We're going to turn over to Romans 4. Romans 4. Our text is going to be verses 18-25.
We're going to read our text and then I want to comment a
little bit on it before we begin with our divisions today. Romans
4 and verse 18. who against hope, speaking of
Abraham, our father Abraham, 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 being
not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead, when
he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief. but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised,
He was able also to perform, and therefore it was imputed
to Him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his
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 was raised
again for our justification. Now the title of my message is
He Staggered Not at the Promise of God. Another word for that
is he believed God. Abraham believed God. How do
men and women believe God? Not just believe in Him. How
do we believe Him? Sinners are given hope in Christ. That's how we believe God. Against
all of our natural logic, we're given faith to believe God. Our
faith, our hope in and of Christ is evidence of our salvation. This pattern doesn't change.
How sinners approach God does not change. Why? Why doesn't
those things change from Abraham to us? It's because that Gospel
we are given does not change. Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
God Almighty, does not change. The message hasn't changed. The
person hasn't changed. He is the message. Now, we've
heard this before. Why do we tell it again? Why
do we need to hear that this depravity that we're in, that
man's totally dead, God elected a people, the Spirit enters them,
gives them a new heart, gives them a new life, circumcises
them in the heart. And all those things happened because Christ
became sin for us, who knew no sin. And each one He paid the
ransom for is going to be brought home. Just like our brother,
they're going to be called home to glory. Why do we need to hear
that so much? Are we so grounded in doctrine,
so grounded in theology, so grounded in this knowledge of the Scriptures
that we don't need milk no more? We want some strong meat. Have
we grown up that much? Those things are strong meat,
aren't they? We need to hear the promises
of God often because we stagger at them so easily whenever we're
left to ourselves. Whenever we see the promises
of God, we stagger at them. Do I stagger? Do you stagger
at the promises, plural? This will be important. We'll
see this later. Do you stagger at the promises of God, those
precious promises? Do we have unbelief? That's what
I'm asking. Do I have unbelief? Do you? The
Lord said trials are going to come. Promise. Are we shocked
when they come? Are we disappointed? Do we get
mad when trials come? The Lord said this will come.
He said, all things work together for good to them that are called
according to His purpose. That's a promise. Do I get fearful whenever I'm
concerned about how things are going to play out? Well, this
could happen. Do I get scared? Do I get nervous?
Why? I have unbelief, don't I? Christ said, believe on Me and
I will give you rest. Do I still labor? Do you still
labor? He made a promise. Do we believe that promise? Do
we stagger at it? It's appointed unto man once to die and then
judgment. That's a promise. Are we surprised
that people don't live forever? Are we shocked that the Lord's
appointed a time for each of us? We know that. We shouldn't
stagger at those promises. God the Holy Spirit has blessed
the people that die in the Lord. Those that die with the knowledge
of Christ, they are blessed. Are we afraid to die? Are you
afraid to die? Do we stagger when we think of
those things? Or do we rejoice in what glory may be like? We
don't know what it's going to be like, but we hope, don't we?
That's the first point. We're giving hope. There in verse
18, Romans 4.18. It says, speaking of Abraham,
who against all hope, 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. It says they're against hope. Outside of Christ, no man, no
woman, no one has hope. They may think they have hope,
but they don't have any. Abraham was without hope. He
was hopeless when the Lord came to him. It says in Genesis 15,
And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed. I don't
have any children, and lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
He's speaking of Eleazar, that was his servant. He said, Lord,
when I die, this servant I just want to get everything I own.
I don't even have an heir to give it to. And behold, the word
of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir,
but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall
be thine heir. That's a promise, isn't it? And
he brought him forth abroad and said, Look, now towards heaven
tell the stars. Count all those stars up in the
heavens. Can you number them? That's how many of your seeds
are going to be. And he believed the Lord and
it was counted to him for righteousness. Abraham believed God, didn't
he? He didn't have any hopes. Lord, I'm almost 100. I don't
have any children. What am I going to do? The Lord said, I'm going
to give you a son coming from your loins. And he believed the
Lord. Now God told Abraham he was going
to be the father of many nations. Now he has hope in what? In the
Lord. He has hope in God, doesn't he?
What does hope look like? You remember when Paul was on
that ship and an angel come to him and said, we're going to
shipwreck you, Paul, and you're going to do some preaching. But
don't worry. The boat's got to crash. You
stay in the boat. What did Paul tell all those people on the
boat with him? He said, wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer. Be of
good cheer. For I believe God that it shall
be even as it was told to me. I believe the Lord. He said it.
