God Justifies The Ungodly - [Romans 4]

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As a professor, I love to give Bible quizzes, Bible exams, pop quizzes, tests.
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I have a question for you, class. How were people in the Old Testament saved from their sins?
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It's interesting, lots of people say, well, you know, the God of the Old Testament, wrathful, just, had a lot of vengeance.
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But the God of the New Testament, mercy and kindness, and just very gracious.
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And what they do is they forget that there's only one God, and there's continuity between Old and New Testaments.
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Same God of the Old Testament, and the same God of the New Testament. The New Testament God is wrathful and loving, and the
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Old Testament God is loving and wrathful. People think the same thing with salvation.
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You're saved by grace alone through faith alone in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament, you're saved by keeping the law.
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Let's draw upon our Bibles to Romans chapter 4 this morning, and ask and answer the question, how were people saved in the
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Old Testament? And thankfully, the resounding answer is, by faith alone.
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Just like in the New Testament, and just like today. How were people in the Old Testament saved?
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By grace alone through faith alone. One day Abraham's walking along, the
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Ur of Chaldees worshiping the moon God, and the next day, this uncircumcised person has faith.
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How does that work? We're going through the Bible chapter by chapter for this particular series, the book of Romans, and so today is all of chapter 4.
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What's been going on though in the book of Romans up to this point? Chapter 1 basically says this along with chapter 2, and most of chapter 3, that we have no righteousness.
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Whatever God requires for us to get to heaven, whatever He accepts, whatever He is pleased by that we would have, we don't have because of Adam's fall.
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And so Gentiles, chapter 1, have no righteousness before God. Gentiles are slaves to sin, they're under sin's domination, caged up by sin, and they don't have any personal righteousness.
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That goes for us as well. Chapter 2 and through chapter 3, verse 8,
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Paul then addresses the Jewish person who says, well, we have the Mosaic law, we have the oracles of God, we're not really like the
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Gentiles, we're not as bad as they are, but then Paul says in chapter 2 and chapter 3, when you distill it all down, you are just as bad as they are because you need a perfect righteousness to get into heaven, and you, along with the
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Gentiles, have no righteousness because after all, take a look at chapter 3, verse 20, for by the works of the law, no human being can be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
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So Paul basically says this, if you have natural revelation, the sun and the moon and the stars, and stiff -arm
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God with no response to those things, you should be responsive with praise and adoration, or if you're a
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Jew and you stiff -arm the law of God by not keeping it perfectly, you need righteousness from the outside.
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You need the righteousness which comes by faith. And then we see in chapter 3, verse 21, everything turns.
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It's like in Ephesians 2, 4 moment, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.
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Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, there is no distinction.
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Now, like a good teacher, Paul says there's an abstract thought of justification. Let's make it concrete by giving an illustration.
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So what was abstract in 320 and following, chapter 4 makes very easy to understand through an illustration, and that illustration is through Abraham.
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How was Abraham counted righteous in God's eyes? Did Abraham keep the law?
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How was Abraham saved? And that is chapter 4, a great illustration of Abraham and how he responded to the initiative of God.
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All right, let's take for our outline this morning, I almost called you class. I almost said class.
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What's the difference between teaching and preaching? Well, if you ask that question, you've never heard preaching. Okay, back to class.
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All right. To me, teaching is I'm trying to tell you what the Bible says, and preaching is you have to believe it.
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You've got to believe this truth. Justification by faith alone saves. That's teaching. Preaching is you've got to believe this.
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Every person here, and this is such a good chapter for all of us. Why? Because the problem
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Paul attacks, which is Jewish misunderstanding of the law, if I keep the law,
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God will give me favor. That problem exists today too. Oh, it exists in Jewish circles, unbelieving
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Jewish circles, but it also exists in churches today. If I keep the law, God is pleased, versus God has kept the law.
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God has done that through the person and work of Christ Jesus, and my response is just I take
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God at his word. I believe it. Just this week, I've talked to people about on campus, the
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Church of Christ comes and says, yes, we believe that Jesus is God, that there's a triune God, that Jesus died on the cross for sinners.
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He was raised from the dead. The Bible's authoritative. The Bible's sufficient. The Bible's inerrant.
