Justified by Faith Alone — What Romans 4 Really Teaches

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody still with us. We're going to pick right up where we left off in our last program, and that will be again in Romans chapter 4. We're still going to be dealing with justification by faith plus nothing. And we're going to take our time because I know that there are very, very few who have a real understanding of what Paul is trying to teach in these chapters. Now, of course, justification goes all the way into chapter 5, and then when we get into chapter 6 we're going to be taking a good, hard look at old Adam. And again, that's a part of our salvation experience that I think very few people are aware of. And I put it on the board here a few weeks ago, you know, we're not sinners because we've broken the law. We break the law because we're sinners, and we're sinners by virtue of being born from Adam. Well, we'll be getting into that when we get into chapter 6. Now again, for the benefit of our television audience, and I know it's growing every week, we want you to realize that if you've just tuned in in the last few weeks or few months, all the previous programs are available. And we don't try to make anything. This is not a financial gimmick or anything like that, but we just want people to have an opportunity to use this material wherever. Oh, we've got Sunday schools using them, and as I mentioned in the last program, they're going overseas with missionaries. And I even had a gentleman call from Haiti, and he wants to use them down there. And who knows what may come of that? He even talked about my coming down in January and teach pastors for a week, and that sounds like a glorious opportunity, but that may be premature. We'll wait and see what happens. But anyway, all of these materials are available for just a minimal charge. Like I said, we don't attempt to make anything on them. We just do it for our cost. All right, now let's get back into the book, because that's why we're here, and drop down to verse 5 of Romans 4. And if it weren't that I hate to use the time on telling some experiences, because I think the Word is more important, every time I read verse 5, I have to think of a situation when we were still teaching up north, where a gentleman came into our class one night, the last man I would have ever dreamed would come to a Bible class, and especially the one of mine. In fact, I was so unbelieving that when he rang the doorbell, and we were just ready to start teaching, I didn't even think about inviting him in. I thought he had come for some other reason. And so we talked on the front porch for a minute or two, and he finally said, Well, don't you have a class here tonight? And I said, Yeah. I said, You mean you came to come to the Bible class? That's why I'm here. And I just felt like two cents. But anyway, we happen to be in verse 5, and that's why I always think of it. Every time I've taught Romans 4 and I come to verse 5, that evening is just as vivid as if it were last night. And then, stupid of all stupidity, there was only one chair left in our living room. It was packed with people, right here to my left. No, my right. He was sitting right over here to my right. And so we came to this verse, and we got started teaching, and I said, Would you read verse 5? No, I have never done that. Never in all my teaching have I asked somebody to read a verse. And here I ask a poor guy that I had heard was down at the bottom. He had hit the skids. He was running with the totally wrong crowd. And I asked this guy to read the verse of Scripture. Stupid. In fact, I lost sleep of it that night. How could I do something like that? But see, God overrules. And so he read the verse. And then I made another big stupid error. I asked him to make a little more comment on it. Now let's read the verse, and I'll show you how stupid I really was. But to him who worketh not, but believeth on him who justifieth thee, what? Ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. So after I had him read the verse, and I said, What kind of people does God justify? Now imagine. Asking someone who had never been approached with these things before, and put him on the spot. But he answered right. He says he's ungodly. And of course he knew that that's what he was. But anyhow, the reason this verse has made such an impact on me, he came back the next Saturday night. He came back the next Saturday night. And I think it was after the third Saturday night in the middle of the week, he called early one morning. And he called so early that he was afraid he may have gotten me out of bed, but he hadn't. I was drinking my first cup of coffee. And he said, Les, you had to be the first to know. He said, 3 o'clock this morning, I remember his wife has left him, his home is in a shambles. He had just literally hit the skids. And he said, 3 o'clock this morning, I woke up and I realized I'm losing everything. And I just cried out and I said, God, my life is a mess. And he said, I slipped out on my knees and I asked God to save me. And he said, it's just like a load is off my shoulder. Now that salvation was so genuine because that young man just immediately made a complete turnaround in his life. He became concerned about other lost people, so much so that he even had us move our class to his home for three or four Saturday nights. And he just went to every length. Remember honey, made homemade ice cream, had two different kinds of pies he had baked himself. He just bent over backwards because these ungodly friends had promised him they would come if we would meet in his home. And