up to this point in Romans chapter
4. We're going to begin at verse
18. The Apostle Paul had made it so clear that the whole salvation,
and I stress that, don't let that pass by you. My whole salvation
and all of its blessings, all of its benefits, all of the inheritance
of grace, is totally, totally conditioned on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that we have the assurance
that he is able to fulfill in our stead all of those conditions
because of who he is and what he accomplished on Calvary. Well,
who is Jesus Christ? Well, he is God in human flesh
without sin. He is God-man. And I always quote
Matthew chapter one, you know, where the angel appeared unto
Joseph and said that Mary is going to have a son and you're
going to call his name Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. Well, how in the world could
we believe that one who is born of woman would be able to do
such a task? To save sinners, a multitude
of sinners. Sinners whom God gave him before
the foundation of the world, the Bible says. How in the world
could we have any confidence that such a person could save
me, could save you, could save any of us? Well, then in Matthew
1.23, he makes it clear, his name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. He's God. The Bible
is the revelation, the gospel is the revelation of the righteousness
of God. Now that's how we're assured
that he's able, because the righteousness in which we stand before God
is not the righteousness of a mere man. For man has no righteousness. The Bible says there was a time
that man did have righteousness. That was in Adam before the fall.
But what happened? He lost it. So what do I need? I need a righteousness I can't
lose. A righteousness that can't be
contaminated. So the gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. Well, how is it the righteousness
of God? Well, it's the righteousness that God sent his son into the
world to accomplish. It's the righteousness that the
God-man, God in human flesh, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished. on my behalf, you see. So that's
what Paul had been telling that Abraham, as highly esteemed as
Abraham was in the view of the unbelieving Jews, they needed
to understand, look, Abraham was nothing more than a sinner
saved by grace based on the righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when you consider, you know, you think about that. when you
consider that the apostles in the early days of the church,
that they were going around telling the unbelieving Jews that Abraham,
whom you claim to be your father, he was justified before God. That means he was forgiven by
God. He was pardoned. He was declared
righteous by God based upon the righteousness of the one whom
we crucified. Jesus of Nazareth And you you
all have said nothing good can come out of Nazareth But one
did and that was Jesus Christ Emmanuel God with us So that's
what he's saying here and then in verse 18 here when he talks
about hope verse 18 who against hope he's talking about Abraham
there and Abraham, against hope, believed in hope. Now, what did
he believe? Well, that he might become the
father of many nations, according to that which was spoken. Now,
in other words, because it was based upon something that was
spoken. Now, who spoke it? God did. This
is God's word. All right? This is not like the
word of faith movement. You ever heard of that, the word
of faith? They said, well, if you speak a word, it's going
to come true. That's bull. This is God's word. So according to that which was
spoken, and then he quotes from Genesis, so shall thy seed be. What is that, Genesis what, 15?
In other words, where God told Abraham, you're gonna be the
father of many nations. Well, what the apostle Paul is
saying here by inspiration of the spirit is that God is the
God of hope. But what is hope? Well, hope
is the certain assurance of the fulfillment of an expectation.
That's what hope is. Now, don't think of hope as wishing,
you know, and this is where words mean things. Don't think of hope
as wishful thinking. You know, a lot of times, you
know, yesterday, about five minutes till seven, I probably made a
statement like this. I hope Kentucky beats Texas A&M. But it certainly wasn't a certain
expectation of a fulfilled desire. And of course you know how that
hope come out. Those coaches blew it. But don't think of hope that
way. Wishful thinking. My old pastor used to say, I
hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope. It's kind of like Dorothy
clicking her heels together. There's no place like home. That's
not hope in the Bible. The hope of the gospel is a certain
assurance of an expected desire that's based upon something that
is solid. And what is the something that
is solid here? The word of God. God's Word. And here's what we know about
God. Number one, He's faithful to His Word. He's never unfaithful. That's what the in Romans 3 when
it talks about let God be true and every man a liar. That doesn't
mean that everybody lies all the time. Now, you know, when
it comes to salvation, by nature we lie because we don't know
any better. But when it says, let God be true and every man
a liar, what he's talking about is that God is always faithful
to his promise. He's never unfaithful. Lamentations
chapter three, when it says it's of the Lord's mercies that we're
not consumed, and then it says, great is thy faithfulness. So, and we sing a hymn, great
is thy faithfulness. So God's always faithful. But
secondly, God is powerful enough and wise enough to foresee and
overcome every obstacle that would hinder him making good
on his promise, or which would, which, he's also powerful enough
and wise enough to provide every means necessary to bring about
his promise. So he's the God of hope. Well,
what is the hope of the gospel? Now there's where we need to
go. Well, it's related here to what Abraham was told, so shall
thy seed be. Now, we know, look at verse 19. He says, and being not weak in
the faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he
was about 100 years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
Now you know the story of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham married Sarah. Sarah was barren. She could not
have children. And God had promised Abraham
and Sarah that they would have a child. They would have a seed. That was a posterity. Time went on and nothing happened. They couldn't have children.
