Now again, we're going back to
the book of Romans chapter 4. And we'll begin at verse 16 where
we left off last time. Sometimes when I say we want
to go back and review, it just means that we want to emphasize
what we emphasized before. Therefore it is of faith. Now
what is of faith? Well, salvation is received by
faith. that it might be by grace to
the end, or to this purpose, that the promise, the promise
of God to save sinners in Christ, might be certain and sure to
all God's people, all of God's seed, that's His elect, that's
His covenant chosen, not to that only which is of the law, not
only to the religious Jew, but also to that which is of the
faith of Abraham, that is, God saves sinners, Jew or Gentile,
exactly the same way. He has always saved sinners exactly
the same way, and Abraham is called many times the father
of the faithful, as it is written, I have made thee a father of
many, many nations. Now in verse 16, we see three
things every believer is taught from the Word of God, by the
revelation of God the Holy Spirit. All those who have learned, heard
and learned of the Father, they come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Three things, let me just remind
you of them. First of all, we see that salvation
is received by faith alone. Not a combination of faith and
works, but rather received by faith alone. And we emphasize
that word alone, faith alone. It goes all the way back to the
Reformation time, where that theme of the Reformation in Martin
Luther's day was faith alone, the word alone, Christ alone,
grace alone, to the glory of God alone. Salvation is received
by faith alone. Abraham believed God and it was
imputed to him for righteousness. The just shall live by faith. Four times in the Word of God
it declares that. Salvation is by faith alone,
that is how it is received. Salvation is received by believing,
not by doing, but by believing God. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And know this, faith. is the
gift of God. God works that in us. This is
a work of God that you might believe on Him. Secondly, salvation
being by faith through grace. By grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God that the
promise of God to save sinners in Christ might be certain and
absolutely sure. God had made salvation certain
and sure because of Christ. Now, if it was based upon our
efforts, it could never be said to be certain and sure, could
it? We would never meet that standard. But because salvation
is all in Christ, received by faith, by grace, salvation is
absolutely certain and sure to everyone that believes the gospel. And then thirdly, we know that
salvation is a free gift of God given to sinners without respect
of their person. Remember, we talked about that
in our study here. I think it was Romans 2. God
is not a respecter of person. That is, God saves the religious
Jew, even though they were the physical descendants of Abraham,
God saves the religious Jew the same way He saves the pagan Gentile. Where did God find Abraham? He
found him in the house of bondage, the house of idolatry, and He
called him out. He called him out. So, the point
being, as Paul said, or rather Peter, we believe through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. That is the
Jew, God's gonna save the Jew exactly the same way He saved
the Gentile. So we can truly say that salvation
is the gift of God. The wages of sin is death. The
gift of God is eternal life. Eternal life. Grace does not
run in bloodlines or nationality. Now it's a good thing that the
Lord is pleased, and if the Lord is pleased to do so, that we
would have children, and bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord, and put them under the preaching of the gospel and
the sound of the gospel, but that alone does not guarantee
their salvation. Salvation is still by the grace
of God alone. He may save them. He's going
to use the gospel to do it, but He may not save them. That's
in His hand and His purpose, not ours. Now, having said that,
let's look at Romans 4. Verse 17, now he says here, "...as
it is written, I have made thee a father of many, many nations."
Now how could it be said that Abraham is a father of many,
many nations? Okay, read on, "...before him
whom he believed, even God, who quickened the dead, and calleth
those things which be not, as though they were." Now, God made
this promise to Abraham when He changed His name from Abram,
when He found him, to Abraham, which means the father of a great
Multitude. Now, when God made this promise
to Abraham, he was not even a father when God made this promise to
Abraham. He had no children at all. Sarah was a barren woman. Abraham was 99 years old. Sarah was 90 years old. But Abraham
took God at his promise. He believed the Word of Truth.
