Come back to Romans chapter 4. The title of this message is
the promise realized through faith, through believing God. You know, it's just ingrained
in us from birth. that if we do good, we get rewarded
for it. If we're bad, we get in trouble
for it, but if we're good, we get rewards. So, I mean, it starts,
this thing starts from birth, and it's just ingrained in us
that we must do something good in order to receive rewards. But here, we will see that the
promises of God are not based on what we do or what we do not
do. It's based on the Lord Jesus
Christ, His doing, His merits. And for us, in matters of salvation,
it's believing God. It's believing God. The promises of God are not realized
through keeping God's law. Adam, in his perfect state, could
not keep one commandment. You know, sometimes we just ought
to stop and think. When Adam was created and God
put him in the Garden of Eden, God gave him one law, one commandment. Don't eat of that tree of knowledge
of good and evil. And Adam, even in his perfect
state, couldn't keep that commandment. He rebelled against God. Now,
why would I or anyone else think that in a sinful state, in a
very sinful state of being, that I or anyone else could keep the
law of God? And yet, there are many who believe
they can. The whole Jewish nation believes
they could keep God's law, and because of their ties to Abraham,
they were automatically in the kingdom. I always think when I read anything
about the law, I always think of that young man said, all these
have I kept from my youth up. And you know what? He believed
he did. He knew something was missing or he wouldn't have asked
the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? But he thought he could, and
there are many who think that their law keeping, their obedience
to it, is their ticket to heaven. But we see, and we'll see here,
Now, we cannot keep God's law and the realizing of the promises
of God must come some other way. They have to come some other
way. If I cannot keep God's law perfectly, then for the promises
to be valid to me, for me to realize them, it has to come
some other way. Well, that's some other way,
first of all, is the Lord Jesus Christ who said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. He is the way. And then it's
through faith in Christ who is the way that the promises of
God are realized, that we can have them. It says in the Scriptures,
For all the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen. It does not say for all the promises
of God in keeping the law. No, it says all the promises
of God in His Son, Jesus Christ, are yes, they're positive. They're positive because Christ,
He kept the law. He kept the law and He kept it
perfectly. And through Him who is the seed,
Spoken of concerning Abraham, you see that over in Galatians
3. He's that seed. He doesn't say seeds as of many,
but seed as of one. That seed is Christ. It's through
Him that we are blessed. We are blessed this morning through,
by, and because of Jesus Christ. And for no other reason. We are
forgiven, the Scripture says. We are forgiven for Christ's
sake. God has forgiven me." If you
believe God has forgiven you, it's evident God has forgiven
you for Christ's sake. It's evident God is satisfied
toward you. It's evident God is satisfied
toward me for Christ's sake, or He'd never forgive me. God has to be satisfied toward
me to have anything to do with me. That's an important statement. God has to be satisfied toward
me before he can have anything to do with me. And that satisfaction
comes in Jesus Christ. God finds all that he needs and
I find all that I need in Jesus Christ. All that we need and
all that God needs meets together in Jesus Christ. Now, I don't
like to speak of God having a need, but I tell you what, for Him
to show mercy on me, for Him to forgive me, to pardon me,
He needs the blood and the righteousness of His Son. Apart from that,
He's not going to do it. It's not going to happen. Because
He's going to be a just God before He's going to be a Savior. He's
a just God and a Savior. It's in that order. He's got
to be a just God first. and then He can save me, and
He can save me in a just manner. And that's what this is about,
that God saves all whom He saves in Christ through them believing. And the faith is the gift of
God. Now, He says here in verse 13, For the promises that he,
that is Abraham, should be the heir of the world, it was not
to Abraham and his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith, through the righteousness that is imputed through faith,
and that righteousness is Jesus Christ. Now, the act of faith
is not my righteousness. It's the faith that receives
the righteousness, and that righteousness is the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I want you to notice something
here, and this is something that Paul is pointing out especially
to the Jewish brethren that are in the church at Rome, because
it was a mixture. You know, I was reading some
time ago, and it said that the church in Rome was mostly made
up of Jews at first. And then Claudius made all the
Jews leave Rome. He ran them off. He ran them
all out of town. And so the church became just
a church of Gentiles. Well, when Nero took over, he
invited them back because of commerce. He liked their money. And so they came back. And so
the church became mixed again. Well, Paul has already dealt
with this problem of some Jews coming in and trying to get them
to keep the law of Moses, trying to get them to observe circumcision
and all that. On that basis, Paul is dealing
with the fact that we are never justified by keeping the law.
