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March, 2021 (Vol.55-No.3) |
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on April 5, 1987 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the un-godly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Romans 4:4-5 THE APOSTLE PAUL ASKED IN ROMANS 4:1, “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?” That is a good question. The answer, for starters, is Hagar. Likewise, we read in verse 6. “Even as David . . .” What hath he found? The answer is Bathsheba. Paul chose these two men as his examples to make a point: they were not perfect. They were not justified by their works. The modern-day philandering television evangelists have not discovered anything new. One of my professors at Stanford used to say, “You will never discover anything new because the ancients have stolen everything new!” Sin has been around for a long time. I believe that most preachers who are preoccupied with the subject of sin and who love to throw stones at others are simply trying to divert attention from their own sinning selves. Where did the church get the idea that the task of the preacher is to expose sin? Consider this: Ham exposed the sin of his father when God was starting over after the Flood, and God cursed Ham throughout all his generations. The good news of the gospel is that we have a covering. The Hebrew word translated “atonement” is kippur, which comes from a word meaning “to cover over.” Where did the idea come from that we go to church to be condemned for our sins? It didn’t come from God. What did God do for Adam and Eve after they sinned? He clothed them in coats of skins. He made a covering for them. Returning to Romans, “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.” Now we know why some preachers are preoccupied with the flesh: they want to glory. They want to boast before God. Some preachers seem to love it when one of their own is caught in a sin because it gives them the opportunity for self-aggrandizement and spiritual one-upmanship. They love to expose the sin and make the man publicly confess. Only then, after they have ruined the man, will they pretend to “restore” him. This death-dealing garbage has been going on in the church for years. Some gossiper discovers that someone has sinned, and the church leaders make the poor sinner stand before the congregation. Then, after they have quartered him and hung him out to dry, they claim to love the pieces that are left over. It is all hypocrisy! I have seen churches were people have tried to take over when they perceived that the leader was faltering in some way. This is an inevitable consequence of demanding perfection from church leadership. The church holds a special board meeting to discuss the grave situation. The board members are nothing more than a bunch of whited sepulchers; they sit around a table like pompous ducks and say, “How can we save this ministry?” Well, there is no “ministry” if it doesn’t offer grace and forgiveness! Where did the idea come from that “ministry” means preening their perfectionist feathers? All they want is glory at the expense of the whole church! Where does God get any glory? Why do so many fundamentalist television evangelists condemn people all the time? They are perverts. That is what Paul called the legalists in his day. He called them perverts who preach “another gospel” that is not the gospel. I have had enough of preachers who denigrate my God and bring shame on the gospel. Paul described them, saying, “They zealously affect you,” that they might imprison you. They seek to make your religious experience a servant of their own gratification. They have appointed themselves to be “God’s Good Squad.” They have never really met God nor do they understand Him, because the mark of meeting God is to cry out, “Woe is me!” The Scripture has plenty of authority for that. Some people would accuse me on being too critical of the fundamentalists. I would point out that Jesus’ harshest criticism was directed toward the fundamentalists of His day, the self-righteous Pharisees. The word “Pharisee” means separatist.” “Separate yourselves,” they would say, “and come into our “freakish kingdom!” What shall we say then that the television evangelists, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? If those fools were justified by their works, they have whereof to glory, but not before God. Abraham didn’t have any right to boast before God. “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” The word translated “believed” is a form of the Greek word pisteuo, and pisteuo is not mere “belief.” It is an act, based upon belief, and sustained by confidence. That is the biblical definition of faith. The word “believed” is an inadequate translation, which is why I say, “Abraham faithed God,” that is, he acted on his belief. Abraham “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” Again, “What saith the scripture? Abraham faithed God, and it,” his faithing action, “was counted unto him for righteousness.” Many people who grew up in the traditional church will wonder, “Do you mean all the other stuff that the church has been pressuring me to do, with its rules and regulations, all of this holiness by effort, counts for nothing?” Yes, that is what I said. God gives you His righteousness for your faith. Find a promise of God, anything that He has said in His book. You can tell the difference between a promise and a command. A promise is conditioned upon a faith response. Abraham faithed God, and that very action, based upon belief and sustained by the confidence that God would perform what He had promised, “was counted unto him for righteousness.” I referred earlier to what some fundamentalist preachers do when one of their own kind has been caught in a transgression. But what should the preacher who has sinned do in such a case? Well, he has a choice. He can continue to let others verbally club him to death for their own glory, or he can act on a simple promise: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Such a confession is not made to a preacher, nor to a priest, nor to the world, but only unto Him who died for us. Anyone can claim the simple promise, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” The “elect” are those whom God has chosen