He trusted Him. And He believed Him. This is
what saving faith does. Now hold your place there in
Romans 4. I want you to find Genesis 17. Genesis 17. Verse 1. When Abraham was ninety-nine,
ninety years old and nine. Now that's ninety-nine. The Lord
appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I am Almighty God,
walk before me and be thou perfect or sincere and upright. And I
will make a covenant between me and thee and will multiply
thee exceedingly. And Abraham fell on his face
and talked with God, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant
is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations,
neither shall thy name be any more called Abram, but thy name
shall be called Abraham." Now, notice the marginal reference,
you see that? Abraham means, that is a father,
his name actually means the father of a great multitude. A father
of a great multitude, for a father of many nations have I made thee. Now, how can that be said? Only
in Christ and the gospel. Abraham is called a faithful believer, and the
Lord Jesus Christ, if you read the genealogy in Matthew 1.1,
the Lord Jesus Christ is called the Son of David, but He's also
called the Son of Abraham. the son of Abraham, so I have
made thee a father of many nations, have I made thee, I will make
thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee,
and kings shall come out of thee, all those sons of David came
out of Abraham's loins, and I will establish my covenant between
me and thee, and thy seed, notice that refers to Christ, Isaac,
and that seed, which is Christ, after thee in their generations
for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to
thy seed after thee. I'll give unto thee and to thy
seed after thee a land wherein thou art a stranger, and all
the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their
God." Now, we're going to go back to Romans 4, turn back over
there. So Abraham took God at His promise,
His Word, trusted Him and believed Him. That is what saving faith
is blessed to do. And if you have saving faith,
you believe the Word of God. Well, I believe part of the Word
of God. Some part I believe and some part I don't believe. No.
If you're a believer, you believe all the Word of God. all the
prophets, all the law, all the gospels, and all the epistles.
You believe the whole entire Word of God. Saving faith, the
faith of God's elect, acknowledges and believes even when natural
reason says it is impossible. It is impossible. with God all
things are possible and nothing is impossible remember the disciple
said to the Lord well who then can believe remember what he
said with men It's impossible, but not with God. With God, all
things are possible. Now, if you read on over to Genesis
chapter 18, when God told Abraham and Sarah that they were going
to have that special covenant seed, Isaac, and in Isaac came
the Lord Jesus Christ. When Sarah first heard of that,
it says in Genesis 1814 that she laughed about it. Now turn over there for just
a moment and let's see if we can find that. in Genesis 18 verse 10, and he
said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time
of life, and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard
in the tent door which was behind him. Now Sarah, Abraham and Sarah
were old and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with
Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within
herself, saying, After I am old, waxed and old, shall I have pleasure
of my Lord being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham,
Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child
when I am old? And the Lord said, Is there anything
too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will
return unto thee according to the time of my life. And Sarah
shall have that son." And then she said, then she said, oh,
I deny not that I laughed, for she was afraid. And he said,
nay, but you did laugh. You did indeed laugh. Now we're
gonna see in a minute, Abraham did too. Abraham did too, but
we'll get back to that in just a minute. Now turn to Romans
four, verse 17. Abraham, before him whom he believed,
even God." Now notice these two things that are said here, describing
who God is that Abraham believed, who quickens the dead. Now that word quicken is an old
English word, it simply means to make alive. The Word of God
is quick and powerful, that simply means He makes things alive that
were dead. Even God who quickens the dead,
he raises up dead men to life. Now only God can raise a dead
man. He raised up Lazarus from the
dead, didn't he? Who else can do that? I don't
read of anybody else. or I've never read of anybody
else, raising a dead man to life. We read in Ephesians 2.1, you
have he quickened who were dead. And this is what the Lord does
spiritually to all his people in regeneration. He raises us
up from the spiritual grave of our sin and gives us life in
Christ. 5. The Father has given the Lord
Jesus Christ power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as those given unto him. 6. Only God can quicken
the dead, and only God, who is Almighty God, alone can call
things and consider things that don't exist and see them as existing. Notice the second part of that,
verse 17. Not only does God quicken the
dead, but He calls those things or considers those things which
be not as though they are. Now, how many people had actually
sinned and had fallen when God Almighty said, before the foundation
of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ was a lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. Now, how many people have actually
fallen in Adam at the time when God said that the Lord Jesus
Christ stood as a surety and mediator of that everlasting
covenant? Well, see, before Adam ever was
created or Adam ever sinned, the Lord Jesus Christ stood as
a surety. He calleth those things which
be not, as though they were already done." God Almighty considers
and He does all things exactly according to His eternal purpose.