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But you have to also be baptized to get into heaven. Happens all the time.
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Galatians 1 speaks of that. But Romans chapter 4, we see an illustration through Abraham that whether you're in the
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Old Testament or New Testament or you're alive today, there's only one way God saves, and he saves through Christ's finished work, through faith alone.
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So let me give you four truths that I want you to believe regarding God's way of saving people,
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Old Testament or New. Four truths designed for you to believe in God's way of saving.
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After all, that's the only way. In verses 1 to 8, first truth, believe that all the
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Bible, including the Old Testament, teaches salvation by grace alone through faith alone.
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I want you through the first eight verses to believe that whether it's Old Testament or New, it is salvation by grace alone through faith alone.
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Now, we're not going to see the word alone here, but it's implied because Paul is attacking works.
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You either get to heaven by works or by faith, completely obeying the law, do this and live, or by faith in the one who did this and lived,
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Christ Jesus, the risen Savior. So when Paul says faith, he means not works. He means faith alone.
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Let's take a look at chapter 4, verses 1 to 8, and see this through faith alone doctrine.
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No meritorious act, no law keeping, no circumcision for us today, no baptism.
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That doesn't save. Why? Because the law always condemns. The law is like a mirror.
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See your sin, see your sin, see your sin. How can you get to heaven through something that just shows you your sin?
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And Paul, in his wonderful way, it's a very Jewish way, it's a very excellent way of asking questions to someone who is going to have perceived objections.
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And he says in verse 1, in this diatribe, we technically call it, notice all the questions in this section.
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What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?
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Talk to any Jew back in those days or any Jew today, and I think they would say, Abraham was a wonderful man.
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And so Paul says, what then shall we say? What then in light of chapter 3, shall we say?
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It's a rhetorical question. Paul is a good teacher trying to illustrate this truth.
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What about our forefather, Abraham? Remember these verses in John 8,
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Jesus said, I speak the things that I have seen with my father. Therefore, you also do the things which you heard from your father, meaning
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Satan. But the Jews answered and said to him, Abraham's our father.
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Remember the song the kids sing, Father Abraham had many sons, that one. That's what they were basically singing here with better musical ability than I have.
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If you would have told me in seminary that once in a while I would actually sing from the pulpit, I would have denied that to my deathbed.
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I know that wasn't really singing, it was talk singing. The Old Testament never taught you're right with God through what you do, but through sin and through the ages,
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Judaism has now in New Testament times spiraled down into a works righteousness.
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Rabbinical literature at the time said Abraham kept the law and that's why
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God chose him. The Mishnah says we find that Abraham, our father, had performed the whole law before it was given him.
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So we have Abraham first, chronologically, then Moses, and before Moses ever got the law,
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Abraham kept the whole law by intuition and other means. That's why God chose him. By the way, class, after all, why did
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God choose Noah? And if you're not thinking, you'll say, well, because Noah, what?
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He was blameless in God's eyes and righteous before God. That's a verse. But the verse before it says
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Noah found what? Grace in the eyes of the Lord, our father. Noah was just as bad as everybody else.
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Abraham's just as bad as everybody else. And bad people, because their lives are so indwelt with sin, can't do anything but sin.
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If I was gonna try to teach a youth group or some junior high kids, if you could get your hands all stuck with pitch and tar, and you'd go to the
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La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, and then you'd see somebody else's white shirt that needed adjustment, and you'd try to do that.
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Everything gets all over, and it just makes a huge mess. The prayer of Manassas in rabbinic literature at the time said, oh,
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Lord, you're the God of the righteous. You have not appointed repentance unto Abraham. He didn't need to repent.
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The book of Jubilees, about 100 years before Jesus said, for Abraham was perfect in all his deeds.
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And friends, at the bottom of all this, if you do something so God saves you and says, you know, because you've done that,
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I therefore give you favor and I save you, then you know what you get? You get to go to heaven and say,
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I did it. You have something to boast of. If it's heaven through baptism, then
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I got baptized and this other guy didn't, and you can boast before God. You can stand right in God's face and say,
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I earned this for myself. That's exactly what verse two says.
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For if Abraham was justified by works, of course he has something to boast about, but not in the face of God.
