Let's be going to Romans chapter
4. The text that I was drawn to
when preparing this message is verse 21. This is speaking of Abraham,
he that is called the father of the faithful, the father of
you that are of faith. Verse 21, and being fully persuaded
that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. Am I fully persuaded that what
God has promised us in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is able
to perform it? Will God keep his word of promise
made to us in the promised seed which is Jesus Christ? His promise
to us in Christ is that by grace ye are saved. Through faith in
that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It is
the gift of salvation. His unspeakable gift which is
given to us which is the Lord Jesus Christ, am I fully persuaded
that God is able to save me for Christ's sake alone without my
hand being put to that work, without my works, without me
having to do something to flip the switch or to make it effectual
or to keep it going? Is it by grace or is it by Well,
Paul is teaching this truth to the Romans, and he brings us
to Abraham to answer that question, because Abraham was fully persuaded
that what God had promised, he was able also to perform without
his help, without any other support from Abraham. God is able. Am I fully persuaded? Abraham,
the father of the faithful, was. God promised it. God performed
it through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, to affirm this answer
here, let's begin in the beginning of chapter 4 and verse 1, all
showing how that by grace, how that by faith we establish the
law, we fulfill the truth of the law, we fulfill it in spirit
and in truth through Christ. In verse 1 says, 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 that whereof to glory, it's
just a little different from how we would say it. So I looked
at my literal translation. And the literal translation of
verse two says, if Abraham was justified by works, he has a
boast. He has a boast, but not with
God. Not with God. Well, if not with
God, who does he have a boast with? Well, other men. He can
boast before other men, it says. If that was his heart, he could
boast before other men, but he certainly cannot boast with God. And that's what we're interested
in. That's what we want to know is how can How can I, a sinful
man, be righteous with God, be justified with God, be accepted
with God? I want to know the answer to
that question. That's the supreme question. How may I, a sinner,
be accepted, justified by God? Abraham was not justified by
his works. Abraham was justified by God. And one of the things that the
Spirit of God instructs the children and trains us up and teaches
us in is to have no confidence in this flesh, but to have every
confidence in God our Savior. Paul is saying here that if Abraham
was a lawmonger, If he was a will worshipper and a lawmonger, if
you think of a fishmonger, they're called fishmongers, that means
their trade, their business is in fish. They deal in fish, a
fishmonger. Well, a lawmonger, his trade,
his transactions, his business is in the law. A lawmonger in
that sense, everything he does is in the law. Well, he'd have
boasted, if Abraham was a lawmonger, he'd have boasted of his righteousness
by his works, but it would count nothing with God. It would fall
flat before God. And one of the things that sinful
men do in the law, that those who know not the truth of God,
those who claim to keep the law, I'll say it of my own self. When
I thought I kept the law of God, I broke the very law I claimed
to keep by despising others who were not keeping up with me.
I would break that very law, the very spirit of that law,
which says, love thy neighbor as thyself. Well, I'm not loving
them when I'm judging them and putting them down and despising
them. and putting them off. And so I'm breaking the very
law I claim to uphold in that my flesh is provoked to enmity
and it despises those who I consider beneath me. That's just what
my nature is. And it's the nature that God
says we all have by nature. And so regarding, we see that
regarding the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. I'm
not gonna go there, but it's in Luke 18, and Christ gave that
parable. Both men went to the temple to
pray, and he gave that parable showing the difference that grace
makes between a Pharisee and a publican. And it said in verse
nine that he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and despised others. They despised
others. That's the inevitable outcome.
When we're looking to the law, and we're trusting in the law,
and we're finding our righteousness in and by the law, it produces
a coldness. It produces a cruelty. It produces
a hatred in us that despises others, because we're judging
others by our self-righteousness. And we're judging them as, well,
you're not. You're making it difficult for me because you're
not doing what you're supposed to be doing, and I'm trying to
do it, and you're just making it worse. And so that's what
we do. And we start to despise others
that are dragging us down and not producing fruit, as we see
what fruit is. And it produces, it provokes
wrath and enmity in us. And Paul calls them wicked works.
