Sermon Notes Romans 4:1-8

Romans 4:1-8
M.Kelly
Oct. 6, 2013

Paul is articulating the fact that we need righteousness because all are unrighteous.

Paul also goes back to the Old Testament. We can not divorce ourselves from the Old Testament. He goes back to Abraham. Paul uses him to justify that no man is justified through works but only through faith.

Scripture interprets scripture. We can't use sources outside the Bible to validate the Bible. In doing so we place that thing to have more authority than the Word of God!

Justification is to God's glory. We tend to think of it in a self centered way.

If Abraham were justified by works, he would have something to boast about!

The primary purpose of the gospel is not to save men but to glorify God. He justifies the ungodly and unrighteous. He doesn't justify us because we are so lovable!

The Gospel is not new. It does not need to be updated and made more relevant! It was promised before hand by the holy prophets....it is not new! We need both the Old and New Testaments! We can not ignore the Old Testament!

We must not be led by our emotions and feelings when it comes to the study of the Old Testament or Bible study in general.

Gal. 3:6-9 Abraham is mentioned again.

Those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham!

The faith of Abraham is relevant!!! We do not need to do church in a new way or reach people in a new way. The faith of Abraham is good enough! The Scriptures are alive! God is present in His Word and He confronts all men where His word is preached, read and meditated on. He is present where ever His Word is preached! We have no right to update the Gospel!

Justification is about righteousness and true faith sees this!

The righteousness of God is displayed in the Gospel!

The Old Testament saints were saved the same way the New Testament saints are saved. By faith!

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness! In the same way we need to believe God!

Paul also refers to David. The Old Testament is relevant!!!!

1. Works will not bring us closer to God.
v.5-6 These are shocking words to the Jews. God justifies the one who does not work for it. This was shocking to the Jews. They thought God was pleased with them for their works.
Romans 8:8 Those who are in the flesh can not please God!!! Paul was a great enemy of the Jews for preaching this kind of stuff! Works can not build a ladder to heaven!

Man has such a low view of God that they think God is pleased with whatever they choose to give Him!

Men hold God accountable to reward them for the works they choose to give and think they deserve.

Many so false missionary work. A missionary is an evangelist, a preacher. Many go to foreign countries to do good things and earn merit with God. The proper work of the missionary is to bring the truth to the people. He may do many good things but he also preaches the truth!

Man worship their own works in whatever form they take. He makes excuses whenever his works fall short.

No man can satisfy the debt he owes God. He can't even make a percentage of a payment!!!

The ones who are blessed do not have their sins credited to their account!

2. The Lord is the One who takes sin into account. v.6-8
The cultural message is you must forgive yourself. Forgiving yourself will do no good. We must be forgiven by God. The Lord must deal with our sins. He is the One with Whom we must deal with. Many work hard at pleasing other people. Many work to convince men of their false god, but The Lord is the One who takes sin into account!

The one who is not blessed are the ones whose sins are not covered. It doesn't matter what men think. It only matters what God thinks!

Most consider being blessed as being talent, money, possessions, beauty, etc. We have self centered ideas of what blessings are. True blessing is not having our sins counted against us!

2 Cor. 5:18-21

4. God is to be acknowledged for His mercies and grace. We think of assurance in a self-centered way. It's for our feelings, our comfort etc. When someone complains about their assurance they are complaining they don't have the warm fuzzy feelings. We are to have assurance so that we can acknowledge and praise God for His salvation, not that we might have warm fuzzy feelings.

Psalm 33:1
1 John 5:13

Assurance is primarily about being able to glorify God for His salvation.

(look up the Psalm that Romans 4:7-8 comes from)

Our spur to obedience is that we have the righteousness of God imputed to our accout.

5. Our blessing and joy is to be focused on the atoning, forgiving, righteous work of our Lord Jesus Christ. This can only be experience by those who do not work to gain merit with God.

Christians don't experience it because they do apply these great doctrines to their lives.

A Christian is one who is ungodly, but their sins are not counted against them.....has a righteousness, but it's not his own....it is Jesus Christ's.
Justification does not change a person. It is a legal term. It puts the righteousness of Christ on him and God pronounces him righteous.

Sanctification includes coming to see the depth of our depravity. We do make progress by God's grace. It takes place through the regular preaching, Lord's supper, fellowship, prayer, reading the Bible, mortification of sin etc. It depends on the use of the means of grace.

We must exercise the spiritual means to stay in spiritual shape! If we don't we won't be in spiritual shape. We get so caught up in the idea that we are saved and now we can sit and not doing anything. We must work at our growth. We must use the means to spiritual growth or it's not going to happen!!!!






Marsha
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