05 The Example of Abraham (Romans 4)

SPEAKER_00: Okay, we are in Romans chapter 4 today. And just by way of review, this is the last week we're going to take an entire chapter in one morning. And I did that on purpose. We've gone through 1 through 4 really fast, and now we're going to slow down next week and go through 5 through 8 really slow. And there's actually method in that madness because the main point of the first four chapters is you probably know by now, Paul makes it over and over again that no one is righteous. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It's not the hearers of the law that are justified, but the doers of the law, and no one can keep the law. And he makes that point over and over again in those three chapter or first four chapters. And that's not such a revolutionary idea to today's Christians. I think that's something we expect. But to his Jewish audience at the time, that would have been a a lot more radical, I think, why he spent so much time proving it. But for today, for us, it's not such a radical concept. So I've gone through that pretty fast. And in 5 through 8, this is the best part. He's going to answer the question, so what? If all that I've been saying is true, so what? What difference does it make to you today in your life? And that's why we're going to slow down and really hit those chapters in more detail. Some people have called Romans 5 through 8 the highlight of Romans. Some have even called it the highlight of the New Testament itself. They are wonderful chapters, so we're going to take those slower. But today we're in chapter 4. We're going to finish up the one, another big long chapter, and we're going to look at Abraham. Did you know that there are three religions other than Christianity? There are three other religions that are rooted in Abraham. Can you guess what they are? Islam, Judaism. Not other than Christianity. Mormonism. Mormonism, the third one. Judaism's obvious. It's rooted in Abraham in the same way Christianity is. Islam, in case you didn't know, they think the Jews got it wrong. You know, Abraham had two sons, Ismail and Isaac, and that the line was not through Isaac, it was through Ismail. And so they are the line through Ismail. And they claim that anyone who rejects the prophet Abraham is not a true believer of Islam. And they're one of the second pillar of Islam is the obligatory five daily prayers. And during one part of each of those prayers, they must ask God to send his blessings upon Abraham. So he's another, he's, and then Muhammad is a descendant of Abraham through the line of Ishmael. Mormonism is the other religion. They have a real high emphasis on the priesthood of Melchizedek, which testifies to Abraham's importance. But more than that, in their canon, so side by side with the Bible, they have the Book of Mormon, a book called Doctrine and Covenants, and what they call the Book of Abraham, which was an Egyptian manuscript that Joseph Smith translated, and he claims in the preface that this manuscript was written in Abraham's own hand and that this is his prophetic testament. It's pretty clear that was a forgery. We have copies of what he translated. I mean, in that time in young Missouri, there was not a lot of Egyptologists around who could say this is what hieroglyphics meant. But what we've seen, there are copies of what he translated, and it's pretty clear it was a funeral dirge, had nothing to do with Abraham, was written later. But anyway, that's uh part of their canon. So given Abraham's influence in other than Christianity, three other major religions, and then the fact that in this chapter Paul's gonna say everyone has to follow the example of Abraham to be saved, we need to know what that example is. We need to know what the New Testament has to say about it, because I think that statement other religions would agree with. Yes, you must follow Abraham's example, but they would answer differently what that example is. So that's what we're gonna look at today. So just to set where we've been, he argues from chapter 1 to 320 that we have all sinned and that no one can be justified by keeping the law. No one is exempt from God's judgment, we're all under wrath. And then in 321 he announces there is a way to be justified through faith in Jesus and through what he did on the cross. And we defined saving faith last week as four things: a genuine desire to be righteous, wanting to be righteous, so that hunger and thirsting after righteousness, as the New Testament calls it, a genuine recognition that I am not righteous, I'm sinful and God owes me nothing, and then a genuine recognition that I cannot make myself holy, left to myself, that's this is beyond me. And then finally trusting that God both intends to and will in fact make me holy or make me righteous because of the death of Jesus. And I use genuine recognition because it has to be more than how you vote in a theological debate. You know, if you're taking a quiz and you get the answers right, but you couldn't care less, it doesn't make any difference to your life. That's not enough. It's not just knowing the facts, it has to be a genuine change of heart. So at the end of chapter 3, he makes three claims, and then what he's gonna do with those claims is illustrate them in the life of Abraham through chapter 4. So in 327, he said, Where then is boasting? And he made the claim the gospel should end our pride. And in 4, 1 through 8, he's gonna say, the gospel ends our pride, and we can see this from Abraham. In 329, he says, Is the God the God of the Jews only? In other words, the gospel ought to end our prejudice. And in 9 through, I