WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.000 We are in the book of Romans and this is a letter from the Apostle Paul to the church in the ancient city of Rome. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:18.000 And we're in chapter four, which is the end of a section, the first section of Romans. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:24.000 It's been an argument from chapter one through chapter four, a masterful argument. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:29.000 And chapter four itself is its own argument within the big argument. 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:35.000 And it's got a just like a good essay, it's got a thesis statement, it's got proofs, it's got a conclusion. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:37.000 It's highly logical. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:42.000 And because it's a detailed argument, because it's logical, it's a little bit heavy. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:47.000 And that means it's not the most inspiring text. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:51.000 It's not the text that's going to immediately pull your heartstrings. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:58.000 This is my last sermon for the present and eight times in the passage, Paul uses the metaphor 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:02.000 of counting, which is an accounting verb. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:07.000 It literally means to number crunch eight times in these 12 verses. 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:12.000 And then at the end, he illustrates his point with Abraham's circumcision. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:20.000 And I'd always hoped, as anybody would, that your last sermon would be about accounting and circumcision. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.000 It's perfect. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:26.000 This is what Paul has said so far. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.000 The gospel is good news. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:30.000 It's not good advice. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:34.000 And that means that it's not about what you do, it's about what's been done for you. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:35.000 That was chapter one. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:42.000 He said that that good news is a history, that something came down, that God became flesh, 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.000 that the gospel is about what happened in history. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.000 It's not about bettering yourself, it's not about moral conformity. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:54.000 And that means that whether you're religious or irreligious, no matter what background you've grown up in, 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:01.000 whether you're Jewish or Gentile, no matter what you believe, that everybody is equally a sinner 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:05.000 deserving God's wrath and punishment and judgment because of guilt and because of sin, 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.000 but in the gospel. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:13.000 And this is what he said so far, that he has come and offered salvation instead through Jesus Christ. 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:14.000 How? 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.000 And the thing we've been focused on for the past three weeks is justification. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:26.000 And justification is this, that God sees you like he sees Jesus when he looks at you. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:29.000 That when he looks at you, he sees Jesus Christ for you. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.000 And he says something that's not actually true of you. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:35.000 And that's that you're righteous just like Jesus is. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.000 And that's what he said so far. 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Now he's making another instep, a more detailed theological argument within the big argument here. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:50.000 And he's anticipating two objections in chapter four. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:54.000 So what are they and why do they matter to us is the question. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:01.000 And so we're going to look at how God saves, how God gives gifts, and how God counts this morning. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:04.000 Okay, so first, how God saves. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:09.000 Now, this is the main theological point of Romans 4. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:16.000 So let's get it first and then we can move on to the things that do pull heartstrings in this passage. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:27.000 Claudius, the emperor of Rome, expelled the Jews from Rome, the ancient city, in the late 40s of the first century. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:31.000 And a few years later, they were allowed back in. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:39.000 And now Paul is writing in the late 50s, 10 years after the Jews had been expelled and then come back. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:47.000 And he knows that this church is now filled up with Jewish people in a way that it hadn't been previously. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:49.000 They had been expelled, but now they're back. 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:54.000 And there was all sorts of issues that were happening between the Jews and the Gentiles in this church in the first century. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:01.000 And he knows that the Jews there know their Bible. For them, the Bible is the Hebrew Bible. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:02.000 It's the Old Testament. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:04.000 He knows that they know their Bible. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:09.000 And so he's anticipating in this passage an objection that he thinks might come up, 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:16.000 especially from the Jewish people in Rome who know the Hebrew Bible, who know the Old Testament really well. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:17.000 And here it is. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:23.000 Paul, you're telling us that it's not by works that you get in. 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:26.000 You don't get salvation by works. That's what you keep saying. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:31.000 But it's only through the free gift, the radical grace of Jesus. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:34.000 And this to us sounds brand new. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:40.000 Because before, you could obey. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.000 You could obey Torah, Genesis did an oronymy. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:46.000 And you could do good works. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:53.000 And that's how you could get into God's kingdom and stay in through doing good things. 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:58.000 And now, Paul, you're saying that God has flipped it. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:05.000 And now that this radical gift through Jesus negates all your efforts, all your religiosity. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:11.000 And that sounds to me like salvation has changed fundamentally. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:14.000 And that God therefore must have changed too. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:18.000 And that's the objection he's anticipating. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:22.000 And his answer is no, no. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.000 That's not, you don't get it. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:25.000 That's not true. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:29.000 And there's three ways he says no to that here. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:34.000 And the first one just briefly, it's come up twice already in chapter one and chapter three. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.000 And it's this, he said at the very beginning of the letter, 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:43.000 God promised the gospel beforehand through the prophets. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:44.000 And in 321, 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:48.000 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:52.000 but the law and the prophets bore witness to it. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:56.000 So he's saying the stuff I've been telling you about, actually, 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:01.000 people have said things about it in the law and the prophets in the Old Testament. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:04.000 So it's not that new. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:08.000 And then the second thing he says is now about justification. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:15.000 Justification means you stand before God's law court and you are pronounced righteous like Jesus. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.000 And he said, look, this might sound new to you, but it's not. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:26.000 And so he goes to verse one, Abraham, and to verse six, David. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:32.000 Now, for any Jewish person in the first century, 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:37.000 and for any Gentile that had converted to either Judaism or now Christianity, 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:43.000 Abraham and David are, well, they're boss, as we say. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:45.000 They're everything. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:54.000 If there's anybody who got in, who got into God's kingdom, it's Abraham and it's David. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:59.000 And so he goes and he said, and he's saying, let me show you verse one and verse six, 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:06.000 Abraham and David, let me show you how they got in, how they received the favor of the Lord. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:10.000 And so thirdly, how? And that's the question in verse one. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:16.000 And the question for one, it's a little bit veiled. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.000 It's a little bit confusing on the surface. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:23.000 What shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:26.000 What did Abraham get? 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:31.000 What did he gain according to his flesh? 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:34.000 Now, what does that mean? What does that question mean? 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:37.000 Well, the question is what does flesh mean here? 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:44.000 And it doesn't mean according to his humanity, according to the blood that he has running through his veins, 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:48.000 according to that he's our forefather as a human, one of the first people. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:50.000 It doesn't mean that. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.000 It means you have to go to Philippians 3 to get it. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:00.000 And Paul says this about the same phrase three times in Philippians 3, according to the flesh. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:06.000 And this is what he says, we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God in glory in Christ Jesus, 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:13.000 and we put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:19.000 If anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more than you. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:23.000 And this is what he means by being confident in the flesh. What does it mean? 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:26.000 And here it is, I was circumcised on the eighth day. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:29.000 I'm of the people of Israel. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:34.000 I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor to the church, 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:38.000 as to righteousness under the law, I am blameless. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:43.000 And so what Paul means by under the flesh, or according to the flesh is this. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:49.000 It means according to your religiosity, your religious works. 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:51.000 And so when he asks this question at the beginning, he says, 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:59.000 what shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, he means according to his religious doings. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:05.000 According to all of his religious works. Just like Paul mentions there, his long list of religious works. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:12.000 Paul says, if anybody deserves anything in the flesh, according to religiosity, it was me. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:18.000 But if anybody deserves anything according to religiosity, it was Abraham. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:22.000 He was boss. He was the best. He's the best there's ever been. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:26.000 He's the most faithful man that's ever lived apart from Jesus Christ. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.000 And he's saying, if anybody deserves it, Abraham deserved it. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:35.000 Genesis 22, he said yes when God said, take your son up the mountain. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.000 And that's what Paul's thinking about there. That's the most obedient moment in the Old Testament. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.000 He was faithful. He deserved it. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:48.000 And so Paul's question is, what did his religiosity get for him? 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:51.000 The best man that's ever lived. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:56.000 And the answer is nothing. Nothing. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:01.000 It meant nothing for Abraham and it meant nothing for David. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:07.000 Even in the Old Testament, and it means nothing for, in other words, here's the point. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:14.000 The free grace, the radical undeserved forgiveness of God, Paul is saying, he's anticipating this objection. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.000 This sounds brand new to me. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:21.000 And he's saying, this new news that you're hearing about Jesus is actually old news. 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.000 It's actually old news. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:27.000 Now, so here's the point, the first point, the theological point. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:32.000 The main idea of the argument that we've got to get out there. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:45.000 And it's this, if Jesus came in about 4 B.C., which is what we think he did, and he lived and he died around 28, 29 A.D. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:57.000 And you're telling us, Paul, we're saying from this pulpit, Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, him for you, you with him, is the only way to be saved. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:03.000 Then how in the world can you say that anybody was saved before that moment? 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.000 That's the underlying question. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:19.000 And Paul's answer is, every single person in all of history who has ever trusted in the true God was saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:24.000 Abraham in Genesis 15, he's saying here, how was he saved? 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:27.000 By the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:31.000 How was David in Psalm 32 when he said, my sins are covered, how was he saved? 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.000 By the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:41.000 Jesus Christ's death and resurrection has always been salvific for all of history. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:47.000 Now, how could that possibly be if he didn't come till the middle of time, the middle of history? 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:51.000 And the answer is that God is eternal. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:53.000 The answer is God is eternal. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:12:00.000 He isn't bound by space or time that theologians speak of the fact that all times are present to him. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:09.000 And in Ephesians chapter one, it says that if you're a believer, if you're Abraham, if you're the last believer that will ever live in Revelation 21, 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:17.000 that from the beginning to the end that you were found in Christ when before the foundation of the world, 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:22.000 salvation has always been in Jesus from before the foundation of the world. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.000 And that's what Paul's telling them. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:26.000 And the law and the prophets, they all bore witness to it. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:34.000 Abraham and David, everybody, they were all saved by the exact same gospel that we're saved by. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:40.000 So either from the beginning, God either looks forward to the middle of history to save, 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:45.000 or he looks backward for us to the middle of history to save. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:47.000 But it's all through Jesus. 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:50.000 That's never changed is what he's saying. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:55.000 Okay, that's the theological argument of chapter four. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:01.000 Now, secondly, how God gives gifts. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:11.000 There's also another objection that he's anticipating that might come up from the city of Rome. 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:15.000 And it's less Jewish and more Gentile. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:21.000 It's really for anybody who grew up in the Greco-Roman world, and especially in a city like Rome. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:24.000 And it's all about cultural expectations. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:29.000 And it's this, you see it in verse four. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:34.000 Now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:43.000 Now, Paul here, he brings up the language of getting a gift that a true gift is never earned. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:49.000 It's given over for nothing, but that if you do something, you deserve a wage for it. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:51.000 You know, if you work for your employer, you deserve a wage. 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:53.000 Now, why does he bring this up? 00:13:53.000 --> 00:14:00.000 Here's something you need to know, that the word for gift in verse four is the exact same word for grace. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.000 Chorus in Greek. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:07.000 So sometimes in the New Testament, it's translated gift, and sometimes it's translated as grace. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:12.000 But grace and gift are the same thing for Paul. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.000 Here's the cultural issue he's addressing. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:24.000 People in the Greco-Roman world, just like today, treat gifts like wages. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:26.000 We still do that. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:28.000 We treat gifts like wages. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:33.000 If somebody gives us a gift, we want to deserve it. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:34.000 Right? 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:38.000 And when somebody gives you a truly great gift, you feel guilty about it. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:44.000 And you want to return the favor and you want to do something to give back what's been given to you. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:46.000 Some great gift that somebody's given you in your life. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:47.000 You feel guilty. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:51.000 Everybody gives a guilt consciousness whenever you get a great gift. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.000 I mean, it happens to me at least. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:55.000 And that's exactly what was happening. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.000 That's exactly the culture of gift giving in the Greco-Roman world. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:04.000 John Barclay, a New Testament scholar at the University of Durham, is really helpful. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:12.000 He's written a really helpful book last year explaining Romans 4 according to this idea of giving gifts in the ancient Roman world. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:13.000 And this is what he says. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:21.000 In the Greco-Roman gift giving scheme, you give a gift to somebody only if they are worth it. 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:29.000 In other words, when you give a gift, it's for the purpose of expecting your social capital to grow. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:35.000 That if you give a gift, you're expecting that you will be known for it, that it will be returned to you, 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:38.000 that you're standing in the community will get lifted up. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:42.000 That's the only reason you give a gift in the ancient city of Rome. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:43.000 That's the main reason. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:48.000 And that's the cultural expectation that this idea of grace is entering into. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:51.000 It doesn't make sense to them what's being talked about here. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:54.000 Let me illustrate it. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:16:01.000 If you're a member of our church, you probably know Phyrr and Siobhan, they got married on Friday. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:03.000 But all of us have been to weddings. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:13.000 And if you came Friday and you gave Phyrr and Siobhan a gift, and you gave them a great gift, 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:16.000 a gift that people are going to talk about for a long time. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.000 It gets found out. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:21.000 And what a gift that so and so gave to Phyrr and Siobhan. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:27.000 And your social capital is going to go up. 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:31.000 Because Phyrr and Siobhan, naturally, they're going to like you more. 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:32.000 I mean, they have to, right? 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:36.000 I mean, if you were on the recipient end, you like the person more. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:37.000 That gives you a great gift. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:39.000 And then people talk about it in the church. 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:42.000 And everybody says, did you hear about the gift at the Cacai? 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.000 And your social capital goes up. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:47.000 We still do this, even unintentionally. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:54.000 But, look, Phyrr and Siobhan are just like the rest of us here. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:59.000 Why would you give that great gift to them when Saturday morning, 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:04.000 you could have given that gift to Harry and Meghan, right? 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.000 I mean, talk about your social capital going up. 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:09.000 I mean, Phyrr and Siobhan, yes, in St. Columbus, maybe, 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:13.000 but if you got your gift through to Harry and Meghan on Saturday morning, 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:18.000 and somehow, someway, they opened it and they knew it was from you and they loved it, 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:21.000 you could hit the lottery, right? 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:25.000 I mean, you could become an in-person with the royal family. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:27.000 I know for some of you that would be a terrible thing, 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:31.000 but for some of you, you would love it. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:35.000 That's the idea of gift-giving in ancient Rome. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.000 You do it because people are worth it and they can raise you up in life 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:43.000 and you expect a return every time on the gift you've given. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:49.000 Now, this also happened with the gods of ancient Rome or the Greek gods. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:56.000 You give them a gift and you expect a commensurate return, 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.000 what we call a blessing. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:03.000 If I give them enough grain, they give me enough rain to yield a bigger crop. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:05.000 It worked the same way, right? 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:12.000 So, gift-giving was all about your return based on your worth, which you would get back. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:18.000 Paul is saying here, verse 2, 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:23.000 if Abraham was justified by works, by doing something for God, 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:30.000 giving God a gift in the way that you give a gift to the ancient gods or to one another, 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:32.000 then he has something to boast about. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:36.000 Now, the word boast there does not mean braggadocious. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:40.000 It means to make a claim. 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:47.000 So, he's saying if he was able to give a gift to God that was really worth something, 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:54.000 he could make a just legal claim against God, like an employee to an employer. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.000 You see, verse 4. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:01.000 That's why he brings up employees and employers. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:11.000 So, verse 2, but Paul uses a bit of an unusual Greek term that's being translated here as the word but. 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:14.000 It's really emphatic. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:18.000 It's like, but no way, man. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:19.000 It's like that. 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:22.000 It's like, if you were able to give a gift to God and you expect a return, 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:24.000 it'd be worth enough to get a return. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:27.000 No way, not this God. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:29.000 That's what he's saying, but not God. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:32.000 That does not work with this. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:38.000 You can do that with the Greek gods and with the Roman gods and with your friends that you think will boost your social capital. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:45.000 That does not happen with the true God, but not God. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:47.000 John Barclay uses this illustration. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:56.000 It's like trying to go to the bank and trade in your shillings and your farthings and your half pennies. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:00.000 When the currency is pounds and euros and dollars. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:03.000 It's an exchange that cannot be. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:06.000 It can't work, not with this God. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:10.000 Now, there was a pharisecal type view out there in the first century. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:15.000 One of the apocryphal books written between the Old Testament and New Testament, the Book of Jubilees. 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.000 It says that this is exactly what Abraham did. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:24.000 He actually gave God enough to credit back his righteousness. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:30.000 It says this, for Abraham was perfect in all that he did before the Lord. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:37.000 He became well pleasing in accord with righteousness for all the days of his life. 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:40.000 You see, that was the view. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:45.000 I don't know about you, but I read Genesis 13 to 14. 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:48.000 I can say that no, he did not. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:50.000 He did not do well all the days of his life. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:53.000 He prostituted his wife twice. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:54.000 It's not true. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:55.000 He didn't. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:02.000 He had no capital to take, no currency to take before this God. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:07.000 Now, the way our hearts all work is that we want to say, 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:12.000 even when we are able to come to terms with the fact that we're sinners, 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:17.000 and we'll say, I know I'm a sinner, and I have so much to atone for, 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:23.000 and I have so much work to do to get it right, to finally get it right. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:25.000 That's where we want to be. 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:27.000 That's the nature of the human heart. 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:34.000 And well, Martin Lloyd-Jones, the great Welsh preacher, he put it like this, 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:38.000 to make it quite practical, I have a very simple test. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:42.000 After I've explained the way of Christ to somebody, 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:47.000 I say, now are you ready to say that you are a Christian? 00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:49.000 And they hesitate, and then I say, what's the matter? 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:51.000 Why are you hesitating? 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:56.000 And so often people say, I don't feel like I'm good enough. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:59.000 I don't think I'm ready to say I'm a Christian yet. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:03.000 And at once I know that I've been wasting my breath. 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:06.000 They're still thinking in terms of themselves. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:07.000 They have to do it. 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:11.000 It sounds very modest to say, well, I don't think I'm good enough, 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:15.000 but it is a denial of the Christian faith. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:20.000 The very essence of the Christian faith is to say that he is good enough, 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:23.000 and I am in him. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:27.000 As long as you go on thinking about yourself like that and saying, 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:29.000 I'm not good enough, oh, I'm not good enough, 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:33.000 then you are denying God, and you are denying the gospel, 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:40.000 and you are denying the very essence of faith, and you will never be happy. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:46.000 Well, he said it, not me. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:51.000 Augustus Toplady said it really well as well in the great hemrock of ages. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:57.000 Nothing in my hands I bring simply to the cross I cling. 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:01.000 Naked I come to thee for dress. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:04.000 Helpless I look to thee for grace. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:08.000 Foul I to the fountain fly. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:12.000 Wash me, Savior, or I die. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:20.000 The point is that you bring no gift that could ever turn God into your employer. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:27.000 There is no wage that will ever merit the radical grace of Jesus Christ. 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:29.000 It is truly free. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:32.000 John Barclay calls it incongruous grace. 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:36.000 It's completely one-sided, is what he means. 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:39.000 It's completely one-sided. 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:45.000 Now, to third and final point, how God counts. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.000 How God counts. 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:55.000 Eight times in these eleven verses, Paul mentions the verb to count. 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:56.000 To count. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:01.000 You see it first in verse three. 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:02.000 What does the scripture say? 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:06.000 Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:11.000 And what he means there, he says Abraham believed God, he had faith. 