the poor guy asked us to delay starting the class that evening, the first one. And he'd walk to the window and I almost cried with him. He said, Les, they promised that they'd be here tonight. But they didn't come. So he said, can I have it again next week? And I said, well, yeah, whatever. And every Saturday night for several weeks on end, it was the same story. He went to every extreme to get the refreshments ready, had his house ready and all our class people cooperated. But he'd look down the road in vain and it just broke his heart simply because he wanted them to have his new found faith. And as I was thinking this over last night again, wondering whether I should share this or not. You see, just one verse of Scripture is what impacted the man. The Holy Spirit used my stupidity to do something that I've never done before or since. To not only ask him to read the verse but to make a comment on it. But he said, you know, Les, that verse just plagued me day after day after day. But he justifies the ungodly. And he said, there was no doubt, that's what I was. And you know, things are hard to figure out. We don't know God's ways. It wasn't too long after we moved to Oklahoma we heard that the Lord took him home in a violent crash, an accident. But he had left his testimony because everyone that called to tell us about his home going, every one of them said, and a lot of them were from different denominations. They would say, Les, he's in glory. And I said, I have no doubt. Because he had such a confirmed faith that this verse meant what it said. That God justifies the ungodly the moment we believe the Gospel. He didn't join something. He didn't go through a prescribed ritual. He just simply believed that Christ died for him and rose from the dead. Enough said there, I guess. That for that person then, his faith is accounted for righteousness. And then of course, the Apostle Paul, again by inspiration as I pointed out last week, goes back again to the Old Testament and even goes as far as David. How that even David was a man of faith. Wasn't exactly a perfect man, was he? He had his failures, he had his downfall. But still God could account him righteous because of his faith. Then you come down to verse 9 and he's going to pick up again with Abraham. So does this blessedness come then upon the circumcision or Jew only or only the offspring of Abraham? Or is it going to come upon the uncircumcision, the Gentile? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. Now verse 10. Oh, I love the way the Scripture does this. In fact, I've always told people when you start talking to others, use the Lord's format. How did the Lord invariably open a conversation? With a question, with a question. Invariably. And if they would ask a question, He would return with a question. Now the Scripture does the same thing. The Holy Spirit says, How was it reckoned? How did the man receive this righteousness? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision. Now don't forget that back here for the first 2,000 years there's been no hint of circumcision. There's been no hint of the Mosaic Law. There's been none of that. And so now Abraham comes out of the Ur of the Chaldees. He's Assyrian by birth, remember. And so he comes out of it as a non-Jew because the nation isn't even on the scene. And so this is what the Holy Spirit is pointing out. Abraham didn't come into this faith by virtue of his covenant relationship. God dealt with him when he was still in Ur of the Chaldees. He was in the midst of idolatry. And in that basis is when God says, Leave and go to a place that I will show you. And by faith, what did Abraham do? He left. Not after circumcision was implemented, before. Now, why? Because you see, that brings us into the picture. Because we're not part of the circumcision covenant. We are uncircumcised, so far as relationships in Scripture are concerned. All right, now then, let's go on. So in verse 11, He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, being yet what? Uncircumcised. So he came into this justification position before circumcision had even been mentioned to him. He was still, as we would think of, an uncircumcised gender. All right? That he might be the father of all them that believe. Now remember, all that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. Oh, who are we tying Abraham to? Us! See? He's tying him to us. That's the purpose of this book. And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being uncircumcised. All right, now turn with me to Galatians chapter 3, and maybe I can bring the point home. I'll hope so, because I've had so many folk come into my classes over the years, who said, well our preacher preached that we become Jews when we become a Christian. Horrors! Salvation is a miracle. But it doesn't make a Jew out of us. I mean, after all, that's based on genetics, and chromosomes, and what have you. That's a bloodline. And God does not change our blood. He does not make a Gentile a Jew. But the Scripture teaches that there is a relationship between us as Gentiles and the man Abraham. Got Galatians chapter 3? Galatians 3, verse 4-6. Galatians 3, verse 4-6. Even as Abraham believed God. You see how the Scripture keeps repeating? You remember when I first started this program, I said I try to teach on the same format as a famous mathematics teacher here in Oklahoma. I think he was written up in Reader's Digest several years ago, because his system of teaching mathematics was raising the grade level of all of his students. It was just so obvious that he had a system of teaching that surpassed anyone else in the