Relearning The Gospel From Abraham - [Romans 4:1-8]

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Well, I'm just going to give you a brief introduction for my brother, Pat Abendroth.
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I'm almost 50, Pat's 41, and for a long time I was the older brother. Pat was the younger brother.
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I had to bail him out of a lot of situations. And by the grace of God, as God has matured
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Pat and has matured me, I don't really think of him at all as my little brother anymore. I think about him as a physical brother, brother in Christ, and a brother in the gospel ministry.
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I think about Piper's title in his book, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals. So I don't think about him as another professional, but another preacher who wants to stand up and say,
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Jesus Christ is the theme of the sermon. It doesn't matter what passage we preach, we're going to hear about Christ because that's what we're told to preach about, and that's what we need to hear even as Christians.
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And so I love it that Pat is Christ -centered, remember Jesus Christ, and Pat has, by the grace of God, remembered that.
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I am just so thankful to God. He would give me a brother who would preach the word.
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Can you imagine what my life would be like if I had a brother who was off on something? Men's roles, women's roles, psychology, end times, something.
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Can you imagine the spats we would have? But to have a brother who has been taught and trained by the
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Lord, I'm eternally grateful to Christ Jesus that he would grant me such a gift.
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And so Pat, why don't you come and preach? Notice announcements are longer, scripture reading is longer, he wants to preach.
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Yesterday at the men's event, he said, well I have a question to ask you, Pat, so stay up there. And then he got up here and under the guise of asking me a question, he gave an answer.
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So I would do the same thing if he was at Omaha Bible Church. So that's just how it goes.
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I'm just really thankful to be with all of you. We had a great time yesterday at the men's event, Manning Up, and it's just a great fellowship and camaraderie.
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And I trust that some of you wives are encouraged and sons and daughters are encouraged. We just had a great time together.
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It's great to see what Christ is doing here. It's been a number of years since I've been here. And just to see how things have changed and see how
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Christ is exalted in new and unique ways, it's really awesome. And I praise Christ for that.
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Well, it was years ago that Donald Gray Barnhouse, the famous pastor in Philadelphia, mused about what would happen if Satan were given free reign of his city.
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In the same vein, I invite you to muse about that idea. What would it be like if Satan were given free reign of your city?
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What would the city look like if Satan could do anything he wanted and if he was totally in charge?
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What would your city look like? Well, in the spirit of Barnhouse, I suspect, maybe even surprisingly, that every church would be packed with people each and every
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Sunday. If Satan were totally in charge, every church would be full.
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That's what Barnhouse said. I also suspect that in those churches that were full, there would be a steady diet of sermons like these.
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How to slay the giants in your life. Principles for overcoming discouragement.
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Steps toward contentment. Leadership lessons from an apostle.
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You might be thinking, that's rather odd because I think some of those sermon titles could actually be good biblical sermons based upon biblical principles.
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And I think you would be right. And so you might be thinking, how in the world could you, like Barnhouse suggested years ago, how could you say that churches would be full if Satan were in charge and we would have these kinds of sermons that sound rather biblical?
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Where are you going with this? Answer, the gospel is missing.
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There is no gospel in those sermons. And if the gospel is missing, you can be inspired a million times over with biblical principles, leadership lessons, how -to homilies, and there will still be hell to pay.
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That's why Barnhouse said what he said. And I think he was right. Now thankfully,
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Satan has not been given free reign of the city. There's nothing that would indicate that in the
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Bible. And nevertheless, it seems like there's a lot of missing gospel emphasis in the church.
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And so it's time for us to recover a commitment to the gospel. It's sad because in our movement's history, we're living in a time in evangelicalism that's unprecedented.
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Lots of Bible stuff, lots of Bible principles, even from biblical texts, and not a lot heard about the biblical gospel.
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This is such a problem in our day right now that even non -evangelicals are noticing.
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Listen to what one such non -evangelical said about our movement. We're so busy becoming culturally relevant, reaching out, drawing in, making disciples, managing the machinery, utilizing biblical principles, celebrating recovery, user -friendly, techno -savvy, finding the purposeful life, practicing peace with justice, utilizing spiritual disciplines, growing in self -esteem, reinventing ourselves as effective church entrepreneurs, and in general, feeling ever so much better about our quote -unquote biblical achievements.