It actually produces wicked works in us. But that was an Abraham,
the father of the faithful, who himself was freely loved by God
and freely accepted by God. God was very gracious to Abraham. Romans 4, 3, for what saith the
scripture, Abraham believed God. He trusted God. He believed God,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness. His faith was
counted unto him for righteousness. It showed the fruit of the Spirit. It testified of God's grace in
his heart, bearing fruits of righteousness, faith. He believed
God, and God counted it for righteousness. Now, all religious men claim
to believe God. Our religious nature claims to
believe God, but what justifies that claim? faith in God, believing
God. That's what justifies that claim
that I believe God, that I trust God. It's the one who works for
righteousness is proving they don't believe God, because God
gives his word of promise that he justifies the righteous through
faith, by grace. He justifies them for Christ's
sake, not for our work's sake, as our brother read in Titus
chapter 3, verse 4 this morning. Now, he may believe God like
the devils do. The devils believe there is a
God and he may do religious things, but is his confidence in his
doing or is his confidence in the promises of God? Does he
rest and trust God to work this salvation, to work his righteousness
in our hearts by his word of promise made unto us Christ or
is he responsible to strive and labor and to do that work and
bring it to pass right because the flesh says if I don't do
this then God won't fulfill his promise unto me and that brethren
is works that is the spirit of works that is our nature we we
say those things we we turn to the flesh by nature in our flesh
we do that we say well if I don't do this I God's not going to
do his part. He's not going to forgive me,
or he won't receive me. And that, as we saw in the midweek,
that frustrates the grace of God. It frustrates the grace
of God, which Paul said, I don't do that. I don't trust the works
of the law, because that's a frustration, Galatians 2.21. It frustrates
the grace of God. It despises the promises of God. It rejects Christ and the promise
of God made in Christ. Look at what Paul says next in
verse 4 and 5. Now, to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. It's frustrating
the promise of grace, and it actually seeks to indebt God
to us. That's what we do. It seeks to
indebt God to us. That's what Paul is saying. It's
not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh
not It's a bold thing for the apostle to say. Him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness. That's not Eric saying that.
That's the apostle saying this. Him that worketh not, but believeth
on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Are you ungodly? I am. By nature, all I am is sin. All I am is ungodly. As Paul
said, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good
dwells. Nothing good dwells. My heart's
corrupt. My mind is corrupt. It's bent. It's skewed. I have a false understanding
of God. I have an idle God by nature
in my mind, whom I worship, whom I invent, whom I raise up. I
look to a totem pole. I bow to a stump and a rock by
nature. It's only by the power and grace
of God that he turns us to Christ, to behold the true and living
God who saves whom he will, by his grace and power, rot in our
hearts. He does that. He does that. What
he's talking about there is God's people confess, I'm an ungodly
sinner, Lord. I need your grace. I need your
mercy. I need your salvation, Lord.
Please save me, the sinner. Have mercy on me, Lord. Because
I cannot wash my hands. I cannot cleanse my heart. I
cannot save myself. But you promise. You promise
in your son, Lord, Lord, bless me. Cleanse me with the blood
of Christ. That's what he does. He works
that in us. By nature, I wouldn't dare go
to God as an ungodly sinner. It's contrary to my natural thoughts. Go to God as an ungodly sinner,
an undeserving sinner? I dare show myself to the Lord
of glory and ask him for mercy? How dare I? That's the nature. That's the natural man. But the
Lord teaches us, he that would turn to the works of the law
to cleanse himself first, to clean himself up some, so that
he can now go to God, that's not going to God as an ungodly
sinner. Let me ask it this way. Are you
ungodly without your works? Yeah, we can all agree with that.
