It speaks to us of giving glory
to God. Romans chapter four, we ended
last time with verse 16. And I would just call our attention
again to these three very important truths about salvation in that
verse. Therefore, it is a faith that
it might be by grace To the end, the promise might be sure to
all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, that is
Jews, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of us all. Three important truths about
salvation there. First of all, the salvation of
a sinner is by faith. that it might be by grace. It is a faith. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. If it were by any other
grace, it would not be by grace. But faith is a receiving grace. It is a faith that it might be
by grace. Number two, the salvation of
a sinner must be by grace to be sure. If it were by works
in any way, it could not be sure. And third, the salvation of a
sinner, both Jews and Gentiles, in both dispensations, in the
Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Covenant, the New Covenant.
The Old Dispensation, the New Dispensation. In both dispensations,
salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. There's never
been but one way of salvation, and that way, of course, is Christ. Believers in the Old Testament,
they look forward to his coming. He was promised, and they believed
God and were saved. We look back to the fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ has come. and has offered that one sacrifice
forever to put away the sins of his people. Now, let's go
on with verse 17. As it is written, I have made
thee a father of many nations. Before him whom he believed,
even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things
which be not as though they were. You see, Paul here says, as it
is written. In other words, he's quoting
an Old Testament passage. Let's turn back to that passage
in Genesis chapter 17 and verses 1 through 5. Genesis 17, as it
is written. You know, I was reading a book
the other day. I may bring a message to us from
it, but it was written especially to old people. And I know we
have young people and middle-aged people in this congregation,
but we have some old people. And it was a blessing to me to
read the book. But one of the chapters in it
dealt with an old person reading the scripture. And they gave
this example of a person who said, this is the way I read
the scripture. When I come to a place in the
scripture that I don't understand, I just slip a paper there and
go on. And then it's not long before
I come to another place that explains that scripture that
I didn't understand. And of course, that's the way
to read the Word of God, to study the Word of God. It's to compare
scripture with scripture, spiritual things with spiritual things. And we see Paul here writing
inspired of God. What he wrote was inspired by
God, the Holy Spirit, but yet he quoted inspired word as here,
as it is written, Genesis 17. And when Abram was 90 years old
and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am
the almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between
me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell
on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold,
my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many
nations. Neither shall thy name any more
be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham. For a father
of many nations have I made thee. When God spoke to Abraham, We
see here he was 99 years old. And his dear wife, Sarah, she
was 90 years old. And God promised him, God told
him, that they would have a son and that he, that is Abraham,
would be the father of many nations. And we're told Abraham believed
God. He believed God. It says here
in our text, back in Romans chapter four, He believed God who quickeneth
the dead. Now, as some of the writers point
out, this phrase, God who quickeneth the dead, does that refer to
the resurrection, the general resurrection? That God in the
future is going to raise all the dead. Does that refer to
God who quickeneth the dead? Or does it refer to Abraham at
that point, 99 years old, his dead body, that God quickeneth
the dead, would give him the power as a man to have a son,
to have a child? Or does it refer to the incapacity
of Sarah's womb at 90 years old, past the age of childbearing? Or does it refer to the fact
that when God told Abraham to offer up Isaac, that Abraham
believed God that even if Isaac was slain, God who quickeneth
the dead, God could raise him up. And through that seed, through
that son, the seed in whom all the nations of the earth would
be blessed. Well, the consensus I believe
is that it refers to the general resurrection. the general resurrection,
God who quickeneth the dead. If God, think about this, if
God has the power, and he does, and he tells us that day is coming,
that all who are in the graves are going to hear the voice of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and all are going to come out. Now, if
God has that power, and he does, then surely He can give a man
who's 99 years of age and a woman 90 a son. He believed if God
could do the one, he could do the other. If God could do the
greater, surely he could do the lesser. God, we read here, speaks
of things that do not at present exist, but in the purpose of
God. in the purpose and counsel and