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:19.000 And it was counted, reckoned, accorded to him as righteousness, as the gift of righteousness. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:26.000 All I want to do in this last point is explore with you two big mistakes we can make 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:31.000 when we think about what it means to have faith according to this passage. 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:41.000 Two ways that you can construe God counting your faith as righteousness into bad news instead of good news. 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:43.000 And the first is this. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:45.000 He says it in verse three. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:47.000 He believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:52.000 You want to have access to the grace of God and Jesus Christ and Paul says it clearly. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:55.000 Believe and it will be counted to you as righteousness. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.000 And so you say, you've been telling us it's not by works. 00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:01.000 You can't earn it. 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:04.000 You can't give God, you can't turn God into your employer. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:07.000 You can't religiosity your way into the kingdom. 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:08.000 You can't do it. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:12.000 But you've got to have faith. 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:14.000 You've got to have faith. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:19.000 You've got to trust and you've got to give over your whole heart to God and you've got to put your whole self into it 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:25.000 and you've got to believe if you want to be a part of the kingdom of God. 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:28.000 You can't do that. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:30.000 You can't do that. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.000 That's not true. 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:36.000 God counts differently than that. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:38.000 That's not what this means. 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:43.000 It doesn't mean you have to put your whole self and your whole heart into it if you want to be into the kingdom. 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:46.000 That's not what it means. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:53.000 The theologians talk about the difference in subjective faith and objective faith. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:58.000 Subjective faith is that faith that you possess in your heart. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:02.000 The faith that you actually exercise right now if you believe. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:05.000 And it comes in all sorts of shades and qualities. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:08.000 It changes all the time. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:12.000 It depends on your mood and you will get up some days and that faith will be incredible. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:18.000 Your subjective faith, the levels on it will be incredibly low and some days it will be higher. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:23.000 Your subjective faith changes all the time. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:30.000 You believe more and you believe less depending on what day of the week it is. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:36.000 But objective faith means this, the theologians say. 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:42.000 It's that thing or person which you put your faith in. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:46.000 You see the difference? 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:49.000 Here's how God counts. It's like this. 00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:54.000 Three men were being chased by a bear. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:57.000 This is going to go somewhere. 00:26:57.000 --> 00:26:59.000 This is how God counts faith. 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:02.000 Three men were being chased by a bear. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:05.000 And they reach an impasse, a river. 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.000 It's cold and it's icy and it's the middle of winter. 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:14.000 And the first man looks at the river and says, 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:20.000 it's frozen on the top but I don't think it's going to hold us. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:26.000 And I'm not sure if I can step out there knowing that I might fall through the ice. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:30.000 And the second man comes and says, I don't know if it's going to hold us. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.000 I'm not sure if it's thick enough but we don't have a choice. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:39.000 I've got to step out and go across this river because of the bear, you know. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:45.000 And the third guy says, I've lived in these woods for a long, long time 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:50.000 and I've crossed this river many times and I can tell you the ice is thick. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.000 It's thick enough and we will cross and we will make it. 00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:59.000 Or to use a more biblical example, 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:04.000 Tim Keller and his great sermon, Getting Out on Exodus 14, 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:08.000 he talks about the fact that the Israelites as they came up to the Red Sea, 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:10.000 they were grumbling, you know, you remember. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:13.000 And some were courageous and faithful and some were grumbling. 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:15.000 The text says that. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:20.000 And then Moses spread his arms out in two giant walls of water on the right and the left came up. 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:27.000 And they went through the middle of the waters and you got to know that the ones that were courageous and faithful 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:30.000 were probably turning around to the Egyptians as Keller puts it and says, 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:33.000 eat your heart out Pharaoh, you know, look at me now. 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:35.000 Look at what my God did. 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:38.000 I got two walls of water and I'm passing right through. 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:39.000 There's nothing you can do to me. 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:42.000 And they were beating their chest and saying, come get me now. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:43.000 You know, they were correct. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:48.000 They were bold and they were running right through brave as ever with two giant walls of water on each side. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:52.000 And you got to know that the ones that in the verse before that had said, 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:54.000 we didn't want to leave Egypt. 00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:57.000 We're saying, I'm going to die. 00:28:57.000 --> 00:28:58.000 I'm going to die. 00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:02.000 You know, there was two walls of water and they were just waiting for it to crash down on their heads. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:05.000 They were afraid and they didn't even want to go through the waters. 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:10.000 Some did and some were courageous and faithful and some didn't. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:17.000 And you got to ask the question of the three men who stood before the icy river and of the Israelites, 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:24.000 the two different groups, who among them were saved? 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:28.000 Who among them were saved? 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:31.000 Well, you see, it was all of them. 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:33.000 Every one of them. 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:44.000 And that means what this does not mean is that the strength of your subjective faith is what gets you into the kingdom of God. 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:46.000 Because your faith varies. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:49.000 Subjective faith does not get you into the kingdom. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:54.000 You see, it is not the quality of your faith that counts. 00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:58.000 It is the object of your faith. 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:03.000 It is the object, it is objective faith that gets you into the kingdom. 00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:06.000 Faith in that whom, that person. 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:12.000 And when they were crossing the Red Sea, what did God tell them? 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:18.000 When you are afraid, look up at the mediator, the one who has his arms open, 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:22.000 standing there parting the seas for you. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:25.000 The object of your faith is what saves. 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:28.000 In other words, the first mistake is this. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:32.000 You cannot turn faith into a good work. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:37.000 Into something that, it is the faith that earns your way in by believing. 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:39.000 It does not. 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:41.000 BB Warfield says it this way. 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:45.000 You are not strictly speaking saved by your faith. 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.000 You are saved by Jesus Christ. 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:51.000 And so believe it. 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:58.000 See, and if you try to add to God's salvation by having good faith, quality faith, 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:00.000 then you subtract from it. 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.000 Instead, be still and know, he says. 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:09.000 Alright, the second and final brief objection, 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:14.000 a brief problem that might come up with this passage, 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:19.000 the way we might misconstrue what he means here, faith, with our faith, is this. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:22.000 It's common in our tradition here. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:29.000 And it's combining justification and a certain reading of the Old Testament, 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:32.000 particularly Psalm 22, and it says something like this. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:37.000 Justification tells us, we've just learned that you are not worthy before God. 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:38.000 You have to reckon with that. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:39.000 You have to deal with that. 00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:41.000 That you are not worthy before God. 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:42.000 You are guilty. 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:45.000 And that's exactly what justification comes and says to us. 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.000 You need a mediator, you need Jesus to stand in your place. 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:52.000 And so then we read in Psalm 22 something like this. 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:54.000 David says, I am a worm. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:55.000 You remember this? 00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:57.000 Not a man. 00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:01.000 And you come to the conclusion, it's been spoken in many pulpits, 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:07.000 that justification, this doctrine means that not only are you not worthy before God, 00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:12.000 but you are also worthless before God. 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:16.000 You are less than human, you are subhuman. 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:20.000 That you are not a man or a woman, you are a worm. 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:28.000 And God would rather stamp you out like an ant, but instead he does this for you. 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:32.000 We just lost the lights. 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:39.000 And you can't do, that's not, no, you can't do that either. 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:42.000 Let me just say this. 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:49.000 David in Psalm 22, when he says, I am a worm, not a man. 00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:52.000 Just to clear the air on this verse. 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:59.000 He is talking about the people who were chasing him. 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:02.000 He is talking about his enemies, the people who were chasing him. 00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:07.000 And he says, in the eyes of my enemies, I am a worm, not a man. 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:10.000 But not before God. 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:12.000 But not before God. 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:14.000 That's exactly the point of the passage. 