Skip to content

The River ChurchSermons

Righteousness

Righteousness Illustrated, Pt. 1

Josh Combs · Sunday, 8 June 2025 · Romans 4:1-12 · 40:47 · 5,375 words

Romans S7 · 4:1-12 Goodrich

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The message explores Romans 4, showing that Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God, not because of his works or ancestry. It argues that no one, not even Abraham or David, can earn right standing before God; only faith in Christ brings forgiveness. The thief who simply asked Jesus to remember him illustrates this. The call is to trust in Jesus, believe his death and resurrection, and receive the forgiveness of sins.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

david 36 abraham 39 uriah 12 abram 11 account 17 bar 10 count 19 candy 10 number 19 bless 22 faith 37 graduation 3

Topics

Abraham 14 Faith 11 Sin 3 Righteousness 2 The Flesh 1 The Gospel 1

Scripture referenced 30

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 3 1:42 Romans 3:27 1:42 Romans 4:1 2:10 Romans 3 2:37 John 8 3:10 Romans 4 5:28 Romans 4:2 5:51 Romans 4:3 7:19 Romans 4:3 8:39 Romans 16 10:53 Romans 14 11:31 Genesis 15:6 13:29 Romans 14:6 13:57 Romans 4 14:29 Romans 4 20:09 Romans 4:3 20:09 Romans 4:4 20:46 Romans 4:4 21:19 Romans 4:5 21:27 Luke 15 22:36 Romans 4:6 23:13 Psalms 32 26:25 Psalms 32 27:09 Romans 4:5 27:46 Psalms 32 28:53 Psalms 32:1-2 28:53 Luke 23:39 33:34 Romans 10:9 39:27 Romans 10:9 39:29 Genesis 15 39:56

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:40. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name's Keaton, and thanks for checking out this message today.

We're so glad that you're here, and we want to connect with you and your family.

The easiest way to do that is to text RIVERCONNECT to the number 97000.

There, we can answer your questions and even help pray for you.

You can also visit our website at theriverchurch.cc to learn more about us and what we have going on as a church.

Finally, if you want to support the work we're doing here at the River Church financially,

please head to our website, click the Give tab at the top of the page,

or you can text the amount you want to give to 84321.

Thanks again for joining us. We hope you're blessed by today's message.

If you're a guest, we want to welcome you.

So glad to see you. So glad to be with you. Thanks for being here with us today.

Romans chapter number 4. We're going to pick up in verse number 1.

Paul is writing to the church in Rome, Christians there.

He has told them that the law reveals their sin. It reveals our sin.

It shuts everyone's mouths.

And then in verse 27 of chapter 3, Paul says,

So no one gets to boast. No one gets to stand before God and say,

God, thanks for being gracious to all these other people, but I didn't need it. I'm good.

Exactly. It's funny. I'm glad one person found me funny today.

I'm so encouraged by that. Let's pray and be done now.

Romans 4, 1.

So Paul says,

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to...

The flesh.

Now, Abraham was the first of the Hebrews, first of the Jews.

He was a giant, a hero to the people of Israel.

Hold your spot in Romans 3 and go to the left to the Gospel of John.

John chapter number 8.

Keep in mind that this would be thousands of years after.

Roughly around 2,000 years, give or take some time, after Abraham had lived.

About just the icon, the hero that he would be to the Jewish people.

John chapter 8 and verse number 31.

Jesus is having a tense conversation with the religious leaders.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him,

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Jesus is talking about freedom from sin.

Jesus is talking...

He's talking about, follow me, I will lead you into the way of salvation.

Well, their response to Jesus, verse 33, they answered him,

We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.

Their response to Jesus is, we don't need you to set us free.

Abraham is our ancestor.

We're already free.

Jump down to verse number 39.

They answered him.

So they respond to Jesus again.

Abraham is our father.

Think about this.

Their defense against Jesus, revealing their character, questioning their belief, faithfulness, relationship with God.

They're kind of in their mind, their trump card, so to speak, is, well, Abraham's our father.

We're all set.

They repeat it again.

Abraham is our father.

Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.

But now you seek to kill me, a man who is...

Who has told you the truth that I heard from God.

This is not what Abraham did.

