Let's have a look at this glorious
passage of scripture. I'd really like to, we'll go
through it as I speak to you this morning and I would really
like us just to look at these amazing words in verse 16 and
we'll deal with the ones around them in due course. This is therefore
it, therefore the blessedness of salvation, the blessedness
of the Spirit given, the blessedness of relationship with God, the
blessedness of sins forgiven, the blessedness of faithfulness. Therefore it is of faith that
it might be according to grace. so that the promise is sure to
all the seed. not only to those who are of
the law, but to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of the world. As it is written, I have made
you the father of many nations in the presence of whom he believed,
God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which
do not exist as though they did, who, contrary to hope, in hope
believed so that he became the father of many nations. According to what was spoken,
so shall your descendants be. And not being weak in faith,
he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about
100 years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver
at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened
in faith giving glory to God, being fully convinced, fully
persuaded that what He had promised, He was also able to perform,
and therefore it was counted to Him for righteousness. Now,
it was not written for His sake alone. that it was imputed to
him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who
believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered up because of our offences and was raised
because of our justification. It's just a remarkable Remarkable
passage of Scripture, remarkable life that Abraham lived before
God, a remarkable witness to the faithfulness of God. And
brothers and sisters, if you are like me, we cling on to the
Word of God and we cling on to the promises of God. But if the
promises of God according to Romans 4.16 are true, then it's
going to be sure to two groups of people. It's sure to the faithful
and it's sure to those who are the recipients of grace. We come together, week by week,
with one purpose in mind, isn't it really? That the Lord Jesus
would be lifted up. The Lord Jesus would be seen
to be glorious. He would be seen to be God over
all. He would be seen to be the one. who was raised up between heaven
and earth and bore our sins in his own body on the tree. We want to speak about the Lord
Jesus. I want the people here to look
away from themselves and look to the Lord Jesus, to look to
Him by faith, to take their eyes away from Him I long for people
to love him. I love that story in Luke chapter
7 of the sinner who came and she brought the alabaster box
of ointment, a year's wages. $50,000 and she just broke that
box. And the Pharisee said, if this
man was a prophet, if this Jesus was a prophet, if he really knew
what was going on, he would know what manner of woman this is,
that she that touches him, she's a sinner. And Jesus answered
and said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say against thee.
And then in verse 47, He said to her, her sins, which are many, are
forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. If you wonder why there is such
shallowness about the passion that so many have for the Lord
Jesus. How little there is of a passionate
love that loves Him for who He is and loves Him for what He
has done for them and hates the things that He hates. and is
distressed over the fact that he's blasphemed in this land
and distressed over the fact that he's treated with contempt
because of religious people. The reason is so clear in that
verse, isn't it? They love little because they
have been forgiven little. Last week we looked at the Romans
7 sinner. A Romans 7 sinner is a saved
sinner. The Romans 7 sinner is a picture
of a holy man. The Romans 7 sinner is a very
rare sinner indeed. There are very few Romans 7 sinners
in this world. Very, very few indeed. You meet
very, very few of them. I met a man yesterday and we
had a long discussion and he wasn't a Roman seven sinner. He was a man who had some righteousness
of his own. He had some experiences of his
own and he loved to parade them before me again and again and
again. He wanted to tell me of the great
things that had been done in him and through him and by him. And the Lord Jesus was loved
little because he wasn't a Roman seven sinner. He was a man like
many that we've encountered whose sins are just the occasional
slip-up. Or they're, as we read last week
from that confession from the church in Sydney, they are just
the odd momentary lapses. just the occasional thing, like
a friend from our previous days who said that he dealt with all
the sin in his life and he just had one sin that he was working
on that was left. He didn't realise. He didn't
realise what he was. You see, it's a gift, a grace
gift of God for you to be shown to be what you really are. For you to cry out, as Paul did,
and say that he's a wretched man, the wretched man that I
am. because he'd come to understand
God's law in its breadth, God's law in its spiritual nature. You have spiritual sins against
God. It's the soul that sins. He was
a wretched man because when God's law came and when the Spirit
came and showed him what he was, that sin was actually stirred
up inside of him. Sin was revived and it was dormant
there and he had no idea, but he wasn't a wretched man until
the Spirit of God came and showed him what he was. And it showed
him, as he says in 1 Timothy 1.13, it showed him that he was
A religious man who thought he was doing God's service, he finds
out that instead of loving God, instead of honouring God, instead
of worshipping God, he found out that he was a blasphemer,