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Only to then say, notice anything missing in this pretty picture? Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Christ indeed, that non -evangelical says.
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This is an amazing, amazing situation we find ourselves in. Right here, right now, sounding so biblical in so many ways.
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No gospel, no Jesus, because we assume the gospel, and we assume
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Jesus. And that brings me to ask you to turn your Bibles to Romans 4.
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We're going to flip -flop the messages, so according to the bulletin, we're going to be in 2 Timothy 1, and we're actually going to be in Romans 4, and tonight we'll be in 2
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Timothy 1. Tonight, or this morning, we're going to talk about Romans 4, where the title is re -learning the gospel from Abraham.
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We're going to re -learn the gospel from Abraham. This seemed to be a problem back in the first century.
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It's been a problem throughout history, people forgetting the gospel, assuming the gospel. And so this morning, we're going to re -learn the gospel, and we're going to re -learn the gospel from Abraham.
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Remember, 1 Corinthians 15 .3 says the gospel is of first importance. There's nothing more important on the planet than the gospel.
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Romans is the most gospel -esque, gospel -drenched, gospel -centered book
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I know, and so I thought I want us to be in Romans today, a book about the gospel, unpacking the gospel.
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Romans 4, one day, we're going to look at three details about Abraham that redirect our focus to Jesus and the gospel.
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Three details about Abraham that take our eyes off of Abraham, off of principles about whatever from Abraham.
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Take our eyes off of Abraham and other Bible characters and learn from Abraham.
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It puts our focus on Christ, where our focus belongs. We even learn that from Abraham.
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So I love this text for that reason. The first detail about Abraham that redirects our focus to Jesus instead of Bible heroes, number one, the unrighteousness of Abraham.
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The unrighteousness of Abraham is what you want to write down if you're taking notes today. Verses 1 and 2 emphasize the unrighteousness of Abraham, which causes us to learn from Abraham, and it causes us to say, let's get our eyes off of Abraham, and let's get our eyes on Christ.
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Or our eyes off of anything or anyone else and get our eyes on Christ. Look with me if you would at Romans 4 verse 1.
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What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh?
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We need to stop there just for a moment to recognize that he's just ended chapter 3.
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I know that sounds profound, but it's true. He's just ended chapter 3 where he's made it so crystal clear that everyone is a sinner.
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By three chapters you have to say, uncle, spiritually, everyone is a sinner. No one does good.
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No, not one. And we've learned that the only possible way to have righteousness, the righteousness that you need to meet
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God as Savior, not judge, is this righteousness that comes by grace alone, like we sang today.
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Through faith alone, in Christ alone for righteousness. Well that's just been hammered again and again and again, especially
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Romans 3 .27 to Romans 3 .21. It's emphasizing this so strongly and so clearly.
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And then we have Paul listening. If no one was actually asking the question, the
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Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Spirit of God knew that someone would be asking it. If salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, it's all of Him.
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We need His righteousness. What about Abraham?
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What about Father Abraham? Surely he doesn't fit that category.
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I mean, after all, in Shabbat school, Sabbath school, he's always on the flannel graph. We sing
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Father Abraham every other week in Shabbat. It's always about Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh.
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Father Abraham, let's sing another round. He's the hero. He's the patriarch. Surely he's an exception to the gospel truth of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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That's the objection. The Bible calls Abraham, Isaiah 51 verse 2, calls him the father of the
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Jews. Or how about even some extra biblical writings about Abraham. Listen to what
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Jewish tradition taught about Abraham. Quoting some different sources here. Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the
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Lord, and well -pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life. Abraham did not sin against thee.
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No one has been found like him in glory. It was even taught that Abraham obeyed the law of God perfectly before the law of God had even been given.
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So they're going to object. Just like you might know people that are going to object. Whether it's Abraham or some other standout kind of biblical figure or even extra biblical figure.
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Somebody's going to say, I know an exception. So he says again back to verse 1.
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What then shall we say was given by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? Then verse 2, the logic unpacks.
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He's so logical. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about.
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And let's just rudely interrupt and stop it there as if the period is there even though it isn't.
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Let's leave off the but not before God for just a second to see the logic of the argument. All right, you want to use
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Abraham? You know, if Abraham, verse 2, was justified or declared righteous or gained righteousness by works, he has something to boast about.
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He has bragging rights. And so let's just flesh that out a little bit. Paul's saying, you know what? You would be right.