We read in Acts 15, known unto God are all His works from the
beginning. You remember in Isaiah 46, he
said, I've purposed it, I've spoken it, I've purposed it,
I'll bring it to pass, I will do it. His decrees and His purpose
is an eternal purpose. Before there was even a creation,
God had already purposed all things and sees all things as
they are right now. You see how infinite He is in
His power, of His wisdom, of His decrees, and His knowledge. Saving faith believes God as
He's revealed in the book of God. Only God can quicken the
dead. Only God alone can call those
things which which do not exist, and see them as existing." Now,
look at verse 18, going back to what God says of Abraham.
Now this is God's perspective of him looking on the believing
heart of Abraham, who against hope, believed in hope. Now, naturally speaking, Abraham's
a hundred years old, God says, you're going to have a son. Well,
naturally, we would think, well, that's not going to happen. Sarah
was a barren woman all her life, and God said, Sarah, you're 90
years old, and you're going to have a son. Now, naturally speaking,
our natural hope would be, well, That's not going to happen. It
would be similar to saying someone that we might know that's a woman
now that's 91, 92, or 93 years old, and she says, well, I'm
going to have a son. And you would think, there's
no way. No way. But this is exactly what
God said to Abraham and God said to Sarah. They believed God. Now this is God's perspective
of knowing their heart and God says they believed Him. Now Abraham
believed God when natural reason and natural principle would say
impossible. Who against hope believed in
hope according to that which was spoken. Abraham believed
God, that's what the Lord said, but he also demonstrated times
of unbelief. Now from our perspective, if
God said he believed me and I've imputed it to him for righteousness,
Abraham believed God but also at times He demonstrated unbelief
as well. Now why even bring that up? Because
it's the reality of what we are before God. Now let me give you
an example of that. Ten years had passed after God
initially gave that promise to Abraham and Sarah. Ten years
had passed. No son. No son. Isaac didn't come along till
later. So what did Sarah say? You just go into my handmaid
Hagar and we'll have that son by the handmaid. You go into
my handmaid Hagar and we'll have that son by the younger woman
Hagar. Abraham listened to Sarah and
conceived Ishmael by Now, why didn't he, again, I go back to
this, he believed God. That's God's perspective of it.
But from our side or our viewpoint perspective,
from our viewpoint looking at it, we say, well, Abraham had
times of doubt and unbelief. He did. He really did. And so
did Sarah. Abraham, now, let me show you
this. Turn back to Genesis 17. Genesis 17. Now remember, God
said He believed him, right? That's God's viewpoint. But from
our viewpoint, and if you read the record from Genesis chapter
12 through Genesis 19, you will see that Abraham also had times
of doubt and unbelief. Notice in Genesis 17 again, verse
15, 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 the mother of nations, and kings of people shall be
of her. 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 Sarah
ninety-nine years old?" You see what I'm saying? Abraham believed
God. But Abraham also demonstrated
times of doubt and unbelief. Now, the ground of our faith
is the unchangeable Word of God. But know this also, like Abraham,
we too have times of unbelief and doubt. Don't we? I'm just being honest. Say, preacher,
you don't ever have times of doubt and unbelief. Most of the
time. I'm just being absolutely honest
with you. I say with that man in Scripture,
Lord, I do believe but help my unbelief. Now that's just the
reality of where we live. Abraham, God says of Abraham,
he believed me. But as we look at Abraham's conduct
and Abraham's life and faith, there were times that he almost
appeared to be a unbeliever. Now, I can think of two other
occasions when Abraham said of Sarah that she is not really
my wife. And he did so to protect his
own hide before Pharaoh and then before another king. When it
became a place of danger, when his life was in danger, to protect
himself he said, Sarah is not my wife, she is my sister. He
believed God, right? But he also demonstrated times
of unbelief. Now that's just the reality of
what we are. We are believers by His grace. But there are many times when
we go through great periods of doubt, fear, and unbelief. Now that's just the reality.