before the worlds were formed to redeem them in Christ because of their faith. Again, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” Paul asked and answered that very question in Romans 8: Will God condemn you? No, it is God who justifies you. Will Christ condemn you? No, He died for you. Paul declared that all are under sin, both the man wielding the law of God like a club and the man being beaten by it. Jesus said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” A man under condemnation from the brethren can simply decide, “I don’t have to endure this. I need to make things right with God alone.” I thought that the Reformation ended the necessity of having to go through some intermediary down here on earth. There is only one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. You don’t have to confess your sins to a pastor or to a priest. I used to go to preachers’ meetings, and I have walked out of such meetings more than once. I remember giving the harshest rebuke to a pastor who was gossiping about a private matter that was confessed to him. There used to be a fad in the church in which people believed that every pastor should be a counselor. It was a very bad idea, and many of those counselors ended up having affairs with their counselees. Professional counseling requires special skills that a pastor might not possess. There is risk involved with counseling, because it can quickly progress to a stage that produces an emotional involvement between the counselor and the counselee, which might be either hate or love. And you have not even begun to succeed as a counselor until you have the skills to lead the counselee beyond that stage to the stage of a reconstructed self. The pastor’s role is to teach the word of God, not to listen to people’s confessions. You don’t have to confess your sins to anyone but God. Again, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God’s forgiveness doesn’t have to be filtered through some self-appointed mediator. That is why I never counsel people. I don’t want to hear people’s confessions. I am not their garbage pail; I am a teacher of faith. It doesn’t matter how low you have sunk, you can always start over when you grasp the good news of the gospel. All you have to do is act based on belief and sustained by confidence in a promise that God has given. God has a gusher of grace available to pour down on you, and by grace you are saved. He gives it all to you for your faith. Returning to Paul’s words in Romans 4, “Abraham faithed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” The traditional church is always trying to get you to work. They say, “Oh, I know Jesus saves, but you sinned after you received the knowledge of grace! The standard for you is tougher. And if you are a preacher, it is tougher yet.” Where did they get that idea? Abraham was the first of all preachers of faith. And it is written, “Abraham faithed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” If you could get into heaven by your works, God would owe you something. The traditional churches have their own criteria for the restoration of a sinner. But God has only one: start over. Act in faith on a promise of God. Some people might say, “Well, I just don’t believe that a preacher can sin!” Try to find one who doesn’t, because there aren’t any. Some preachers are the worst kind of sinners, because they cover up their sins. When will the church wake up? We are all sinners being saved by grace! Thank God for His grace. If rewards in heaven were based on the traditional church’s idea of tiers of religious accomplishments, we would have something to boast about. But God wants Christ to get all the glory. Before the worlds were formed, God foreordained that in all things Christ would be preeminent. That is why works will do nothing for you. “To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” I can imagine some preacher standing before God, saying, “You owe me. I desire one of those seats that James and John didn’t get, next to Thee in Thy Kingdom. Pay me my eternal reward!” And God would say, “Go to hell!” Paul said, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” That is why the message of works is appealing to people who are either too ignorant or too insensitive to understand the dimensions of sin. Someone might ask me, “But don’t you at least try to be righteous?” And I would answer, “No. I can’t even remember the last time I tried to be righteous.” “But,” he says, “you’re a preacher! Don’t you try to be a good Christian?” Again, the answer is “No.” That is like asking, “Do you drive below the speed limit because you are a Christian?” I would answer, “No. I don’t speed because I don’t want to cause an accident or go to jail.” I have had enough of legalists subjecting us to their rules of so-called Christian behavior. I have heard people say, “Don’t go anywhere that you can’t take Jesus with you. You certainly can’t go into a bar!” Fool, Jesus was already in that bar before you got there. My Bible says He is everywhere! May God help us to deliver people from the religion of these fools. “To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not . . .” The words “to him that worketh not” mean to the one who doesn’t do a thing! You don’t have to keep a checklist of Christian rules and behavior. Someone will object and say, “But don’t you want to be a witness?” And I would say, “I sure do.” We get our English word “martyr” from the Greek word translated “witness.” I want to be a witness to the veracity of God’s word. I want to hang on to God’s word by faith and let people see that He keeps His word as He works it out through me. Someone will ask, “What if that doesn’t work?” Then I will die in faith and wake up in God’s presence in the land where His word rules forever. “To him that worketh not, but faitheth on him that justifieth . . .” Justifieth whom? Those who have been worked over by a preacher? What does the Scripture say? “To him that worketh not, but faitheth on him that justifieth the ungodly.” God justifies the ungodly! For years, the church has been trying to make the ungodly act godly enough to “qualify” for justification. The Bible says that God justifies the ungodly! The fundamentalists would say, “Wait a minute, you’re preaching a terrible message! Do you mean that