think it's about 12, I don't have it right here, he argues that same point that the gospel ends our prejudice. And then in 331, do we then nullify the law by this face? No, we uphold it. He argues the gospel fulfills the law, and that's the next section he's gonna talk about with Abraham and show how it fulfills the law. Just to let you know where we're going. So that's 13 through 17, and then from the end of the chapter, he gives us a description of Abraham's faith. So he's gonna illustrate those three claims. The gospel ends our pride, the gospel ends our prejudice, and the gospel fulfills the law through the life of Abraham. Okay, so let's look at 4-1. What then, shall we say, was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? I think the New American Standard has found there, the NIV has discovered, and I'm reading the English standard, which has gained. Discovered is not the greatest translation. That makes it sound like he just kind of oof stumbled upon this thing, you know, while he was uncovering a box in the attic or something. It's not that idea. He's asking the question, how was Abraham justified? What did he gain? So it's used, it's found or discovered in the same way where you see the phrases like Noah found grace in God's eyes, or some or David found favor in God's eyes. It's that kind of a usage. It's what did he obtain, what was he given. So he's asking the question, how was Abraham justified? Now, why he brings this up is because the Jews of his day thought that Abraham was justified by keeping the law. So at this point in his argument, they'd say, okay, Paul, this sounds really good, but we've got you, because there is one person who was justified by the law, and we can prove it he was justified by the law. And if he there was, then everything you're saying is wrong because if he was justified by the law, then it leaves the door open that someone else might be. So, and it's similar if you think about it, we get the same argument today. How many times have you been talking to someone who's not a believer, and they say, well, what about someone who just has lived a good life and never heard of Christ? What about, you know, Gandhi or or maybe Mother Teresa or Billy Graham or someone who's led a good life? It's the same kind of objection here. But in the rabbinic literature, Abraham was the kind of the perfect example of someone who could be saved by the law. And why did they think this? In Isaiah 41, 18, God speaks of Abraham as my friend. But more clearly in Genesis 26, 5, God is talking to Isaac, and he repeats the promises that he gave to Abraham, and he says, Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. So the rabbis looked at this and said, See, we have God's own words right here. Abraham kept my obeyed my voice, kept my charge, kept my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. See, he was justified by the law. One rabbi wrote, Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord and well pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life. Another wrote, We find that Abraham, our father, had performed the whole law before it was given, for it was it is written, and then he quotes this verse in Genesis 26, 5, and concludes, he was one of the righteous ones not needing repentance. So Paul has to answer that charge. He's just said for three chapters, no one's justified by keeping the law. The rabbis could say Abraham was, and we have a verse to prove it, and Paul has to deal with that. So he's going to in fact argue that the opposite is true, that what Abraham's life shows is not someone who kept the law and was justified by it, but someone who had faith. So he's going to make the exact opposite point and say, even Abraham couldn't boast in his works, he was saved by faith. So that's the question he's setting up. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? 4 2. I'm going to go through five in this little section. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but trusts in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. And just as an aside, as I read through this, notice how he describes God in this chapter. It's often significant. You know, if my husband comes home and I say, Do you know what your son did today? He's going to expect something different than if he comes home and I say, Do you know what my son did today? So I'm tipping it off. Watch how Paul speaks of God, because it's often that your son, my son kind of thing. If he says, God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, or God the author and perfecter of our faith, or God the creator of the universe, he's got a point to make. So notice here he says he trusts in him who justifies the ungodly. It's that kind of a tip-off of where he's going. That's just an aside. A little Bible study note, fun thing to watch as you read through the New Testament. Okay, so what's he saying here? He's arguing if you can be justified by works, then God would owe you something. Because if I work, now you're in my debt, you have to pay me what you owe me. So you're no longer giving me a gift, you're merely giving me what's my due. I earned it. So if God owes Abraham righteousness, it's a wage, it's not a gift. If we work, then God is in our debt and he must pay. On the other hand, if we're justified by faith, quite apart from the law, then God owes us nothing, and righteousness is a gift which he freely gives us. So if we've done nothing to deserve it, God owes us nothing. So he's saying, how do we know? What did Abraham let's look at Abraham's life? What route did Abraham take? Was it a wage or a gift? It had to be one or the other, but it couldn't