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Can you imagine? Just think about this for a quick second. If you can get to heaven by being good, then
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God was horribly unjust to Jesus. You're gonna kill Jesus on the cross when people could earn their way to heaven, and so you kill
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Jesus on the cross. It's unheard of, may it never be. I wonder what the
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Bible says about this. What's the plain teaching of scripture? And that's what we get in verse three. Paul cites a singular scripture, therefore it's, what does the scripture say?
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He could say, what did the scripture say? That would have been true. The Old Testament teaches this very thing, but he's got a verse in mind,
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Genesis 15, six. For what does the specific scripture say? Abraham believed
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God, and it was counted to him, credited to him, reckoned to him as righteousness.
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He didn't work to get righteousness, he trusted God for righteousness.
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And the way it's set up in the original language is he quotes the Old Testament and he throws the word believe to the front of the verse so it's extra highlighted.
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Abraham was committed to this truth, he adhered to this truth, he relied on this truth. This Greek word corresponds to Genesis 15, six's word, which is aman, which means amen.
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Abraham said, you know what God, what you said about salvation, amen, I believe it.
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God gave a promise, Abraham's response was amen. Firmly convicted of this truth, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
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Faith isn't the ground of justification, it's just the channel. And don't you like that word there, counted?
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Logizimai, it's a bookkeeping term, it's a calculation term, it's an HP computer calculation calculator term.
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One -sided transaction, somebody takes something on this side of the ledger and puts it there, and it's not
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Abraham, it's God. This is the kind of language when
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Paul writes to Philemon about Onesimus, if he has defrauded you, and if he owes you anything, put that down to my account.
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And God says, this person is righteous in my sight. It's not because of faith, lots of times when you read these verses, and it says faith, somehow faith itself is counted as righteousness versus Christ's righteousness, this is just shorthand for faith in an object, not faith in faith.
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Faith includes the object, and we're gonna see that in the verses to come. But let's pick it up now in verse four. Now to the one who works,
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Aragon keeps on working, present tense, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.
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If you work, you get compensated, don't you? How many people here have to clock in to work? Many, I've had to clock in to work before, and you go in, you clock in, and you clock out, and then you know the really good thing is, after 40 hours, you go in to get paid, and then the boss hands it to you, and says, this is just my gift for you, just have a little gift for you today, you've been a good worker, here's my gift.
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Gift, what would you say? I earned it, I put in my 40 hours,
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I don't know who you are. Oh, I'm old. You have a debt to me,
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I worked, you paid, we have a contract. That's exactly what would happen if Abraham or anyone else said,
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I did these things, I got baptized, I got catechized, I got consecrated, I got all these things, I was good,
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I was better than another person, and God, you owe me, hand me my wage, I work for this.
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You don't want what's deserved by you, I don't want that. That just nullifies grace, that turns justification into a wage.
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That means you get a boast. Verse five, see how the theological shorthand is expanded a little bit here?
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It's not just faith counted as righteousness, it's faith in Him, because it's Christ's righteousness credited to our account.
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And to the one who does not work, what's the opposite of that? But believes in Him, trusts in Him, commits to Him, belief and work starkly contrasted, who justifies the ungodly.
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You can't do something to make yourself godly, then God justifies you because you're ungodly. His faith,
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His faith in Him is counted as righteousness. Who but God would justify ungodly people?
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Just think, whatever God is, ungodly people are the exact opposite. Holy, unholy, just, unjust, and the list goes on.
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The one who practices the opposite of what God does. So because of Adam's fall, and then consequently our own sin, we do everything opposite of what
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God does, because without faith it's impossible to please the Lord. And then God still figures out a way to justify people who do exactly the opposite of what
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He made them to do. So He gets all the praise. This is called sola fide, the doctrine of faith in Christ Jesus alone.
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You want to know what Paul teaches across all his epistles? God justifies the ungodly.
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Edwards put it this way, God in the act of justification has no regard to anything in the person justified, as godliness or any goodness in him, but that immediately before this act of justification,
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God beholds him only as an ungodly creature, so that godliness in the person to be justified is not so antecedent to his justification as to be the ground of it.
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In other words, God doesn't see anything in us. It's because of what's in him, his grace and mercy he saves.
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Wait a second though, two witnesses in Jewish law. I don't want just one, I want another. You may have got me on this one.
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I want another witness. So now we see David show up, completely in harmony with what happened to Abraham.
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Verse six, just as David also speaks of not the cursing, that's what he deserved, that's what we deserve, speaks of the blessing of the one to whom
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God counts righteousness apart from works. Oh, it's not just Abraham, but the
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Jews love David as well, and David speaks of this blessing too. Blessing, the approval of God.
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You want God's approval? How about verse seven? Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
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That word there, forgiven, we have different words in the New Testament. Forgiven, this one means to be sent away. How about your deepest, darkest secrets that only you know about?
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How would you like them to be just gone? Same language in Leviticus with the scapegoat. It just runs out there far, far, far away, and God doesn't even think about it anymore.
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You can't earn that. God has to do it. This word forgiven was used of cancellation of criminal proceedings, to release, to pardon.
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No wonder Micah said, who is a God like you who pardons iniquity? He doesn't even think about it anymore.
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That's one missionary's translation for the word forgiveness. And Eskimo doesn't think about it anymore.
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I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more, Jeremiah 31. And then, not only that, to have it covered.
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Look at the text. To put a shroud over it. To put it under some big tarp so no one sees it.
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And then we come to verse eight. Friends, this is the verse that Augustine had at the bottom of his bed.
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So every night this man, who used to be a frequenter of prostitutes and many other horrible things, every night he went to bed.
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This was the bedpost verse. We should start a new ministry here, making these bedposts.
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This is the last thing. We're not sick. We don't have diseases. We're not kind of ill.
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We are rotten sinners. But God, here's what he had at the post of his bed.
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Blessed is the man. Should be getting curses. But now, divine approval and happiness and everything else that goes along with it.
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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Lord, if you were to count iniquities, who could what?
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Stand. He doesn't count them because they've been counted to Christ's ledger.
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That's called justification. And Christ's perfect obedience has been counted to ours.
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That's called imputation. First truth we've seen in verses one to eight is that all the
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Bible, including the Old Testament, teaches grace alone through faith alone. Secondly, the second salvation truth
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I want you to believe, because of Romans four, verses nine to 12, is believe that all the
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Bible, including the Old Testament, teaches you are saved apart from divinely given ordinances or rites or sacraments.
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You're saved apart from sacraments, apart from ordinances. Some people make up laws.
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You're even saved from laws that aren't made up. They're in the New Testament. They're in the Old Testament. Now, here's what
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Paul's going to do. He's going to say this. What comes first? Genesis 15 or Genesis 17?
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It's a hard question, isn't it? They're forgetting something. Of course, circumcision is going to be given in Mosaic law as a sign as in a seal of some other truth.
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Tonight, there's going to be a baptism, Lord willing, right there in that water. The person getting baptized is going to make a testimony that says this.
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Lord, You have saved me. You have made me born again. You have justified me. You have redeemed me. You have made propitiation for me.
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You've done everything. You're the Savior. You've granted me faith in Christ Jesus, the risen Savior. I've repented of my sins.
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And in light of that, I'm going to show you about that internal belief that I have through an external means, confirming what
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I already believe, and that is through baptism. For some reason, if that person tonight begins to say, once I get dunked underneath this water and come up,
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I'm saved, then I might hold them under longer than they might expect. Actually, I was at a very large church in Louisville, one of the largest, and they have a baptismal font.
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And this particular church teaches you have to be baptized to go to heaven. And so the font was beautiful.
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The font was well lit and plexiglass so everyone could see. And actually, if this is the porthole of salvation, you'd make it gaudy too.
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And so this person gave their testimony. And so far, everything's right. Monotheistic, Bible, Jesus, cross, resurrection.
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You can have almost all of it right. But as I would say to my kids, how small a thing of dog dropping do you put in the brownies before you won't eat it?
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I didn't mean for you to laugh, but it's very effective. Romans 11, six, any little bit of work contaminates the grace of God and renders null the cross.
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So when that person dunked the other one into the water in Louisville and came out and that person said, welcome to the kingdom.
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What would Paul say? Verse nine, is this blessing then only for the circumcised?
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By the way, Abraham was circumcised. I mean, he believed when he was a Goyim, when he was Gentile for the law.
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Then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised. See, remember Paul, his ministry is to the
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Gentiles. It doesn't mean he doesn't preach to Jews, but his ministry is to the Gentiles. How do Gentiles get saved?
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They have no law. Is this just for people who get circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? Answer, for we say, we apostles sent by God that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
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This is for the Jew that said you forgot about the Old Testament, forgot about circumcision.
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And Paul says, no, I didn't forget about it. By the way, he believed in chapter 15 was circumcised in chapter 17.
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Just like we believe and then get baptized, not to save us, but because we're saved.
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Shows that we are. Is this blessing for people that have only had literally circumcised the foreskin cut and removed?
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Well, that was a Jewish misconception. Rabbis in the New Testament time period around there said,
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Jalkut Ruben, circumcision saves from hell. Midrash Malim taught,
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God swore to Abraham that no one who was circumcised should be sent to hell. Akadeth Jehaka said,
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Abraham sits before the gate of hell and does not allow any circumcised Israelite to ever enter there.
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Whether it's ceremony, activity, rite, baptism, circumcision, Abraham was justified by faith alone.
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Why did he then ask for Abraham to be circumcised? To show the internal truth that existed in his life.
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Verse 10, how then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised?
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Paul in his diatribe way in verse 10 says how then, but he really would mean if you take the second sentence, the second question, when then was it counted?
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Was it before or after he'd been circumcised? Genesis 15 or 17. It was not after, but before he was circumcised.
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And if it was before he was circumcised and you're a Gentile, how do you get to heaven? By faith alone.
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Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. By faith alone. Verse 11, he received a sign of circumcision, not as a means of salvation, but as a seal of the righteousness that he had, he already had.
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By faith while he was still uncircumcised. Chapter 15, the purpose was to make him the father of what?
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All who believe. Father Abraham had many sons. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them, the
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Gentiles as well. Warren Wiersbe said as a sign, circumcision was evidence that he belonged to God and he believed his promise.
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As a seal, it was a reminder to him that God had given the promise and would keep it. Circumcision did not add to Abraham's salvation, it merely attested to it.
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Doesn't that sound like baptism today too? It's exactly why we baptize people. You don't earn salvation, it's been earned for you by Christ.
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Verse 12, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised, not just on the outside, but in the inside.
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No wonder Deuteronomy says, have your hearts circumcised. How do you circumcise your own hearts? If I told you all today, go home and circumcise your own hearts, that would be pretty gory.
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And you still wouldn't be able to do it because it's a spiritual thing done by God. And then the skin removal is just a sign and seal of that very thing.
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Who are not merely circumcised externally, Paul means in verse 12, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father had before he was circumcised.
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There's no immunity from penalty of God that you've justly earned if you've been circumcised externally, but only internally.
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Physical circumcision does not add anything to salvation. There must be faith in the living
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God. And here Abraham is a trailblazer for all those who would believe.
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Friends, do you think you're going to get to heaven by counting on your baptism? I'm a church member,
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I've been baptized. I was baptized right there. Therefore, God must save me. You can't get to heaven that way.
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How many times have you been to a funeral? I've been to plenty of them. And the person comes in the casket down the aisle.
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And then the first thing that religious leader says is based on the person's baptism, we know they're in heaven. What does
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Romans four say? Third truth found in verses 13 to 17.
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The third salvation truth that I want you to believe. We've seen that the Old Testament teaches faith alone for salvation.
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It teaches you can't do any ordinance to earn God's favor. You do it in light of God's favor. And now number three, believe that all the
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Bible, including the Old Testament, teaches salvation apart from works. So through faith alone, not through ordinances or sacraments or rites or ceremonies.
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Now three, salvation apart from works. That's what Paul's been saying this whole time.
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But Paul, like a good Bible teacher, says it more in verses 13 to 17. No one's justified in keeping the law.
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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.
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It's not through the law of Sinai, not through adherence to the Mosaic law.
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Moses wasn't even given. Moses wasn't given when
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Abraham was probably sitting there night after night looking at the stars of the sky and God had promised him you'd be a father of many nations and he's too old to have kids.
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She's too old to have kids. It's nothing to do with the law.