that he was a persecutor. He was a violent man. He was a man who acted in ignorance
and unbelief. He was going along quite nicely. In fact, he was going along in
the most extraordinary way in this world, until such time as
the Lord arrested him. You see, the broad road is incredibly
broad, brothers and sisters, isn't it? And some people march
down the broad road and they're smiling sweetly and they're walking
under the trees on the edge of the road in the shadows and being
delighted in the peace and other things. Some people are walking
in the middle of the road nice and high and they're looking
down upon other people. Some people are on the religious
side of the road, aren't they? Like Paul was on that broad road,
religious, a Pharisee, zealous. zealous it seemed for his religion,
zealous it seemed for his God. He was on the broad road. Some
on the broad road are in the gutter, and the ones on the top
of the road can look down and think that they're better than
them. Like Paul thought he was better, like this Pharisee here
thought that he was better than that woman, that sinner. That sinner who touched God and
lived. That sinner who was touched by
God and lived. That sinner who had a word spoken
to her by God and was completely forgiven. The broad road is extraordinarily
broad, brothers and sisters. and only Roman seven sinners
see what that broad road really is. Roman seven sinners have
this inward conflict within them. They are as the Shulamite in
Song of Solomon. She is, within her, is this warring
of these two armies. He doesn't understand what he
does. For what I want to do, I do not. And what I hate, I do. Paul is not excusing sin. He
says he hates it. He hates the sinful actions.
He hates the unbelief, as Hebrews says, the evil heart of unbelief. He hates the fact that he has
these sins that live in him. When he desires to do good, evil
is present there with me. A Romans 7 sinner is a saved
sinner. And as we saw last week, these
are things that God's people know. The brethren of Paul know
these things. They are things in verse 10 that
they find out. In verse 14, they are things
that are commonly known. We know that the law is spiritual,
that I am carnal, sold unto sin. For I know me, listen to this,
verse 18 of chapter... For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwells no good thing. If only my friend from yesterday
was a Roman second sinner, we would have had a very beautiful
conversation about the glories of the Lord, rather than him
parading a righteousness before me. I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwells no good thing, for to will is present with me. but how to perform that which
is good, I find not. For the good that I would do,
the good that I wish to do, I do not, but the evil which I would
not, that I do." And he talks of himself as a man who has two
natures, two eyes, an eye that wishes to do good, and cannot,
an I that doesn't sin, an I that is the new man in him. Religion
is continually telling people to look to themselves, look to
themselves, look to their performance, look to their activities. Brothers
and sisters, the one purpose we have here is that you would
look away from yourselves. So many people are looking for
assurance in things that are done in them and things that
are done around them. God's people look to assurance
in someone else, completely outside of them. They look for their
assurance, their peace with God in He who is the Prince of Peace. The wretched man The heaven-born
child is a man who truly thanks God. The wretched man is a man
who truly loves God. He's a transformed man, a created
and new man. He's a real sinner. He's an honest
sinner. He's a humble sinner. He's a
delivered sinner. He's a thankful sinner. And he
thanks God through Jesus Christ. He's looked away through himself. See, the only honest sinners
in this world, the only honest sinners in this world are Roman
seven sinners. They're the only people, aren't
they? The only people who are honest about their sins are the
people who have honestly been forgiven of their sins by God
and clothed in a righteousness that they don't have earned themselves,
a righteousness which is the righteousness of God, a covering
from God on us sinners. They don't pretend to be something
that they are not. And I'm a sinner. But then at
the end of verse 25 of chapter 7, Paul talks about this ongoing
reality in his life, isn't he? He's a wretched man, he's a delivered
man, he's a thankful man. And then he has this resolution,
So then with my mind I serve the law of God, but with the
flesh the law of sin. See, the struggle is an ongoing
struggle, brothers and sisters. He's a persevering sinner in
the midst of the sin that is in him. And God, in mercy, overrules
all these providences and all the painful exercises for the
good of his people. And he's only done it, and he's
left this holy man, this saint of God, in this flesh, in that
war, for good, a purpose of good in his life. They are essential. They are essential for you as
a Christian right here. They are essential for you to
have a contrite heart. That contrite heart in Psalm
51 that receives the blessings of the promises of God. A contrite
heart he won't despise. They are essential for you to
be broken and to live with brokenness. They are essential for people
to have godly fear and not just be presumptuous. They are essential
for bowing our heads before God. You've heard the story of the
wheat and the tares. They look the same. The big difference
between wheat and tares is that when the wheat is ripe, the riper
it gets, the more and more and more the head of the wheat bows
down. And you can tell the tears in a wheat crop, those poisonous
tears, look the same. And as the tears ripen, the head
stands proud and proud. It's a great picture, isn't it?