plan of God, they are as though they already exist. Because there's
nothing that can derail or detain or keep God from accomplishing
his purpose. And no one can say unto him,
what doest thou? No one. Known unto God, remember
that verse in Acts chapter 15. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. He knows everything. And he calls
things that are not as though they were. He told Abraham, if
you look at that verse, let me go back in my Bible. But if you
look at that last verse there, God said, In verse 5, for a father of many
nations have. Not I will, I shall. But at that point, God calls
things that don't exist, but in the purpose of God they exist. He calls those things as though
they are present. He didn't have a son at this
time, not Isaac, But God said, a father of many nations have
I made thee. I have made thee. God speaks
of things that do not at present exist in the same way that he
speaks of things that do exist. God called him a father of many
nations, though at that particular time he wasn't, but in the purpose
of God. He was. When God purposes something,
we know it's going to be accomplished. The God of the Bible is not some
weakly wannabe God, is He? He is God Almighty who reigns
and rules and all of His creation works and does according to His
purpose. Now, verse 18, who against hope? It is Abraham who, against hope,
believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations
according to that which was spoken. What was spoken? So shall thy
seed be. The word hope in the scripture,
I believe we are better to think of it as expectation. expectation,
who against expectation, he never expected to have a son, not at
99 years of age and his wife 90, but against expectation,
believed in expectation, believed in hope. Giving him a child at
this age was not only against hope, against expectation, it
was beyond all expectation. But Abraham believed God, what
God told him. He believed in expectation. Abraham believed the promise
in order. Now listen, he believed the promise
in order that he might become the father of many nations. You say, well, what if he had
not believed? Oh, he was gonna believe. He
was gonna believe. God's the one who gives us faith
to believe. The promise was that which was
spoken here. And his faith rested in the word
of God. And that's so important. I know
you know this, but let me remind us of it once again. Faith has
to be built upon a foundation. And if our faith is built merely
upon our feelings, it's not worth a whole lot. Because feelings
change, we know that. But God's word, it doesn't change. It's settled forever, the scripture
says, in heaven. And Abraham based his faith upon
God's word. He rested, his faith rested in
the word of God. The only reason he had to hope
that he would become the father of many nations was Because God
said it. Because God said it. That was
God's word. That was God's promise. He who
cannot lie told him that. You know, when we speak of having
a good hope, and we do, I like that term. I like that term. I love it when I visit with believers,
members of our congregation, and they tell me, Pastor, I've
got a good hope. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And I'm thinking of someone,
when I say this and when I said what I said there, who always
tells me she has a good hope. She has a good hope. J.C. Rauh, in his book entitled
Holiness, Bishop J.C. Rauh, He has a message in there
about a good hope. And he gives about five or six
things that are true of a good hope. You've probably heard some
preacher like me use that outline, but it's a good one. But five
or six things he mentions that are true of a person who has
a good hope. I can't remember all of them
offhand, but I know this. One point is, a person who has
a good hope, they can go to the word of God, and they can say,
this is the reason I have hope, because this is what God says. This is what God says. But notice
here in 2 Thessalonians 2, in verses 16 and 17, Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. Now that's one of the points,
no doubt. If a person has a good hope,
it's through grace. If he has a hope and expectation,
but based on his works or upon anything that he does. It's not
a good hope. It's not a good hope. A good
hope is a good hope through grace, through the fact that salvation
is not of works, but it is by grace through faith. Verse 19 in our text. And being
not weak in faith, He considered not his own body now dead, when
he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. The example of Abraham believing
God is written for our encouragement, for our learning, as all of the
Old Testament scriptures, the apostle Paul tells us, is written
for our learning, for our help. And I can't imagine anything,
humanly speaking, that appeared more impossible than for a 100-year-old
man and a 90-year-old woman to have a son. Can you? I mean, can you think of anything
that would be more impossible than that, that Abraham He faced that in
order for his seed, the promise was that his seed would become
like the stars of the heavens for multitude in the sand by
the seashore. That tells us that Abraham, his
faith was tried and our faith will be tried. Every person that
has God given faith, your faith, my faith will be tried in not
always the same way. but our faith will be tried.
