Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow
along in your Bibles, for the past few weeks I've been preaching
through the book of Romans, chapter 4. And I'm going to continue
that today, chapter 4, and the title of the message today is
The Reality of Faith. The Reality of Faith. And I'm
going to begin over in verse 16. This is pretty much where
I ended the last message. And this passage is where the
Apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to use Abraham mainly,
but both Abraham and David as prime examples of how God saves
sinners. And he puts it this way, how
God justifies the ungodly. Now, you know, when we talk about
salvation, we're talking about the salvation of sinners. The
Bible says in Matthew 1 and verse 21 concerning the name Jesus,
which is the New Testament equivalent of Joshua in the Old Testament
or Yeshua. Jehovah saves Jehovah, God who
saves. It says he shall save his people
from their sins. And that's why Christ came into
the world. That's why God the Father sent
God the Son into the world to become incarnate. That is, to
take into union with His deity, a perfect, sinless human nature,
to save us from our sins. And so when we talk about salvation,
we can talk about various aspects of salvation. I wrote a book
called, What is Salvation? A biblical study of God's greatest
gift. And in that book, I divided salvation
into four realms. And I call them realms because
when God saves a sinner, they're brought into a kingdom of which
Christ is king. He's the king of kings. And so
we talk about the different realms. And all of that is an amazing,
in the Bible now, it's an amazing statement of the multifaceted
blessedness that comes to sinners by the grace of God through the
blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of
the main aspects or the main realms of salvation is the legal
realm in which sinners must be justified. We could even say
that justification of sinners before God is the ground of justification. It's the heart of the gospel.
And so when we read passages like Romans chapter four, We
read how God, just in Abraham, as he does all of his chosen
people, God justifies the ungodly. And you can look at it this way. There's two courtrooms, you might
say. The first courtroom, and the
main courtroom, is the courtroom of God's justice, in which in
order to save sinners, God has to forgive their sins on a just
basis or a just ground. And the only just ground for
the forgiveness of sins is the blood of Jesus Christ. He came
into the world as the surety of his people, meaning that the
debt of their sins was put to his account, charged to his account.
God the Father chose a people, gave them to Christ, and Christ
willingly, became the surety of the covenant of grace. And
so all the conditions of salvation, including the forgiveness of
sins, was placed upon his shoulder. Book of Isaiah chapter nine and
verse six says the government was upon his shoulder. That means
all the conditions, stipulations, requirements of salvation were
put upon Christ. He fulfilled it and secured the
salvation of his people. He was the surety of his people.
He came to earth and took into union with himself a perfect
sinless humanity, God-man, the word made flesh. And in that
person, as that person, God-man, God manifest in the flesh, he
took the place of his people, that's substitution. He went
under the law, the curse of the law, the judgment of the law,
and the punishment of the law for his people, his sheep, his
church, not for all without exception now, but his church. And then
he satisfied law and justice. He paid the debt in full, that's
redemption. And because he did that, he established
righteousness. upon which God can justly declare
His people righteous, that righteousness imputed to Him. That's the righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel. And that's what it is to be justified.
And in the last part of this Romans chapter 4, that justification
is spoken of very plainly and often. A glorious blessing. To be justified before God is
to be cleared of all judgment, all condemnation, all guilt,
in God's court of justice, you see, based upon the blood of
Christ. It's to be declared righteous
before God, based upon the righteousness of Christ. And that's God's court,
that's the main one, see. And the Bible says in Romans
8, 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. You can read the whole thing there, Romans 8, 33 and
34. Now the next court is the court
of conscience. Now that has to do with us and
the conscience. You see, man has a conscience,
the conscience is the seat of the mind whereby we make judgments. Romans chapter 2 speaks of that.
Even the unregenerate have a conscience whereby they accuse or excuse.
The conscience is our moral compass. The conscience is the seat of
judgment in our minds by which we see what's right and what's
wrong. Now the problem with man's conscience
by nature is that conscience is defiled. And it's defiled
by sin and by guilt and by condemnation. It's even defiled by self-righteousness. Because left to ourselves naturally,
we will try to soothe our consciences by our works, by our efforts,
by our penances, all kinds of things. And the problem with
that is that, in the Bible, that's called a guilty conscience, a
condemned conscience, an evil conscience. Now, it has its place
in the world because it keeps people in check as far as their
relationships. That's what keeps people from
murdering everybody and robbing everybody and all of that. But
when we come before God with our own conscience, in our own
courtroom, you might say, that's the second courtroom, how do
we clear our conscience when we're thinking about God, salvation,
and a right relationship with God? If we think that we're cleared
and made right with God, saved by our works, That's a self-righteous
conscience. That's a guilty, condemned, and
evil conscience, even though we don't realize it by nature.
That has to be revealed. So the conscience has to be cleansed,
the Bible says. Our own conscience, the core
of our own conscience. Hebrews chapter nine and Hebrews
chapter 10 speaks of this, and it tells us this, that the law
will not clear the conscience. Religious ceremonies will not
clear the conscience. Not as we're thinking about God
now. It may clear a person's conscience
for a while in his own mind or her own mind, but not before
God. You see, what clears the conscience
before God? It's the same thing that clears
or justifies a sinner before God in his court, and that's
the blood of Christ. Hebrews chapter 10 tells us that.
that the conscience is washed, cleaned, cleared. When the Holy
Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel, applies the blood
of Christ to that conscience, brings that sinner to see that
he has no righteousness before God except the imputed righteousness
of Christ. And what happens in the clearing
of that conscience? The sinner is brought to faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now right here in verse 16 of
Romans 4, it talks about faith. We're talking about the reality
of faith. And he says, therefore it is of faith. Now what is of
faith? Well, he's talking about the
promise that God made to Abraham and to others of salvation based
upon the blood and righteousness of Christ. He's talking about
the gospel. That's what God promised Abraham. We've seen how God gave
Abraham many promises. Some of those promises were physical,
physical in nature, and applied to Abraham's physical descendants,
which were the Jews. But some of those promises were
spiritual and eternal, and didn't apply to the physical descendants
of Abraham. but it applied to the spiritual
descendants of Abraham. Abraham being the father of the
faithful, not in the sense that he's the source and originator
of salvation. Abraham couldn't save anybody.
Abraham couldn't save himself. Abraham was a sinner saved by
grace. Abraham was an ungodly person whom God justified and
then gave life to and brought to faith in Christ. But Abraham
is the prime example of how God saves sinners, justifies the
ungodly and brings sinners to faith in Christ. That's why he's
called the father of the faithful in a sense. Even in the book
of Galatians and Hebrews, those who believe in Christ, those
who have been brought to faith in Christ are called the seed
of Abraham. And then Christ himself is called
the seed of Abraham because in his humanity, he was a descendant
of Abraham. came through Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and then through Joseph, or then through David, King David,
the line of Judah, came through Judah and David, that line. So when he says here in verse
16, therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. The
faith that he's talking about, and this is something we all
need to learn now. Many people have a confused or
simply just a wrong view of what the Bible calls faith. Faith
involves, saving faith, we might say it that way, involves two
things. It involves a knowledge revealed
to sinners by God. And that knowledge is revealed
by the power of the Holy Spirit in the gospel wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. And so it's a knowledge concerning
issues of God and sinners and salvation and how sinners are
saved. It's the knowledge of who God
is. God is holy and righteous and
just. Yes, He's merciful and gracious
and loving, but not without justice. You see, God, for example, I
love to talk about how God is merciful. He delights to show
mercy. Oh God, be merciful to me, the
sinner. But I understand because God
has revealed the righteousness of God in the gospel, that His
mercy must be based on a just ground. God is merciful, but
He is not merciful apart from just to satisfy. That's why Christ
is called the mercy seat. Remember the mercy seat in the
old tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the lid that covered
the ark of the covenant, and the blood must be sprinkled on
that mercy seat. That blood represents justice
satisfied. It was from off the brazen altar.
And so mercy and truth, righteousness and peace must be brought together. And the only way they are is
by the grace of God in Christ. This faith is the knowledge of
who I am. I'm a sinner who has no righteousness
of his own and cannot work righteousness and spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins to the point that I will desire righteousness God's way. I want it my own way, a way that
gives me room to boast and to glory in myself, a way of works,
a way of conditional salvation on me. That's not the way it
is. God lets me know by His Spirit
through the Word, revealing it to me, that salvation cannot
be attained if it's conditioned on me. It can only be attained
if it's conditioned on one whom God appointed. one who is able
and one who is willing, and that's Christ. That's what the gospel
is, salvation conditioned on Christ, who fulfilled those conditions
and secured the salvation of all for whom he died, was buried,
and arose again. Faith is the promise. Look here
in verse 16. Therefore it is of faith that
it might be by grace that is conditioned on Christ to the
end that in the promise might be sure to all the seed. Now
that's all the spiritual seed of Abraham. And what is that
promise? It's the promise of eternal salvation, final glory
of being forgiven of sins and made right with God through the
Lord Jesus Christ by his obedience unto death, the righteousness
of God. And he says, and to understand
that this is the spiritual seed of Abraham and not the physical,
he says in verse 16, not to that only which is of the law. Now
that's the Jews. God has a people among the Jews. Isaiah said it was a remnant.
Romans 11 says it's a remnant. It's not all Jews without exception.
And it's not all Gentiles without exception. In Romans 11, it's
called the election of grace. In other words, it's a people
out of every tribe and nation which God chose before the foundation
of the world and gave to Christ. Their names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the world began. And it's not just
the Jews, it's Gentiles. It's any sinner for whom Christ
died as indicated and evidenced by their being brought to faith
in Christ. Now that faith here is the promise. And he says, but to that also,
look at verse 16 now, is sure to all the seed, not to that
only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the
faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Of the faith
of Abraham. What does that mean? That means
that it's this promise this seed that he's speaking of, are those
who believe the same gospel, the same promise that Abraham
believed. And so what do we know about
what Abraham believed? Well, we know what the Bible
tells us. Passages like John 8, I think it's verse 56, where
the Lord said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and
he was glad. Things like that. See, Abraham
believed God. And so it goes on, look at verse
17. It says, as it is written, I have made thee a father of
many nations. Now, Abraham was the father of
the Jews physically. But spiritually, he was the father
of many nations. God has a people out of every
tribe and nation. And it says, before him whom
he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things
which be not as though they were. Now what is that saying? Well,
it's saying that if anybody believes the gospel, if anybody truly
believes in Christ, that means they've been quickened from the
dead. They've been given life. That's
what the new birth is. Do you know the new birth, in
a spiritual way, is bringing sinners who are spiritually dead
in trespasses and sins and giving them spiritual life that they
did not have before. It's a resurrection from the
dead. It's not some preacher fanning some spark of goodness
that is in us. We have no spark of goodness
in us naturally. That's why the Bible says in
1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're spiritually
discerned. That's why Christ said in John
chapter 3 that you must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom
of God. You don't have spiritual eyes.