God created wheat and tears so that we'd know We would know. He created sheep and goats so
that we would know. Sheep and goats in our land looked
the same. They looked different, so different,
that you would have no trouble telling the difference. I wish
I'd brought more photos and taken more photos in India. You can
see a flock of these animals walking down the road in India.
And you can't tell what are the sheep and the goats. The sheep
look exactly like the goats. They're tall, long-legged things
without wool on them, and they are sheep. And the goats are
tall, long-legged things. And their ears flop down just
the same, and they look just the same. Some of those parables
became so incredibly powerful in India. The only difference,
the only difference that you can see from a distance between
a goat and a sheep is that a goat's tail sticks up proud and a sheep's
tail hangs down. It's remarkable. It just stunned
me when I first saw it. Being a farmer I thought I had
these things covered. Over there I learned a whole
new bit of biology. These things are essential. This
battle that's in us, the battle that's in me now, the battle
that's in you right now, the battle that's in there every
day, is essential for restraining the pride, the pride of man,
the pride that we show before men, the boasting that we want
to have of the difference. So what my friend didn't realize
is that every time yesterday he told me of the wondrous things
that he'd done, he was telling me of the wondrous things that
I hadn't done. I had reason to speak to our
friend Jerry, whose wife Marianne lost her mum just a few weeks
ago, and I finally got to speak to him. And I said to him, he
asked me, he said, how are you going? And I said, well, I'm
struggling, Jerry. Just struggling along. And he
said that it's just such a comfort to him because they've been struggling
as well. We don't encourage our brothers and sisters in the Lord
by telling them how wonderful we are. We encourage them. We encourage them by telling
them how wonderful the Lord Jesus is. We don't have to boast. We
don't have some place that we've attained which sets us above
other people. The sin that's in us, the sin
that is so evident, the sin that is so grievous, the sin that's
in my flesh and your flesh right now, is a sin that God's forgiven
sinners can confess. They can just acknowledge what
God says about it is right. If you just turn quickly before
we go to Romans 4, just turn quickly to 1 John. 1 John has
two. Sin is described as what we are. We are sinners according to the
Bible. We are sinners in Adam. We come
into this world as sinners. And then we sin because we are
sinners. In 1 John 1a it says, if we say
we have no sin, and that is a noun, if we say that sin is not what
we are, what we're born in, what we inherited from our father
Adam, it's a noun. If we say we have no sin, if
we say that that's not what we are, a Romans ever sinner says,
yes, that's what I am. 1 John says, if we say we have
no sin, a noun, we deceive ourselves. We don't deceive God. We don't
deceive other people for too long either. And the truth is
not in us. Verse 10. And if we say that we have not
sinned, and that's the verb, that's the activity of sin, do
you see? One is just the nature of who
we are, the other one is our activities. We make him a liar
and his word is not in us. That's why I run Seven Sinner. is a precious sinner. A Romans
7 sinner is a sinner who needs saving grace. A Romans 7 sinner
is like the sinner we look at in Romans chapter 4. A Romans 7 sinner is a sinner
who is in need of grace. A sinner who is in need of a
promise that's sure. I thought we'd just look very
briefly, I thought we'd just look at what grace is, then I
thought we'd look at what faith is in this chapter, and then
we'd look at some of the promises of God. Promises of God are just
littered throughout this Bible. They are the most remarkable
promises, aren't they? But grace is a word that is bandied
around, isn't it, in all sorts of places. But a Romans 7 sinner
is a real sinner who is a recipient of grace. There are many who
proclaim the doctrines of grace. and they use the doctrines of
grace as a means of boasting in their knowledge and their
theology. I'm not much interested in teaching the doctrines of
grace. I am much more interested in teaching the God of grace