Yeah, without my works, I am ungodly. Are you ungodly with
your works? Yes, yes, that's what he shows
us. We're sinners either way. Whether
we have good works or bad works, we're sinners either way. The
psalmist said the sacrifices of God, you want to sacrifice
to God? The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit and a broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, thou wilt not
despise. Thou wilt not despise. What he's
not saying there, we don't run out and seek to make ourselves
the most vile, reprehensible, wicked sinner. That's not what
this is encouraging us to do. But we are coming to God acknowledging
that whether I do or don't, I'm still unworthy. I'm unworthy
to come into your presence. By the things I've done, I'm
unworthy. I'm an ungodly sinner by nature. And we come believing there's
nothing I can do to cleanse my filthy hand. It's like taking
a filthy, dirty, greasy rag and trying to wipe off the filthy,
dirty grease on your hand. It's like taking a bloody rag
and trying to wipe off the blood on your hand. It's not going
to happen. You're just polluting yourself more and more. What
Paul is saying there is, we come to him who alone forgives by
his grace as ungodly sinners. That's how Abraham came, who
justifies the ungodly, the ungodly. When Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah,
was made to see God sitting enthroned in all his holiness in Isaiah
chapter 6, what did he confess? Woe is me. For I am undone. I'm undone. The margin says cut
off. That's one of the ways it translates.
I'm cut off. It means I am silenced the way a dead man is silenced.
I've got nothing to say anymore. It's over. My life's done. I'm
cut off. I'm silent before God. What boast do I have before the
true and living God? He said, because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Now, the natural man can see
the seraphim, right? He sees the seraphim, and he
hears them say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. And
that's true. That is true. God is holy. holier than we understand. He
is holy, holy, holy, the thrice holy God. But the folly of man
would be me thinking I can turn to the law and justify myself
and make a righteousness so that now I can come into the presence
of holy God. That's folly. That's not seeing
God. That's hearing with the hearing
of the ear, but not not according to knowledge. That's bound down
to an idol. That's thinking God less than
what he really is and thinking, I'm not so far off, I can just
fix it up and draw near to the holiness of God. And that's just
not so. That's not so. The man, that
man is not seeing God where he doesn't yet know how vile and
wicked he is. thinking that there's just some
knobs I gotta turn and a few levers I gotta pull and I can
work this thing out and come into the presence of God acceptably.
No, we come in the blood of Christ alone. That's why he sent the
Son, because there's not a law that could be given that could
make us righteous. So he sent the Son to save his
people, to do it, to do for us what we cannot do. It's his grace
and mercy. He says that in love. and love
to his people. Don't come to me in your works,
come to me in Christ. That's whom I've sent to save
you from your sins, to bless you, to comfort you, to provide
everything you need, and to give you peace in me, and to draw
you to me. Job, we see it in Job, and this
is true of every one of us. Every one of us is brought, we
hear, but we must, we were made to see the perfection of God.
Job said it this way in 42, verse five and six, he said, heard
of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee,
wherefore I abhor myself, I hate myself, and repent in dust and
ashes. What was I thinking? I thought
I could stand toe to toe with God and argue my righteousness
and justify myself, but now I see the true and living God, and
I'm undone like Isaiah. I'm cut off. I'm silenced as
a dead man. What was I thinking? What boast do I have with God
if it's not the boast of Jesus Christ and His righteousness?
That's our boast, brethren. And that's it. So this is why
Paul now, back in Romans 4, verse 6, he quotes David, the psalmist. He says, even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man. This man is blessed of God. He
is a happy man. A happy man. The man under the
law, burden under the law, I was not happy. I was miserable and
made others miserable. And I was just in confusion.