And he knew there'd be some that would come into that church and
try to teach that. And so he tells us here that
the promise to Abraham that he should be the heir of the world,
that salvation is of the Lord basically, it was not through
the law, it was through the righteousness of faith. And this is a very
important point that Paul points out here. Abraham was said to
be righteous before God 400 some years, I think it's 430 years
before the law was given. There wasn't even a law given.
Even the law of circumcision wasn't even given yet. None of
that had been given yet. And yet, and yet, Abraham is
declared by God to be righteous. When God declared him to be righteous,
what was going on? Here's what was going on. Abraham
believed God. That's all that happened. told
Abraham what he was going to be, that he was going to be the
heir of the world, hadn't even had a child yet. Him and Sarah
were old when God called him. He was 75 years old and he was
living in idolatry, and He called him out, and then by the time
that this promise was given and by the time that Isaac came around,
he was a hundred years old. A hundred years old. He was past
that age. His ability to bear any children
or have any children, him and Sarah, it was over. It was over. So he says here that the promise,
when it was given to Abraham, that he'd be the heir of the
world, it was before the law was ever given. I mean, they
can't point to Abraham and say that he kept the law perfectly.
It wasn't even given. For if they which are of the
law," that's the Jews, they're speaking here of the Jews, those
which are of the Jewish nation, if they are heirs, if they are
the heirs who have the law and they say they keep the law, if
they are the heirs, then what God said to Abraham is void. The promise God made to Abraham
He believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. That
promise is void, it's useless because it was made through faith
and not through a law. Faith, he says here, is made
void, it's useless, and the promise is inoperative. He says it's no good. Faith and
works is what he's saying here. Faith and works, they never go
together, not for salvation. Not for salvation. Now, works
do follow salvation. They do follow. James said that.
James said, I'll show you my faith by my works. They follow,
but they're never a cause of acceptance with God. Now, here's why. Here's why,
verse 15. Because the law works, that is,
it results in wrath. It would be foolish for a criminal
to turn to the law and try to be justified, wouldn't it? It
would be stupid for a murderer to walk in court and use the
law to try to be justified from his murder. He says here, because
the law works wrath. It's not that the law is bad,
the people are bad. And the law, it brings down the
wrath of God. God said, don't do this. Adam,
Adam don't eat of that tree. And he ate of that tree. And
what happened? He got kicked out of the garden.
And then later, 900 some years later, he died. And we've been
dying ever since. Since I've been here, I've been
here four years. I've conducted four funerals. We're dying. We're dying because
of sin. And we're dying because the law
of God said, the soul that sinneth shall surely, you count on it,
mark it down, is going to die. Going to die. Because the law works wrath.
Now where no law is, there's no transgression. If there's
no law, then there's no transgression. But here's the problem. There is a law. That's the point
he's making. If there's no law, there's no
transgression. But there is a law. God has given
a law. He's written it on the heart,
even on the Gentiles who was not given the law by Moses like
the Jews were. But the law is written on the
heart, the scripture says. So all without excuse. The law brings
down the wrath of God. The law has been given and we
know it and we are without excuse and there's no one without sin. The scripture says, there's not
a just man on the earth that does good and sins not. You know, people, this is how
dead, this is how dead human nature is, this is how dead men
and women are, until God saves them. Most of them, they'll try
to obey the law of the land, because they don't want to go
to jail, they don't want to stay out of trouble. But when it comes to the law
of God, they have no fear of it whatsoever. They completely
ignore the law of God. And when God wakes up a sinner,
one of the first things that sinner realizes, he's under condemnation. He's under condemnation. He has
sinned against God, he's broken God's law, he's broken all of
God's law. And he knows he's in trouble. He knows he's in
trouble. He's not going to just get a
ticket. This is more than breaking the speed limit. He's under condemnation. And he knows that. And in this next verse, that
verse says, therefore, very important word, therefore, therefore, Henry
said this several times, and he had gotten it from somebody,
I forget who he got it from, but, when you see the word therefore,
see what it's there for. He said, when you see the word
therefore, see what it's there for. It's speaking about what has
already been said. What's already been said. It says, therefore,
because of sin, And because of the law, the law has been given,
because of the law, then if we are going to be saved, if we
are going to realize the promise of God, of life, eternal life,
then it has to be by faith. It has to be apart from anything
we do. And faith is not a work. It's
a work of God. It's a gift of God. But it's
not a work on my part. You know, if I reveal something
to you, for you to believe it is not a work, is it? This piece
of paper is blank on this side and it's white, right? Well,
you don't have to work to believe that. You see it. You see it
and therefore you believe it. And that's the way the gospel
is. God reveals the gospel to you. He makes Himself known to
