Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I've been preaching in the Bible in Romans chapter
four. And today I'm gonna conclude
chapter four with a message on faith. And the title is The Persuasion
of Faith. The persuasion of faith in Romans
chapter four, we'll begin in about verse 20 of Romans four,
if you'd like to follow along. Now I've made much of this issue
of faith in the Bible. You know, the base word or the
root word of faith in this issue, from which we derive our English
word faith, the root word means knowledge. And what it is, It's
a knowledge that God's people have, which is a gift of God,
and it's a knowledge that God reveals over in Romans chapter
one in verse 16 and 17, which I quote quite often on this scripture.
For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to the Jew first, the Greek also. the
power of God to salvation to everyone that believe it, to
the Jew first and the Greek also, the Gentile. Verse 17 says, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. And that righteousness
of God is the merit of the work, the obedience unto death of the
Lord Jesus Christ that he accomplished on Calvary's cross to save his
people from their sins. It's his obedience unto death
as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his people, which
results in righteousness that God has imputed to them. Christ
had their sins imputed to him, he put them away, and his righteousness,
the merit of his obedience unto death, is imputed to them, and
it's revealed in the gospel, and it says from faith to faith. And what that means is it's from
knowledge revealed a knowledge that God reveals to his people
by the Spirit in the preaching of the gospel, from faith, knowledge
revealed, to faith, knowledge received and believed. That's
what that means. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. So that's what faith is, and
you can't say, most people today, they think of faith as our believing. Well, that's included. But you
can't just leave it out there saying, well, I believe. Well,
what do you believe? What's the object of your believing? What is the substance of it?
You know, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen, Hebrews 11 tells us. It's not just believing
in anything. There's a lot of people who believe
a lie. The book of Isaiah chapter 28
speaks of those who have a false refuge. What does that mean?
They believe in a refuge that is a lie. They have faith, but
it's faith in an idol. So you cannot in the Bible separate
faith from the knowledge that God reveals in the gospel by
the Spirit. If you do, you misunderstood
it. And then most people today think
that faith is a condition that they must meet in order to make
the difference between saved and lost, but that's not what
faith is. Faith is not the condition that we must meet of our own
free will or our own goodness in order to make the right decision,
in order to be born again and to be saved, no, no. Faith is
the result, the fruit of what Christ accomplished on the cross,
and if Christ died for my sins, he will draw me unto himself,
and that is by the power of the Spirit through the gospel, in
that knowledge revealed and knowledge received. Well, here's talking
about Abraham, whom God gave the gift of faith, for by grace
are you saved, through faith, that's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. That's
Ephesians 2, eight and nine. Well, it says in verse 20, Abraham
staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Now, what faith was he
strong in? Now, I mentioned this last week
about how Abraham did have his bad moments, his weak moments,
but the tenor of his life was generally strong in faith, giving
glory to God. Well, what was this faith? Well,
look at verse 21, and being fully persuaded Fully persuaded. Now, that's a persuasion of faith. And what was it? Fully persuaded
that what God had promised, God was able to perform. And what
he's saying here is that Abraham knew if God promised it, God's
able to have it come about. God's able to do it. And what
promise is he talking about? Well, in Abraham's case, it's
a twofold promise. It was first the promise that
he and Sarah would have a son, the son of promise. And as we've
already seen, that took place when Abraham was 100 years old.
And Sarah was 99, way past the age of childbirth. Now here Sarah
was a woman who could not have children. And yet, here she is 99 years
old, and she has a child. That's a miracle of God's grace.