Just for the finishing punch here from Jesus.

He says, you are doing the works your father did.

And they said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality.

So they accuse Jesus's mother of being sexually immoral.

Finally, Jesus tells them, you are of, verse 44, you are of your father, the devil.

So their defense to Jesus about their behavior.

Their claim to heaven, their claim to eternal life was based upon who their ancestor was.

Let's go back to Romans chapter 4.

Paul says here, what then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh.

So let's talk about our hero of the faith.

What was gained by his efforts?

Was anything gained before God?

Abraham was justified by works.

He has something to boast about.

That word justified, the idea of being made right before God.

So if Abraham was right before God, in right standing with God,

his status before God was right by his works.

Paul says, well, if that was the case, hypothetically, he has something to boast about.

But Paul just lays it out here, but not before God.

The Jews believed that Abraham was not just a hero,

of their faith, but in some of their own writings,

they claimed that Abraham had kept all of God's holy law,

even before the law was written.

They even claimed that Abraham did not need to repent or be forgiven of any sin.

So Paul writing to the church in Rome, which was comprised of Gentiles,

but also a lot of Jews.

He says, let's talk about Abraham.

Did Abraham gain anything?

Did Abraham gain anything by his works?

Well, if he did, I want you to know that it wouldn't matter before God.

Because everyone, including Abraham's boasting, is excluded before God.

Even Abraham could not boast about his good works or earn a perfect status before God.

Paul says, for what does the scripture say?

Now, I just want to pause right there and preach a second sermon

and come back to my original sermon.

If you have a highlighter,

or a pen,

something that you can star that question with,

I think you should.

Because to me, that is the question that Christians should be asking all the time.

What does the scripture say?

Not what does a pastor say?

Not what does tradition say?

Not what do I think I heard once upon a time?

What does the Bible say?

What does the scripture say?

That ought to be the most important question to a Christian.

Because we can be distracted by all kinds of religious things

churchy sounding things, motivational things,

things that a pastor said we thought sounded good.

The question is, what did God say?

What does the Bible say?

And let me just say this to you.

If God said it, you can bank on it.

He is true, and the Bible says, let God be true,

and every man, by comparison, be a liar.

What does the scripture say?

So Paul asks the church that.

Now, he's referencing back to the Old Testament.

And he quotes from the Old Testament.

The quote is, Abraham believed God,

and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Let's hold our spot in Romans

and go back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

And we'll look at Genesis chapter number 15.

Paul says, your tradition claims that Abraham earned God's favor,

earned a right status before God.

But what does the scripture say?

Paul quotes Genesis chapter number 15.

And we'll get to that verse in a moment.

Let's begin.

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram.

This is even before his name was changed to Abraham.

The word of the Lord comes to Abram in a vision.

Fear not, Abram.

I am your shield.

Your reward shall be very great.

But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me?

For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus.

And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring,

and a member of my family.

And a member of my household will be my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him.

This man shall not be your heir.

Your very own son shall be your heir.

And he brought him outside and said, so God tells him to go outside.

God says, look toward heaven and number the stars.

If you are able to number them.

And he said to him, so shall your offspring be.

This is a man who is.

In the very next chapter, in chapter number 16,

we see that he's 86 years old.

The chapter after that, we fast forward a little bit.

He's now 99 years old.

We have another time stamp in chapter 16, in verse number 2,

that Abram lived for 10 years in the land of Canaan.

So he's arrived in the promised land.

He's obeyed what God told him to do.

And a decade has gone by with no child.

Year after year, month after month.

God, you said we were going to have, you know,

I was going to be the father of a great nation and many nations.

You said through me, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

Time begins to go by.

He begins to doubt.

He begins to question the promises of God,

the dependability of what God says.

In chapter 14, he has this great victory.

He takes his personal military in his home,

goes and he destroys these kings, rescues his nephew.

It's an incredible victory.

But he kind of has this post-battle, post-victory depression.

Like, God, that was great.

God, the blessings are awesome.

What about this son thing?

What about the heir?

Like, what about the one I'm going to pass all my belongings onto,

the blessing onto?

Nothing seems to have happened with that.

Sarah, my wife, has come back with no news.