I don't know how it's going to play out really, but I believe
Him. I believe it will end up the same way He says it will.
Hope is cheerful. Hope is cheerful, isn't it? There's
joy and peace and hope when we hope. When we look to ourselves,
do we have hope? Do we have joy? Do we have peace
when we look at us and what's around us? I don't. If you do,
you're probably going to be in trouble. But when we look to
Christ, When we look to Him, what He's done, do we have hope?
Do we have joy in our Lord? Do we have peace in our Lord
that He's accomplished everything for us? Do we have patience in
Him? That faith we have in the Lord, does He give us the faith
to wait on the Lord? I can't wait on myself, but when
He gives us the faith to, I can wait on Him. These things are
not logical, are they? That's against our nature. Many
think that preaching Christ alone is old-fashioned. All you preach
down there is Christ. You guys are old-fashioned. And
some people say, well, if you do that, if you only preach Christ,
it's going to confuse people. And others will just say it's
foolish. It's foolishness. Here's what
Paul wrote to the Corinthians. He said, but we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks, foolishness. Preaching Christ alone to some
is a stumbling stone. They get tripped up on. To others,
it's just foolish. But unto them which are called,
unto them which are called, both Jew and Greek, it doesn't matter
who you are if you're called, if you're His, Christ, the power
of God and the wisdom of God. That's our hope. And those things
are against our natural logic, aren't they? Look there in Romans
4 and verse 19. Romans 4, 19. And being not weak in the faith,
he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a
hundred years old. Neither yet the deadness of Sarah's
womb. Now Abraham was given strong
faith from the Holy Spirit to believe God. He was given that
faith. Faith's a gift, isn't it? But
put yourself in Abraham's shoes. He was right at 100 years old
and Sarah's right on his footsteps. She's right behind him. She's
about 90. And God said, you're all going to have a baby. We
think of our brother Bob Miller. Give another 20 years and you're
going to have a baby. That would be hard to understand, wouldn't
it? But all men by nature do not believe God. It's not in
us to believe God. David wrote in the Psalms, For
the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous
whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride
of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in
any of his thoughts. They don't think anything of
the Lord, much less believe on Him. But after we believe God
because righteousness is in us, we've been made righteous, after
we believe Him, do we still stagger at His Word? Are we saved and
then all of a sudden we're perfect? Now we've got to start working
on sanctification? Do we have something else to
do? Are we past those things? Or do we still stagger at the
Lord's promises? Plural. Turn over to Genesis
17. We just read from Genesis 15.
Let's look at Genesis 17. Genesis 17, we will begin in
verse 15. Genesis 17, 15. We've been in Genesis 17 several
times looking at circumcision here lately. The Lord instructs
Abraham concerning that token of physical circumcision, tells
him how to do it, when he's going to do it. In the first 14 verses
there, it explains those things. But right before, all the males
in the household of Abraham were circumcised. Right before this
circumcision happened. And after he was declared righteous. Abraham was already, the Lord
said, he's righteous. And this is before he circumcised
everybody, the Lord spoke to Abraham again, right before the
circumcision. It says there in Genesis 17,
15, And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt
not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. and
I will bless her and give thee a son also of her. Yea, I will
bless her and she shall be a mother of nations." There's a promise.
Kings of people shall be of her. Now in Genesis 15, God promised
Abraham he was going to be the father of many and Abraham believed
it. Abraham believed the Lord. It
was counted to him for righteousness. Now 13, 14, 15 years later, God tells Abraham how he's going
to do that. He makes a promise to him as
to how he's going to accomplish this. And he says he's going
to do it through Sarah. Now this is one of the promises, plural,
of God. He promises he's going to do
it through Sarah. What happened? Look here at verse 17. Then Abraham
fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall
a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall
Sarah that is ninety years old bear? Is she going to have a
baby? We can't have a baby. Now the
man saying this is righteous in the eyes of God. Abraham was
righteous. He was holy in the eyes of the
Lord because of what Christ had done for him, was going to do
for him. He was made perfect in Christ before the world was.
And he laughed and he questioned in his heart. Now whenever we
hear these things, do you look down your nose at Abraham? You
say, oh that's a shame. I can't believe he'd do something
like that. Or does that comfort you? Our father Abraham, looked
at last time, he's our pattern. That's why he's called that.
He's our example of saving faith. That faith that was given to
Abraham. And he was prone to wonder. He had unbelief. He had unbelief in the promises,
plural, of God. How God was going to do things.
He didn't understand it and he staggered at those things. But
he still petitioned God. Look here in verse 18. And Abraham
said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee. Now God
didn't answer Abraham's request immediately. He kept on talking. And we've seen the promises of
what God will do and how He will make it come to pass. He explained
that through Sarah. But we're about to see the promise. We've seen the promises. We're
about to see the promise. Look here in verse 19. Genesis
17, 19, and God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed,
and thou shalt call his name Isaac. And I will establish my
covenant with him, with his lineage, through his house, for an everlasting
covenant, and with his seed after him. Now that and is italicized,
it's added by the translator, so let's read that again without
the and. And he says there, and I will establish my covenant
with him for an everlasting covenant with his seed after him. Now, plainly and clearly, God
tells Abraham that he will have a son through Sarah. And that son's name is going
to be Isaac. And through Isaac, the seed, Christ, Christ the
seed, is going to come. Christ is who God the Father
made the everlasting covenant with. Now the Lord addresses
Abraham's request. Preach the gospel to him. He
said, that seed I told you about, your Savior is going to come
from your loins. It's going to be through Sarah.
Look here in verse 20, He said, And as for Ishmael, I have heard
thee. Behold, I have blessed him, and
will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve
princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. He said,
Ishmael is going to be okay. I'm going to take care of him.
Don't you worry about it. But verse 21, But my covenant will
I establish with Isaac. which Sarah shall bear unto thee
at the set time in the next year." I'm going to have it with Isaac,
and you ain't going to have to wait long, Abraham. Within a
year, she's going to have that son. Verse 22, and he left off
talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. The Lord had
saved Abraham. He had given him faith, and Abraham
believed God. And then he questioned how the
Lord would accomplish his will, his work, that the promise was
not questioned. He questioned how the promises
that was going to take place, and he laughed at them, but Christ
is not laughed at, that promise is not laughed at, and he didn't
disagree with that promise, he didn't stagger at the promise.
And as soon as the Lord left Abraham's presence, now remember
this was all right before the circumcision, The Lord spoke
to him. He said, now remember what I
told you? I'm going to do it through Sarah. And he didn't
let up. He kept on it. And he said there,
I lost my place. As soon as the Lord left Abraham's
presence, he told him everything is going to happen through Sarah,
and he left. And immediately, Abraham circumcised all the males
in his home. He still obeyed the Lord. He
obeyed that circumcision. And he had to be turned from
looking to himself, from looking to his wife, from looking to
all the things around him, and the how of things, and he had
to be turned to Christ. And once he was turned to Christ,
once the Lord put his eyes on him, set his heart and affection
on Christ, he didn't waver. In Christ, he did not waver.
Now we turn back to our text here in Romans 4. We're unable to believe Christ
only. In Romans 4 verse 20, He staggered
not at the promise, singular. Abraham staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. And when we look at the waves
that's all around us, we tremble, we stagger. Look at all this
heartache that's going on in our nation. All these trials
that's coming, it's pestilence. We get nervous. We stagger. We
falter, don't we? When we consider that God's providence
and all the things that He does, when we look at that with our
mind and man's ability, we stagger. And when we look at the sin that
we've committed against God, and I think of that sin death
that I have, before I'm looking to Christ and I'm still looking
at me, we faint, don't we? We feel overwhelmed. But when
we look to the promise, Christ's promise, we're strong and we
give all the glory to God. David wrote this in Psalm 28,
he said, The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted
in Him and I am helped. Therefore my heart will greatly
rejoice and with my song I will praise Him. The Lord's our strength
and that's who we praise. It's who makes us strong. Our
faith's not strong. Our faith doesn't do push-ups.
We can't exercise it. We use it. But the Lord strengthens
it. Christ is our strength and that's
who we'll praise for. I'm going to read you a few different
verses here for time's sake. You can look through the notes
later and go back through them. Isaiah 35 says, Say unto them
that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. Behold,
your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He
will come and save you. The Lord will come and save you.