you through the preaching of the gospel. You see it and when
you see it, you can't help but believe it. And that's not a
work. That's the gift of God. It's a work of God, but it's
not a work of us. You can't help but believe. That's
why you believe. You can't help it. Therefore,
In order for the promises to be realized, the promise of God
to be realized, it has to be of faith, that it might be by
grace. It might be by grace. To the
end or the purpose, here's the purpose, is that the promise
of God might be sure to all the seed of Abraham. All who believe
God. The promise is sure to us through
faith in Christ. Not to that only which is of
the law, not to the Jew only, but also to the Gentile. Grace
is the unmerited favor of God. What was Abraham doing when God
called him? Was he calling on God? When God
called you, were you calling on Him first? Were you seeking
Him first and then you found Him? No. Abraham was steeped
in idolatry. He was not looking for God and
we were not looking for Him. I was found of them, listen,
that sought me not. I was made known unto them that
asked not for me. Grace is the unmerited favor
of God and faith is the gift of God through the grace of God
given to us in Christ. And this, the grace of God, through
faith, which is a gift of God, makes the promise of salvation
sure to all the seed." It makes it sure. That's good news. It's sure. It cannot fail. If it has to be on my obedience,
it's gonna fail before I get out this door this morning. You
and I won't even get out the door. If salvation is by what
we do, we can't get out the door. Because one of the first commandments
is to love God with all your heart. There's nobody in here
who does that. I wish we could. I wish we could,
but we don't. We don't. There's nothing in
us, in this life, that's perfect. We don't believe God perfectly.
We do not love God perfectly. We don't do anything perfectly.
There's too much sin in us. Paul said, when I would do good,
He was present with me. Always. And then he says here in verse
17, As it is written, he's going to reach back to the Old Testament,
I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom
he believed, even God, who quickens the dead and calls those things
which be not as though they were. God said to Abraham, you know,
listen, go back to this, as it is written, I have made thee
a father of many nations. That's past tense. God said,
this is done. I have made thee a father of
many nations. And Abraham believed that. He
believed with all his heart as much as possible in this life.
He believed God that he would be the father. He's talking about
spiritual father in faith. You know, Paul called him, he
called Timothy his son. He called Timothy his son in
the faith. Henry one time called me his son in the faith. And
that's what he's talking about here. We're the sons of Abraham. You see the Jewish nation over
there, they believe that they are the only sons of Abraham
because of their physical, their fleshly descendants and heritage
to Abraham. No, you and I are through faith
in Christ. You are the children of Abraham,
you are. Whether you're a Jew or Gentile,
if you believe God, you are. And this shows here that the
Gentiles were included in the kingdom of God, which they tried
to exclude when our Lord came. They got so mad when He healed
the sick or whenever He dealt with Gentiles and saved them. It made them Pharisees so mad.
He's so mad. They didn't realize, this shows
you how you can read the word of God and not even know what's
being said. Isn't that scary? You can open the word of God.
They didn't realize and go back to Genesis that God said he'll
be the heir of the world, Jew and Gentile. They completely
missed it. I think it's, to me, it's fearful. to read the Word of God and completely
miss the message, completely miss God's voice in the message,
not hear Him, not hear what it's saying. They didn't hear anything. And because of that, they set
up the tradition of the elders, they set aside the Word of God,
and the scribes would interpret the Word of God, which was more
beneficial. Really, to them. Then it set
aside things that was more beneficial to them. Abraham believed God, who was
able to quicken the dead, give life to the dead, and call those
things that be not as though they existed, because with God
they do. You know with the Lord, it's
already done. You and I have got to live it
out. We have to experience the things that God has purposed
for us. And through providence, he brings
those things to pass. But you know that the beginning
and the end, it's already done. It's completely done. You know,
whatever you're going through now and whatever you're going
to go through later on, you know the outcome of that is already
done. Really, it's already settled. God is a God of order. This is
his world, this is his universe, and nothing in it is out of his
order. I assure you, nothing's out of
his order. David said, he has made a covenant with me, what
did he say? Ordered in all things and sure. Here's my confidence. This is
the only thing that will keep you from living in fear, is that
God has ordered everything for you. Everything. Don't walk around in fear. If
you're God's child, you don't walk around in fear. God's ordered
everything. He's ordered the time I come
into this world, He's ordered the time I leave it, and He's
ordered everything in between. Everything. Now, I want you to notice here
in verse 18. Here's real faith. Here's real faith. Speaking of Abraham, who against
hope believed in hope? He's about 100 years old. Sarah,
I think, was 90 years old. That's way past the time of childbearing. Their physical ability to produce
a child was over. It was dead. It was not coming
back. It's not coming back. It's over
with. And now God is going to perform
a miracle. You know what he's going to do?