And God says, oh, no, you're going to have a son.

Your very own son shall be your heir.

He says, let's go.

Let's go outside.

He says, I want you to look up.

Look up in the sky.

You can imagine there was no, you know, light.

There was no light switch.

He goes outside.

It's pitch black.

He looks up.

There's the stars of the heavens just without number.

And God says to him, start counting.

If you've ever tried to do that,

it's a really funny exercise in futility very quickly

because you look and the longer you look,

you're like, oh, I missed that one.

Oh, gosh, I missed that one.

Yeah, this is stupid.

I'm not doing this anymore.

It's ridiculous.

And that's...

That's the point that God is making.

Go ahead and try to number the stars of the heavens.

You can't, Abram,

because that's going to be the number of your offspring.

That's going to be the number of people in your lineage.

And at that moment, Abram,

come to be known later as Abram has a choice

to laugh at God, say, God, that's silly.

God, that's too big.

God, that's too crazy.

What does the Bible say?

Here it is.

Here's the quote.

Genesis chapter 15, verse 6.

And he...

Believed the Lord.

He believed what God said.

Did he have anything tangible in his hand?

No.

But he believed what God said was true.

And he looked at the stars.

He said, okay, God, that's a crazy thing you just said,

but I believe you're going to do it.

I not only believe you can do it,

I believe you're going to do it.

And the Bible says there in verse 6,

and before God, that was counted for Abram as righteousness.

I'll go back to Romans.

It's chapter number four.

Let's see the point that Paul is making here.

Verse three, Abram or Abraham believed God.

It was counted to him as righteousness.

Paul really likes this word that we translate counted or count.

He uses it 11 times just in chapter four of Romans.

And it's an interesting word.

Sometimes it is translated different ways.

The NIV translates it credited.

There's some different ways of looking at it.

It's the idea of looking at your account.

I was thinking back to different things in my life with accounts.

Sometimes you'll call and you'll get someone in customer service.

By the way, if you're in that job, God bless you.

You'll get someone from customer service.

Hey, I just want to review my account.

And you'll go through the charges on the account.

You'll go through some credit on the account.

And you'll get down to the end and see how much you get.

How much you owe on your account.

Or you don't owe anything because the credits outweigh.

It's just this whole thing.

I remember I was a senior in high school.

It was the week I was going to graduate from high school.

And I went to the office or the cashier or whatever it was.

I don't remember.

And I went there to turn in some books.

Because you had to turn in your books so you could walk in graduation.

And I was all excited.

And they said, okay, you owe.

I think it was like $90.

And I'm like, for what?

They're like, well, we see your account.

And they start going through the things.

You turn in this book.

You turn in your psychology book.

You turn in your English book.

You turn in this.

But you've never paid for these candy bars.

And I'm like, what?

And they're like, yeah.

Remember a couple months ago, the choir had a fundraiser.

And you took those candy bars.

You were supposed to sell those candy bars and bring back the money for those candy bars.

And I thought, I don't know where those candy bars are.

And they're like, well, you have to turn in those candy bars.

You have to turn in the money.

You can't even turn in the candy bars anymore.

You have to give us $90 or you can't graduate.

So I'm like, okay, I've got to go home and tell my parents I need $90.

Like, that's not going to go well.

So I start thinking.

Now, my first car was pretty sweet.

It was a 1986 Astro minivan.

White with blue stripes.

Let me tell you, zero to 60 in about an hour.

It had these swivel seats in the front.

No joke.

I've got this car.

It had two by fours sitting behind the front seats.

I thought, that looks terrible.

Threw those away, not realizing someone smarter than me had put those there.

So the front seats did not completely do a 180.

I am not making this up.

My buddies and I hit some turns pretty far where you're holding onto the wheel and your body's going that way.

So I start thinking, how am I going to get $90?

And I realize.

Those candy bars are still in my van.

So before graduation rehearsal ended, I want you to know I had sold $90 worth of candy bars.

That's right.

That's right.

I may have lied to some people about the freshness of that chocolate.

I don't recall.

I believe I've repented to the Lord about that.

Man, I walked in.

I slapped down that money.

And I showed up at graduation rehearsal.

And they're like, where have you been?

I'm like.

I'm selling candy bars.

Give me my diploma.

I had some problems with my account.

So what the scripture is saying here is we have this idea as humans.

And it's not new today.

This idea that before God, we're going to get to heaven.

He's going to have an angel or St. Peter, whoever it might be, you know, fictionally in our mind standing there going, well, let's review your account.

Well, when you were 10, remember that, right?

Oh, I see.

After that, you went on a mission trip.

That was a plus on your account.

A lot of negative charges there.

Okay.

I see.

After that, you served in children's ministry for one Sunday.

Okay.

That's a little bit of an account boost, right?

And we feel like God's going to like scroll to the end and be like, sorry, man, your balance just doesn't doesn't work.

That was the idea of Abraham.

I mean, Abraham, in the view of the Jews, was that he is awesome.

He was perfect.

He was incredible.

The Bible says here it wasn't Abraham's good deeds.

It wasn't that Abraham was perfect because we read his story in Genesis and we see that he was far from it.

This is what the Bible says.

And Paul quotes him from Genesis Romans chapter four, verse three.

Abraham did what he believed God.

He believed God.

And that's what was accounted to him as righteousness.

So imagine it this way, man.

It's a long list of sin for Abraham.

And for everyone else.

But what did faith do?

It was like this giant stamp that went across it.

And so, listen, this account is taken care of because Abraham believed God.

That's what counted with God for Abraham.

Paul says now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

So you go to work and your boss pays you at the end of a week or at the end of two weeks or whenever the pay period might be.

It's not charity.

Your boss isn't like, hey, I was just just wanted to bless you with a few bucks.

It's like, no, you worked and you got paid.

That's an exchange.

We all understand.

That's what Paul is mentioning in verse four.

The one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but what is due to him.

To the one who does not work.

Paul's not advocating laziness or not working here.

He's just using this as an illustration.

But the one who does not work before God, but believes.

In him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

I want you to see the object of faith.

We're going to spend a lot of time next week talking about faith.

But notice what Paul says here.

The belief, the direction of our faith is, quote, in him who justifies the ungodly.

Folks, this is who we believe in.

This is the one that we sing about, the one that we serve.

The one that we worship.

God is not the one who's like, okay, that person's pretty good.

That person's okay.

They're accepted here.

The rest of you are out.

God is the one who justifies the ungodly.

He's the one who welcomes broken sinners.

He's the one who says, come to me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

That's who Jesus is.

Luke 15 says he was the one who sits and receives sinners.

This is who God is.

And some of you come in here today carrying a past or carrying a mistake or carrying some shame.

And God says, come to me, and I'll take that from you.

You can lay that at my feet.

You can have that sin nailed to the cross of Calvary.

That's the one that we sing about and the one that we serve.

It is the God who justifies the ungodly.

Paul says his faith is counted as righteousness.

Verse 6, just as David, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one,

to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

So Paul, being as he would self-identify as a Hebrew of Hebrews,

he takes the icon of Abraham.

It says Abraham couldn't earn his way into right status with God.

He needed grace.

He needed mercy.

And then he picks another hero, David.

David was someone, like, you don't talk bad about David.

Like, David was king.

David rose from being a shepherd to being a king.

David was the guy.

But I don't think anybody was making a case that David was flawless.

The Bible says one day David was supposed to be out at battle.

He was in his palace.

And he walked out and he saw a lady bathing.

And he said to his servants, who is that?

He says, that's the husband of Uriah.

Uriah was one of David's key guys, one of his mighty men.

David says, go and get her for me.

David takes that woman.

I believe the text says that David rapes her.

She gets pregnant.

He comes back to David a few weeks later and says,

we got problems.

And in my paraphrased version, David says, don't worry, I'll take care of it.

David sends for Uriah.

Uriah comes.

Hey, Uriah, how's the battle going?

It's going all right.

Listen, you've been doing great.

I want you to go home, spend the night with your wife, get a break from the battle.

Uriah says, I can't do that.

I'm away from my men.

They can't be home with their wives.

I'm not going to do that.

David's like, no, you really should have a drink.

Tries to liquor him up.

Tries to loosen him up.

Uriah won't do it.