And we'll look at some of the other issues of that in a minute.
But it was now, when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was
right behind him, that God told him, now I've told you, you're
gonna have a seed. At 100 years old? 99 years old? So what he's saying here is that
Abraham, in order to believe that promise, he had to look
past physical circumstances. He had to look past human logic
and reasoning, which told him that they were never going to
have a child. But God said, so shall thy seed be. And then we
know that Abraham was the father of two nations. We know he's
the father of the Jewish nation, and he's the father of the Arab
nation, too, through Isaac and Ishmael and all that. Now I'm gonna talk about this
in a minute. Abraham had times of unbelief. We'll talk about
that in just a moment. But what he's saying here is
that the only foundation of hope that Abraham had of the fulfillment
of that promise was just the word of God. Wasn't anything
else. He believed it now, but he had
times of unbelief. His wife had times of unbelief. And they knew that whatever,
if this was gonna be fulfilled in them physically, that they
didn't have the power, they didn't have the ability to do it. Only God is able. Now what you
have there is a perfect picture of salvation by the grace of
God. That's what it is. Because by
nature, We are all, we all fell in Adam into sin and death and
by nature we are born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. That means that we're spiritually
ignorant and we have no spiritual desires to that which glorifies
God. I didn't say we have no religious
desires. Man by nature is religious. Think
about Cain, he was a religious man. But he was spiritually dead. He didn't want to come God's
way. Robert, we were talking earlier about somebody said,
you got to accept the gift. Let's take that illustration.
People say, well, you got to accept it. You got to accept
the free gift. Well, you do. But if you want
to think biblically, here's what you would have to say. It's a
gift that none of us want by nature and will not receive until
God changes our will. And that's why we have to be
born again. Or we won't see or enter the kingdom of God. We
don't have any desire for it. So that's our state. We are as
spiritually dead as Sarah's womb was physically. And if there's
going to be salvation, it's got to come by the word and the power
and the faithfulness of God. And what is the hope of the gospel?
It's the hope of salvation conditioned on Christ, based on His blood
and righteousness alone. And those who come any other
way, they don't have the right promise. You know, a preacher
tells you, God promises to save you if you'll do this or if you'll
do that. Well, that's not the hope of
the gospel. God never promised to save anybody that way. He
didn't say, Abraham, I'll give you a child if you'll do certain
things for me. Or if you'll just accept the
free gift, even. He didn't say that. He got Abraham,
jerked him out of the Caldees by convincing him, giving him
spiritual life, and he said, now you're going to have a child.
