WWUTT 129 Things That Do Not Exist (Romans 4:13-25)

God called all of the universe into existence by a word, let there be and there was.

And you know what? God calls our faith into existence the same way. Where previously we do not believe, we hear the word of God, and we believe when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

Find videos and more at our website, www .wtt .com. Now here's our host,

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Romans chapter four, verses 13 through 25 is where we are today.

If you wanna open up your Bibles and join with me there. Uploaded a brand new what video last night?

A twist on the old cliche, love the sinner, hate the sin. This one popularized by Mark Lowry and Tony Campolo, love the sinner, hate your own sin.

Is that biblical or not? And it sounds about right, but the problem with it is it's actually telling us that we should only hate our own sin and not correct anybody else's sin.

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All right, Romans chapter four, let's start in verse 13. 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 promises 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 God in whom he believed who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

In hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told, so shall your offspring be.

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God but he grew strong in his faith and he gave glory to God fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

That was why his faith was counted to him as righteousness but the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone but for ours also.

It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised him from the dead, Jesus our Lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

We go back to verse 13, for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be the heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

Because remember we don't receive the promises of God by keeping the law which Paul is gonna go into as we keep going.

For if it is the adherence of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

Now where Paul says adherence to the law he's talking specifically about the

Jews to whom the law was given. If it is the adherence of the law who are to be the heirs faith is null and the promise is void.

So by faith Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. There's no reason to even jot that down in the book of Genesis because faith would not be the reason why a person attains righteousness.

It would be their adherence to the law. For the law brings wrath but where there is no law there is no transgression.

Why does the law bring wrath? Because we have no ability to keep the law. Nobody can do it perfectly.

It isn't possible. The righteousness that we receive is not by our ability to keep the law since we can't do it.

It is by faith in Christ who gives to us by grace where there is no law there is no transgression.

Interesting thing about that statement is that Paul is differentiating between sin and transgression here.

Sin everybody is guilty of. Everyone sins, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God because we have a law within ourselves that we cannot even keep.

God who has written the law upon each and every one of our hearts. But to those the law was given to and we're talking about the law of Moses there is a specific command that was given to the

Jewish people and they could not follow it. So they did worse than sin they transgressed.

They transgressed the written law that which was given to them. So they even did worse than the

Gentiles did because the Gentiles disobeyed a law unto themselves whereas the

Jews disobeyed a law that was given to them by God and it became transgression. That is why it depends on faith

Paul says in verse 16 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 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. Keep that in mind. It was said from the very beginning that Abraham would not be the father of the

Jews only but also of the Gentiles who had received the same faith that Abraham had and that makes him the father of many nations.

Abraham is our father. All of us who are in Christ, Christian whether we are a

Jewish Christian or a Gentile Christian Abraham is our forefather. We're going back to verse 17 and reading that whole thing here.

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.

What are we talking about here? Well, we're about to talk about Abraham's old age and Sarah's barren womb.

And remember that God brought for himself a people out of that barren womb, Isaac who would be the heir of that promise where Sarah previously was not able to have children.

So in a way it's kind of foreshadowing as to what we're gonna talk about related to Abraham and Sarah's age but we're also talking about our faith here where previously we had no faith.

We had no ability to believe God had not given us grace. God has given life to the dead.

We were dead in our sins and our trespasses through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. God has given life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

He called into existence our faith where previously there was no faith and the example that we get to understand this is talking about Abraham and Sarah.

In hope, he believed against hope, earthly hope. I mean, they had no hope, no way for Sarah to be able to conceive but he believed that he should become the father of many nations as said again, as he had been told, so shall your offspring be.

Verse 19, Abraham did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness and even when Abraham considered his own body and he considered the barrenness of his wife, he continued to believe in God and gave him glory and notice here that it says he grew strong as we continue to exercise our faith in God and give him glory in all things even when the situation seems hopeless by earthly standards, we grow stronger in our faith, giving glory to God.

That's the exercise of our faith, giving glory to God for all things. Let's go to verse 22, that is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness but the words, it was counted to him, which you see that in quotes, were not written for his sake alone but for ours also.

It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord. It was counted to him, was not written for his sake but for ours also.

In other words, we can go back to the book of Genesis and read the story of Abraham and Sarah and have our hope restored, renewed, our faith strengthened in God.

Those things were written for our benefit also. You don't discard the Old Testament. It is all for the growing of our faith.

It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus Christ our

Lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

When Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, it was God showing that he had accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And so all who are raised to new life in Jesus Christ, God shows that he has accepted

Christ's sacrifice for us, for our sins and we are declared righteous before God because of the work

Christ did, not because of the works that we do. God, we love you and we praise you for this word and I pray if there's anything about this we don't understand that we ask you for discernment and understanding and we've been promised in the scriptures that you will give it to us.

Let us meditate on this word and hide these words in our hearts and upon our minds that we might give you praise, glory in all circumstances and in our faith we grow strong.

And we pray and ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. This is a protection of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.