Uriah was a better man in that moment, drunk, than David was sober.

Leaps on the stairs.

David says, okay, this is not going to work.

Signs something, seals it up.

Uriah, take this back to battle.

Have a great time.

Uriah doesn't know, but inside that message is his death.

It's the order from the king.

Send Uriah to the front line.

When the battle gets real bad, back everyone up.

Goes just like clockwork message.

Comes back.

David says, oh, man, he's got a widow.

She's so sweet.

I'll marry her.

And people are like, oh, David, you're the man.

You're so good.

David had done wrong to Bathsheba.

David had killed a man.

David had lied to cover it all up.

Respond Romans and go to Psalm chapter 32.

Humanly speaking, David's account in heaven, not awesome.

Got some major, major charges.

Psalm chapter number 32.

Before we read the quotation that Paul uses in Romans,

look at verse number three, Psalm 32, three.

David says,

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away

through my groaning all day long.

For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.

My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

He says, I tried to bury that sin.

I tried to pretend it wasn't real,

but I felt the heavy hand of God upon me.

And I tried to ignore it, but I didn't have any strength.

I was just smoked as a person.

Look at verse five.

David says,

With that heavy hand of God, I acknowledged my sin to you.

And I did not cover up my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.

And what did God do?

He says, you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Man, this is who God is.

This is the one who justifies, makes right the ungodly.

David said, I felt the heavy hand of God.

My strength was just gone.

I couldn't go forward in life.

Sleeping was terrible.

Waking was terrible.

I would just, it was eating me up from the inside out.

My bones wasted away.

And I just came to you and said, God, I messed up.

I'm not going to try to impress you.

I'm not going to try to justify.

I'm not going to try to say, God, I know I did this,

but look at all the other things that I have done.

David said, I acknowledged my sin.

I didn't try to cover it up.

I confessed it and God forgave.

So the quote that,

David said, I acknowledged my sin. I didn't try to cover it up. I confessed it and God forgave.

Paul uses his Roman, his Psalm chapter 32, verse one and two.

David says, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity

and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Let's go back to Romans four.

Paul says, Abraham needed grace.

David, verse six, David also speaks of the blessing.

I want you to see that quote again.

Again, verse seven, verse eight, you'll see the word blessed.

And then you'll see two words that I just love.

The word is covered and the word is count.

Why was David forgiven?

Why was David justified?

Was it because he killed Goliath?

Was it because he made Israel a great nation?

No, it's because he went to God in his brokenness

and believed that God is the one who justifies the ungodly.

That God is the one who can cover our sin.

Man, if you're here this morning and you know Jesus,

you've been made right before God.

You ought to be celebrating the blessing of that forgiveness.

That ought to not be a blessing that you ever grow callous or cold to.

It ought to be a blessing like,

man, let me tell you about the blessing of God.

He has forgiven my sin.

He does not hold my past against me.

That is the blessing of the gospel.

Paul continues in verse nine.

He says, is this blessing,

this blessing of having our sins covered,

is that blessing only for the circumcised

or also for the ungodly?

The uncircumcised.

That was the religious act that physically meant

that you were part of the covenant.

Paul says, for we say that faith was counted to Abraham

as righteousness.

How then was it counted to him?

Was it before or after he had been circumcised?

It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

He received the sign of circumcision

as a seal of righteousness

that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

Purpose was to make him the father of all who believe

without being circumcised.

So the righteousness would be counted to them as well

and to make him the father of the circumcised

who are not merely circumcised,

but who also walk in the footsteps of faith

that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

It wasn't the religious act of circumcision

that made Abraham right.

It was his faith.

It's an invitation there in verse number 12

to walk in the footsteps of Abraham's faith.

A lot of people think it is gonna be that,

that act of baptism or good works

or that gift of finances to the church

that will make us right before God.

We don't see that with Abraham.

We don't see that with David.

We see that it was just an act of faith.

Jesus was being crucified.

And to further put shame on Jesus,

he was crucified between two thieves.

Early on in the event of Jesus' crucifixion,

the Bible says that both of them were mocking Jesus,

railing at him.

Somewhere during that time, some things changed.

Luke chapter 23, verse 39.