and showing you He who makes those doctrines absolutely essential. The fact that we are totally
depraved Some people actually boast about their knowledge of
their depravity. God's children don't boast about
it. We love the fact that real and
saving grace is unconditional grace, isn't it? You see, it's
the favour of God shown to those who have nothing positive about
them at all, and everything possible negative about them. If you have
any merit in anything that you are, in anything that you have
done, then you are not a recipient of grace. You're not a Roman
7 sinner. Roman seven sinners look in their
flesh and they say, I am calm. They have nothing to boast in. See, the grace of God is big
and expansive and it's glorious. It's completely unmerited and
it's completely unsought. If you go back to Genesis 12,
you'll see that Abraham was what? He was an Iraqi idolater. That's all he was. He was an
Iraqi idolater. He was unmerited. The grace of
God in his life was unmerited and he wasn't seeking it. Grace, saving grace, looks to
nothing in, nothing from, or nothing by those who receive
it. It cannot be bought, it cannot
be earned, and it cannot be won. The recipient has absolutely no claim
on it whatsoever. It's just a gift of God, a gift
of God. As Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 said,
it's a gift. It's got nothing to do with your
works. so often in the scriptures, it's
extraordinary, isn't it? Grace is free. Grace is sovereign. And over and over again the scriptures
talk in terms of grace and then they talk about the freedom of
grace. And you would wonder why we need to hear it that way,
because to be grace it has to be free. It's just so that God
will continually remind us, if you're a recipient of the grace
of God, you haven't earned it. And wonderfully, brothers and
sisters, if you're the recipient of the grace of God, you cannot
lose it. Grace is sovereign grace. Romans
7 sinners need grace. And grace stands directly opposed
to all works. We'll look at that in Romans
4 in a minute. And especially the works of the law. There is
either salvation which is 100% by grace or there is 100% works.
If someone preaches to you 99.9% grace, and they preach that tiny little
bit of your works, anything that you might have to do to make
it meritorious or effectual in your life, they have preached
100% works and there is zero grace in it. Turn to Romans 11,
6. It's good just to be reminded
that this is not what I'm saying, this is what God says. It's an
incredibly important verse. is talking about the election
of grace, God's grace from eternity, God choosing, electing grace. He says, if it is by this grace,
this grace which is eternal, this grace which is sovereign,
then it is no more of works, no more of anything to do with
the creature. We are the recipients of the
promise of God. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
You see, grace is free and grace is pure and grace cannot be mixed. You cannot add to the perfect
work of the Lord Jesus. How good do you have to be to
get to heaven is the question of the Bible. How good do you
have to be? How good do you have to be to
go into heaven? You have to be as good as God. If you are not as good as God,
holy, perfect, spotless, blameless, Grace makes Romans 7 sinners
into saints. Grace takes an idolater like
Abraham and makes him a friend of God. Grace takes sinners like
us and makes us children of the living God. Grace is eternal. Turn to that famous verse in
2 Timothy 1 verse 9. The saved sinners were saved
by God in eternity. What a remarkable thing, isn't
it? That the history of my salvation was begun in eternity and finished
in eternity, and therefore nothing in time can change what God has
said. He has saved us. and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. If you were a saved sinner, you
were saved by grace before the foundation of the world. But
now what is happening is that there is just a light being shed
onto it. It's now being made manifest.
Light has been shed onto it by the appearing of our Saviour
Jesus Christ, who has once and forever abolished death. What a remarkable thing. The
recipients of grace have had death abolished for them and
have had light, life, real life, life with God and immortality
brought to light. And how is it brought to light?