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It's through faith. That's why I said in the first service as well, on a side note, a pastoral note, show me people that wanna keep pushing you back underneath Mosaic law all the time and I'm gonna show you people who weren't meant to be under Mosaic law.
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And when you get pushed under Mosaic law to try to obey it all the time, even as a guide and helper, push back under Moses, under Moses, under Moses, and I'll show you people who are crabby and cantankerous because they're not meant to be under that.
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It's through faith. I think this is the problem of the Jews today.
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Instead of holding up Abraham as the example, through faith alone, they held up Moses.
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And the only thing Moses does is show you how far you fall short. The promise from God was a gracious promise that Abraham would be an heir, promised with no conditions.
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Verse 14, for if it's the inheritance of the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.
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God did not say to Abraham, I'll make you the father of many nations if you do these things.
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Remember what happened in Genesis 15? Your homework tonight is read Genesis 15, 16, and 17. Remember Genesis 15?
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God is gonna make a promise and covenant and oath with Abraham. So how do we make those promises and oaths and covenants back in those days?
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Well, you take a bunch of animals, cut them in half. One half's over here, one half's over here. Make a big line like kind of hash marks on a football field.
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And then you get the other person you're making the promise with and you go arm and arm through those dead animals saying what?
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If we break our promise to one another, what's done to those dead animals should be done to us. But for God with Abraham, it was just a promise.
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Abraham, here's your job. You go over there and take a nap and God goes through the middle of those dead animals by himself.
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And what does the text say? He swears by himself. And if it's, well, when
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Abraham holds up the deal, then God blesses it. Then this faith is null and the promise is void.
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It's the empty set. It's deprived of its effect. You can't achieve righteousness through morality.
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That's why this whole moral majority thing that failed and tanked, it had to fail and tank.
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Whether you cling to the 10 commandments or the golden rule or anything else, you have to cling to what
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Jesus did and how He fulfilled those very things. Why? Verse 15, for the law brings wrath.
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It stimulates sin. It exposes sinfulness, but where there's no law, hey, it's been fulfilled by Christ, Romans 10.
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There's no transgression, no law, no violation.
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That's what we're after. Verse 16, don't forget this verse. You may have passed this by.
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This is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace, may rest on grace, may rest on grace.
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If you've got to keep the law, it rests on you. If you have to have the law kept for you by God, it rests on grace and be guaranteed to all
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His offspring. How could that happen if you had to do it? You would fail. I've failed, not only to the inherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
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You want to know why people are heirs of God? It rests on grace. The law says do this and live, and we can't do it and live, only
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Jesus did. Paul quotes Scripture again. He says in verse 17, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the
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God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls unto the existence things that do not exist.
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The object of faith is the key. And now we come to the conclusion of chapter four in verses 18 through 25.
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Believe you're saved by faith alone, not through any ordinances. Apart from works in number four, here's what the person should be asking right now if you've properly understood verses one through 17.
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It's by faith alone, in the work of Christ alone, not by my own baptism, not by any works.
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It's by faith alone, by faith alone, by faith alone. And here's the question you should be asking yourself. What kind of faith is it?
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Do I have that kind of faith? And so Paul talks about that right here. What kind of faith? Number four, believe that all the
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Bible, including the Old Testament, teaches that the faith that justifies is like Abraham's faith.
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You know it very well from being at this church. There is a faith that doesn't save. You can believe and go to hell because it has to be the right kind of belief.
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It can't just be simple credence, simple ascent, simple knowledge. It has to be what?
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It has to be a faith like Abraham's. What kind of faith was that? Let's find out. In our day and age of lowest common denominator faith, just give me enough faith so I don't go to hell.
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Give me hell insurance faith. I just wanna do the least amount. I got my own life to live.
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Give me the least amount to do so I can still go to heaven. It's a tragic response.
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In hope, Abraham believed against hope. It's impossible humanly that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told, so shall your offspring be.
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It's hope against hope. This is like Mary who says, you know what?
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I know you said I'm gonna have the Messiah, but I'm a virgin. I know you can do it,
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I just don't know how. Which is a faith -filled hope compared to John the
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Baptist's parents, our father in particular. You say you're gonna do it.
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I don't know if you can. And his lip was zipped in judgment.