Be strong. The Lord is going to save you. Haggaiot says, Yet
now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong,
O Joshua, son of Josedek, the high priest, and be strong, all
ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work, for I am
with you, saith the Lord of hosts. Why are we strong? The Lord's
with us. The cross said, and it shall come to pass that as
ye were accursed among the heathen, O house of Judah and house of
Israel, so will I save you. We were accursed. The Lord said,
He's going to save us. And you shall be a blessing.
Fear not, but let your hand be strong. Be strong in Christ. Be strong in the Lord that saves
you. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am
strong. When I'm brought down as low
as I can be, and I have no ability, no hope, no means, where's the
only place I can look? I look to my Savior. I look to
Christ. And then, what happens? Am I
still weak? His flesh is weak, but that Spirit is strong, isn't
it? Why? Because it's Christ's Spirit put in you. Paul also
wrote to Timothy, he said, Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace
that is in Jesus Christ. Was Abraham strong? Yeah. Abraham was strong. He had strong
faith, didn't he? Why? Because Christ in him was strong. The Lord was with him. He was
His. Now here's a proof of that salvation
there in Romans 4 verse 21. Romans 4 verse 21. And being
fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also
to perform. Not just that the Lord had promised
it. Not that He was going to send Christ, but He was going
to be able to send Him. Because it hadn't happened yet. He couldn't explain those things,
but he believed. He was persuaded. Now, I can't
explain how Christ became a man, how God Almighty took on a human
flesh. I can't explain that. I can't
explain how my sin became His sin. He became me, but at the
same time, He had no sin. I can't explain that. I can't
explain how God forsook God. God Almighty was forsaken by
God Almighty. Christ was forsaken on that cross.
I can't explain that. I can't explain how I can have
a fully wicked sin nature still in me, and also have a perfect
nature, a holy nature in me, and it's all contained in the
same mind. It's equally me whenever I'm thanking my Lord and rejoicing
in Him, and it's equally me whenever I'm just wallowing in sin and
pity and pride and everything else. I can't explain those things. I can't explain how I will die
in this flesh, but my spirit won't die. I'll immediately be
with Christ in glory. And I can't explain how when
that happens, I'll be without sin. I'll be perfect. I can't explain it. I believe
it. I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded that what God has
promised in Christ, He's also able to perform. I might not
be able to explain every detail about it, but I know it is so. I may stagger at the how, how
He's going to accomplish it, but I'm persuaded that all the
promises of God are in Christ, and they're yes, and they're
amen. I believe that. Now, He will save His people
in Christ only. Christ accomplished all for His
elect son and daughters. That work is finished. And He
will receive all the glory for it. Every knee is going to bow
and every tongue confess that Christ Jesus is Lord. That will
happen. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that you are completely and utterly unable to satisfy a holy God?
You have no hope. Is Christ all you hope? Is He
your only hope? Is He all of it? Is He all your
holiness? Is He all your righteousness?
Is He all your justification to the Father that He accomplish
all of it? Is He all your wisdom, all your
faith is in Him and of Him? All that grace, does it does
and must come from Him, through Him? If so, look at verse 22,
Romans 4.22. And therefore, it was imputed,
it was counted, to him for righteousness. We looked before at imputation. The word imputed is an accounting
term. If I say there's one recorder device on this podium, I say
there's one, I impute that there's one there. I count there's one
there because there is one there. And when the Lord imputed righteousness
to Abraham, it's because he was righteous. He counted it. Just
like he's counting vegetables on a grocery shelf. But Abraham
was made righteous, then he received faith and he believed the Lord.
Now if all your hope is in Christ for salvation, that's because
He has made you righteous and He's given you faith to believe
Him. Children of God in this day are no different than our
father Abraham, our pattern Abraham. And that pattern continues. It's
always been the same, it's always going to be the same until the
Lord wraps this earth up. Look here at verse 23. Now, it
was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to
him, that it was counted to him, but also for us, to whom it shall
be imputed, those to come, those believers to come, if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Now, there's
no Old Testament God and a New Testament God. I've heard that
a lot before. People say, well, there's an
angry God in the Old Testament and there's a sweet and gentle
God in the New Testament. The same God throughout. The
means of salvation have not changed since Abraham. Since before Abraham. And the Word of God has been
preserved all these years to point us to Christ. That's why
we have these Scriptures. We have this Holy Bible in front
of us and every bit of it is to look to Christ. It points
us to Christ. That way we bow to Him. And we give all the glory
to Him. That's the purpose of it. Turn
over Romans chapter 10. Romans 10, look in verse 9. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Who is the whosoever? Whosoever is going to believe,
who is that? Writer Acts said in Acts 2.39, for the promise,
the promise, singular, Christ. For the promise is unto you and
unto your children, and to all that are far off, as many as
the Lord our God shall call." What does this call make us do? This promise we receive, the
people that the Lord has called. What do we do? We believe in
Christ. He calls us. He reaches down
and grabs us, gets a hold of us, and gives us a new heart
and a new spirit to believe on Christ. Turn over to Matthew
16. I was going to just read that
to you. Matthew 16. Verse 15. And He saith unto him, But whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ. The Son of the Living God. He
believed God, didn't he? Believed Christ. And what did
our Master say? And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. The Lord revealed that to him.