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:17.000 He is saying, everybody else around me thinks I am worthless, 00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:19.000 but God, you will not forsake me. 00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:21.000 You do not think that of me. 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:26.000 It's completely misconstrued if you think, it's not the point that God is saying, 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:28.000 you are a worm and not a man. 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:31.000 That's not what the gospel is about, that you are worthless. 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:36.000 And so God has to come in out of pity or something and lift you back up. 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:37.000 Here's the difference. 00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:39.000 You are unworthy. 00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:41.000 You are guilty. 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:42.000 It's judicial. 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:44.000 It's ethical. 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:48.000 But you are of immense, immense worth. 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:50.000 Christian and non-Christian alike. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:53.000 That's exactly why he comes. 00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:58.000 Because he wants you. 00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:03.000 The gospel is not you are worthless, but he comes in pities and saves you by grace. 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:08.000 The gospel is, in the eyes of God, you are so worth it, 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:14.000 even though you are unworthy that he would come. 00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:17.000 We'll close with an illustration. 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:25.000 I gave this one about six, eight months ago, so you'll remember it, but probably. 00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:31.000 But it's exactly the point of what we're saying here. 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:37.000 And, well, it's a hard one to get through, to be honest, this illustration. 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:38.000 You'll know it when I say it. 00:34:38.000 --> 00:34:41.000 Stephen Carter's Chapman. 00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:44.000 He, Christian contemporary music singer. 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:48.000 Many of you will, if you grew up in the church, you'd probably listen to some Stephen Carter's Chapman in your day. 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:50.000 In the 90s when that was cool. 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:56.000 And he and his wife adopted three little girls from China. 00:34:56.000 --> 00:35:01.000 And the youngest named Maria. 00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:06.000 And it was a great day for their family in 2008. 00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:12.000 Will Franklin, one of their sons, was graduating high school in the southern states. 00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:17.000 And he had graduated, he was coming home, and Maria was excited to see him. 00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:22.000 So she ran out into the road and he ran over in his car. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:27.000 And his mom, the mother, they were recording this interview they did in 2008. 00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:30.000 That the mom said, Maria, stop. 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.000 But she was calling out Will Franklin's name, going to see her brother. 00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:36.000 And he hit her. 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:40.000 So the dad, Stephen Curtis, picks up Maria. 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:42.000 And she's dying. 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:44.000 And he puts her in the back of the car. 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:48.000 And she dies there in the back of the car on the way to the hospital. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:54.000 But he rushes off, but before he leaves, and he says in his interview in 2008, 00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:57.000 that he didn't even remember doing this. 00:35:57.000 --> 00:36:03.000 His uncle, his brother, Will Franklin's uncle later told him that this is what happened. 00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:12.000 But just out of instinct, he rolls down the window and as he's driving away with Maria, 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:18.000 dead in the back of the car, he says, Will Franklin, my son, I love you. 00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:20.000 And he drives off. 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:26.000 And you see, that's the point of the Gospel. 00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:30.000 It's not that you are a worthless worm before God. 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:36.000 So he comes to pity you and throw himself down to you and help you. 00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:44.000 It's not, it's this, it's when you are at your absolute worst, like Will Franklin was in that moment, 00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:50.000 that God says, I love you enough, well let me put it like Paul does, 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:57.000 he who did not spare his only son for you, how would he not freely give you everything? 00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:01.000 When did God love you before justification or afterwards? 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:05.000 He loved you so he came to justify you, you see. 00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:10.000 It's the love of God that came first because he wanted you. 00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:16.000 And so he says, believe it, believe it. 00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:21.000 No other religion has a God who gives gifts like that. 00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:31.000 And so we'll end with the words of the Apostle John, my little children, God is love and God loves you. 00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:35.000 Let's pray. 00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:38.000 Father, we give thanks to you for the love. 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:45.000 The love that's so radical that you would give yourself over to death for us. 00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:52.000 We know that we have no merit, no wage to claim before you. 00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:55.000 So we plead the work of Jesus Christ for us. 00:37:55.000 --> 00:38:01.000 For those of us who believe that we would be renewed, for those who might not, 00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:06.000 that they would come to see the infinite worth of Jesus Christ for them. 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:27.000 I'm going to pray this in Christ's name. Amen.