I was just a man under the law. That's not happiness. That's
not peace. Everything's just, ugh, I gotta do this. Now I gotta
do this. I gotta do this. Everything's
the law in that way. But blessed is the man unto whom
God imputeth righteousness without works." Wow. You sure you want
to say that, David? Yep. That man is happy. That man is blessed. Whom God
imputeth righteousness. And when God imputes, it's because
that's what you are. He doesn't impute righteousness
to those who are not righteous. We are made righteous by the
blood of Christ. Made righteous by him. Therefore,
God imputes righteousness, because you are righteous in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's done. Blessed is the man
unto whom God imputeth righteousness without work, saying, blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. I'm so thankful. He doesn't say
blessed is the man who does not sin. But blessed is the man to
whom God does not impute sin to him. Whom God forgives. Whom God imputes righteousness
to. Apart from his works. Without his works. Without his
hand touching it. Because it's all resting on Christ. That man is blessed. Blessed. Happy is that man. How can God
do that? He's found a ransom for your
soul. He's found one to pay the price,
to pay the debt, to settle the debt that we built up by our
works of unrighteousness, by our wickedness. He's found a
ransom, even Christ. And that man is blessed for whom
he did that. David's talking about the one
whom we preach, even Jesus Christ. That's what Paul and Barnabas
said, that through this man, Christ Jesus is preached unto
you. the forgiveness of sins. The
forgiveness, the putting away of your sins, and by Him, all
that you believe are justified from all things from which you
cannot and could not be justified by the law of Moses. Acts 13,
38, and 39. That's a blessed man whose sins
are covered by Christ. By Christ. David was made to
know what a wretched sinner he was. The psalmist of Israel made
to know what a wretched sinner he is. But he knew he was a blessed
man for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. For God graciously imputed
righteousness to him without his works, without his works.
He was not sinless by his works, but for Christ's sake, for Christ's
sake alone. And you can look at David's life,
and you can see this man's a sinner. He's a sinner saved by grace,
and he's a blessed man in Christ. If you read that Psalm, which
is 32, that's the Psalm Paul's quoting David from there, David
never speaks about the law for a righteousness. Paul interpreted
it correctly. He never speaks of the law for
a righteousness. And in verse 8, the Lord begins
to speak, and in verse 9, The Lord says, be ye not as the horse
or as the mule which have no understanding. But you have no
understanding whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle. Don't be like them. That's exactly what the lawmonger
does. The one who trades in the law
needs the law, a bit and a bridle for his mouth, lest he comes
near to God. He needs that bit and bridle
to keep him in line. And the Lord says, don't be like
that. And he won't let us be like that, because he gives us
his spirit. that dwells in us, that writes his law, the spirit
of the law, the truth of the law, that spiritual law in our
hearts to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength,
and our neighbor as ourself. He writes that. That is, he gives
the spirit so that we, I don't want to offend you. I don't want
to sin against you. My flesh, at times, does rise
up. And I can say things to hurt
you. I can do things to hurt you and
disappoint you. I don't want to. I want to serve
you in love, brethren. I want to be a helper of your
joy. So I don't want to do wicked
things against you. That's not my heart. Because
he's written his law by his spirit in my heart. to love the Lord,
to love you, and to seek to serve Him according to the light which
He's given to me in Christ. And you have the same, that same
law written in your hearts. Hear Him. Don't look to the law
of the flesh. Hear Him. Hear His voice. Trust
Him. It's His promise. He gives it
to you in life, in mercy, in forgiveness, in grace, for Christ's
sake. That's what our Lord is saying
in John 6, verse 44. He says, No man can come to me,
except the Father which hath sent me draw him. You that are
being drawn to Christ, it's by His grace. It's by His grace. Oh, trust Him. He's drawing you
with cords of love, cords of love, bringing you to see the
preciousness Christ. Now, a carnal man dead in sins,
he can come to the law for righteousness, but he won't come to Christ.
And that's what Christ said in John 5, 39 and 38. He said, search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. And there they
which testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. That's us by nature. We won't
go to Christ. But praise be to God that he
calls ungodly sinners to himself that do come. That's his grace. That's his grace. That's the
working of his grace. Whereas the one stuck in the
law sees Christ as a stumbling stone. Grace, get this out of
the way so I can go on my carnal way, right? He stumbles over
Christ. He won't hear Christ. But the
Lord makes his people to hear, to know, to trust him, to see
he's the capstone. I don't want to move the most
precious stone in all the building, all the house of God is Christ.
Lord, don't let me cast him aside. Let me worship him. And so Christ
is the very Redeemer sent of God to save sinners and to make
them children of the Most High God. He said, John 6, 45, now,
it's written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught
of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. If you're
his, you're coming to Christ. He'll drag you. He'll bring you. By nature, we won't want to come,
but He'll bring. Praise, glory be to His name.