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If it is really true that Abraham actually gained a right standing before God, even though he didn't trust in God and got alone for that, if he actually accomplished it, he's got bragging rights.
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He really does. This actually, this would make sense. He's drawing us into the logic of the argument. And so it makes sense now that all of your child bedtime stories are about Father Abraham.
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It makes total sense that the focus of every week in Shabbat class is
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Father Abraham. And maybe on Off Weeks for Variety we'll use David. And Paul's going to get to him.
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It makes sense that you're going to exhort your children and exhort your fellow believers.
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Be like Abraham. Oh, we're doing a Bible study on principles from the life of Abraham to learn how we too can please
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God. You know what? If Abraham was justified by works, good job.
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You are doing a good job for doing that is what he's saying. But wait a minute, right?
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Verse 2 is deluxe the way it ends there. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about.
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But not before God. The hypothetical is most certainly, absolutely, never, ever, ever true.
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Because the fact of the matter is he was not just a matter of his.
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Abraham is a what? He's a sinner. And Paul's going to go on and sort of unpack some other issues.
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But it's almost like at the end of verse 2, he can't wait. Let me pose your hypothetical and let me knock the wind out of it.
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Not before God can he boast. He gives that abrupt halting statement there to correct our thinking right away.
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Don't even go there. Abraham is a sinner. Now, he doesn't say that quite yet.
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But just by way of preview, let's sort of survey what he's going to say. And we'll see that Abraham was a sinner, so he is not the exception.
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It even isn't implied in verse 3 where it's Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. So it wasn't his righteousness, it's what he received from God.
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We see the same thing in verse 5 where the one who trusts or believes him who justifies the ungodly in verse 5.
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Well, the context is suggesting that's Abraham. Ungodly? Then verse 7, lawless deeds are forgiven.
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He's still in the context of talking about Abraham, the supposed exception whose sins are covered.
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Verse 8 ends with his sin. Abraham actually supports the argument.
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He's anything but the exception. I don't know about you if you've thought about this enough, but I'm so glad that someone asked the awkward question.
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Or even if they never actually asked it, the Apostle Paul anticipated it.
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Excuse me, I don't mean to mess up the sermon of Romans 1 to 3, but what about Abraham?
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I'm so glad you asked. Thank you for teeing up the ball. This is so helpful to us.
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It's helping us today where we live and understanding issues and objections to the Gospel because of Abraham, too, is a sinner who needs righteousness from God.
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Everyone is a sinner. Everyone is a sinner. It's so helpful. Romans 3 .10
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really is true. None is righteous. No, not one.
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Abraham also is a sinner. My friends, this is crucial that we understand this if we're going to understand the
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Gospel. There are no exceptions. There are no exceptions. Even Abraham was a sinner needing righteousness from God.
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Isn't it strange how it seems that default mode for us is to always drift towards somehow thinking we can do it?
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We see it happen over and over again in church history, maybe even over and over again in our own hearts.
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To use a theological term, default mode for us when we forget about Christ seems to be
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Pelagianism. Pelagius was a false teacher who taught that man is inherently good.
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It seems like we just drift back toward that. And sometimes we drift back toward that even in the name of being biblical.
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I mean, who's going to argue that there aren't a lot of interesting stories about Abraham? Who's going to argue that Abraham didn't do the right thing sometimes?
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And so here we are doing Bible study, being Bible churches, drifting toward fallen default mode of being anti -Gospel
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Pelagians. So it's so good to come to the text of Scripture again and again and again and again and to see they're all sinners.
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They're all sinners. Let's move on now.
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Let's move on to a second detail about Abraham that redirects our focus to Jesus instead of Bible heroes, even the best of the
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Bible heroes. Number two, the Bible in context.
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The Bible in context. The Bible, when we keep it in context of the big picture, the whole thing, not picking and choosing, is going to keep our eyes on Jesus and not on ourselves or those we find to be most like us, our quote -unquote heroes.
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The Bible in context. We'll do this one rather briefly and then emphasize the last one. Look at verse 3.
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For what does the Scripture say? I don't know about you, but I like that. It's Bethlehem Bible Church.
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I pastor Omaha Bible Church. What does the Scripture say? That's like one of our big mottos, right? It's good.