He's going to give life where there's deadness. He's going
to create life. And Abraham, who against all
hope of producing an heir, because God said, you're going to be
the heir of the world. Your seed, you and your seed,
they're going to be the heir of the world. So Abraham believed
that God was going to give him a seed. That this was going to happen.
He believed that. I don't know when, but it's going
to happen. I don't know when, but it's going
to happen. God said it. Henry said one time, someone
said, God said it and I believe it, and that settles it. No,
God said it, that settles it, whether you believe it or not.
It doesn't matter whether you and I believe it or not. It ain't
gonna change anything. It's not gonna change one thing
whether I believe it or not. God said it, and that settles
the matter. It's gonna be done. He said that
he would do all his pleasure And Abraham here knew that his
ability to produce life was over. And here's where faith comes
in. I know. I know that by nature
I'm a dead dog sinner. I know that. But I believe, honestly
believe, that God can and has given me life in Christ. And
I know that someday I'm gonna die. Unless the Lord comes back. This body's gonna die. It's gonna be buried in the ground. And I know that God's gonna raise
that body out of the ground. I'm gonna have a new body. To
be absent from it is to be present with the Lord. But the body has
to go to the ground. But out of that, he's gonna raise
a new body. I believe that. Against hope. Against all reality. Now listen, against all human
logic, human logic and spiritual truth never go together. Human
logic says, how can God part a sea? And a million some people
walk over on dry ground. You really? Human logic says,
do you really believe the flood happened? Do you really believe
this whole world, that we're where we are at right now? It
was all underwater. I think it was 20 feet over the
highest mountain. Do you really believe that? Absolutely. Absolutely. I like what Don Bell
said. He said that, he said, if the word of God said that
Jonah swallowed the whale, I'd believe it. Would you? There are some things
in the Word of God, like Elijah prayed and the sun stopped for
a whole day. Do you believe that the sun actually
stopped, that the laws of nature that God had put in it were suspended? They were suspended for a whole
day while they fought a battle. And then it moved again. And
then in another place he prayed that it wouldn't rain, and it
didn't rain for three years. And then he prayed and it rained.
Everybody else just thought they was having a drought. But there
was a man that actually prayed and God answered his prayer,
and he stopped the rain. You believe that? Against all
hope, against all human logic, against all reasoning, anything
that even sounds reasonable, yes, I do believe it. I believe
that a man named Jesus Christ, who is God Almighty, came into
this world, took upon Him flesh, lived for me, died for me, rose
for me, is interceding for me, and is coming back to get me.
I believe it. Walking across this parking lot
this morning, my thought as I was walking across this parking lot
this morning is this is the only reason to be here. This is the
only reason to exist, that we can come together and read the
Word of God, learn of Him, be taught of Him, and go out of
here and be a witness for Him. That's it. Now you take that
out of here, there's no reason for the world to exist. Not one
reason. So Abraham here, who against
hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many
nations according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed
be. And he believed it. He believed it. And being not
weak in faith, not weak in faith, now listen, this is important. Weak in faith does not mean that
he never had weakness in faith at times. Remember, he let his wife go
twice to a couple kings because he feared he might lose his life. I mean, they didn't surround
him and say, give us Sarah or you die. This was supposed, this
is something he supposed in his mind. Our imagination causes
us far more fear than reality does. And he, twice he did that. But I want to tell you something. Not one time did Abraham ever
doubt that God was going to keep His promise. You know, you and I, we sin.
We sin and we fall, we stumble. But I tell you this, in all our
sinning, in all our stumbles, in all our falling, we never
doubt that Jesus Christ, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah,
the Son of God. He's my Savior. He never doubted
the promise that God made him, though he sinned. And that gave
me such comfort when I realized that studying it this week. When
we sin, and we do, if any man sin, we have an advocate with
the Father, when any man sins. We never doubt the promise of
God in Christ of salvation. I doubt myself. Sometimes I wonder
about myself. But I know this. I know Jesus
Christ is the Christ. He's the Messiah. He's the Savior.