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He knows it can happen, he just doesn't know how. That's called faith. How is this going to happen?
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Verse 19, he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body. He should have.
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100 years old. Ever seen a 100 -year -old guy? Ever see the stars or the sky?
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Ever see a 90 -year -old woman? You've got an infinite man and a barren woman post -menopausal and then together father of the nations.
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Or well, Elman Abraham, but you know what I mean. He was as good as dead.
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Since he was about 100 years old, we're not talking about he's almost ready to die. His physical body.
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Procreation, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. Here's the point.
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Abraham just wasn't having blinders on. Oh, you know, whatever happens, happens. I just believe in God. He'd sit there and he'd think, you know what?
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I can't have a kid, she can't have a kid. There's gotta be some way that I can have a kid. I know this is gonna work, I know, because God said it.
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Good as dead. Hebrews chapter 11 talks of Abraham. Perfect tense, the permanence of his impotence.
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Shall I indeed bear a child when I am so old? Sarah said with laughter. Is anything too difficult for the
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Lord? And then we have verse 20 of Romans chapter four. And if you've got a King James here like Pastor Dave, maybe it's even more impressive.
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No belief made him waver. What's it say in the King James? He staggered not concerning the promise of God.
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It should make you stagger. But he grew in faith, excuse me, excuse me.
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He grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. He wasn't doubting
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God. I'm just gonna have to trust God. And here his faith is tested and it grew strong.
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God strengthened it. This is passive voice. Abraham got his faith stronger. God strengthened his faith.
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It's where we get the word endurance. And then later, the supreme illustration of his outworking faith.
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He was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son in whom it was said, in Isaac your descendants shall be.
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And what did Abraham do? He gave glory to God. What did the pagans do who saw the creation of the world in chapter one do?
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They didn't give what? Glory to God. They didn't glorify God or give him thanks.
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Became futile in their hearts and in their minds and in their speculations. Well, what is faith?
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Would you like a definition of faith class? This is maybe the best definition of faith found using
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Bible words. We could maybe give you some Latin with the Reformation and fiducia and notitia and stuff like that.
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How about just give you a Bible verse. What is faith? I wonder if you have this kind of faith with the right object. Could be the most wonderful definition of faith in all the
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Bible. Verse 21, fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised.
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Amen, God. You said if I look to the Lord Jesus Christ with faith, believe in Him, turn from my sins, salvation,
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I believe it. Amen. Fully convinced. Fully assured.
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I know you tell the truth, God. Nothing's too difficult for you. I can't see it. I walk by sight, but I'm going to believe by faith.
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That is why verse 22, His faith was counted to Him as righteousness.
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Shorthand for His faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the non -meritorious instrument where God credits to Abraham the righteousness that Christ has merited and earned.
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That's so good, but I wish it applied to me somehow. I'm not Abraham. I don't live 3 ,000 years ago.
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Does it apply to me? Verse 23 and following, Paul's application for us. But the words it was counted to Him were not written for His sake alone.
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Oh, I'm so glad. But for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead
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Jesus our Lord. Do you believe?
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You must believe. Belief isn't work.
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It's in stark contrast to work. Believing in the Lordship of Christ Jesus who, verse 25,
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Paul wraps it up with another great truth. Whole sermon should be preached on this. Who was delivered up.
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Sounds like Isaiah 53. Delivered to death. Sounds like Romans 8. Delivered Him up to give over to some authority.
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He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. God was so pleased with Christ Jesus' life and death,
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He raised Him from the dead. Christ paid for our debt.
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Christ grants to all those who believe His perfect righteousness. And instead of boasting in ourselves, it's time to boast in the
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Lord for such a great salvation. Let's pray. Praise Him, praise
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Him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful love proclaim.
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Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels in glory. Strength and honor give to His holy name.
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Father, would you help Bethlehem Bible Church to be good ambassadors of this great news to people who are enslaved to a works system?
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That pretty much covers everybody on the face of the globe. Father, would you help us to be people who have you received glory because of our testimony, both of the lives that we live in front of the people by your grace.
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And because we point them to the one in whom they must believe. If there's anyone here,
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Father, who doesn't believe, I pray that you'd give them no sleep nor rest until they rest by faith alone in you.