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It's right. I'm also a little nervous because I know how Jesus used that kind of wording. He would just blister the
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Pharisees, wouldn't he? Have you not read? Have you not read?
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Have you not read? As if to say, what sayeth the Scriptures? Because they studied the
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Scriptures. They went to the Bible synagogues. They were
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Bible people. And so sometimes this is rather troubling.
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The Bible in context, though, is what we're looking for. What does the Scripture say? He's going to quote now Genesis 15 -6.
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Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
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This is awesome to see in the flow of this argument. What does the
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Bible say? What does the Bible say? The Bible says clearly in Genesis 15 -6 that Abraham believed
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God and God counted it to him as righteousness, which supports Paul's argument that Abraham wasn't righteous in and of himself.
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Abraham in and of himself was a sinner. Now you say, why do you say Bible in context?
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Well, it's true. You can go to Genesis 22 and see that Abraham did the right thing. And we can look at other passages and see that Abraham was willing to do the right thing or did the right thing and we can find all kinds of examples.
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But to emphasize, let's say Genesis 22 and say, look at Abraham, he did the right thing here, and to not remember the big picture of Scripture is dangerous, unethical, and wrong.
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We've got to remember the big picture. Scholars call it the meta -narrative, the big story in all of this.
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They were emphasizing so much so, and we all have this tendency, it seems, to forget the big picture of the
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Bible, to forget the intended meaning, the meaning that God intended, that before you know it, oh,
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Abraham was willing to sacrifice. Let's have an Abraham club.
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Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, our Savior Abraham. And things get out of balance.
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And in the name of being biblical, we're unbiblical because we forget, of all passages, Genesis 15 -6?
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We can't do that. We can't do that. Context of the book, big picture.
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Because otherwise we're using the Bible to be unbiblical. And it happens over and over again.
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And it happens in circles that we run in. And it happens in our hearts. Re -learning the gospel from Abraham.
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Maybe this is a good time for some practical application, maybe exhortation, not to suggest this hasn't been practical.
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When you teach your kids, do you think big picture? When you read the
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Bible to your grandchildren, if you have grandchildren, and you tell them Bible stories, who's the ultimate hero?
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Are you communicating that message to them? When you teach
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Awana, you teach Sunday school, youth group, adult
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Sunday school, preaching, teaching. Are you remembering the big picture?
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Are you pretending like Genesis 22 exists apart from Genesis 15 -6? Are you forgetting that Abraham too needed righteousness that comes only by grace through faith in Christ ultimately because he's a sinner?
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My friends, this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where we start to act like Satan is in charge of the church.
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Or we act like Christ is in charge of the church because he's the Savior. Because he's the righteous one.
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But it doesn't get any more practical than this for me in my life in preaching, for me in my life as a dad, for me in my life as a husband.
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When others hear you, who do they hear you emphasizing most?
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I was at a conference a couple of years ago, and there was a man preaching better than I could ever preach, from a homiletics standpoint, the fancy word for preaching, the art of preaching.
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And he was waxing eloquent, and he could create a PowerPoint presentation like I'll never be able to create.
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And he just had it down. He was dressed just right. I mean, everything, he was a great communicator.
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And I would expect, based upon what he did, that his Hebrew was better than mine. It was amazing.
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It was amazing. And I was fuming listening.
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Fuming. And my friend who was with me was fuming too. It was all we could do to contain ourselves.
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And we were guests. We were speakers. Get out in the car.
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We're in the back seat. Violating man laws, we were holding each other's hands, restraining each other.
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We talked about man laws yesterday, so the guys who were there could chuckle. Just wondering, what do we say?
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What do we do? How is this going to flesh itself out? And the man in the front seat who was our host leaned over to his wife and said,
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Well, that was a good Mormon sermon. And in my heart, as burdened as I was, there was something in me that was saying,
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Yes. At least now we can talk about it and talk about the issue. And at least
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I'm not the only crazy one. And the man in front who was the host understood.
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And something ought to be done about it. You see, you can teach
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Awana, or you can preach at conferences, pastors' conferences, and you can be quote -unquote biblical, and you can be un -Christian in your preaching and teaching.
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Are you a Mormon when you lead Awana, or do you keep the
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Bible in context, big picture, making a place for Christ in His righteousness as the solution?
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Because if we were saved by following principles from Bible heroes, then
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Jesus didn't need to come, and He didn't need to live a perfectly righteous life, and He didn't need to die a sinner's death, and He didn't need to rise again from the dead.