And I look to Him. And I believe God will keep His
promise. Then he says here, "...that Abraham
considered not his own body now dead." When he was about 100
years old, nor the deadness of Sarah's womb, he never looked
at himself in the mirror. And he never turned and he looked
at Sarah as they were sitting there eating breakfast. You know,
looking across the table and he says, you're 90 years old. And he looks at himself, I'm
100 years old and I feel it. He never considered that. How
can God save a wretch like me? He never considered that. How
can God give me life? He never considered that. He
took God at His Word. That's what real faith is. Real
faith doesn't go on feelings, it doesn't go on circumstances,
it goes on the Word of God. Takes God at His Word. He never
considered it. He never took into account his
and his wife's physical condition. He just took God at His Word.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. That
word stagger means this. He never had a mental struggle
over how this was going to be. He never had a mental struggle
over it. To stagger means to judge between two. That's what
this has meant. He didn't judge between two.
It wasn't halt between two opinions. Abraham did not, and this is
what it means, Abraham did not vacillate between believing God
and unbelief concerning the ability of God to give him seed, even
though him and Sarah, they physically were dead as far as having children.
He didn't vacillate. He said, no, God said that. You
know, God said to him, when He first called him, He said, go
to a land and I'll show you. He didn't vacillate. He didn't
waver. He didn't stagger. He just believed
God and said, it's going to happen. That's faith. That's what faith
is. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Faith says, Lord, I call. I call. You know what the greatest glory
that you and I can bring to God? Just to believe Him. Just to
believe Him. And being fully persuaded, fully
convinced that what God had promised, He was able to perform. That's
what salvation is. You believe that what God has
promised in Christ, He's able to perform it, give it, make
it happen. Paul knew something about this
when he wrote to Timothy. He said, I'm persuaded, I'm convinced
that He's able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against
that day. Over Matthew 9.28 it says this,
And when He was coming to the house, the blind men came to
Him. They were asking the Lord to
give them their sight. And Jesus said unto them, Now
listen, believe ye that I am able to do this. They said unto Him, Yes, Lord.
You know what? They received their sight. If they had said
maybe, if they had said, I don't know, that's why we're asking.
They would have went away blind. They would have went away just
as blind as they came. But they said here, in answer to that
question, believe ye that I'm able to do it. Lord, listen,
do you believe that the Lord is able to save you from your
sins now, from the reigning power of sin now, from the condemning
power, from the guilt of sin? Do you believe he's able to?
If you with your heart can say, yes, Lord, it's evident the Lord
saved you. Because anything short of faith doesn't believe that.
Abraham saw no weakness in God. He saw it in himself. He knew
that. He knew that. He saw none in
God. Abraham was fully convinced that
God was able to do exactly what He promised. Are you convinced? Am I convinced that God will
do exactly what He promised? If you are, you'll believe. That'll be evidenced by faith
that you believe him. If you don't believe him, you're
not convinced. You're not convinced you need
him. You're not convinced he can do anything for you. No, you're
not convinced. Now, it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed. This is not a story about Abraham.
Now, this is not an exaltation of Abraham. These things are
written for our learning, but for us also, to whom it shall
be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead. If we believe the same God, the
same God that raised up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Here's
another big word. If we believe. If we believe. Apart from faith, there's no
salvation. Election is not salvation. There's no salvation in election.
Salvation is in Jesus Christ. Listen to this, in 2 Thessalonians
2.13, But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. Now listen, here's the means. Through sanctification of the
Spirit, that's regeneration. being made holy in Christ, being
made holy and righteous in Christ through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Yes, God chose you, but there's
also a work to be done in you. That's the work of the Holy Spirit
in sanctification and belief of the truth. You believe the
gospel. Now listen, in verse 25, Our
Lord was raised from the dead, the one who was delivered for
our offenses, and raised again for our justification. He was
delivered over to the justice of God for our offenses. He was put to death in the flesh
for our offenses, but He didn't stay dead. He rose again for
our justification. He died for our offenses, but
death couldn't keep Him. Because He knew no sin, and He
satisfied God's law. You know the reason why hell
is eternal? You know why punishment of those in hell is eternal?
Because no one there can satisfy God's justice. They are there
justly under the just punishment of God, and they hate Him for
it. They hate Him for it. And when Christ was crucified,
when He was being punished for sin, He loved God with all His
heart. He still loved Him with all His
heart. But those in hell, they hate Him just as much as ever.
That's why they can't satisfy justice. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
who knew no sin, did. And He rose again for our justification.
It is written in Acts 13.39, and I close, And by Him, by Jesus Christ, all that believe
are justified, cleared from all things from which you could not
be justified by the law of Moses or keeping the law that Moses
gave." But you're justified believing God concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ.