Sunday Sermon: The Promise to All By Faith (Romans 4:13-17)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series. Here is Pastor Gabe.

Justification by Faith and the Promise to Abraham

We continue our series in the book of Romans, and if you would please this morning turn with me once again to Romans chapter 4. We have been reading about how we are justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and not by works.

And Paul has been providing as an example, Abraham, who is our father in the faith, for he likewise believed God and his faith was credited to him as righteousness. And so it is the same for each and every one of us who have put faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we are justified, not by our works, but by faith in Him who justifies.

Seventeenth century Puritan Stephen Charnock said, as Christ died once to merit our redemption, so he lives always to make application of our redemption. Christ didn't just come and die, but lives forevermore and intercedes for us before the Father.

As said in 1 John 2 .1, if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. And in this also we find our application of the text that we will be looking at today.

This is Romans chapter 4, verses 13 to 17. In honor of the word of the King, would you please stand. Romans chapter 4, the section we're looking at today, beginning in verse 13. The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Rome.

Hear the word of the Lord. 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, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. You may be seated as we pray.

Heavenly Father, as we come back to our passage again this morning, I pray that you make this real to us. We are reading things that are deeply theologically true, but how does it apply to us? How does it change our lives?

How do we live now according to these things? Not just as fellow heirs of the promises that have been given to Abraham, but even as the children of God in this world. Teach us and guide us as we walk through your word together, and may we continue to be comforted by this truth, that it is not by our works, but by faith alone in Jesus Christ that we have been justified, made right with God, our sins forgiven, and we are given the promise of eternal life with you in glory.

May the promises of that heavenly kingdom continue to be our joy and our peace. In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen. It is in Genesis chapter 18 that we read the account of God coming and visiting Abraham and Sarah at the Oaks of Mamre.

Now the promise had already been given to Abraham before that God was going to make him a great nation. We have in Genesis chapter 12 the covenant promise that God had made with Abraham, the statement in chapter 15 that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

These things have already been laid out for us in Genesis, and yet God by his love and his grace toward Abraham comes and personally visits Abraham to even tell him this promise once again face to face, that at this time next year I will come back and I will visit you and you will have a son.

This is God and the two angels who are with him that appear as men and they come to visit Abraham there at the Oaks of Mamre. Abraham prepares a meal for them and they sit down and they eat there under the trees and as God says this to Abraham, that you will have a child even through your wife Sarah though she is beyond child bearing age, it's been said in Genesis that the way of women was not with her, said in verse 11 in fact, the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

So verse 12, Sarah laughed to herself saying, after I'm worn out and my Lord is old, shall.

I have pleasure?

And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Lord, at the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year and Sarah shall have a son.

But Sarah denied it saying, I did not laugh, there she's arguing with God as if he would know otherwise, for she was afraid and he said, no, but you did laugh. God fulfilled his promise to them and at that time next year they had a son and they named him what?

Isaac, meaning laughter. They laughed when hearing the promise of God that they would have a child and yet this laughter that at one point was laughing at just the absurdity of it all would become the laughter of their joy when God fulfilled his promise to them.

So you see, as I said, we've already heard that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. That faith wasn't perfect though. And yet God was faithful to fulfill the promise that he gave to them.

A question I'm going to ask again as we get to the end of the sermon today is what sorts of promises has God given to us that we might laugh at? We say we believe them but there's probably a part of us that goes, this is just crazy.

And yet God will be faithful to fulfill those things for us anyway. We've been reading here in Romans chapter 4 about how Abraham is our father in the faith because he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

As we read in verse 5, to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness just as it was for Abraham so it is for us.

As well.

Paul is not introducing a new doctrine here. He is repeating those things that God has been faithful to do and fulfill and require through the entirety of redemptive history. In the passage that we're looking at today, verses 13 to 17, in the first half we see that in verse 13 and in verse 17 we have something of the same statement though worded in different.

Ways.

Heir of the World Through the Righteousness of Faith

In verse 13 it says that Abraham would be the heir of the world and in verse 17 it actually quotes this from scripture, the promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations. And how is it that Abraham would be the father of many nations?

He is the father to all who believe by faith. So we have this passage that's divided up into three parts but we also want to reserve some time at the end to give application to these things that we will read and study together.