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Let's relearn the gospel from Abraham. Let's move on now to number three, a third detail about Abraham that redirects our focus to Jesus instead of anything and anyone else, ultimately.
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Let's learn from Abraham. And that is the reality of... Ready for a big word? This means yes.
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The reality of imputed righteousness. The reality of imputed righteousness.
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Imputed is a word borrowed from commerce, and it means credited.
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It means counted. And your translation probably doesn't say imputed. It probably says counted. It probably says credited.
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But it's an important theological word. It's an important theological word in verse three, and we need imputed righteousness.
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We need credited righteousness. And we learned that from Abraham. Look with me, if you would, at verse three. For what does the
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Scripture say? We've already seen that part. Abraham believed God, and it was counted. It was credited.
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It was imputed to him as righteousness. This is fantastic.
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Abraham needed righteousness, or he could never meet God other than as his judge, because God has perfectly righteous standards.
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He always has. He needed righteousness. And Abraham was credited with righteousness.
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He had righteousness imputed to him, put in his spiritual bank account, that wasn't his.
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It came from God. And so he was credited with righteousness. He was imputed with righteousness.
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He was counted righteous. But it wasn't his doing. This has grace all over it.
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And he's going to use that word in just a little while. It wasn't anything he did. Even the fact is emphasized where it says, he believed
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God. It came to him by faith, which is not a work. Based upon Ephesians chapter 2, that's key.
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The reality of imputed righteousness, credited righteousness, foreign righteousness. This is critical that you see this, because it helps us to see that salvation, righteousness that we need, is solely and completely given to us as a gift.
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It's grace. We don't earn it. Abraham didn't earn it. So he's not the exception. He actually proves the point.
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He's a great one to say, Yes, Father Abraham. Yeah, let's emphasize
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Abraham. He's a great example of being a sinner, who needed righteousness from God. And it was given to him by grace.
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He's a great example of that. Outstanding example of that.
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Context of chapter 3 supports that, and so does what follows. Let's keep moving. He gives an illustration of this in verse 4.
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Now to the one who works, continuing the business image, the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but what is due.
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That makes total sense, doesn't it? If you work at a job 40, 50, 60 hours, and at the end of the week, or the end of the pay period, the owner of the company says, you say, that man or woman has lost their marbles.
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They're out of their mind. This is not a gift. I worked hard, blood, sweat, and tears for that.
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I earned it. Paul wants to make sure we see this is how Abraham received righteousness. Because to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.
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Then he goes on. This is my favorite part. Verse 5 is worthy of 15 stars in your
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Bible. If you don't write in your Bible, it's worth writing in your Bible. Verse 5 says, and to the one who does not work, but trusts, that's that word for faith or belief, but trusts
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Him who justifies the ungodly. He declares the ungodly righteous.
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His faith is counted, credited as righteousness. That is off the charts, best thing you'll ever hear and experience in your whole life.
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And please notice the contrast. Maybe we should put those two verses together. This is good news for us because we're ungodly.
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You're ungodly and I'm ungodly. Abraham was ungodly. Verse 4, let's notice the contrast. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.
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Then verse 5, and to the one who does not work, but trusts Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
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You see the contrast. It's not a fine line. It's huge, massive in different time zones, right?
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Salvation is all of grace only through faith in the finished work of Christ based upon His righteousness.
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And His righteousness is credited to us when we believe in Him, which is all of grace that even that happens.
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This is awesome. This is gospel truth. This is what he's been talking about at the end of chapter 3.
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And now he's saying, Abraham proves the point. It's been like this all along.
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This is fantastic. I'd say this is unbelievable, but that actually is not true.
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Isn't this good news? You need righteousness or you are smoked.
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God doesn't take bribes. God is not a compromiser. And He's always had a righteous standard.
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And so we've got to meet the requirement and we don't. Abraham didn't. You don't. I don't.
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One who doesn't work.
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Because Christ did the work. This is absolutely amazing. And you know what?
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It's absolutely scandalous to the unbeliever, to the person who
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God has not opened their eyes by the grace of God. This is where religions come from.
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This is offensive. This is outrageous. This is awful.
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They want to do everything they possibly can to get rid of verse 5.