You will come. You will hear. He will not let
you come short of His glory in Christ. Now, skipping down to
chapter 4 to verse 13. Paul goes through circumcision,
and we've looked a lot at that. So let's see verse 13 for the
promise. that he should be the heir of the world. It was not
to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. Through the righteousness of
faith. So it comes down to promise, brethren. And the promise rests
not on the law, but upon God to fulfill his word of promise.
The promise comes down to the Lord to do this. And so it's
all done by grace, apart from works, that the glory of your
salvation is God's glory. It praises his name. It glorifies
him. It glorifies him. Romans 4.14,
for if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void,
and the promise made of none effect And so the promise of
life has nothing to do with the law, even for the Jew. Even the Jew is saved the exact
same way that you Gentiles are. And me is included. We're saved
by grace. Verse 16, it is a faith that
it might be by grace. To the end, the promise might
be sure to all the seed. so it's a promise brethren you
will not come short of the glory of God and Paul showed us this
both in Abraham and David that they were both saved by faith
and not by works not by work so Now, let me just show you,
Abraham at one time did attempt to bring to pass the promise
of God. We have an example in the scripture where Abraham tried
to bring to pass the promise of God by fleshly works. Turn over to Genesis 16. Genesis 16. And we'll look at
the first four verses. Genesis 16. Genesis 16, first
four verses. Now Sarah, Abram's wife, bare
him no children, no fruit, no fruit. And she had an handmaid,
a woman in bondage to her, in bondage, an Egyptian, whose name
was Hagar. And Sarah said unto Abram, behold
now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. They had received
the promise. God told them he was going to bless them. He was
going to give them a seed of promise. to them. And she's looking
around thinking, well, where is it? Where is the promise of
this seed? The Lord's restrained me from
bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may
obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice
of Sarah. They're looking for fruit. They've
been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for this
promised seed. Where is it? Well, they figured
Let's turn to the flesh. Let's turn to bondage. Let's
turn to the law to bring forth fruit unto God. We're going to
force this thing. We're going to bring it to pass.
I guess God wants us to do something, and we're going to bring it to
pass. And Sarah, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian,
after Abram had dwelt there for many years in the land of Canaan,
and she gave her to her husband, Abram, to be his wife. And he
went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had
conceived, her mistress was despised. Hagar despised Sarah. She looked at her and said, I
did it. I brought forth fruit. You can't. And she despised Sarah. Now Paul tells us explicitly,
he tells us that in Galatians 4, that Hagar is a picture of Mount Sinai. It is the law. Hagar pictures
the bondage of the law, that handmaiden bondage. In Galatians
4.24, he says, which things are an allegory. All these things
pictures and types and shadows and allegories for us to see
Christ and what He accomplishes for His people. He says, these
things are an allegory for these are the two covenants, the one
from the Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. It
just brings about bondage in those who look to it. For this
Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which
now is, and is in bondage with her, all her children, or with
her children. They crucified Christ. They didn't
believe Christ. They still were trusting in their
works of the law. And so the Lord says, they're
in bondage. They're in bondage to that law,
trying to bring forth fruit unto God. But Jerusalem, which is
above, free which is the mother of us all you that believe Christ
your mother is free grace free sovereign grace in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ it's all through him by grace and we see a picture
there like like all lawmongers are When Hagar produced fruit
by the works of the flesh, she looked at Sarah and despised
her. She despised Sarah because Sarah
couldn't keep up. Sarah couldn't do what she could
do in bondage. And back in 16.4, that's what
it said. Sarah was despised in her eyes,
just like in the beginning of the message I mentioned, Luke
18, with that Pharisee who despised others, who despised others.
And that's what the Lord's showing us. And he'll reveal it. He reveals it in our hearts.