Through the Gospel. You see, it's only through the
Gospel that you can have these things, brothers and sisters.
We Roman seven sinners love to have them brought to us. We Roman
seven sinners love to have the Gospel proclaimed. I was away
a few weeks ago, and I came back, and Norm was preaching on Thursday
night, and he just preached the Gospel. And I just needed to
hear it. And it was lovely. and it's nourished
me for weeks." That's our gospel. We are justified freely by His
grace. Grace is free. Grace is sovereign. Grace reigns. Grace reigns according to Romans
5, 20 and 21. Grace reigns with the power that
death reigns. Even as the power of death in
this world, the power of death over every living thing we see
is powerful, reigning, the grace reigns in that same way. Therefore, because grace reigns,
we have a throne of grace. We can come boldly to that throne
of grace. You see, grace discriminates. Grace makes differences. Grace chooses and grace passes by. Grace made
Abraham a friend of God. Grace saved harlots, saved tax
collectors, saved the chief of sinners, and passed by others. We are washed by grace in the
precious blood of our Redeemer, sanctified by the powerful operations
of the Spirit, justified. And there God came to those people
who were some of the most torious sinners in all the world like
the Corinthians, and they were washed, they were made holy,
they were justified right before God, and he passed by the Pharisees. comes when the Lord Jesus is
made manifest to people. The law came through Moses, but
grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus. And from His fullness,
we have received grace upon grace. It's almost as if grace is pictured
as a fountain, isn't it? It just flies over. Such is the
grace and such is the love of God that He can bestow infinite
love on one of His children and still have infinite love to give
to the next of His children. He can be infinitely gracious
and not lose any of His fullness. From His fullness we have all
received. Grace is proclaimed in the Gospel. The testifying of the apostles,
according to Acts 20.24, was a testifying to the Gospel of
the grace of God. And the spirit of grace must
come. and He comes where He will and
in a way that He will. God the Father is the fountain
of all grace. He purposes His everlasting grace
in that eternal covenant. God the Son is the only channel
of grace. The Gospel is the means by which
we publish or we proclaim the grace of God and the Spirit then
does that marvellous work, doesn't he? He takes the things of the
Lord Jesus and he reveals them to us. The Spirit bestows grace. and creates new life where there
was death, and conquers those rebellious wills, removes that
stony heart and gives the heart of flesh. It takes that dead
sinner from the grave, takes that prisoner out of the prison
house and releases him to captivity. It opens those blind eyes and
takes away all that sin. That's why we proclaim that sovereign
grace is the only grace. that tries, for a grace that
is common is not good enough for a Roman 7 sinner. I'm not
a common sinner, neither are you brothers and sisters if you
know the Lord. We're not common sinners. Grace that is common
to everyone is useless grace, ineffectual grace. Just like
love that is common to all people is not saving love. Roman seven
sinners need a big God who really saves, doesn't make it there
as some offer on a table for everyone to take. That's not
good enough. That's not what the Scriptures
say. That doesn't meet the needs of God's children. It doesn't
meet the needs of sinners. It dishonours our God and makes
Him to be a pathetic beggar. begging at the throne of man,
sitting on that glorious throne of his own free will and his
own good works and his own righteousness, and God, as it were, begging
him to please not make the Lord Jesus' work a failure. That's not the grace of God.
That's not what this book says. Saving grace really, really saves. Let's turn to Romans 4 and look
at our friend Abraham, our father in the faith. Verse 3 it says, Abraham believed
God. Abraham Abraham, as we saw there
in Genesis 15, he had God speak words of promise to him, and
he was led by the grace of God to believe God, and it was counted
to him for righteousness. He was a righteous man before
God. He believed God. He believed
the Word of God, and he took those words as a promise. He took those words as a real
promise from God, that God had promised. When he took him outside
and looked up at those stars, and he couldn't count all the
stars, God says, they are your descendants. That will be the
number of them. Nations will come from your body,
you old, old man. And your old, old wife will have
that many descendants. He believes God. It's remarkable,
isn't it? He believed God, and it was granted
to him as righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages
are not counted as grace, but as a debt. If you believe that
you can work to earn something from God, and you can put God
in your debt, and you can do something that causes God to
owe you something because of your work, you are just working. But listen to this. This is a
description of a saved sinner. But to him who does not work,
but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness." Two essential things to get into heaven, isn't
it? To be ungodly, to be a sinner,
and to be a believer. Counted for righteousness. Just
as David also described the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes
righteousness apart from works. What were David's works when
all this was done? David's works at the time were the works of
him killing a loyal and honoured friend, stealing his wife, murdering
him in deceit. And Nathan came to that man.