So first of all we come back to verse 13 where it says,. 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.

As I mentioned, to say heir of the world is synonymous with God's promise to Abraham, I have made you the father of many nations. We have come into the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ just as Abraham had faith and he was justified.

Truth be told though, there is only one true heir of God the Father and that is God the Son. When we read in Colossians 1 .15 that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, that does not mean that Jesus is the first created being as false religions such as Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses have claimed.

To call Christ the firstborn is to say that he is the heir. It was the tradition that the father would make the firstborn son his heir of all that he possessed so God the Father has given all things to the son.

But this is not just some great theological concept that we're giving mental assent to here in order that we may glorify Christ for it, but that would certainly be enough. There is great blessing in this for us, for we who are in Christ are fellow heirs with him, not just with Abraham.

We are fellow heirs with Christ. Paul will elaborate on this further even here in the book of Romans, especially when we get to chapter 8, but for now he introduces the understanding that we have become heirs not because of our obedience to the law, but by faith.

Christ kept the law perfectly. And as you could say that he did that to show us here's what you must do in order to enter the kingdom of God. You must be perfect. That would be true, but it wouldn't be good news.

Why is that not good news? Because we can't be perfect. Jesus did it, but we're completely incapable of doing that. We would still be left poor and begging sinners, watching the righteous son of God do everything perfectly, but not attain the kingdom for ourselves.

We're not even good enough to ascend to the first stair on that stairway to heaven. And what is the consequence of that? Look at verses 14 and 15. For if it is the adherence of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

For the law brings what? The law brings wrath. If you stumble at any point up those stairs, what do you receive?

Do you get a do-over?

Do not pass go, do not collect $200. You messed up. So now you got to do it all again. No, actually worse than that. Entering into the presence of a holy God demands absolute perfection. If you stumble at any point, what we deserve is death.

You are not holy. You are under the wrath of God. Jesus himself said in Matthew 5 .48, You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Without perfection, we fail to keep the law and we deserve the wrath of God.

So Jesus did more to show us the way. That would not have been enough for us.

He made the way.

He kept the law perfectly. But it's not by our keeping the law perfectly that we become an heir of the kingdom of God with Him. It is by His righteousness. He then gives to us that righteousness by which we are admitted into the kingdom.

We come into the kingdom of God through a borrowed righteousness. Not by our merits, not on our merits, but on the merit of Christ. And this is an act of the goodness and loving kindness of God. As we've read previously, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

To Him belongs all glory. As Paul said earlier, what becomes of our boasting? It's nothing. We have nothing to boast in. We boast in God. We also read about this when we were in Titus last year. Let me start reading here in Titus 3 .14 which says,.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy. By the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

I had that right the first time. It's Titus 3 .4 -7 is the reference. An heir. What is an heir? We keep using this word. An heir is a person legally entitled to the property, possessions, or rank of another, usually upon that person's death.

For example, when the current monarch of the United Kingdom, King Charles III, dies, it will be his eldest son, Prince William, the Prince of Wales, who will be elevated to the throne. So the English would say that Prince William is the heir to the throne, and he receives it upon his father's death.

For us, we do not inherit Christ's eternal kingdom when He dies, but because He has died and risen again. And all who believe in Him are made fellow-heirs. We are co-heirs with Christ. We get all the stuff the king gets.

Titus 3 .7 puts it that we are fellow-heirs according to the hope of eternal life. But what does that entail? Just that we will live forever? In fact, Revelation 3 .21 is where Jesus says,. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne.

So we will not only live with Christ, we will reign with Him forever as well. That's a pretty big throne, by the way, that we all sit with Him upon. We get all the stuff that the Father gives to the Son.

And again, this does not come through our keeping of the law, as though we have done something to earn it or deserve it. It's not by any works that we do. It is through what Christ has done, and through the righteousness of faith, that He transmit all of those wonderful blessings to us.

By faith, we have been made righteous, and also been made fellow-heirs of the kingdom of God. Again, Romans 4 .14, Sorry, started that again. If it is the adherence of the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

Because the works were never going to be enough, and faith doesn't do us any good, so the promise is not to be received, if it is by works. Verse 15, The law does not save us. Very sadly, over the past few years, I've been hearing more and more young men who even claim to be Reformed, say that the law of God can actually save us and our society.