God the Holy Spirit came into Peter's heart and said, Christ
is your only hope. Believe him. And he did, didn't
he? That's what he does to us. That's what he did to Adam. Abel,
Abraham, on up, to me, to you. What's the means that the Lord
is going to use to reveal Christ and His children? What's the
method that He uses to reveal that to them? The preaching of
the gospel. The Lord takes a dry clay vessel,
an ugly worthless pot of flesh. takes just men, sinful men, and
he raises them up and he uses them to preach Christ to people. Those men aren't impressive,
they don't have any worth, but he uses them to declare what
Christ has already accomplished in them. That's what I was raised
up for. I'm nothing, but I can tell you
who is. I'm a nobody that tells everybody about somebody that
can save anybody, as Scott Richardson used to say. That's what we do. What are these preachers going
to tell folks? These earthen vessels raised up to tell them
about Christ. Look at Romans 4, verse 25. They're
going to tell them that same gospel. They're going to tell
them the promise. Sing it. They're going to tell
them Christ. Romans 4, 25, "...who was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification." Christ died for
a people. His redemption was successful.
And the proof is He is risen. He accomplished what He was going
to do. We don't have a sepulcher full of bones like they carried
through Egypt for 400 and some years. We have an empty tomb.
Our Savior's risen. Brethren, when we're overtaken
in a fault, like we looked at last week, when we stumble, when
we stagger at the promises of God, When we look at the providence
and creation and governments, thrones, dominions, powers, principalities,
when we look at all these things and we waver and we faulty and
we fear and we stumble, let us always look at the promise, the
promise of God, Christ. Let us look to Him. If we're
able to do that, if the Lord gives us the faith in the heart
of our Father Abraham, through that pattern. Not to look at
all the things around us and the how, but if we look to Thee,
promised Christ, in all the trials and in all the joyful times,
we'll rejoice. We'll have peace. We'll have
hope. In all the happiness and all
the sorrow and in all the fear and in all the confidence, we
will not stagger. We will not stagger. A true child
of God will waver in a lot of points. They'll stumble. They're going to be overtaken
in faults. They're going to have pride. They're going to have
everything else that the Lord hates. We're going to do everything. But what won't they waver at? What won't they stagger at? What are they going to steadfastly
stand on? Christ's the rock. Christ's the
promise. Let's always remember that, brethren.
Whenever we face trials and we don't know what's going to happen,
how is the Lord going to keep His gospel going in this day
and age? Don't worry about the how. Look to Christ. What's going
to happen in the stock market? I don't know. Look to Christ.
It's the only message we have. Keep looking to Him. I pray that
it will bless you. Let's pray together. Heavenly
Father, so prone to wonder and look to ourselves, look to the
world around us and stagger and be fearful. Lord, help us. Forgive our sin. Forgive us from
not looking to the savor that You've given us. Lord, strengthen
our new man. Let us grow in grace. Let us
grow in strength in Him and knowledge and wisdom in Christ. Teach us, Lord. Be our teacher.
Keep us always. Keep us always looking to Him
until You take us home and we can see Him face to face, Lord.
What a glorious day. Shed this body of sin and death. Be holy without blame because
You've made us that way and we can worship properly. What a day it will be. Lord,
be with our brethren everywhere. You've sent the trial. You've
sent the heartache. You've sent the disease. You've
sent it all, Lord. Allow us to know that. Allow
us to not stagger at Your promises of providence. Let us rejoice
in Christ. Let us remind our brothers and
sisters that are staggering to look to Him. And when we stagger,
Lord, have them remind us of Him. and cross saying that we
ask it. Amen.