WWUTT 1211 Abraham Believed God and it was Counted as Righteousness? (Romans 4:1-3)

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In our study of Romans, we have read where Paul has said we're justified by faith and not by works.

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But this is not some new doctrine that has come about only with Christ. This is the way a person was saved even in the

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Old Testament, when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text studying

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God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Romans, chapter 4 this week.

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If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, I'm going to begin by reading these first 12 verses.

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This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church that was in Rome. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?

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For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

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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. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?

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For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him?

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Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

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He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

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The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that the righteousness would be counted to them as well.

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And to make him the father of the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father

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Abraham had before he was circumcised. Now in case any of that was confusing as we were reading through it, this is really a brilliant argument that the

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Apostle Paul is laying out here. I know that I've said that a few times now regarding these arguments that Paul makes, but this is how we come to understand a statement that he's made in the previous chapter, that we are justified not by our works, but we are justified by faith.

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And using an example of being justified by faith, Paul points back to Abraham.

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Now he refers to Abraham as our forefather according to the flesh in verse 1, but by the time we got to the end of that section, we realized that Abraham is the father of all who believe by faith.

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So then we talk about a spiritual father and not just a father by the flesh. For if he was only a father by the flesh, then he would only be the ancestor of the

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Jewish people and not we who are not descended from the Jewish line. Consider the word of John the

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Baptist in Luke 3 .8, bear fruit in keeping with repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have

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Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

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Of course, John the Baptist was addressing the Jewish people there. And he was saying in making this reference to God raising up children for Abraham from these stones, he wasn't saying that God can literally shape these stones into children for himself.

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He was being metaphorical. We who are Gentiles, who were hardened in our hearts,

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God has softened our hearts through the preaching of the gospel, that we would be turned from sin and we would bear fruit in keeping in repentance.

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And those who believe by faith, by the same faith that Abraham had in the same

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God who sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, by faith, we are regarded as children of Abraham.

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It is those who are truly of faith who are regarded as children of Abraham. So we look to Abraham not just as a fleshly father here, but we look to him as a spiritual father.

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And the example that he sets by the faith that he was given in God, this faith is what is counted to him as righteousness.

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We're still in a section that began back in Romans chapter three, verse 21, after Paul had laid out his argument for the depravity of man and then is arguing that we are justified only by grace through faith and no other means.

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We're justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and this is how we are saved. So still in the spirit of that argument, we get to chapter four where he uses an example,

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Abraham, and also uses David here. But let's stick with Abraham for now. So Abraham is an example of one who believed by faith and it is that faith that is credited to him as righteousness.

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This goes back even to Genesis. Now, I think I said this earlier when we were talking about the argument of the depravity of man, man's total inability to be able to worship

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God if it were not for God who intervened and turned our hearts from our wickedness to his righteousness.

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If God had not done this for us, then no one would be saved. Paul makes that argument even going back to the

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Old Testament scriptures. So this isn't something that he's made up or it's not just something for Gentile people.

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It's not something that had never existed in the word of God before. He points back to the Old Testament to say that this has been what

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God has presented to us through his word from the prophets and the well, yeah, from the law and the prophets, the law and the prophets even bear witness to it.

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So this isn't some new made up doctrine. It's something that God has been speaking to us all the while.

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So even here in Romans four, as he draws an example of justification by faith, he draws that example from the

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Old Testament to illustrate this is not a new argument. This is not something new that is being presented to you.

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This is the way that it has always been. The righteousness that we receive is by faith.

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Now, we didn't understand how God was going to manifest apart from the law and the prophets, his righteousness through Jesus Christ until Jesus showed up.

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But that doesn't mean that justification was not by faith. It was this way for Abraham.

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He was justified by faith. He believed and it was counted to him as righteousness taken right from the book of Genesis.

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So I come back here to chapter four, verse one. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh?

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He's our forefather, according to the flesh. So that statement, at least the latter part of verse one, is exclusive to the

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Jews. Paul being a Jew himself, he was from the tribe of Benjamin, so he was able to make a reference to Abraham as a forefather, according to the flesh.

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But once again, by the time you get to the end of this section that we've looked at today, we're referring to Abraham, not just as a father in the flesh, but even a father to us in spirit.

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For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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He would have something to boast about before us. He wouldn't have anything to boast about before God, because even in our best deeds, we would still not be as righteous as God.

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Let's just say that you were capable of turning from doing wicked things.

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And from now on, you were only going to do righteous things. Let's just say that you were capable of that.