I won't elaborate on those arguments today, but Paul explicitly says in Romans 8 .3 that the law is powerless to save. You cannot ever merit God's favor through the keeping of the law, because you cannot keep the law.

The only thing you can merit through the law is His wrath. Remember what we read in Romans 3 .19 -20, which says,. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. The law shows us our sin. We see through the law our inability to keep it, our inability to be righteous.

As 1 John 3 .4 says,. Sin is lawlessness. Question number 17 of the Baptist Catechism, What is sin? Answer, Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. It is not through the law that we attain righteousness, rather it is through the law that we come to a knowledge that we have no righteousness.

Every mouth may be stopped from declaring our own righteousness. Now again, where there is no law, there is no transgression. If God had not imposed any kind of righteous standard, then we would not be guilty of anything.

Without the law, there would be no sin. But this statement Paul makes, not so that we would go, Oh, well then why doesn't God just get rid of the law then? Boom! Problem solved. Now we're not guilty of anything.

That's not the point, because remember that we read previously in chapter 2 that even without the law, we're still guilty. We're still unrighteous. The law is a revelation. It reveals to us God's righteous standard, and that we do not meet that standard.

The law, as we've been going through it even in our Sunday school class, going through the book of Exodus, the law creates this tension that exists in the Old Testament when we're reading that Old Testament narrative.

No one can be made right before God, even when He gives the law. Like if the question is being asked through Genesis, and then you get to Exodus, and you're asking, Well, how can one be made right with God?

When the law is given, the people of God couldn't keep it. In every way, at every twist and turn, they disobeyed God's law. They failed at every point. They came into judgment, many of them even perishing in the wilderness.

The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 that this is given to us as an example so we wouldn't do the same sin that they did. So therefore, how can a man be made right before God if it's not going to be through the law?

What is the solution to this problem that we still have that started in Genesis 3? The problem of sin, the problem of death, the problem of our being separated from a holy God. I believe the book of Job summarizes this tension best in Job 25 verses 4 -6 where it says,.

How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes. How much less man who is a maggot, and the son of man who is a worm.

Now it's a cold truth that's spoken by Job's friend Bildad, and we all know what we think of Job's friends. They did well when they sat with Job on the ground and wept with him, but they really made a mess of things when they opened their mouths.

But even Job says to God later in Job 40 verse 4,. Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand upon my mouth. This tension in the Old Testament, how can a man be made right with God, is not resolved until we get to the New Testament when we're introduced to the God-man, Jesus Christ.

Born of woman, pure, who put on flesh and dwelt among us, who kept the law of God perfectly when we could not. And again, he does this not merely as an example, for that is an example that we could not amount to.

If we're just trying to do all the things that Jesus did, we would never get there on our own power. There are some who teach that Jesus modeled perfect humanity, that he even gave up his divinity when he became human.

He was not God, he was a perfect person, and we can be as perfect as he is. This is one of the heresies of the New Apostolic Reformation. And in case you don't know who that would entail, it includes churches like Bethel Church in Redding, California, under the teaching of Bill Johnson.

When I lived in Kansas, this was also the International House of Prayer down the road in Kansas City, led by the now disgraced abuser, Mike Bickle. Paula White Cain, who was made Senior Faith Advisor to President Donald Trump, also believes this doctrine, that Jesus simply modeled perfect humanity, and we need only to follow his example to be perfect like him.

That is not how we receive righteousness. The argument there would be that you're made righteous by doing good works, and that is not how we are made righteous. The righteousness of Christ is credited to us through faith.

And we are justified. Declared innocent. The law does not show us the way to righteousness, it shows us that we have no righteousness, so that we might look to Christ and be justified through faith in Him.

As I've said to you before, the very thing that God demands is the very thing that He gives. He demands righteousness. And it's through faith in Jesus Christ that He gives righteousness. Look at verse 16 now.

Faith, Grace, and the Heirs of Abraham

That is why it depends on faith. In order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all His offspring. Be guaranteed to all His offspring. Because if it's on works, is the promise guaranteed?

No. Nobody's going to get there. But through the grace of God, by faith, it is guaranteed to all the offspring of Abraham. 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.

