"Accounted for Righteousness"

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 15:1-6

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Well, this morning we begin chapter 15, as we've just read, and we, in some ways, are about to launch into a series on God's covenant with Abram.
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And we'll take opportunity, not this morning, not even next week, but soon we'll take opportunity to consider how the covenant becomes the structure, the superstructure of the
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Bible. And so we'll consider what we mean by covenant theology between chapter 15 and chapter 17.
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Now perhaps you've had this kind of experience, like I've had, where you've gone to a pool and maybe as we eased our way into some familiar territory in Genesis 1 -3, we're sort of going down into the steps, and then you're in the kiddie pool, it's up to your knees, no deeper than your waist, and things are still relatively comfortable, relatively familiar, and you start to keep walking, you notice that the feet sign goes from 3 to 4 to 5, and keeps on descending lower, and as we launch toward chapter 17, it might feel like you've just lost that sensation on your toes and you're beginning to tread.
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Because covenant theology is very deep, it's very complex, it's been articulated and elaborated and expanded upon over time, and we hope to do justice to the parts of it that are most significant for us, and the most significant for our understanding of Genesis, and God's relationship to Abram, and therefore his relationship to us.
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And so that's all a little bit of a preface of where we might be going in the next weeks and months. But this morning, we're looking at chapter 15, and we're not yet considering the
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Abrahamic covenant. Now you should know something about that. The Abrahamic covenant really begins here in chapter 15 with verse 7, and we're only going to be dealing with verses 1 -6 this morning.
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There's been a lot of debate about where and what God's covenant with Abram is.
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We remember God comes to Abram in chapter 12 and calls him out of Ur of the
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Chaldeans, and some have said, oh, this is God making a covenant with Abram in chapter 12. Others have said, no, no, no, no, his covenant is in chapter 17, this covenant of circumcision, that's where God makes his covenant with Abram.
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Well, I think both of these positions are not quite right, not quite accurate. The covenant really is chapter 15, that is the covenant that God makes with Abram.
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In chapter 12, God gives Abram a promise, and that promise points toward the covenant that we have in this chapter.
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In chapter 17, there's no covenant ceremony, there's not an additional covenant given, but there is an affirmation, and then an elaboration or further instruction upon the covenant that we have before us in chapter 15.
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So that's just a little placeholder to understand why chapter 15 is so important. This morning, we want to consider verses 1 through 6.
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You might notice that these first six verses are being separated from verse 7 to the end of the chapter, and I think
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I can justify that. We begin chapter 15 with a vision of the
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Word of God. God brings the Word to Abram in a vision, and part of that vision, as we'll come to see in verse 5, is to go out and look to the heavens to see the stars, and of course, that can only take place, even if you're on Bemis Heights, that can only take place at night.
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That's the only time you'll see the stars shining in all of their glory. We move forward, beginning in verse 7, and we have the whole covenant ceremony taking place, and then according to verse 12, we have the sun setting.
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So this is a different time, a different day, and we read in verse 18, on that same day, the
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Lord made a covenant with Abram. So verses 1 through 6, we're not on the same day, we're not yet at this covenant -making ceremony.
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Verses 1 through 6 are the preamble. They're the prologue to the covenant with Abram.
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So let's just begin. We're going to walk through these verses, then we're going to camp out on verse 6. And we could spend a month camping out on verse 6.
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Verse 6 is a tectonic plate, as far as the gospel is concerned. But let's begin with verse 1.
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We read, After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,
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Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.
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The last time we saw Abram, he was spurning the spoil of warfare.
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He was rejecting the king of Sodom's serpent -like offer of a reward, which was already his reward to begin with, but he gave it all after tithing to the priest -king of peace and righteousness.
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He gave it all to the king of Sodom. He didn't want to be stained or dragged down into the worldliness like Lot.
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Now we don't know how long after these things of chapter 14, God's word came to Abram.
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But it was simply after these things. When that word comes, it opens with this,
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Do not be afraid. Now some have said, Well, Abram must have been fearful of retribution from the alliance of those four kings.
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You know, he did this knight assault. He kind of took their spoil and their captives.
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And maybe now he's really afraid that there's going to be some, you know, some charge, some counterattack against him.
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And I just don't see that. If you were going to be afraid, it would to be going to rescue Lot in the first place.
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That's when the fear would come. We already saw in Hebrews that that whole event was called the slaughter of the kings.
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To say that Abram was successful is to give him short shrift. He was utterly victorious.
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And then he went to go meet Melchizedek and Melchizedek assured him that God had given him that victory. So it's hard to understand that after all of that, and after he blesses
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God and recognizes that God has given him the victory, that then he would be afraid of a counterattack. Rather I think it's simply the way the word of the
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Lord has come to Abram. It's rather startling, rather off -putting. Don't we often in Scripture see when an angel comes to bring a word of the
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Lord, the first thing that angel says is, Fear not, or do not be afraid. Because it's a pretty terrifying thing to encounter something divine, something supernatural.