He makes us to see what we are in bondage and what we do according
to the works of the flesh. It's what he works in all his
children, so that we would not trust the things of bondage and
the works of the law, but trust his son. Now, back in Genesis
17, if you go just a little further there in Genesis 17, 18, verse
18 and 19, Abram said unto God, because we want to know, did
God ultimately, did Abraham force God's hand to accept Ishmael,
the work of his flesh? Well, it says in verse 18, and
Abraham said unto God, oh, that Ishmael may dwell, might live
before thee. And he's saying, oh, that Ishmael
might be the seed of promise. Lord, just take him. I don't
need another seed. Just take... the work of my flesh. You just accept this. Let this
be acceptable unto you. And God said, Sarah, thy wife
shall bear thee a son indeed, the freeborn woman shall bear
thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish
my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after
him. And so the Lord is teaching us,
no, I don't accept your works. I don't receive the fruit of
the flesh. I won't have it. I won't have
it. It's rejected. I'm not gonna wipe you out for
it. He said, that's fine, you do that, but it has nothing to
do, no bearing for your grace, no bearing of your inheritance,
no bearing of your eternal life. It has no bearing on it. And
it had no lasting eternal bearing Isaac had. And so being taught
of God, what did Abraham do? He put away Hagar and her son. He sent them away, sent them
packing, and he never went back to her. He didn't have more children
with her. He didn't go in unto her. He
was done with the law. He tried it, and that was it.
God said, nope, I'm not blessing that. I'm not receiving that.
And so we see them, Abram, He wavered, but praise be to God,
God's love and mercy and grace for him never wavered. It didn't
derail or sidetrack. God's grace for Abraham, even
though Abraham sinned against God, didn't believe the promises.
God yet was gracious. unto him and God delivered him
from that folly and blessed him just as he promised he would
bless him. For the gifts and calling of
God are without repentance. He doesn't change his mind. Now
picking up again in Romans 4, Romans 4 verse 17, As it's 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. God isn't looking and seeing
things as man sees them. He makes us to see them as God
sees them in Christ. In Christ. Abraham against hope,
believed in hope. That's what we do. We look at
ourselves and we think, I don't see how God could love me. I
don't see how God could receive me. I don't see how God... has
called me to be his child. I don't see it. But though we
don't see things as we ought to see, as we think we should
see them, we don't see them in ourselves, yet we hope. We trust
the promise of God made unto us in Christ. He's given us faith
in him, and we keep on believing him, because we can't do anything
else. We're hoping against hope. that he might become the father
of many nations according to that which was spoken, so shall
thy seed be, saying, you that hope against hope are the children
of Abraham. That is, he's just like his faith
trusted God and God counted it for righteousness, so you that
believe God and hope in his mercy and grace in Christ, you are,
your faith is counted righteousness. And by the Lord Jesus Christ,
you also are the children of God your children of Abraham
your children of promise Just like Isaac was I know it's hard
to believe but it's so it is So praise be God and being not
weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead when he
was about in hundred years old and neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God." Isn't it amazing that Abraham's sin was so far removed,
Paul doesn't even mention it. He doesn't even bring up Hagar
and Ishmael here. He says his faith was strong,
it was unshaken, because that's Christ, that's the blood of Christ,
that's what he does. And so Abraham's fleshly works
had absolutely no bearing upon the promises of God, neither
good nor bad, because Christ's blood put them away forever. Romans 4, 21 and 22, I'm being
fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also
to perform. And therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. Brethren, are you fully persuaded
that God is able to perform that which he's promised unto you
for Christ's sake? That's why he tells you these
things, to encourage your faith, to encourage your hearts, to
bless you in the Lord Jesus Christ, to give you rest in him. all God's children are saved
just like Abraham was. It says verse 23, now it was
not written for Abraham's sake alone that it was imputed to
him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. If you
believe, If you have faith in Christ, it's because you have
been born again, given His Holy Spirit, which has given you life
in and by the incorruptible seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He has put away your sins.
It's not waiting to see if you're good enough and we'll keep it
in Christ. You that are in Christ, whose
faith is of the Spirit and not of this flesh, your sins are
put away and he tells you this and says I'll keep you, I'll
keep your heart, I'll bless you, I'll grow you in Christ my son
because it's my promise made unto you in him. He cannot fail. He cannot and will not fail because
it's according to promise. Brethren, there's so many sweet
things. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts. Amen.