be both. Either we earned it or we didn't. So if you want to, you can keep your finger in Romans, flip back to Genesis 15. We're going to look at Abraham. I'm going to read it to you, so if you can listen without having the words in front of you, that's okay too. Because this is the passage he's quoting. It's Genesis 15, verses 1 through 6. After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram, for I am your seal. Your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, O Lord God, what shall you give me? For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abraham said, Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, So that's God brought Abraham outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be. Then he believed the Lord, and he counted to him as righteousness. So that is he, Abraham, believed in the war the Lord, and he, God, counted it to Abraham as righteousness. Now the rabbis took that verse and they combined it with Genesis 26, and they said, See, his faith was a work. Actually, what happened is he had such a great faith that that was his work, that was the wage now that he has performed, and now God is required to give him righteousness because his faith was so great. What Paul's going to go on to argue is even faith is part of the gift. So faith is not something we muster up, and then now God blesses us. Even faith itself is part of what God gives us. We don't even count, that's not even our doing. That's all God's doing. So notice he says, Abraham believed in him who justifies the ungodly. Abraham knew he was ungodly, and he trusted the one who justified the ungodly. So if you look at Abraham's life, what do you see? Do you see a perfect life or do you see examples of sin? Well, during the first half of his life, he was an idol worshipper living in Ur. So, however old he was up until the time God called him, he had all those years to be sinful. Then God brought him out of Ur, and when there was famine in the land, he fled to Egypt, and he almost caused his wife to commit adultery with Pharaoh twice, you know, just in case you missed it the first time, he repeats the sin a few years later. And remember when we were going through chapter three, we looked at all those verses in Deuteronomy where Paul claimed, or well, there Paul was basing his argument on the fact that how much of the law do you have to keep? All of it. And how much do you have to break to be to be uh to fail the standard of the law? Any of it. And you have to keep it not just on the outside, but with your whole heart, your mind, your soul. So you can look at Abraham's life and say, well, there are times when he was sinful. There are times when we see him make mistakes and see him fail. But what do we see in this passage? We see Abraham trusting God. So he's looking at his body and saying, I'm too old to have a child, Sarah's too old to have a child, she's never had a child, and God's promising to bring a child where there is absolutely no hope of having a child. So Abraham is making, or God is making Abraham a promise, and Abraham is trusting in that promise. He knows physically he can't do it. There's no way at this point in his life he can bring life out of nothing or life out of this situation where he has no, where his body is too old. So any good works he committed, I think, were the result of his justification, not the means of it. The main implication of this is faith is not something we achieve. It's not something we perform to get God to bless us. It's part of the gift. If we could boast about it, if we could muster up our faith and and prove to God how wonderful we are because we have so much faith, then it's no longer a gift. It's something we've earned. So it's I think that's important to realize because we tend to think of the Old Testament had, you know, there were Ten Commandments, and then you had 10,001 sub-points of the commandments. But now under the gospel we only have one commandment, and that is trust. So work up this faith, show God how great your faith is, and then he will justify you. So it's easy to take even our faith and turn it into a do this and live kind of logic. You know, here's five things you can do to increase your faith, or a 12-step program to um to have more faith. I think, especially as we go on through this chapter, you'll see Paul's going to argue it's not something you do, it's part of the gift. Neither Abraham nor any of the rest of us earned it. Faith itself is something God gives us. So to further illustrate this point, he says, Well, look at David. So in 4 verse 6, he says, Just as David also just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. So he's quoting here from one of the Psalms it wrote, Psalm 32, which was written after David's story of adultery and with Bath and murder of her husband. And I assume you all are familiar with that story. But just in case, it's in 2 Samuel 11. And instead of going out to battle with his men, David stayed home and took a nap. This probably wasn't the wisest decision. After he woke up, he was wandering around on the rooftop and he saw a woman bathing and was consumed with lust. So he used his office as king to seduce her. She concedes. He misuses his office again to try to get her husband to come back from the battle so he can sleep with her and the child would be considered his. But Uriah, who's the husband, replies, How can I be with my wife when the Ark of the Covenant is on the battlefield? Which ought to have been a wake-up call to David. God's name is on the line. That's more important. So David misuses his office a third time to get Uriah placed into the front lines of battle