And it came through Abraham and Sarah, and the child was Isaac,
the child of promise. Now, there is a spiritual and
eternal aspect to God fulfilling that promise of giving Abraham
and Sarah a child. It's not just that Isaac was
a miracle birth, which he certainly was. If Sarah had had Isaac when
she was young in her prime, that would have been a miracle because
Sarah could not have children. She was a woman who could not
have children physically. Why, we don't know, but she was
barren, the scripture says. But to have a woman, have a child
at 99 years old, wow. So that was a miracle. But there
was an even greater miracle. that came out of that promise
that God had promised Abraham, and that was this. It was through
Isaac, the physical line of Isaac, that the humanity of the Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ, would eventually come probably a thousand
years later. I think that's what we think,
about a thousand years. You see that? That's the real,
and that's how Abraham would be the father of many nations. And the Lord Jesus Christ even
made this statement in John 8, 56. He said, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. And he saw it, and he was glad. And Abraham looked, even though
he wanted that child Isaac, and he believed God's promise for
that child Isaac, he was persuaded by God now, not by men, Not even
by Sarah. You remember Sarah laughed. Sarah
had Abraham go into Hagar to do it his way, her way. So Abraham
was persuaded not by men, not by even Sarah. He was persuaded
by God. And that's what faith is. It's
a persuasion that God gives. Now he uses preachers in the
gospel to do so. But you see Abraham, even he
saw past the physical to the spiritual. And he looked forward
to the Messiah that would come. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Christ said he saw it and he
was glad. And that's the promise. Now it says in verse 21, read
it again of Romans four. And being fully persuaded that
what God had promised, God was able to perform. My friend, that's
the way we look at the gospel. God has promised to save His
people from their sins by His grace, conditioned on the Lord
Jesus Christ and what He would accomplish on Calvary's cross
to save them. Now, did God come through on
that promise? Was He able to do it? Well, He
sent Christ into the world made of the seed of woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. Christ kept the
law perfectly. He went to the cross, he suffered,
he bled, he died, he was buried. And what happened? He arose again
the third day. What does that resurrection mean?
I'm persuaded that because Christ arose from the dead, that my
salvation is secure and certain. because God's promised it. God's
able to perform it. And that's a persuasion. That's
what faith is. Now again, who does the persuading? God does by His Spirit through
the preaching of the gospel. And He'll use preachers to do
it, but if you're persuaded, if you're brought to faith in
Christ and repentance of dead works, it's the Lord who's done
that work, not the preacher. Bible says in John chapter 16,
verses eight through 11, that the Holy Spirit will come and
he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment. That word convict is the same as this kind of persuasion.
He'll bring God's people to a conviction. And what it is, that conviction
is this, that they won't be able to deny it, They will not be
able to ignore it, and they will not be able to leave it. They
are persuaded. Paul said that, I know whom I
have believed, 2 Timothy 1, 12. And I am persuaded in my abilities
to follow him, no. He said, I am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against
that day, the day of His coming, the day of judgment, I'm persuaded
that He is able to keep what I've committed unto Him in that
day. Now, what have I committed to
Christ? My whole salvation is committed to Him. None of it
is committed to me. My sanctification by the Holy
Spirit, it's committed to Christ. He is my sanctification. My righteousness
is committed to Christ. He is my righteousness. My redemption,
my glorification, it's committed to Christ. I look to Him, I walk
by God-given faith, having been persuaded, looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of my faith. And go on, go back
to Romans 4 now. He says in verse 22, and therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, what was imputed to him
for righteousness? Well, that had already been settled.
Go back over to Romans 4 and verse 6 when he uses David as
an example. And he's quoting here from Psalm
32 that David was inspired by the Spirit to write. And he says
in verse six, even as David also describeth the blessedness of
the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. That's what David talked about. What was imputed? It wasn't Abraham's
believing that was imputed to him. It was what God promised
him. And what had God promised him?