That was a great obstacle to have a son at his age, his wife's
age. We're going to face obstacles.
We know that. We already have and we'll continue
to. There's going to be difficulties along the way, but there's nothing
impossible for God. That's the thing we must always
keep in mind. There's nothing that God cannot
overcome. In verse 19, we read, if you
notice again, and being not weak in faith, Abraham was not weak
in faith. But now notice in verse 20, not
only was he not weak in faith, he was strong in faith. He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith. He was not weak in faith, no. He was strong in faith. And this reminds us that there
are degrees of faith. Not all of us have
the same degree of faith. Not all believers. It is a grace. And you know for, I like to think
of it like this, for the body to grow, the physical body to
grow. There are certain things that
we need. We need food, right? We need exercise. We need a good
environment. And if you take those three things
and think about the fact that faith, though it be the size
of a grain of mustard seed, little faith, but faith can grow. Abraham Had strong faith. Not every child of God has strong
faith. No. Like that man we know who
brought his son to the Lord Jesus Christ, his faith was not strong,
was it? He said, I believe, help thou
my unbelief. He did believe, but he didn't
have strong faith. Abraham had strong faith. I know many of us read Charles
Spurgeon's morning and evening devotional every day, and I encourage
everyone to do it if you can. It's such a blessing. We've been
doing it for years. But recently, his text was, have
faith in God. Have faith in God. And I quote,
he said, little faith. He went on to speak of great
faith and little faith. And I quote, little faith will
save a man, but little faith cannot do great things for God. Poor little faith could not have
fought Apollyon. It needed Christian to do that.
Remember in Pilgrim's Progress? Little faith could not have fought
Apollyon. It took Christian to do that. Poor little faith could not have
slain giant despair. It required great heart's arm
to knock that monster down. Little Faith will go to heaven
most certainly, but it often has to hide itself in a nutshell,
and it frequently loses all but its jewels. Little Faith says,
it's a rough road beset with sharp thorns and full of dangers. I'm afraid to go. But Great Faith
remembers the promise Though thy shoes shall be iron and brass,
as thy days, so shall thy strength be. And so she, Great Faith,
boldly ventures on. Little Faith stands desponding,
mingling her tears with the flood. But Great Faith sings, when thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the
rivers they shall not overshadow thee. I want to have that kind
of faith, don't you, when I come to pass over that last river,
the river of death. I want to be able to walk out
into that water and have my feet on solid ground, that is, upon
Christ. and be able to sing, as Spurgeon
said about great faith, that promise in Isaiah, when thou
passest through the waters, I'll be with thee. And through the
rivers, they shall not overflow thee. And she forged the stream
at once. Would you be comfortable and
happy? That's what most all of us want,
isn't it? To be happy. Would you be comfortable
and happy Would you enjoy religion? Would you have the religion of
cheerfulness and not that of gloom? Then have faith in God. If you love darkness and are
satisfied to dwell in gloom and misery, then be content with
little faith. But if you love the sunshine,
and would sing songs of rejoicing, covet earnestly this best gift,
great faith. It was, you notice in our text,
it was by Abraham believing God that he glorified God. Look at
that in verse 20. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. Don't we all desire that, to
glorify God? How did Abraham glorify God? By believing God, by being strong
in faith. And I would not only speak about
God's faithfulness, that attribute, but all of his attributes. If
we would glorify God, then let's think about His wonderful attributes. Believe them. God is love. God is love. God is light. Oh, when we think about His many
attributes, His holiness, His love, his patience, his kindness,
his goodness, his mercy, his omnipotence, his omniscience,
his omnipresence, his immutability, his hatred. You know, that's
one of God's attributes too, isn't it? Hatred. God did not hate sin, then he
couldn't love the truth. There are things that we're told
and we do hate. There are things that we see,
things that we know and hear about that we hate. Why? Because
they're against God. Because they're unholy, unrighteous. Yes, God, he also has that attribute. And he couldn't be God if he