Abraham is the example that Paul has been using in this chapter to show us that it is by faith that we are justified, and not by works. And Romans 4 -5 is such an important truth here that it bears repeating to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

It is by faith, and not by our works, as it was for Abraham, so it is for us as well, who share in the faith of Abraham, the father of us all. Now consider in light of that verse 17. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

In whom do we believe? In whom do we trust? It is in the one who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. He creates something out of nothing. I've sometimes been asked, what is the most offensive verse in the Bible?

There are probably a plethora of verses that we could choose from that would be offensive to a lot of people. 1 Timothy 2 .11, I do not permit a woman to speak, rather she must remain quiet. That's a really offensive verse in our culture.

You use that even in the context in which Paul gives it that a woman cannot be a pastor, only a man can be a pastor. Well now, the feminists in our culture are even all the more incensed at that. I can do everything a man can do.

I can do it better. That's what the feminists will insist upon. How about those verses that say that homosexuality is a sin? In 1 Corinthians 6, 8 and 9, that even homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God.

How about that same passage that says drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God? And if you live in unrighteousness, in drunkenness, you will not go to heaven either. These verses would surely be offensive to people.

But as many of these verses we might be able to single out, and that could offend other people that are around us. There's probably not a verse more offensive than Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Why would that one be the most offensive? Because He rules everything, even you. And the reason why people would find that verse most offensive is because I'm not the center of the universe. He is the king over the universe.

And I must be subject and submit to Him. But if you can believe that verse, if you can believe Genesis 1, 1, that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, then all the rest of the Bible is easy to believe.

Because if He can bring something out of nothing, then He can save eight people on an ark with a bunch of animals from the destruction that He brings through a global flood. He can confuse the languages of men at the Tower of Babel and distribute men all over the globe.

And now we have the different languages and the divided nations on earth as we have them today. If God can bring something out of nothing, then He can make the Red Sea part. He can feed the Israelites in the desert with manna from heaven and with quail.

Enough quail to feed over a million people. If God can bring something out of nothing, then He can take up Elijah in a whirlwind, separating Elijah and Elisha with chariots of fire. He can bring His people Israel into a promised land and they will conquer all of their enemies though they have a massive disadvantage.

And if God can create everything out of nothing, then He can raise a man from the dead. He can send His Son, Jesus Christ, to be sinless. When even you can encounter unbelievers who will say, nobody's perfect.

But Jesus was and is. And He who died on the cross for our sins was risen again from the dead and whoever believes in Him will also rise from the dead with Him. If you believe that God brings all things into existence out of nothing, then you know He governs it all and He will rightly judge it, destroying His enemies and those who had disobeyed God's righteous standard.

But those who believe in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life. The very commission that Jesus gave to His disciples in Matthew 28, in Acts 1, to go out into all the nations making disciples, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

That very commission that Jesus gave to His disciples is still being fulfilled 2 ,000 years later. And we sit here today as the church because that command is being carried out. Because Christ is our King and He does rule over all.

Whether a person submits to His Lordship or not. And it all begins in Genesis 1 -1. In the beginning, God created out of nothing the heavens and the earth. And this is the God in whom Abraham trusted.

And it's the God in whom we also trust. Now this verse, verse 17, that God gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist, this is another verse that is heavily abused by the name it and claim it teachers.

They will twist this verse into meaning that you with enough faith and through speaking the right words, you yourself can call into existence things that do not exist. Words have power, they will tell you.

And if you speak negatively, then bad things will happen to you. But if you speak positively, then good things will happen to you. Mind over matter. Very new age thought has infected even American evangelicalism.

This is why this kind of teaching is also called word-faith theology. It is bringing things into existence for yourself by speaking them into existence. And they use this verse, Romans 4 -17, to justify it.

Joel and Victoria Osteen teach it. T .D. Jakes. Stephen Furtick. Jesse Duplantis. Todd White. Ken and Gloria Copeland. Beth Moore has even taught a light form of this. And the list goes on. Listen to this from famous women's preacher, Joyce Meyer.

I got fire in my belly tonight because I know, I know, I know that there's power in life, in right words, that words are containers for power. And if you listen to the audio of her saying this, the audience is just cheering uproariously while she's saying this.