To send Christ into the world to work out a perfect righteousness
by his obedience unto death as Abraham's surety, substitute,
and redeemer. And the merit of Christ's righteousness,
the righteousness of God, was imputed to Abraham. And how do
you know it was imputed to Abraham? Because he believed God. It wasn't
imputed to him, that is charged to him, accounted to him, based
upon his belief, no. His believing evidence that God
had already imputed righteousness to him. Sin imputed to Christ,
righteousness imputed to his people. And so he says in verse
23, now all of this that he'd been talking about in Romans
four concerning Abraham. He says in verse 23, now it was
not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. This
thing about justification and salvation, how God justifies
the ungodly, and all of this by the righteousness of Christ,
freely imputed, received by God-given faith, wasn't just for Abraham's
sake. He says in verse 24, but for
us also, to whom it shall be imputed. Now this is really not
a future verb, but in Abraham's time it was. those who would
be born again later on. And it is imputed. In other words,
it's testified of if or since we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Now we come to see what the issue
of the resurrection of Christ really is. The issue of the resurrection
of Christ. You think about it, what a miracle.
We talk about the gospel having to do with the death, the burial,
the resurrection of Christ. Christ arose from the dead. What a miracle. But what is the
miracle, the real miracle, the astounding miracle of the resurrection? Well, somebody says, well, God
brought life from the dead. Well, that is a miracle. And it's an astounding miracle,
I agree. But you know what? God's been doing that all along.
He created this world. He created the heavens and the
earth, all the living things, all the things on it that live.
He created man, created woman. God being a creator, God is one. He is the source of life, physical
life. He's the source of spiritual
life. But what is the miracle of the resurrection? Well, look
at verse 24 and 25 of Romans 4. but for also to whom it shall
be imputed if or since we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, verse 25, who was delivered for our offenses,
our sins imputed to him and he was delivered under the law unto
death for our offenses, my surety, my substitute, my redeemer, and
was raised again because of, or for, or because of our justification. There's the miracle of the resurrection. In the resurrection of Christ,
what do we see? We see that all the sins of God's
elect, His church, Christ's sheep, all His brethren, all who will
be brought to faith in Christ, that their sins were put away.
Their sins cannot be charged to them. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. They
cannot be condemned for their sins. Their sins were charged
to Christ. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
Romans 8, 34. Who is seated at the right hand
of the Father, ever living to make intercession for his people.
That's the miracle. Sins are put away. Listen, he
said, I will remember your sins no more. Now, what does that
mean? Does that mean God forgets? No,
God cannot change, but it means he will never hold the sins of
his people against them. They'll never be brought back
up in the law books of God's justice. You see, when God's
people stand before Him in judgment, it won't be to declare anything
or to decide anything, or rather, it won't be to decide anything.
It's already been decided. We've already been persuaded,
convinced of judgment because the Prince of this world is cast
down. Christ died on the cross. Christ took my judgment on the
cross. People think today, well, you're
going to be brought to judgment. He's going to put a screen up
there and show you all your good deeds and all your bad deeds.
And then he's going to reward his people according to their
good deeds, give them degrees of reward. That's not what it's
all about. The only reason that God's people will appear before
the great white throne judgment is because God will glorify himself
in declaring that these are his people. They've been redeemed.
They're righteous in Christ and they'll enter glory. It's a declarative
judgment. And so it's because of our justification. God justified us in Christ based
upon his blood and righteousness alone. And we didn't earn it,
didn't deserve it. Why? God justifies the ungodly. And so all of this as he goes
through Romans four using Abraham and then a small part of it,
David. showing how God justifies the
ungodly based upon the work, the merit, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, freely imputed and received by God-given
faith, that this is for all who believe, all who have entered
into the blessing of Abraham. Over in Galatians chapter three,
that's what he talks about. This is sort of like a parallel
passage to that. And back over in verse 11. Well, let's read verse 10 of
Galatians 3. It says, for as many as are of
the works of the law are under the curse. Now, what does that
mean? Well, that means if you're trying
to be saved, to be justified, to be forgiven, to be made righteous
before God by your obedience to the law, any law, you're under
a curse. Now, why is that? For it is written,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Because in order to be
righteous in God's sight, based upon your law keeping, you have
to keep it all perfectly. Perfectly. You say, well, no
one can do that. Well, that's right. That's why
salvation is by grace, not works. The Bible says, for Christ is
the end of the law, the finishing, the fulfillment, the perfection
of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth. If
you're a believer, if you have that knowledge revealed and receive
that knowledge, you know that you can't be saved, justified,
or rewarded based upon your law keeping. It's Christ. And so it says in Galatians 3
11, but that no man, is justified by the law in the sight of God,
it is evident, for the just shall live by faith. They live by the
knowledge that God has revealed to them in which he has persuaded
them and they believe of salvation by Christ, justification by Christ. And it says in verse 12, and
the law is not of faith. The law doesn't command you to
believe, the law commands you to do, to keep it. But the man that doeth them shall
live in them. That's what he says. If you're
gonna be justified by your law keeping, you got it to do. Well,
you're already behind. We fell in Adam, born in sin. And he says, verse 13, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Now Christ redeemed
his people from the curse of the law. Who are the us there?