country. Do you know what it was? Repetition. In other words, instead of just simply teaching this part of mathematics, and then when he thought they had moved on to the next one and forgot it, as he moved on up through that semester or that year, he would always review clear from the beginning. Just keep repeating and repeating. Add something new, but keep repeating. Well that's the way I like to teach Scripture, and that's what Scripture does. It's a constant matter of repetition to get it to soak in. These things don't come overnight, it takes time, and many of you know that. This is one reason I have to sometimes slow down. I know I unload so much, and then I think there's no way they could remember all that, and so we have to repeat, we have to review. Galatians 3, verse 6, "...even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." He was believing. Now verse 7, "...know ye therefore that they who are of faith..." Now I don't think I'm doing any violence to Scripture if I would say that those of you who are of the faith way, as over against some other way, and I don't have to rehearse what they are, but those of us who are of the faith way, the same are what? Children of Abraham. Well that's where they get the idea that we must become a Jew. No, we don't become a Jew, but we have a spiritual connection to the man like we have no other character in history other than the Lord Jesus Himself of course. So how and why are we connected to Abraham when verse 8, "...and the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through or by faith preached before the Gospel." Now here again it all becomes a matter of how do you emphasize in this verse, because I have people, maybe some of you here feel that Abraham understood the Gospel as we know it, that Christ would die, would be buried, and raised from the dead, and I disagree with that. Abraham had no idea of a Roman crucifixion. Nobody back here knew what crucifixion was. So it's all a matter of where you place your emphasis. So read it again, "...the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the non-Jew through or by faith preached," justification that is, not the Gospel, "...that justification was preached before the Gospel unto Abraham." You see that? Now if you put the emphasis on the Gospel, then you get the idea that Christ preached the Gospel to Abraham. He couldn't have, because then I'd have to feel that somewhere between Abraham and Paul it would have popped up. There would have been some sort of a reference to the death, burial, and resurrection as a means of salvation way back there somewhere, but it isn't. As I've pointed out on this program, you search the four Gospels, and you cannot find that they would be saved by believing that Jesus died for the sins of the world, was buried, and rose from the dead. It's not in there, and we have no right to push it back in there. We leave everything just exactly where it sits, but now, see, and that's the exact two words that Paul uses in Ephesians 2, verse 13, "...but now." You see what that does? That tells us that it hasn't always been that way. Well we may look at it on our way back, or before we go back to Romans, but finish verse 8, "...that God would justify the heathen," or the non-Jew, "...through faith, which was preached before the gospel," in other words, before there was any inkling of the great plan of redemption as we know it, "...saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Well you remember that was back in Genesis 12, verse 3, wasn't it? That it would be through the covenant promises with Abraham that the whole human race would enter into a salvation experience. Why? Because through the promise of Abraham came the Christ, and even though the covenant people rejected Him and nailed Him by virtue of the Roman army to a cross, what did He become? He became the Savior, not of Israel alone, but the whole human race. And this is what we're trying to be shown here, that Abraham entered in by faith and faith alone based on what God said to him, and that was what? Leave Ur. It's just that simple. Leave Ur, and I'll show you a place where I want you to go. That's faith. Now a lot of people are going to say, yeah, but it's His works that saved him when he left Ur. Oh no. No, no. Abraham was a believer before he ever got out of town. He was already declared righteous before he got out of the city wall. Why? Because he believed God. Now it's the same way with us. A lot of things follow our salvation experience. Absolutely they do. Most of you who know me know that I will not just run and tell somebody, well, I led so and so to the Lord, until I see that changed life. Then I'll gladly share it. But you see, when there's a genuine salvation, there's going to be a change in lifestyle. There's going to be a change in heart attitudes, and Abraham experienced that the moment he just like others that we have dealt with, the moment they believe, like the one I just shared with you. I mean, three o'clock in the morning he asked the Lord to save him, and by five o'clock he was able to tell me what had happened. Why? It was instantaneous. He didn't have to grow into it. It wasn't an evolutionary process. It was instantaneous. All right. So then why and how are we tied to Abraham? Well, maybe I can clarify. Abraham, or Abram as I've got here, entered in by faith, lust, nothing. Now as soon as Abraham goes beyond the rite of circumcision, and then that 1,500, 500 years later, here comes Moses and the law. Now even these good Jews back here are going to be saved based on their faith, but by faith alone? Faith alone? In other words, could a Jew during