where he will be killed in the fighting. And then he marries Bassba, the new widow, and he thinks he's got it all covered until Nathan comes and confronts him with his sin. At this point, he writes Psalm 32 and he says, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. So we have a murderer and an adulterer, someone who's clearly broken the law, has misused all the privileges and the office God has given him, and he says, I'm blessed. That ought to be a wake-up call to the rabbis Paul's writing to. What's the blessing? He knows how depraved his heart is. He looked into his soul and he found deceit and selfishness and lies. He can his heart was so greedy he committed adultery and murder, and yet he's blessed because God covers his sins. I'm truly lucky or fortunate or blessed because my lawless deeds are forgiven, my sins are covered. Blessed is a man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. David is recognizing I didn't earn this. In fact, I earned the opposite. And if you go on and you read Psalm 32, he speaks of God's forgiveness as a free gift to the one who cries out to him. The one who cries out for his mercy will be given forgiveness. There's no reference to any need for sacrifice, to any need for ritual offerings, for performing the works. All David says in that Psalm is, I cried out to God and He forgave me. So Paul's arguing, okay, look at Abraham and David, and what do you see? Do you see two men who earned their salvation, or do you see two sinners who trusted God to cover their sins? And that's the answer he expects. Two men who trusted the one who saves the ungodly. Okay, so in 9 through 12 then he's going to turn to prejudice. So if the first part of saving faith was knowing you're sinful and that God owes you nothing, now he's going to say, turn to no one is righteous. That means you have no reason to boast. You have no reason to think you're better than anyone else. So the Jewish boast was we have this exclusive access to God. We're the heirs of the blessing of Abraham. Now they knew part of the promise was that all the nations would be blessed in Abraham, but so they knew the promise extended beyond Jews, but they thought other people would need to become Jews to receive it. So anyone who wanted the blessing of Abraham, they had to become Jewish and be circumcised. And that was a major issue in Paul's day. Jewish believers were telling Gentile converts they had to become Jews as part of their conversion. So unless they received the sign of the old covenant, they couldn't enjoy God's promises. And I think the objection Paul's writing to is okay, Abraham was also Jewish. Maybe he was saved by faith as you claim, but he was also a Jew, and we need to become Jews and keep the laws and be circumcised. What Paul's going to argue is, no, you're justified on faith alone. And that doesn't, there's no reason to boast in your Jewishness because you have the same disease as everyone else, and the only requirement is faith. So he's going to ask two questions in 9 through 12. When was Abraham declared justified, and what's the significance of circumcision? So let me read that section. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? What was the oh, we say the faith was counted. Abraham as righteousness, how then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. So if you read through the story of Abraham, you'll find that this statement in Genesis 15, where he was counted his faith was counted him as righteousness, comes fourteen years before he was circumcised. And that's Paul's point. He's saying, when was he justified? Was he justified when he was circumcised, or was he justified before then? And he's saying it was before. Circumcision was just a symbol or a seal of the standing before God that he already had. It's not the means of justification. It didn't create anything new, it didn't enhance his standing. It was just an outward sign of a reality that had already taken place. The analogy I like to use here is my wedding ring. When I made vows to my husband 23 years ago, we exchanged rings, but the ring itself does not make me married. If our rings had been laid and hadn't come for six months or a year after the wedding, we would still have been married with or without the rings. It's merely an outward symbol of the vows that we took. So that's the point of circumcision. It's not the reality itself, it's just a symbol of the reality that it's taking place. So it didn't add anything to Abraham standing before God. If I lose my ring, it doesn't mean I'm not married and I'm now free to ask to do whatever I want. I'm still married. Or if I wear the ring and I completely disregard my vows and I flirt with other men or whatever, I'm not gaining anything by wearing the ring. That's just an outward symbol. And that's what Paul's point is. Circumcision was just the symbol of the standing that he already had. So to further drive that point home, he says everyone has the same father. That's the ending of prejudice. We're all in the same boat. There's no reason for prejudice, there's no reason for boasting. Abraham was justified before he was circumcised, so in that way he's like the Gentile believers, but he became a Jew and received the sign of circumcision, and in that way he's like the Jewish believers. And God did that on purpose, Paul's saying, to make the point that he's the Father of all, and that we can all we all come to faith the same way. So circumcision itself is meaningless without the faith behind it, in the same way, wearing my wedding ring is meaningless without taking the public vows and living up to them. It's only a symbol of the commitment. So