And that's it. Now, the promise that God gave
Abraham was more than just physical, though, wasn't it? And in fact,
the main issue that Paul has in mind here in Romans 4 is not
just the birth of two nations, the Jews and the Arabs, at all. In fact, he's specifically speaking
of Isaac. Isaac. because Ishmael was born
of the bond woman, Hagar. You remember? And that was not
what God promised. And you know, Abraham argued
that Ishmael would be his heir, but he wasn't. God told him,
he said, no, this ain't gonna be. You know, Abraham argued
even before that that he had a servant, Eleazar, who was gonna
be his heir. And God said, no, that's not
gonna be your heir, you're gonna have a son. And you remember
one time when they, when God repeated the promise to him,
Sarah overheard it, and you remember what she did? She laughed, because
she was too old. So the main thrust here is Isaac. And what is it about Isaac? He's
the child of promise. And through Isaac was going to
come who? Christ, according to the flesh. who was born of the seed of Abraham,
the seed of David according to the flesh. And that's the Messiah. He's the Messiah. He's the one
upon whom all of salvation is conditioned. So the promise to
which God is really referring to here through Paul Is Abraham
becoming the spiritual father of all who are brought to believe
in Christ, to submit to his righteousness? I've got referenced in your lesson,
Galatians 3, 26 through 29, where it talks about who are the children
of Abraham? In other words, that is the children
of faith. What's all who believe, Jew and
Gentile? So read verse 19 again, being not weak in faith. Now
there were times that Abraham was weak in faith, I'm gonna
show you, this is not talking about any perfection in Abraham. But his tenor of life was that
Abraham was a man of faith. Now if you're a believer, if
you're a real Christian, made so by the grace of God, you're
a person of faith, but you still have times of unbelief, don't
you? I know I do. Maybe you're all better than
me, I don't know. No, I know what you go through.
And so you have those times, and you have to fight it. That's
one of the main battlegrounds of the warfare of the flesh and
the spirit, isn't it? We're like that fellow who had
a sick child. Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. That's the way I've been. And
so he considered not his own body now dead when he was about
a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
And then look at verse 20. It says he staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. Now the point here is not to
boast of any perfection in Abraham himself or any even perfect faith
that Abraham had because Abraham was a sinner saved by grace. What's his whole point here?
Abraham's righteousness before God was not anything that Abraham
worked out or willed for himself, it was Christ and him alone.
That's the whole point of Romans 4, isn't it? That Abraham was
justified before God based upon Christ's righteousness imputed
to him. Nothing else. And if it had been conditioned
on Abraham, Abraham would have been a failure just like all
of us. So when it says he staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
it's not talking about that Abraham was a perfect man. If you read
the book of Genesis, In the biography of Abraham that's recorded there,
you'll see Abraham had his problems, he had his inward struggles.
You remember he knew, he believed, it's recorded that even though
God promised Abraham and Sarah that he would provide for them
a son, Abraham argued that his servant Eleazar was going to
be his heir because he kind of lost sight. of things. Remember he lied to Pharaoh and
Abimelech about his wife Sarah because he was afraid that they
would kill him to have her. Now you've got to remember in
the context, God promised Abraham and Sarah they would have a son.
Abraham went through that and of course you know the episode
in Genesis 16 where Sarah brought the handmade Hagar Abraham said,
well, God promised us a son. We haven't had one. Maybe it's
going to be through this woman. And so out of that came Ishmael. And then you go on and go on.
So it's not talking about when it says he staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong. What it's talking
about is the tenor of Abraham's life there. He was a man of faith,
but still a sinner saved by grace. But if you're saved, isn't that
what you are? Isn't that what I am? I believe,
and that's the tenor of my life, but I've had my moments, and
you have too, and you'll have more if the Lord lets us live
on this earth much longer. But here's the key to what he's
talking about in verse 20. Faith gives glory to God. Now
what does that tell you? Well, it tells you this. Our
faith is not in us. It's not in our abilities. It's
not in our goodness. It's not in our determinations.
It's not in our wills. Faith is not even in our faith.
Did you know that? You know what most people have?
They have faith in their faith. They think they've made the difference
between heaven and hell, between lost and saved. No, faith gives
glory to God. What does that mean? That means
to believe that Christ is your whole salvation, that he fulfilled
all the conditions, that he met all the conditions, that he is
your only righteousness before God. That glorifies every attribute
of God's character and nature. Well, how do you know it glorifies
every attribute? Because the Bible says, in Christ
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Bible says that God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Christ is the summation. Christ
and the righteousness that he established that ensures and
demands the eternal salvation and final glory of all for whom
he lived, died, was buried, and rose again is the glory of God. How God can be just and justify. That God justifies the ungodly
and does it in a way that is not dishonoring to himself. Based on Christ's righteousness
imputed. His blood and righteousness alone.
That's the glory of God. That's the Shekinah. You ever
heard that term, the Shekinah? Got a little pamphlet back there
called The Glory of God in the Gospel, and it talks about that.
The Shekinah was a word that the old rabbis used to talk about
the dwelling place of God, where God revealed himself in the fullest,
in the highest. And back in the Old Covenant,
in the Old Testament period of the Old Covenant law, you remember
the Shekinah dwelt above the mercy seat because that's where
God revealed the highest glory of himself. And of course that
mercy seat was a picture of Christ, wasn't it? And you remember when
at the birth of Christ the angel came to the shepherds and what
did the angel say? Glory to God in the highest. That's not saying glory to God
up there somewhere. That means in this child, who
is God in human flesh, the child born, the son given, Emmanuel,
is the highest manifestation of God's glory that can ever
be found. And that's in Christ. Now to
believe in his promise of salvation conditioned on Christ, based
on his righteousness alone, that gives glory to God. To disbelieve
that promise and try to come some other way, that dishonors
every attribute of God. That's how serious this is. Well,
Abraham believed God. And then look at verse 21. He
says, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, God
was able to perform. Here's some things I know. I know I am not able. There are times I'm not even
able to stand up here and preach to you. I'm serious. But I know God is able. God is
able. I love that passage in 2 Timothy,
what is it, 112? Where Paul said, I know whom
I have believed, and I am persuaded. That's what he says here. Abraham
was fully persuaded. Now who persuaded him? Was it
some golden-throated preacher? No, it's the Holy Spirit. Christ,
through the Holy Spirit, persuades us that God is able. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've
committed unto Him against that day. He's not only able to save
me, He's able to keep me. to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. And what have I committed unto
him? My whole salvation. You see, I don't believe that
he did his part and now I've done my part. I don't believe
that. I believe he did it all. All
righteousness is in him. And I know I'm not able. I find
that out in so many ways and so many times. And so he goes
back to the theme, look at verse 22. And therefore, for this reason,
it, there's that word it again that appears in Romans 4 so many
times, it was imputed to him, it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now what is it there? Well it's
the same one back here in verse 3. Look at verse three, for what
saith the scripture? What'd God say? Abraham believed
God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Well, what
is the it? That's a pronoun, isn't it? Gotta
have an antecedent. Gotta refer to something. Well,
what was imputed to Abraham for righteousness? We'll read verse
six. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works. It there is the
righteousness of Christ according to God's promise. Now, scholars
will tell you this, so-called scholars. They'd say, well, that
it can't be righteousness because Paul wouldn't repeat himself.
Are you kidding me? The Bible is full of repetition. In fact, let me just put it to
you this way. You know the message of the book
of Exodus? You know it's the same message
as the book of Genesis? You know the message of Leviticus?
Same message as Genesis and Exodus. Deuteronomy, same. You can go
all the way through. You know the message of Revelation?
Same basic message as Genesis. It's all salvation by God's grace
through the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
if you want to read it technically, All right? Here's how you would
read it. Look at verse three, for example.
For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and what
God promised to Abraham was counted to him for righteousness. You
could read it that way. Now, ask yourself this question.
What did God promise Abraham? Salvation, based on the righteousness
of another. That's what he promised. And
that other, that person, whose righteousness was imputed to
Abraham was going to come through Abraham and Sarah according to
the flesh by the child of promise. And that was their whole salvation.
So in verse 22, therefore it, what God promised Abraham, he
believed that God was able to fulfill that. Whatever it was
that God promised Abraham, well that was imputed to him. That's
what he's saying for righteousness. Now again, what did God promise
Abraham? Christ and his righteousness.
That's what God promised him. And that was imputed to him for
righteousness. It wasn't faith that was imputed
to him. Faith is not the merit of a work. Faith is a moral quality of care.
And Abraham's faith was imperfect. Let me tell you something. Whatever
ground upon whatever ground God declares me justified, it's got
to be perfect. It's got to be the perfection
of righteousness. And I can tell you right now
that I do have faith, God-given faith, but my faith is not yet
the perfection of righteousness. But the one in whom my faith
is, He's the perfection of righteousness. The perfection of righteousness
can only be found in Christ. That's who God promised Abraham.
And Christ himself said that, didn't he? He said, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it, and he was glad. Okay.