ungodly people have access to God’s grace? That can’t be!” Read the whole verse: “But to him that worketh not, but faitheth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” That means you don’t have to pray all afternoon. You don’t have to go to church seven nights a week. The church is not a prison. You can go to the beach in you want to. If you grew up in a traditional church, think of the number of years you were oppressed. You were “free” to do nothing! “But to him that worketh not, but faitheth . . . his faith is counted for righteousness.” Faithing is the one thing you must do. The gospel is the good news that God will cover all of your sins, big and little. You don’t have to carve away your unrighteousness. If you can find a promise that fits your need and continue to act on it with belief and confidence, God will give you His salvation. That is the forgotten message of the church. Find a promise of God that meets your need and grab hold of it. I could preach on healing and point you to the promise, “I am the LORD that healeth thee.” If you have financial needs, put God first and claim the promise, “I am the LORD that provides.” If you are worried about tomorrow and feel like you have run out of strength, you can claim, “As thy day, so shall thy strength be.” The message of works is a bunch of baloney. But every day, you can act on a promise of God, and your faith is counted for righteousness. I am sure my critics would say, “You don’t look righteous! Well, I am not. But I am faithing, and my faith is counted for righteousness. It is as though there were two ledgers in eternity: one ledger for my righteousness, and another ledger for my faith. My ledger of righteousness has only negative entries, so all of my accusers say, “Aha!” But look at my ledger of faith! When I act on a promise of God every day, He transfers my faith to my ledger of righteousness, and my faith is counted for righteousness. All the negative entries are canceled out, and the positive entries of faith are put in their place. With that background, the promise I want us to claim today is in Genesis 13. We are looking at Abram, before God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. He had done down to Egypt, but he came back to the place where he had previously pitched his tent and made an altar. The altar typifies a place of commitment to God, and the tent typifies a place of availability to God, a readiness to move. Abram’s herdsmen got into a fight with the herdsmen of his nephew, Lot. Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between us, because we are brethren. Choose the land you want, and we will separate.” Lot only wanted what he could get here and now. He looked toward the rich plain of Jordan, toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and said, “I will take that.” Abram lost what appeared to be the best land. Now we read in Genesis 13, beginning at verse 14, “The LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes…” Lift up now, not tomorrow, now, “and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” That even included the land Lot had chosen. God told Abram, “Arise, and start walking!” When God gives you a promise, don’t just sit there and say, “That’s nice.” God told him to start walking, and every place that the soles of his feet would tread, He would give to Abram and to his children forever. When some of Abram’s modern descendants returned to that land in 1918, God was still carrying out that promise. When Israel became a state in 1948, God was still carrying out that promise. When the Six-Day War extended their territory through Jerusalem, God was still carrying out that promise. It is just as true today as it has ever been. “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” What God has in store for the future may or may not be like His past pattern. God has brought us through many situations where it seemed like all hope was lost. All I am saying to this church today is “Lift up now thine eyes, from the place where thou art,” and let’s start walking in faith, just as we walked by faith to arrive at this point. God’s word is still forever settled in heaven. The message is still the same: salvation is by grace through faith. Many people have learned the wondrous good news that the simple act of claiming a promise of God every day lets you start over every day. Here in Genesis 13, Abram was probably at the lowest point in his life. What is the message? “Lift up now thine eyes.” Don’t wait; stop thinking about it. Wherever you are, whatever problem you have, stop the downward look. Stop focusing on your problem; stop asking God to change your circumstance before you will lift up your head. “Lift up now thine eyes, from the place where thou art. Arise and walk!” Whatever your problem, act on a promise of God right now, and He will start over with you. And the icing on the cake is that this is how you get saved. Someone will ask, “Do you mean I don’t have to work at changing my behavior? I don’t have to be scrutinized by some kind of spiritual X-ray machine?” No! God will give His kingdom to sinners like you and me, who will take His promise and act on it now. Lift up your eyes, arise, and walk! Hallelujah! Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott | December, 2021 Wingspread | November, 2021 Wingspread | October, 2021 Wingspread | September, 2021 Wingspread | August, 2021 Wingspread | July, 2021 Wingspread | June, 2021 Wingspread | May, 2021 Wingspread | April, 2021 Wingspread | March, 2021 Wingspread | February, 2021 Wingspread | January, 2021 Wingspread | | Year 2019 Wingspreads | August, 2016 Wingspread | 2016 Wingspreads | 2014 Wingspreads | 2013 Wingspreads | 2012 Wingspreads | 2011 Wingspreads | 2010 Wingspreads | 2009 Wingspreads | 2008 Wingspreads | 2007 Wingspreads | 2006 Wingspreads | 2005 Wingspreads | 2004 Wingspreads | 2003 Wingspreads | 2002 Wingspreads | 2001 Wingspreads | August, 2001 Wingspread | November, 2001 Wingspread | December, 2001 Wingspread | 2000 Wingspreads | 1999 Wingspreads | 2015 Wingspreads | Year 2017 Wingspreads | 2018 Wingspreads | Year 2020 Wingspreads | Year 2021 Wingspreads | Year 2022 Wingspreads | Year 2023 Wingspreads | | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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