his argument is if you have circumcision, you have to believe. If you don't have circumcision, you have to believe. It's the same point. In fact, Jesus uses the same argument in John 8. He's talking to the Pharisees and some Jews, and they protest, but we're sons of Abraham. And Jesus replies to them, and this is in John 8.39, you think you're sons of Abraham, you're sons of the devil because you're doing the deeds of your father, the devil. That's not a direct quote, that's a paraphrase. But he basically tells them, you may be a physical son of Abraham, but you're not living like him. You don't have his faith. You're not really his son. And he uses the exact same argument. So Paul's point in all this is belief is what makes the difference. Faith is not one of the many possible avenues to justification. It is the only one. He's already demonstrated that no one can keep the law in the first three chapters, and now he's saying the only alternative is faith. And he's pointing out, I think, that the promise God gave Abraham specifically anticipates that this justification will be granted to both you and Gentile. So when he says the covenant was, I will bless you, and in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed, he meant all the people who are members of Abraham's family by virtue of their faith, not necessarily being a physical descendant, but sharing the same faith. So what makes you a son of Abraham is having the same faith he had, regardless of what nation you belong to. Okay, so we've got to move along. 13 through 17, he's gonna argue then that the gospel fulfills the law. For the promise to, this is 413, for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. In the presence of the God in whom he believed, again, notice how he calls God, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things which do not exist. So what's going on here? Imagine, this is the argument. Let me give you an analogy of what he's saying. Imagine I had a$20 bill, I meant to get one out of my purse and I forgot. And I said, I'll give this to you as a gift, free and clear. You know, who wants it? All you have to do is ask. And then when you tried to take it, I said, wait, wait. First you have to tell me what the first the main points of Romans were up to this point. Okay, so you have to ask and you have to tell me the main point. No, wait, now you have to tell me ten things you learned from Romans up to this point. But really, it's a gift, all you have to do is ask. Just uh tell me the main point of Romans, ten things you've learned, and by the way, can you memorize it word for word? Start in chapter one and don't leave anything out. All of a sudden you're gonna go, I can't do that. What what is how can you say this is a gift when now you've added all these requirements to everything I have to do to get this free gift? You know, you've probably seen this. I got a box in the mail. I ordered something and I didn't realize I was signing up for one of these club things. So I got this box, and on this big sticker on the outside it says, Your free gift is inside, but they build my credit card for 45 bucks. I was like, what's what do you mean my free gift is inside? It's like, you know, just send me 1990 1995 for shipping and handing, it's all yours for free, right? That's the idea here. If God said to Abraham, look, are you interested in this blessing? I'm gonna give you this blessing. All you have to do is trust me. Oh, wait, now you have to be circumcised too. And um, oh, you know, I know the Mosaic Law came 400 years after you died, but you have to keep that and all of it, not just any of it, and memorize it. And oh, by the way, we're gonna add the oral traditions and the words of the prophets and the rabbis and all the commentators, and with each new addition, God says, When you have all this taken care of, then the gift will be yours. That's the kind of logic Paul's arguing against. He's saying if the promise was based on the law, it's no promise at all. It's no gift at all, it's null and void. So it's not a promise if you add all the requirements after the facts. And why? Because if it's a promise, who's responsible to fulfill it? God is. If it's the law who's responsible to fulfill it, I am. And that's the problem. Paul's saying it doesn't suddenly shift to our shoulders. It's all on God. If if we add all these commandments and we add all these laws and um the oral traditions and all the everything, then no longer does the promise rest on God. It rests on us and it's no longer guaranteed. We could fail. So in 16 he says that's why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed. Why is it guaranteed? Because God's gonna do it. He said he was. We can trust him. It doesn't matter if we screw up, we cannot screw up enough that he would withdraw his promise once he's given it to us. So that's his argument. If it was based on the law, then the promise is void. Faith is void, it's meaningless. But it's not based on the law, it's based on grace. So one confusing thing in here, he says in uh that where there is no law, there is no transgression. What he's saying there is without the law, we might not know that we're sinful. We might be tempted to think, well, you know, yes, I lied, but just this once, and I had perfectly good reason for it, and in my case it was justified, and it's not really a sin because it was the best thing to do in the circumstances. And we can rationalize all kinds of behavior without a law that says, don't do it. And you know this from your kids, right? You say, Don't touch the TV, and they say, Oh, what if I touch it with my toe? Or what if I what if I just