That's why the Lord said to the disciples in Matthew 13, blessed
are your eyes for you see. You see things that others don't
see. You hear things, blessed are your ears. You hear things
that others don't hear. You've been brought to life,
Ephesians 2.1. And you hath he quickened, given
life, who were dead in trespasses and sins. And so this faith that
he's talking about, this knowledge revealed, and this knowledge
received, which is God-given faith, is given to those who
are quickened from the dead, and it's given from God, who
calleth those things which be not as though they were. In other
words, every one of them is going to be saved, and we know this,
because in God's mind, it's a done deal. You say, well, it hasn't
happened yet to everybody. That's right. Christ still has
some sheep out there in the world who are lost, and they've not
yet been brought into the fold. but he's gonna bring them. It's
a sure thing. That's what he said. It's by,
it's a faith that it might be grace. To the end, the promise
might be sure to all the seed. Now look at verse 18. He says,
who against hope believed in hope. Now what is hope? Hope
is not just wishful thinking. Hope is not just desiring that
something you want will come true. Hope in the Bible is the
certain expectation of a good outcome because you have a good
foundation and a good word of promise. There's something backing this
up that's gonna make it sure and that's the word of God. I
know it's so and I know it's going to be so because God said
it. So it's a certain assurance of
salvation and final glory because God's word said it and it's based
upon what Christ has already accomplished as the surety, the
substitute, the redeemer of his people. And who are his people? They are all who will be given
life from the dead by the Holy Spirit under the preaching of
the gospel. And they'll evidence that they're
one of his sheep. That's what the Bible says in
Romans 1 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, Jew
and Greek, Jew and Gentile. So he says in verse 18, who against
hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many
nations. Now apply this to Abraham. God told Abraham that he and
Sarah would have a child. And they went through their lives
up until when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was like
99, and they hadn't had a child yet. How's he gonna be the father
of many nations if he didn't have children? Well, we know
that Abraham and Sarah tried to connive to have it their way
through the servant girl, Hagar. And out of that came Ishmael.
And out of Ishmael came a great nation. It's the Arab nations.
But that was not the promised son. You see, the promised son
did not come until Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. And it
says, verse 18, who against hope believed in hope. Now Abraham
believed it was gonna happen, but he didn't always believe
it. He had his moments of doubt. He was human, a sinner saved
by grace. That's why Ishmael came about.
And it says that he might become the father of many nations according
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. Now who spoke
that? God did. So it was according
to that which was spoken. It was according to the word
of God. And then look at verse 19. Now what this verse is talking
about is Abraham's general tenor of life. Not every moment in
Abraham's life. But it says, and being not weak
in faith. Abraham. Now let me tell you
something. There were moments where Abraham
was weak in faith. Go read his biography in the
book of Genesis. And Abraham was not a perfect
man. None of us are. I'm not a perfect man. I'm perfect
in Christ legally based upon His righteousness imputed to
me. And I'm a sinner saved by grace. I have the presence of
the Holy Spirit within me. I have new life, a new spirit.
I have a new heart, but I still have the flesh to deal with.
My own sinful human nature, human flesh, And it plagues me, it
bothers me, it's a battle. And sometimes my faith is weak,
sometimes it's strong, but it's still faith. And so he says,
and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body
now dead, here he is 100 years old, when he was about 100 years
old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. And it says
in verse 20, he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief. but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. Now that's what he said. This
was Abraham's tenor of life. Again, he had his moments of
weakness. But his general tenor of life
was looking to God, walking by faith, staggering not at the
promise of God. Now what did God promise? That
Abraham would have a child and that he'd be the father of many
nations. And again, remember now, some of those promises were
physical, temporal, earthly that is, temporary, and applied to
the physical descendants of Abraham. But the promises that we're concerned
with, and Paul spoke of this over in Galatians chapter 3,
the promises that we today must be concerned with is the spiritual
promise of eternal salvation. final glory through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul's applying
this to here. That's the context of the book
of Romans. Even in chapter five, he starts
out, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the context. So he's
not talking about the physical blessings that applied to the
Jews under the old covenant, about 1500 years. He's talking
about the spiritual promises that apply to spiritual Israel. He mentions them over in Romans
chapter two and in Romans chapter nine. So he says, Father of many
nations, be not weak in faith, stagger not, but with strong
in faith, giving glory to God. Now there's something about the
reality of faith. Faith, the knowledge that God
reveals, and the knowledge that his people receive, God-given
faith, glorifies God. Doesn't glorify me. Doesn't glorify
anybody who has it. If you have true faith in God,
you'll honor, glorify Him alone. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.