Luke says,

one of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying,

are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us.

But the other rebuked him saying,

do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence

of condemnation?

And we indeed justly for we're receiving

the due reward of our deeds.

But this man has done nothing wrong.

I want you to notice this

and you may notice this.

I want you to know this story.

This thief is yet to speak to Jesus.

Now he mocked him earlier on,

but he's yet to speak directly to Jesus.

He's talking to the other thief like,

hey man, like you're about to meet God.

You think it's smart of you to be harassing,

mocking this guy?

We're getting what we deserve.

We both know we belong to be here.

And then the thief says to Jesus,

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

It's not as if the thief said,

Jesus, clearly I've done some bad things in my life.

But let me tell you, when I was a kid,

I was a heck of a student at the synagogue.

He doesn't say, Jesus, I've done some bad things.

I got caught up in the wrong crowd,

but this is who my mom is.

This is who my dad is.

This is my family lineage.

I really did some good things back in the day.

I gave to poor people in charity and cared for the sick.

I didn't say any of that.

He doesn't say on the cross,

Jesus, clearly I've done some bad things.

But not as bad as other people.

Just says to Jesus,

and we don't even know if he looks at Jesus

or was physically capable of looking at Jesus.

He just says, Jesus, remember me

when you come into your kingdom.

It's just an act of faith.

It's just this act of, I don't have anything to offer you.

Just remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And Jesus says to him, truly I say to you,

today you will be with me in paradise.

Today you will walk with me.

Today you will be with me in the holy garden of God.

You say, whoa, guy didn't know anything.

That's right.

He just believed.

He put his faith in Jesus.

What is faith?

Faith is a believing obedience.

It's obedience.

It's a faith that transforms the way that we live.

So what does he say?

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

That is the call.

That is what counts in heaven.

It's not gonna be,

your account that you think you can bounce it out

or impress God or what your family connections are.

Abraham is our father.

It is coming to faith in Jesus Christ

and believing that he died for your sin,

that he was buried and that he rose from the dead.

That is the saving faith.

That is the thing that counts in heaven.

You see, when we get to heaven, man,

there's a bunch of messes and I'm gonna be like,

yeah, that's true, that's true.

I did all of that.

But I know that my account will be stamped.

I'm gonna be saved by faith.

The early church had a phrase.

It was called sola fide.

It was in Latin.

It meant faith alone.

It wasn't faith plus works.

It was faith that produced works,

but it was faith alone.

Let me say this to you.

If you're depending on other things to impress God

or get you to the front of the line in heaven

or to settle the account,

I want you to know that Abraham couldn't make that happen.

David couldn't make that happen.

No one could.

He couldn't make that happen.

The only way for us to receive the blessing of salvation,

the blessing of forgiveness is coming to faith in Christ.

And maybe you're here and you haven't.

Sometimes at the end of a sermon,

I love to have you bow your heads and close your eyes

because I want you to have a quiet moment with God.

But I just wanna look at you in the face for just a moment.

There's a blessing that God extends to you

and it's the forgiveness of your sins.

Some of them, but all of them.

That's what God did.

He extends to you the forgiveness of your sins.

The one that you think that's impossible to forgive.

David felt that too.

It was eating him up until he came to God and confessed,

repented of his sin,

and he received the blessing of forgiveness.

The hope of the gospel, the good news

that Jesus died for your sins,

that Jesus was buried and Jesus rose from the dead.

And he just extends that forgiveness to you right now.

If you'll come to faith in Christ,

that's what Romans 10, 9 is.

Romans 10, 9 is confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord.

Believe in your heart.

God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.

It's coming and confessing Jesus as God in the flesh.

That's Lord.

It's confessing him as king of our life.

And it's believing in faith

that we weren't there on resurrection day,

but we believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

That's the way to be saved.

That's the way to receive the forgiveness of your sins.

Can I say this to you?

In Genesis 15, you see Abraham's demonstration of faith,

but you know what you see

right after his demonstration of faith?

Faith doesn't mean no questions.

Faith is not the entire elimination of doubt.

Faith is not the elimination of,

Faith is saying, I'm gonna take that step

and believe that what you say, God, is true.

You taking that step of faith.