lean into it? Or what if I um what if I just happen to walk by and I fall and I fall into the TV, am I in trouble then? You know, and they test all the rules and regulations because they're trying to figure out what's right and wrong. Without the law, we don't know what's right and wrong, and that's his point. When there was no law, we could get by, we could excuse ourselves, we could think that we were good enough. But when the law came and said, no, this is the boundary, is this is the standard, then we we are um confronted with the fact that we're sinful. And in that way the gospel fulfills the law and that it shows us we can't do it. In the same way with my$20 bill example, I keep adding the requirements to show you that you're never gonna get there. That was the purpose of the law, to show you on your own you're never gonna get there. So basing the promise on faith then means it's guaranteed and it's available to everyone who believes. And that is the truly good news. Um it is no longer on my shoulders, it's on God's. All right, I think I covered that. So in 16 and 17, when he talks about it coming through grace, um, his point is we've done nothing to deserve it. We didn't earn it, so we can't unearn it. Um, and he's using legal language that it's guaranteed, it's a legal guarantee, it's an absolute certainty. And not only is it a gift, and it's a guaranteed gift, it's available to everyone who, like Abraham, has faith, who trusts trust in the one who brings life out of nothing, who bring calls into existence that which does not exist. Um the person who could take Abraham at a hundred and give him a child is the same one who can take us and the mess we've made out of our lives and fix it and make it right and repair those broken relationships. So he's going to end this chapter then with a description of Abraham's faith from 18 through the end. Let's look at that. In hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, so shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distress made him wavering in the pro no distress made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. So notice where Abraham's faith begins. It begins with a revealed person. He believed in the God who gives life to the dead, who justifies the ungodly, and calls into being that which does not exist. There's a peanuts cartoon in which Linus says, it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere. And that was pretty funny in like 1972 when he wrote it, but there's a lot of people today that take that seriously. You know, if it's true for you, then that's okay, it's not really true for me, and it doesn't really matter what you believe, as long as you believe it and you make a sincere effort at it, you can believe one thing and I can believe the exact opposite, and we can both be right. And that's kind of the prevailing sentiment of the day. What we see in Abraham is that's not true. He believed in a specific person, a revealed person, a God who spoke to him and made claims about what was right and wrong, and what was good and bad, and what he would do and not do, and what it took to be saved. So the beginning of faith is trusting someone specific, and that someone is God. Notice the second thing we see here, it wasn't based on Abraham's faith was not based on his own vision, but on God's vision, on God's revealed word to him. So it was based on God saying, A father of many nations, I will make you. It's not this scheme that Abraham dreamed up and then brought it to God and said, You want to do this, right? Um it's based on specific trust and specific promises that God had made. And I think that's important to us because the more we know the scriptures, the more we understand what God is doing and bringing forth his kingdom in our lives. And the more we know about the Bible, the less vulnerable we are to being carried off by every new whim of philosophy and doctrine and book of movement that happens to blow in. And we can misinterpret our experience when we don't understand what God's promised and what he hasn't, or what God's plan is for salvation. So, like Abraham, I think we need to be grounded in the Word of God, in what he says. And then a lot of this phrase in hope, he believed against hope. He had hope for something that was impossible, essentially. He's saying his faith was contrary to hope because he was too old to have a child. He was, and Sarah was too old to conceive. So when he looked around, he said, This is not gonna happen. This is this is there is no humanly speaking, there is no way this can come about. I cannot see how my hope will be realized. So it was against hope, in that humanly speaking, it seemed impossible, but it was in hope because God said, I will do it, and he could. So instead of looking at his own limitations, he trusts in the character and the power of God and doesn't waver in that unbelief. And I think that's why when God comes along and says, You know, this child of promise, Isaac that I gave you in your old age, I want you to sacrifice him. I mean, how could he have possibly done that? This is this is the child of promise. This is the hope, this is the line. Everything has to go through him. This child must live. And yet Abraham is willing to sacrifice him. Why? Because he trusts in God to bring life from the dead and to bring into existence that which does not exist. He probably didn't understand what God was doing, but he knew that God would do what he said he would. So nothing is impossible for him. He can give life to the dead, he can give a child to a man is a hundred years old, and he can get us through tomorrow. Um I think that's the point. He