To say otherwise, why does the Lord point these things out about
Abraham? to tell us the reality of what
we really are before God. You see, our hope of complete
redemption from our sin is based totally upon the doing of Christ,
the faithfulness of Christ, not our faithfulness. Now, I'm not
saying that we shouldn't strive to be faithful. We should be.
We should strive to be obedient to the Word of the Lord. But
our faithfulness and our obedience is not the basis of salvation. Do you understand that? Our hope
of salvation is totally vested upon Christ. Abraham's hope was
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham's hope wasn't in Abraham's
faith. Nor is our hope of salvation
in our faith. Faith looks to Christ. Faith
doesn't look inside. Our hope of complete redemption
from our sin is based totally upon the Word of God. Our hope
is based upon the promise of God in the Gospel of Christ,
who put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And because of that,
we have a good hope through grace, through grace alone. Christ in
you is a hope of glory. Now, let's get back to the text.
God says of him from his viewpoint, being not weak in faith, 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 to
unbelief. Now as we read that earlier,
it appeared that he did. But this is from our human viewpoint
of things, but from God's viewpoint, looking on his heart, he always
believed God's Word and His promise. Being not weak in faith, he considered
not his own body, now dead, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
Abraham at times had times of unbelief, but his faith was strong
because of the object of his faith. It wasn't that Abraham
was strong. It was the object of his faith
that was right and strong. It doesn't say Abraham believed
Abraham. Now that would be a sad, sad
thing, wouldn't it? Abraham didn't believe Abraham
because Abraham was a failure. Abraham believed God. That's the strength of faith.
Never think that you're strong. Well, just, you know, somebody
going through trial or a heartache or something, just say, well,
be strong. The flesh is never strong. That's just, when you
trust yourself, that's nothing but self-righteousness. You see,
the strength of faith It's not even faith. The strength of faith
is God Almighty, the object of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When the time came for Abraham and Sarah to have a son, he did
not consider the weakness and frailty of his 100-year-old body,
neither the deadness of Sarah's 90-year-old body, but was blessed
to believe God and did bring forth the promised son, Isaac,
the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called the son of
Abraham and the son of David. Now, look at verse 20. He staggered
not at the promise of God. Now, Abraham staggered But he
did stagger at the promise of God, at the Word of God through
unbelief that was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Abraham
looked beyond the difficulties of the flesh and believed God. Faith, true faith, does not look
at self. There in the flesh is nothing
but doubts and unbelief, but true faith is always blessed
because of the object of that faith, which is God Almighty.
True faith takes God at His word because He cannot lie. That's
one thing that is impossible for God to do. He cannot lie. Let me give you
two scriptures that by two immutable things, Hebrews 6.18, in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that sat before
us. God cannot lie. Titus 1, verse
1 and 2, Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, according
to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the
truth, which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which
God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Now,
the promise of God goes way back to the eternal ages, goes back
when we talk about eternity, we can't talk about time. From
everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. So, verse 21, we'll
pick up here next week, being fully persuaded. Now, he was
fully persuaded that Abraham and Sarah, we can get this thing
done. Now see, that's where the flesh
goes and that's where we get in trouble. That's what got Abraham and Sarah Ishmael. Now Ishmael has been a problem
ever since. Ishmael today, the descendants
of Ishmael All the Muslims, we're still suffering from that mistake
of Abraham and Sarah in the flesh. We're still suffering from that
mistake. Being fully persuaded, he was fully persuaded that God
was able to give that son. He wasn't fully persuaded that
him and Sarah could get it done. They tried that before and they
ended up with Ishmael. Being fully persuaded that what
God had promised, he was able to get it done. God's able, we are not. God is
able. Now, I hope I've not confused
you. What I'm trying to set forth
in this is from God's viewpoint, He says of Abraham, He believed
God. But as we look at Abraham's life,
In the reality of his life, he did demonstrate times and he
acted in times like he doubted and did not believe at all. And
what I'm saying is this, this is the reality of the frailty
of our flesh and the reality of true faith that looks to God
alone, that is saving faith, and we are only strong as we
look to Him. We have no strength in ourselves.
Don't ever go there and try to say, well, I'm going to get it
done. I'm going to get it done. No, you're not. What is that
scripture in John 15? Without me you can do nothing. Let us always remember that.