was just indifferent to wickedness and evil. He's not. Glorify God. Abraham glorified God. How? By
believing God, by trusting God, his faithfulness to do what he
had promised. Verses 21 and 22, and being fully
persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. He, that is Abraham, was fully
persuaded. He was convinced. He was confident
that if God promised something, he was able to do it. He was
able to do it. The righteousness of God was
imputed to Abraham. Now listen, not because he had
strong faith. The righteousness of God was
imputed to Abraham because he believed God, that's true, but
not because he had strong faith. As Spurgeon said, little faith
will take you to heaven, as well as strong faith. No, the thing
about Abraham's faith, the reason the righteousness of God was
imputed to him by faith, his faith was in the right place. A person could have a lot of
faith. A person can brag about their
faith. I tell you what, I'm strong in
faith. I've got plenty of faith. What's your faith in? Well, I
believe that by priest, priestcraft, by hocus pocus, my sins might
be washed away. I believe that. I have strong
faith in that. That faith's no good. That faith
doesn't bring righteousness. Why? Because no matter how strong
it is, it's based or placed in the wrong place. No. Faith in God. That's what we
say. That's what Paul says here. Let's read on 23 and 24. Now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him. This is the way God justifies
a sinner. Sinner believes the gospel and
the righteousness of Christ is imputed unto him. It's counted
his righteousness. And therefore he is declared
just. But the way Abraham was justified,
it's not written. We don't have this recorded in
the scripture just so we'll know about Abraham. But for us, for
us, for us tonight to know, to be assured, to be confident that
we too, if we believe God and believe his gospel, believe in
Christ, then the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. It's our righteousness now. And notice verse, Well, let me,
I want, I wanted to read you a quote quickly on that verse. It is only by faith that we're,
that any are justified. Abraham was not the first. Here
it is. Abraham, think about this. He was not the first man to be
justified by faith. We know about Abel. We know about
Noah. And we know there are many more
we don't know about. But Abraham, is the first man
that it is recorded about him that he was justified by faith. And here's a quote by Robert
Haldane, the first recorded testimony respecting the justification
of any sinner is that of Abraham. Others had been justified from
the fall down to his time, but it was reserved for him to possess
the high privilege and distinction of being thus the first man singled
out and constituted the progenitor of the Messiah. You see, he's
the first one. God had promised the seed of
the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, but it came down
to Abraham. Millions of people, thousands
of people in the world, God said to Abraham, In thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed. In other words, Christ
is going to come from your seed. He's going to be your seed. In
him, all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, and consequently,
he was to be the father of all believers who are the children
of Christ. and the heir of the inheritance
on earth that typify the inheritance in heaven, which belongs to Jesus
Christ, who is appointed heir of all things, with whom believers
are joint heirs. The promise to Abraham was that
land, but it's typical of the promise that was made to his
seed, that is to Christ, of the heavenly land, to believe For
salvation is not just to believe that God is. The scriptures say
the devils, they believe and tremble, but they're not saved.
No, to believe God, it means to believe God, believe on him
in regard to his gospel, that he sent his son into this world
to save his people. Brother Henry Mahan, he wrote,
he was promised by God, sent by God, bruised by God, raised
by God, and seated on God's right hand. That's to believe God,
to believe what God has revealed concerning his gospel. And to
close in verse 25, and this verse answers a lot of questions. People
say, well, Christ died as an example. Well, Christ is our
example, but he didn't die to be our example. No, no. What does it say? He was delivered
for our offenses. He died to pay our sin debt. His resurrection testifies His resurrection testifies that
God accepted the payment. Isn't that true? Amen. He died bearing the sins of his
people. Did he pay? Did God accept it? Amen. On that third day, he came
out of that grave and God testifies to you and me tonight, our sins
are paid. They're gone. through the work
of Christ. May the Lord bless His word to
us here this evening.