the temple period, could he say, well now Lord, I know I've sinned. I know I've broken the law, but I'm not going to bring a sacrifice with that work? Never! Never! He was now tied to a faith plus. He gets his earthly ministry. Not only now are they still under the law, and now I can prove that to you, the rich young ruler came to the Lord Jesus, and he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What did the Lord tell him? Keep the commandments, keep the law. But as John the Baptist began to preach now along with the keeping of the law, and with the bringing of the prescribed sacrifice for a salvation experience, now what did they have to do? Repent and be baptized. That was John's message, repent, now that's to the nation of Israel. With their national sins, they were to repent of them, and they were to show their repentance with their water baptism, absolutely they were. But that was now part of not faith plus something, now it's faith plus sacrifice, works, whatever you want to add in there. But then here comes the apostle Paul now again, and he says it's faith plus nothing. So where does that tie us to? To the only other man that God dealt with on that basis. That's how we're tied to Abraham. He was saved by faith plus nothing, we're saved by faith plus nothing, but everybody in between were saved by faith plus works, oh don't lose that. And once you can see that, then it's easy to understand, yes, Abraham had the promises of a spiritual seed in the heavenlies, because they were going to come in by faith plus nothing. But his physical relationship was with the nation of Israel, the earthly people of God, the dust of the earth. Alright, we've got a few minutes left, let's come back to Romans chapter 4, we'll make a little headway this time anyway. But we're still going to be dealing with Abraham. He is the epitome of an example of faith, the man of faith, Abraham. Let's read on, Romans 4, verse 13. For the promise that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or his seed through the law. Now you know that came first, 500 years after Abraham, here comes Moses and the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, and they receive the law. The whole nation is put under it, and never lose sight of the fact that the law was severe, the law was a burden, it was a yoke of bondage that Israel couldn't even bear. But it didn't come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Now verse 14. For if they who are of the law be heirs, in other words, just the children of Israel through their law keeping, then faith is made void. We cancel it. Oh, I always have to think of another one, maybe it's apropos. Galatians again, Galatians. Remember this little letter was written specifically to the churches of Galatia that they were not under law, they were under grace, because the Judaizers were trying to put them under law. And so this whole little letter of the Galatians is written for that purpose, to prove to these Gentile believers that they were not under law, they were under grace. Now in chapter 4, He has used the analogy of course of Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael was of the flesh, he was earthly, not of the spiritual seed, not of the promises as Isaac was. So then you come to verse 30 of Galatians 4. I've got to do this hurriedly, time is running out. Nevertheless what saith the Scripture, cast out the bondwoman and her son. Who was that? Hagar and Ishmael, they stood for the law, they stood for that which is of the flesh. Cast her out, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. In other words, Ishmael and Isaac could have no consort, they could have no interrelationship, because Ishmael stood for the law and legalism, Isaac stood for grace and freedom. So then brethren, verse 31, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Now come into chapter 5, and I'll tell you what, this same gentleman I just referred to in my last program, I taught this after he had begun to grow, and he taped it on a little audio and he took it to various preachers around that part of the world, and he told me later about 7 out of 12 threw him out of the office, almost physically, but the others all admitted that I was right, I hit the nail on the head, but it's kind of hard to swallow. But here's what we made, verse 31, "...stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage, behold I Paul say unto you, that if you be circumcised, and you put in there anything that man can do to merit salvation, just put it in there and you won't destroy the text, that if you're going to do something, he's naming circumcision, Christ shall profit you nothing." That's scary, my the first time I saw that verse it just shook me to my boots, to think that any person who tries to add something to the gospel of grace, faith plus nothing, he cancels the work of the cross, cancels it. Now that's enough to scare anybody, because multitudes of church people are doing that. They're saying, yeah, but I can't be saved unless I do this, or do that, or do that. You're canceling the work of the cross, because we have to believe that when Christ died and rose from the dead, He did everything that a holy God could demand of us, and all that holy God asks is, believe it, believe it, and if we won't believe it, then we stand under the anathema of a holy God who is angered, I can safely say, by the fact that we will not believe Him, and that's what faith is all about, that we can honestly look at the scripture and recognize that God has said it, and I with all my heart say, God I believe it. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.