and says, the Lord has taken away your sins, David. And this
is the blessedness. Brothers and sisters, David's
sins are before us because they're our sins too. If you were in
David's shoes, you would have done exactly as he's done. If
God didn't restrain you, you'd do exactly the same now. It's
the restraining hand of God that stops you being the sinner that
you really are. Blessed are those whose lawless
deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord shall not impute sin." It's remarkable, isn't it? It's almost
like a Trinitarian declaration. Three times he has to say it.
Your sins are forgiven. Your sins are covered. Covered by that blood. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sins. God wants us
to get the lesson, brothers and sisters. Does this blessedness,
verse 9, come upon the circumcised only? Do you have to be part
of that Jewish nation or upon the uncircumcised also? For we
say that faith was counted to Abraham for righteousness. How
then was it counted? While he was circumcised, what
had Abraham done? not while he was circumcised,
but while he was uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision,
a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had. while still uncircumcised, before
anything had been done in his fleet, a righteousness which
was his as a position, that he might be the father of all who
believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed,
might be countercredited to them also, the father of those who
are not only of the circumcision, but also who walk in the steps
of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised."
See, what did Abraham do? He did what 2 Corinthians 5.7
says, he walked by faith and not by sight. If you go down to verse 9, you'll
see why he had to walk by faith and not by sight. because his
own body, he looked at his own body in verse 19, it was dead. He was about a hundred years
old and Sarah was 90 years old. He was old and dead and she was
old and dead. That's the faith that he walked
in. for the promise that he would
be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through
the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law,
those who are doing, are the heirs, then faith is made void."
Faith is made void if it involves the work of men, and especially
the law work of men. And the promise is of no effect,
because the law works wroth. What did the law say to David?
What did the law say to Bathsheba? Very simple. It was absolutely
perfectly clear to all who knew it. You take those two people
outside of this town, this city right now, and you stone them
to death. Simple. That was what the law
said. The law works wrath. But grace
and the promise brings blessedness, brothers and sisters. Therefore
it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that
the promise is sure. What good is it for David to
have said that your sins are forgiven? to have that word from
God come to him and it mean absolutely nothing. What good was it for
Abraham to receive a promise to have that many children and
God not carry it out? See, the promise is sure, brothers
and sisters, but the promise is sure because grace is sure. The promise is sure because faith
looks to that promise. Faith looks to that promise before
it's fulfilled. Faith looks to that promise despite
what it sees around it at all. The promise is sure to all the
seed. to all of Abraham's children,
to all the seed, ultimately the seed who were given to thee seed,
which was the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are of the faith of
Abraham, who is the father of us all. I have made you, says
God, I have made you the father of many nations, in the presence
of whom he believes. And here he has this amazing
description of God. We saw and heard in Genesis 14
that Abraham said that God is the owner of both heaven and
earth. He rules absolutely everything
and here he has this amazing description of God. He gives
life to the dead. He creates life where there is
no life at all. As He said to Ezekiel, take him
out to this valley of dry bones. Can these bones live? Ezekiel says, God knows. Can these bones
live? Can dead sinners live? Can those who are dead in their
sins and trespasses, can they live? God, our God, gives life
to the dead, and He calls those things which do not exist as
though they did. You see, how did God create this
universe? Was it much trouble for Him?
He spoke a word. They still can't count how many
billions of stars there are up there. They make guesses about
how many billions and billions and billions of stars are there.
God just spoke. God just spoke this creation
that we can witness around us. He spoke a word and it came forth
perfectly according to His word. speaks a word and God's word
creates reality, brothers and sisters. If God speaks a word
to you, then he creates that reality in your life. That's real reality, isn't it?