can take something out of nothing. So this is the God who can take selfish, greedy people and make them beautiful, holy creatures of glory. This is the one who can take even our deepest, darkest secret, the most shameful thing we've ever said or done, and replace that with goodness and life and joy, and bring good out of a situation we thought was hopelessly broken or tragic. Now you're probably thinking, you know, wow, I wish I could have faith like that. I mean, when he says his faith never wavered, I I would like to be able to make that claim, but I can't. And yet Paul concludes this section by saying, You do have that faith. Abraham's faith was not unique, it is typical. Look at verses 23 and 25. But the words that was counted were to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead, Jesus our Lord, and who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. I think what he's saying there is that same faith is available to you. You think Abraham was unique, he's not. God's offering this promise to you. It will be counted to you if you believe in him who was raised who raised Jesus from the dead and who covered up your sins. So our faith, like Abraham's, is in hope and against hope. Abraham believed in a God who would bring life from the dead, and we do too. The difference is we have seen him do it. We have seen Jesus' body broken and beaten and dead on our behalf and brought back to life. Abraham had not yet seen that. So not only he believed in that promise, but we've actually seen it happen. And we know that he was delivered up for our transgressions, and the point is he will raise us like he raised Jesus. He will bring life where there is death, he will bring hope where there is hopelessness, he will bring about goodness and joy and beauty and fulfillment where we only have broken relationships and and problems and frustration. So, and the analogy to Abraham is he looked at his body and said, There's no way I could have a child at this age. But we probably look at our lives and say, you know, how do you stop being selfish? Or how do you how do you keep your tongue from saying those hurtful things to your to your friends and your family, or how do you, you know, put life back into a crumbling marriage, or rebuild a relationship with a child that's been torn to shreds, or you know, how do you know how to raise your child and deal with the situations that are come up as they grow when they begin asking questions, or or what do you do in a you know, in an overburdened workplace or a or a secular college campus? We look around that, we say it's impossible, it's too hard, I can't do it, there's too much to change. And humanly speaking, it is impossible. But we've seen the impossible happen. We've seen Abraham have a child when he was a hundred. We see the power we saw the power of God raise Jesus from the dead and put life back into his body. And the promise is we have that same faith and that same gift. Where we trust in the God who justifies the ungodly, who brings hope where there is no hope, who brings life where there is death, and um brings into existence that which doesn't exist. So remember, faith is part of a gift. I'm not exhorting you to go out and muster up your faith. You know, work really hard and show God how faithful you are. What I'm exhorting you to is trust and know that He is God, that He is the one who will do it. If you feel your faith is weak, if you're stumbling, if you think I just don't have it, ask Him. He delights to answer that kind of prayer. Now, it may involve suffering, it usually does, but He will answer it. And it may be hard, but He will answer it. He will bring life from the dead and bring something out of nothing. As Charles Wesley wrote, and this is another one of his great hymns, in hope against all human hope, self-desperate, I believe. I have no hope, yet I have hope. I have no reason to think God would grant me anything, and yet I have every reason to believe he will fulfill his promises. Going on, faith, mighty faith, the promises, and looks to that alone, laughs at the impossibilities, and cries, it shall be done. That's the point of this chapter. We the example of Abraham is to have the faith that he had. And next week, we're getting to my f absolute favorite chapter in the book, the first part of chapter five. He's going to answer the question, so what? If this is true, so what? And it try not to miss it's it's um the best, or listen to the tape if you have to miss, because it's you don't want to miss chapter five. Let me pray to clause us. I'm sorry I took almost all the question time, but maybe we can have a couple. Uh Father, thank you that you are a God who brings life from the death, and that you don't leave us in our sinfulness, you don't leave us in our despair, but you reach out with your graciousness and your loving hand to make us the people you want us to be. And to bring hope when we have no hope, and to bring faith when we have no faith. And we stand before you as people who confess we aren't the people we should be. We don't always trust, we doubt, we waver, and we ask that you would be writing into our hearts your promises and your faith, making us more and more people who trust you. And as we go through our day, we would show that trust and joy and confidence to others so that they would want to be drawn to you as well. In Jesus' name. Amen. SPEAKER_01: Oh, sir, oh I normally get. Are you having calls? No, this is this is the recording. You're smart, aren't you? Oh, that's not your cell phone. No, what is going on? Uh oh. No, it's recording. No, this thing's off. Um, yeah, the time right now. Okay, bye-bye.