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You would be able to boast before man of a righteousness that you have attained by your good works, but you would not be able to make that boast before God because you're not totally guiltless.

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You've sinned before. You decided to make that commitment to only do the right things.

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I'm going to keep the entire law of God. And let's just say you made that commitment and you were able to do so.

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You would be able to boast before man that you're the most righteous person. Look at me. I keep all of the law, but you would not be able to boast before God because no one is able to say from the beginning of their own existence that they have been perfectly right and good this entire time.

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You didn't even know the difference between right and wrong, or you didn't know what the standard was of right and wrong anyway, until you opened the word of God and you heard

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God's law that was spoken to you, which is the standard of right and wrong, of moral uprightness.

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Only then did you understand, well, if God is the one who lays down what is good and what is bad, then

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I see by this, I have not been acting in a right way, but I'm going to make a commitment now that I'm going to, now

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I'm going to do what God says is right. Because God is the one who sets the standard. So you could say before man that you're a good person, but you would not be able to make that declaration before God.

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Only God is good. Only he has never done any wrong. Only he is impeccable in all of his ways.

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Like he is so good and so righteous and so holy that all of the words that we use to describe that kind of perfection don't even do it justice.

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We can talk about it, but it's so difficult for us to conceptualize that kind of moral character.

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That's why we look for such goodness among mankind. And then we try to compare our goodness to one another because we can't even conceptualize the holiness of God.

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Now, the philosopher in Ecclesiastes, Solomon, did say that God has put eternity in the hearts of man, but they cannot fathom what

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God has done from beginning to end. So the fact that God has given us a concept of eternity means that we can also have a concept of his holiness because as we can fathom eternity, we can fathom an eternal perfection.

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But even though we can conceptualize that, we still don't have even like the foggiest idea how pure that is.

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Do you understand what I'm saying? So you can say God is infinitely holy. I've just said it right here.

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But to even wrap your mind around that concept is so mind -blowingly perfect.

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It would make your head explode to even grasp this. This is why we as finite, limited, corrupt human beings cannot stand in the presence of God unless what we are is transformed into something else.

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That's an argument that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 15. That would be a whole other rabbit trail. But anyway, all of this to say that God's holiness and righteousness and perfection is so way beyond what we could ever attain.

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Even if you made the decision right now, I'm just going to do nothing but good things for the rest of my life.

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And you were actually able to do that according to what God says is good. You still wouldn't be as good as God because you're finite, you're imperfect, you're corruptible, you're susceptible to temptation, whereas God is not.

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And the things that you had done previously would still be held against you. It's not like you're deciding to do good things now, nullifies all the bad things that you did beforehand.

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No one is able to be good before God. Jesus even says no one is good, but God alone.

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That's in Mark chapter 10. And he makes that statement as a present declaration.

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There is no one on earth who is good. We also find that in Ecclesiastes, by the way, there is no one on earth who is good and never sins.

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So that's a very present declaration. You could make a decision to only do good things now, but you wouldn't be able to where I'm just presenting that as a hypothetical, you wouldn't be able to do it anyway, because the scripture says there is no one good present tense.

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Jesus saying there is no one good, but God alone. And as we've also heard it said to us back in Romans chapter three, no one is righteous, not no, not one.

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So that's an even present tense statement. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside.

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We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We're justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, which we receive by faith.

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Paul made that argument in chapter three, and we continue it here in chapter four. So if you, if Abraham did what is right, if he was justified by his works, he would have something to boast about before man, but not before God.

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And if you cannot boast about your justification before God, then you're not really justified.

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So here Paul is, is making a human argument. He's saying that you could do everything that is right.

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According to the word of God is Abraham, our forefather. If he had done so, he would be able to call himself justified before men, but he would not be able to stand as justified before God, our works, our righteousness.

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Does not justify us even from a common sense, because this really, what Paul is laying out here is a common sense argument, even from common sense, you would not be able to declare yourself righteous before God justified before God, just because you decided to do all the right things.

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You might be able to boast about something before man, but you would not be able to boast about that before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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Not by his works, but by his faith was he counted as righteousness.

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And that faith, again, does not come from us. I've said this many times before, but even the faith that we have is not given to, well, the faith that we have is not something that we manifest.

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You don't just decide one day to believe and suddenly you have belief in your mind or in your heart.

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That's not the way that you believe. God is the one who grants us faith. Hebrews 11, one defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things, not seen another way that that is put in some translations, it is the substance of things, not seen.

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So being a substance, faith is a thing. And it's not something that you created in your heart where previously there was no faith.