The only real reality is what God says and what God sees. God says that my sins are forgiven,
that that's just the reality. If God says that he cannot see
them and he cannot remember them and he's sealed them up in a
bag and he's dropped them in the bottom of the ocean and he's
put them as far as the east is from the west and he's covered
them with a thick cloud and he will remember them no more, that's
true. That's God's reality. That's
the reality that Abraham walked in. If God says to His people,
you are holy, spotless and blameless, and before Him you have the very
righteousness of God, In fact, that is more real than
what I see with my eyes. That is the only reality that's
going to be a reality in eternity. All of this is just shadows that
are fleeing away. You see, God creates reality
by speaking. And He gives, in verse 18, He
gives to the man this man that he has graced with his faith. See, contrary to hope, Abraham
lived a most remarkable life. The word Abram means father. Imagine that. There he is in
that world where to have children was the sign of blessing. For
75 years there he had this beautiful wife, Sarah, in Ur of the Chaldees. What's your name? Father. Where are your children? I don't
have any. God changed his name to Abraham. Abraham means the father of many. And there he was in Canaan. What's
your name? Abram. I'm the father of many. Where are your children, Abram?
I have none. You see, the name was remarkable,
wasn't it? Fancy wearing that name for all
of those years. And wearing that name after the
promise has been given for so long, for 25 years he had to
wear that name. And Abram, like us, a Roman seven
sinner, Abram, like us, had his flesh. And in his flesh, when
he didn't trust God, he and Sarah concocted a plan to make God's
reality come true, and they produced Ishmael. They produced an Ishmael. We produce Ishmaels all the time. All the time, don't we? When
we don't trust God, we produce Ishmaels. But Abraham was also
a righteous man. And Abraham, in hope, believed
so that he became the father of many nations on the basis
that God had made a promise. And I love these next couple
of verses. They're just remarkable, aren't
they? And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body.
You see, if you look to your own body and your own works,
you are looking in the wrong place. You look to heaven. You look to the Lord Jesus. The
life that we now live, we live by the faithfulness of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself to me. I'm dead. My life before God was lived
2,000 years ago, brothers and sisters, and God is very pleased
with it, thank you very much. The death of my sins was died
2,000 years ago and justice is perfectly satisfied. And the
justice of God says, you cannot punish that one for whom I died. We don't look at our bodies.
He was 100 years old, Sarah was dead. First 20 is a glorious
verse, isn't it? May God, the Holy Spirit, cause
it to be part of our lives. He did not waver at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving
glory to God. That's what a Roman second sinner
longs for, isn't it, in the new man. He wants to give glory to
God. He wants to be removed like that
sinner. Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. He wants to grow. He wants to
be strengthened in faith. And he was fully convinced that
what he had promised, what God had promised, he was able to
perform. God has made the Master remarkable
promises. Jesus is able to find them. See
this is written, it says in verse 23, this is all written all those
years ago, 4,000 years ago, this was written for us. It wasn't
written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also
for us. And it shall be imputed, it shall
be credited to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord
from the dead. Who was delivered up because
of our offences and was raised because of our justification.
He was raised because we were already justified. You can search the scriptures
and you'll find that it's just full of promises, isn't it? Promises
from God. Promises that must be grace gifts. Promises that are made sure by
grace and faith. Promises of peace. My peace I
give you. Promises of His presence. I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. Promises of protection, I am
your shield, your very great reward. Promises of perseverance,
that God who has begun a good work will carry it on to the
end. Promises of His purpose, that
these things that we see with our eyes do have a purpose for
the glory of God. Promises of glory, promises of
completeness, promises forgiveness, promises of acceptance, accepted
in the beloved. Just go to Ephesians 1 and read
that glorious list of the promises. Promises to be loved. Yes, I have loved you, says Jeremiah
31 through. I've loved you with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you." Promises to
heal us when we wander. He says, I will heal their backslidings,
and then he says, I will love them As Paul finished when he had
that remarkable prayer, and they wept on the beach near Ephesus,
he says, And now, brethren, I commend you to God, to the word of His
grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance. Amen. Let's pray.