to be more righteous on that day than you are right now believing. But that produces in us a life of great joy, doesn't it? Unspeakable fullness of joy because I know that God has accepted me into His family not because of me but because of him and that's that great verse in the middle of this now to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift but is due but to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness you don't have to work with this free gift he's already given you you simply receive it is there anything clearer this morning in closing than when Jesus is on the cross and he's got two figures next to him bound up not a work they can do and one is blaspheming and the other in true faith says Lord remember me remember me and Jesus looks at him says today you'll be with me in paradise jesus says that to any of you today who believe to all of you who believe as he said to zacchaeus today salvation has come to this house today today today it's come for this also is a son of abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost that's why we celebrate the Reformation. That's what was recovered. And may we as a Reformed church treasure that and hold on to that all of our days where you're going to see life springing out of that place that believes this truth. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for your wonderful gospel to us that we don't deserve. You've been so faithful and wonderful to keep this truth even when we have taken it because of our sinful natures and tried to squelch it and put it out. But thank you for this truth thank you for these examples for we all lord sin in many ways we all have committed lust in the heart we all have been coveted just like that rich young ruler but we realize that when we ask the question what must we do to be saved the answer comes back to us believe which is a gift of God. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. What a wonderful message. Thank you, Father, for giving us the Reformation. Keep those truths in front of us. May we cherish the great doctrine of justification by faith alone. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.