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Before you came to faith in Jesus Christ, through the hearing of the gospel, faith was not in your heart.

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So you don't create faith. You're not the one who generates faith. God is the one that brings about faith in your heart and has done so through the hearing of his word.

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By the way, God generates faith in your heart the same way that God brought light into existence.

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God said, let there be light. And it was so when you heard the word of God proclaimed to you,

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God put faith in your heart. He said, let there be faith. And it was so not exactly in those words, but, but it was, it was the word of God that brought faith into your heart.

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And so it was the same with Abraham as well. God declared to Abraham and Abraham believed because God's word made it.

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So not because Abraham did something in and of himself. So even here,

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Abraham believing God, and it was counted to him as righteousness is justification by faith that has been given to us by God.

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This work is from beginning to end. It is the work of God. We don't boast in any of it.

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Abraham may have something to boast before men, but he has nothing to boast of before God, if not for the word of God that came to Abraham and he believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness verse three for what does the scripture say,

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Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. The reference here is from Genesis chapter 15, and I'm going to go ahead and read, start reading here in verse one, this is

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God's covenant with Abraham. After these things, well, the, the, these things that we had just read about was

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Abraham rescuing lot. Remember he had been taken captive and then

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Abram or, or Abraham, who was still called Abram at this time, he was blessed by Melchizedek, the king priest who was at Salem.

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So those are the events that we read about previously in chapter 14. So now in Genesis 15, after these things, the word of the

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Lord came to Abraham, in a vision, fear, not Abram. I am your shield.

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Your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, Oh Lord God, what will you give me?

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For I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.

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And Abram said, behold, you have given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir.

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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.

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And he brought him outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars. If you are able to number them.

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And then God said to him, so shall your offspring be. And now here's verse six and Abram believed the

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Lord and he counted it to him. God counted it to Abram as righteousness.

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That's the statement that Paul is then referencing in Romans four here.

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He believed what God said to him. Now, this promise that God has given to Abram is not just a promise of the children of Israel, this promise that he has given to Abram is not just a promise of the son

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Isaac, but who is it that is going to come from the line of Isaac. There is a promise seed even greater than Isaac, even greater than Jacob, even greater than Judah, even greater than David, who is in the line of Judah.

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There is one who is going to come and who is even greater than these. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. This promise that God was giving to Abram was more than just about an earthly heir in the present time, but it was about spiritual descendants that would be more numerous than the stars in the sky.

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Now, even when we get to the book of numbers where you have the census that's taken of the children of Israel, it says there in the book of numbers that they were more numerous than the stars and were more plentiful than the sand that is on the seashore.

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So that's the book of numbers indicating that this promise that was given to Abraham would be fulfilled.

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But now it's been fulfilled even, even far more than this in the giving of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, who is the promise seed of Isaac. Paul is going to make that argument even later on in when we get to Romans chapter nine, that Christ is the promise seed from Isaac and then from Jacob and not

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Esau, Isaac and not Ishmael, Jacob and not Esau. This is all according to God's sovereign plan that he worked out for the salvation of those who would believe by faith in Jesus Christ.

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And so by faith in Christ, we are justified. So even this promise that God is giving to Abraham is, is more, it's worth more than just receiving something on earth, but it is receiving glory from our father that is in heaven, the glory of Christ that we've become heirs of for all those who have faith in him, mind -blowingly awesome, right?

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Again, as we, as we conceive of these things that God has done, that he has set forth from the fullness of time, it can blow your mind, but we are so privileged to be part of this plan of redemption that God had set forth and had accomplished in his son by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave so that all who believe in Jesus are justified by faith.

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As Abraham was justified by faith, he believed in this promise of God and the promise is

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Christ whom we have received. And so like Abraham, our forefather, we have believed

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God and it is counted to us as righteousness, the righteousness of Christ for all those who believe.

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That's where we'll stop and we'll pick up again tomorrow. Heavenly father, we thank you for this word. We thank you for Christ whom you have given to us, his righteousness that was imputed to us where we were sinners before God and worthy of destruction and wrath.

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Yet you showed grace to us and gave us the forgiveness of sins through the atoning sacrifice of our

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Lord Christ and may understanding this fill us with such hope today, knowing that we have been loved by the sovereign

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God of the universe who was working out from thousands of years before we were born, how you were going to bring us to salvation by faith in our

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Lord Christ through the hearing of your gospel. May we love this gospel and take it to others for it is only the power of the gospel that has the power to save.

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We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening to, when we understand the text with pastor

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Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt

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.com and click on the gift tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our