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Joseph Smith and his translation of the Bible. Did I say translation? Not based upon manuscripts, which last time
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I checked, that's what a translation is. But according to the Joseph Smith revised standard perversion, here's how he twists this.
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And I'm quoting. Him who justifieth not the truth.
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He can't have it be true or his religion, emphasis on his, is a disaster.
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There's no need for his religion anymore if that's what's true. Because if this is true, there's no need for any religion other than the one that Jesus Christ started.
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And so we will work hard as unbelievers to go against this.
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We will invent any doctrine we can to have Romans 4, 5 not be true. Switching religions.
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Canon 7, session 6 of the Council of Trent. Official Catholic doctrine. And I quote.
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If anyone should say that men are justified merely by the imputation of the justice of Christ.
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Hello, my name is Pat and I have a problem. I see that hand.
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Or that the grace by which we are justified is a mere favor of God. Let him be.
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That is a different gospel. But it has to be that way. It has to be that way in order to get that religion to work and to be effective.
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How about verse 5? So good. I just want to read it again. Contrast that with what
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I just read. Let's sanctify the hour. And to the one who does not work, but trusts or believes, who depends upon Him who justifies the ungodly.
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His faith is counted as righteousness. It is good news.
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Learning it from Abraham. Why reject that? The only reason you would reject that is if somehow you didn't see
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God as totally righteous. Not taking compromises. The only reason you would reject that is if you didn't see yourself as the sinner that God says you are.
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The only reason you would reject that is if you didn't see the cross of Christ for what it is.
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Go back with me, if you would, to Romans 3. Let's just see. Maybe I assumed it too much earlier on.
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Go back to Romans 3 and see that what he's arguing here in Romans 4 is based upon this great cross, righteous work of Christ.
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It's all grounded in that. Romans 3 .24 says, "...and are justified by His grace as a gift."
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How? Not because God just says it and it's not tied to anything. "...through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
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Verse 25, "...whom God put forward as a propitiation or satisfaction by His blood."
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That atonement to be received by faith. This was to show
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God's righteousness. Because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins.
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Verse 26, "...it is to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
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Hallelujah! Right? It just doesn't get any better than that great reality.
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And that's why we can use Abraham as the example because that was all true in Abraham's life. And that's why every cult or ism or schism or spasm or whatever it is, falls short because they don't see that God actually dealt with His righteousness in judging
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His righteous Son righteously. No sin of mine will go unpunished or went unpunished.
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Justice was satisfied. God's wrath was propitiated.
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So to come up with anything other than salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is to not even see, to deny, to reject the perfect atoning sacrifice of Christ.
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The glory of Christ is attacked. But I might suggest to you that while you might not be
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Mormon, you might be by your lack of pointing to Christ and by your constant and incessant pointing to others who actually are depending upon Christ, you might be acting like it.
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Let's not go there. Let's not go there. Let's keep pointing to Christ as Abraham does.
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Now, continuing to show how this works, he doesn't change the logic at all. He just gives another argument and we'll look at this and then we'll be done.
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Verse 6, he's going to anticipate, perhaps, I think at this point in time, I think he's anticipating somebody's going to say, well, alright, if Abraham doesn't qualify, what about David?
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Well, he doesn't use David as the example, but he quotes him. This is so good that he's doing this.
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Verse 6, just as David also speaks of the blessings of the one whom God counts righteous apart from works.
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Quoting from Psalm 32, he says, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. In other words, it's the same thing.
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We'll just use more scriptural support and argumentation. Now we're hearing it from David. And now we're hearing it.
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There's nothing that would cause us to conclude that Satan has been given free reign of anything on this earth in an ultimate sense.
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But there are signs around, sadly, in evangelical churches, churches like this one.
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I'm not saying this one. Churches like Omaha Bible Church where it looks like he's in charge because Christ is not exalted through our
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Bible characters exalting Him. And that ought not be. He deserves center stage.
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Believe in Christ and speak of Christ as the hero of it all and do it again and again and again and again and again to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for this great gospel time to see
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Christ in His righteousness even being the source of righteousness for Abraham.
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You indeed are a gracious Savior. You are kind. As we read our
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Bibles, as we seek to be biblical, may we see the big picture.
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May we be reminded again and again by different people you've saved by your grace that the
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Savior is Christ Jesus the Lord. And may we never tire of boasting in Him and ultimately