And I don't care what kind of mess you've got, she says, I am begging you tonight to stop talking about it and start talking about what the word says and what you can have. Make yourself a list. Do some homework.

Make sure you've got a scripture to back up every one of your confessions. We're not talking about some magic, goofy, new age thing. I'm talking about doing what the Bible says, calling those things into existence, into be as though they are not.

Prophesying to the dead dry bones in your life, oh you dead dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Maybe you need to get your checkbook out and say, oh you checkbook, hear the word of the Lord, you are not going to stay empty all of your life.

She goes on.

Somebody says, oh well this is just too weird for me. Well then stay broke. What you're doing is not working. You listen to me, checkbook. The first 10 of everything that goes into you is going to God's work and you are going to be full to overflowing and I am going to be blessed that I am going to be a blessing.

Unquote.

Listen to this from John Gray, formerly a pastor under Joel Osteen, now a pastor of his own church in North Carolina. Words do three things, he says. Number one, words create. They create your reality.

Speak that which is not as though it is. And that's a twisting of Romans 4 .17. Number two, words convene. When you speak what's on God's mind, everything connected to that has to show up. Finally, words conquer.

It was the sound of a shout that made those walls fall at Jericho.

Unquote.

Except that Joshua 6 .2 explicitly says that it was God who conquered Jericho and he told the Israelites to shout so that it would be seen that it was not by the military might of man that Jericho fell, but by the power of God.

The prosperity gospel is really big in Africa as well and it is the prosperity theology of America that's been imported over there. A prosperity preacher by the name of David Oyedepo.

Does he sound familiar to you?

Okay, he said, Jesus by his death on the cross rendered the curse of the law that was upon us null and void and brought us into the Abrahamic covenant of blessings.

Unquote.

But those covenant blessings aren't heavenly blessings. According to Oyedepo, they are health and wealth which we get through faith. What is called the prosperity gospel offers something less than what God offers.

What great hope is there in being able to speak to your checking account that there will be money in it? That might do you good for a little while, but will it save you? Now listen, I know it sounds good, this promise of being able to speak into your bank account and there will magically be money in it, but that's only if it actually worked.

You know you cannot speak something out of nothing and poof, there's money in your account. That's why some of you laughed and some of you groaned when I read it. You know it's absurd. As my friend Kosti Hinn has said, the only one who prospers from the preaching of the prosperity preacher is the prosperity preacher.

He or she got your money and you got nothing. We are talking in this passage about something far greater than earthly wealth. We are reading about saving faith. Faith through which a man can be made right before God and is made a fellow heir of the eternal kingdom of Christ.

You can keep your checkbook, your bank account, or as Fernando Ortega has sung, you can have all this world.

Give me Jesus.

What the prosperity gospel promises, it cannot deliver. These prosperity preachers are, as Jude calls them, clouds without water. You stand under them with your mouth open and you never get rain. That's certainly something I think that we can relate to in southern Arizona.

If there's anything we've learned from interviews with the rich and famous, it's that fame and fortune has left them feeling aimless and unsatisfied. And we have heard stories of rock stars who have killed themselves either through intentional suicide or because they ate, drank, and did drugs unto their own destruction.

The fame and fortune that they had simply did not satisfy them. It just leaves you wanting more. And it has no answers for the bigger questions. What does a full bank account do for me when death comes knocking?

How does earthly prosperity comfort me when I've lost a loved one? How does it counsel me when I don't know my purpose? How does it love me when my friends turn on me? Or when I feel alone and afraid?

Friends, we believe in the God who created the universe, who governs the universe, who brought something out of nothing and is with us even now. You cannot do that. But He can. And that's the point of what's being said here in Romans 4 .17.

Abraham believed in the God who gives life to the dead. And who calls into existence those things that do not exist. What did he call into existence for Abraham and Sarah?

A son.

When the way of women.

Was no longer with Sarah. She was incapable of having children. Yet God worked in that womb that did not work anymore and gave them a son, Isaac, through whom Abraham would be called the father of many nations.

And we likewise, when we believe in God, we believe in the one who makes all things possible. As Alan read for us this morning from Hebrews 11 .3, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

He made something out of nothing. And He makes something out of us as well. Where previously there was nothing in our hearts but deadness, but rebellion, but sin, He has brought us from death to life through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.