His people, God's elect, his church, his sheep, all who come
to believe in him. And he says, being made a curse
for us, Christ was made a curse for his people. How was he made
a curse? Their sins, all the sins of God's people, the sin
debt was imputed, charged to him, and he was made under the
law for them. And he was cursed by the law
of God for the sins of his people. And so, being made a curse for
us, verse 13, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree, referring to the cross. Now look at verse 14. Galatians
3, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. The blessing of Abraham on Gentiles. Now what does that tell you?
That tells you that the promise that Paul was talking about in
Romans 4 And the promise that he's talking about here in Galatians
3 is not the promise that was given only to Abraham's physical
descendants, the Jews, of an earthly land for a temporary
period of time. It was given to all of God's
elect Jew and Gentile who are brought to faith in Christ by
the Holy Spirit. And that's what he's saying.
Verse 15, he says, brethren, I speak after the manner of men,
though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed and no
man disannulleth it or added to it, thereto. Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. Now look at this promise.
He saith not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to
thy seed, which is Christ. Now what does that mean? All
of the spiritual promises that God made to Abraham, were to
be settled, confirmed, and accomplished, not by Abraham himself, not by
his physical descendants, but by Christ, who was made of the
seed of David, who came through the lineage of Abraham, according
to the flesh. It was all in Christ. 2 Corinthians
1.20 says, all the promises of God in Him, in Christ, are yea,
and in him, amen. They're sure and certain in Christ. They're confirmed in him. And so he says in verse 17, and
this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of
God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after cannot disannul
that it should make the promise of none effect. God made that
promise to Abraham about 400 years before he gave the law
of Moses. The Law of Moses didn't make the promise that God made
to Abraham of none effect. The Law of Moses was another
covenant separate from the covenant with Abraham. It had some roots
there in the ceremony of circumcision, for example, and the sacrifices.
But it was a law covenant in which much of it was conditioned
on the nation Israel to show them their sinfulness. And he
says it this way, he says in verse 18 of Galatians 3, for
if the inheritance be of the law, it's no more a promise,
but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore, verse 19,
wherefore then serveth the law? Why did he give the law? It was
added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to
whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in
the hand of a mediator. Why was the law given? To show
the people their sinfulness and their need of the promise of
God's grace through the coming Messiah. It was like a mirror
that they could hold up and see how sinful and wretched and depraved
they were and come to God saying, Lord, I know that I'm a sinner.
I cannot be saved by my works. My law keeping cannot save me.
It falls short of the glory of God. I cannot attain the righteousness,
the perfect righteousness of the law. That can only be found
in Christ who is to come. And so it was to drive them to
Christ. That's what it was all about.
In other words, they were not to seek righteousness by their
law keeping. They were to seek righteousness
in Christ. Romans 9 speaks of that. Romans
10, how they were ignorant of God's righteousness and went
about to establish their own. But Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. That's the persuasion
of faith. That's the reality of faith.
That's how God justifies the ungodly. That's how He justified
Abraham, David, and all of His Old Testament saints, all the
New Testament saints, all who will to come. It's the same promise,
the same ground, the same righteousness through the same person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.