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And so that seems to be the context here. Fear not. Do not be afraid. Here's this vision. God gives a reassurance, and it's two -fold.
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He is both the shield and the rewarder of Abram. Now we have to keep in mind this context of this war, this assault,
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God's interaction with him, because all of that is behind this imagery of the shield.
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God said, I am your shield. Certainly Abram would have connected that to the night assault.
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Certainly Abram would have had a shield when he was going to battle to rescue his nephew and the other captives.
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God had literally become a shield of protection for Abram. And then
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Melchizedek explains that that was the case. So we have this military image of the shield, which is totally lost to us unless you're riot police.
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Because no one uses shields anymore except, I think, the riot police, right? So for us, a soldier with a shield, we just don't put that together, where that would have been the most basic equipment you could possibly have as a soldier.
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I think they fell out of use in the 18th century. Or at least I don't know of shields being used much longer than the
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Scottish Highlanders defying the throne of England. And they had their little leather round shields with the little spearhead on it, which is very close to my heart.
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But God often uses this image of shield, and it's a military image, to show not only protection but peace and stability, reassurance.
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Nothing's going to thwart you. Nothing's going to overtake you. You are completely protected, completely surrounded.
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God is the shield of his people. Now as Christians, we come to Ephesians 6 and we have a different angle on what it means to carry a shield in the
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Christian life. We put on the armor of God and the shield is one component of that armor.
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But notice the difference here. The shield is not a product of our faith or faithfulness, a process in the
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Christian life. It's God himself. I am your shield, Abram.
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That's what God reveals. God says, Abram, I go before you. I protect you.
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Are you feeling vulnerable? Well, you shouldn't because I'm the one in front of you, all around you. I'm the one hiding you, protecting you.
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As you press forward, the fact that God reveals himself as a shield means there's going to be more battles that Abram has to face, more warfare to endure.
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There's going to be fiery darts that are hurled at him. God is saying in all of these situations, I am your shield.
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When you're feeling vulnerable in the land, when you feel defenseless, know that because I am your shield, you are safe, you are secure to the uttermost.
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Know that apart from me, Abram, you are utterly defenseless, naked, invulnerable.
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I alone am your shield. Not only is God the shield, he is the rewarder.
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Now our translation presents God as being the reward. And I don't think that's a great translation, even though that's a true point theologically.
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God is the reward of his people. God is the gospel. A wonderful book by John Piper.
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But I don't think that's the best translation. Other translations, ESV, I think they get this right.
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We should supply this phrase, will be. Your reward will be exceedingly great.
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And so God is now in the position of the rewarder, and we have to again keep in mind the context.
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Abram has just given away the reward of the spoil. He's tithed and then given that away.
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I don't want to be touched with the reward of war. And God says, yes, I'm your shield and I'm your rewarder.
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I will determine what success you have and what you receive from that success. And so again, chapter 15, verse 1 is totally coming off of what we saw in chapter 14.
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The context, though, now points us toward Abram's complaint. Because God says, your reward will be great.
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Your reward will be exceedingly great, abundantly great. So we have this image of reward, and we have this image of abundance, and we can't help but think of that abundant blessing that God had promised back in chapter 12.
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And so now we understand why Abram responds to God the way he does in verse 2, which we'll read in a moment.
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Abram rejected the spoil of war. God comes and says, I'm your shield.
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I will reward you abundantly. And we realize already, Abram isn't interested in sodomite gold.
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He has no place for the silver of Sodom. He wants the reward of children.
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He wants offspring. Genesis 12, 2, I will make you a great nation. 13, 16,
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I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth. If a man could number the dust of the earth, your descendants could be numbered.
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But Sarai is barren. And God has just said, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to be the one who rewards you abundantly.
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This was the reward that Abram wanted, the offspring. Scripture itself, Psalm 127, speaks of children as a reward, and it's the same exact Hebrew word, sekar.
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That's the sekar. That's the reward that Abram wants. He wants the offspring. He wants the child of promise.
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If he didn't pick this up as he ought to have in the lineage of the faithful from the creation mandate, then he would have gotten it just from the promises
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God had already made to him. But these promises were not yet fulfilled. Sarai was still barren.
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He was still a stranger dwelling in a land. And there was no sign, no hint that somehow he was going to become a great nation, that through him, through his offspring, the families of the earth would be blessed.
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And so naturally, Abram responds in verse 2, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing
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I go childless? And the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.
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So Abram's response, he's already fixated on what that reward is that he's seeking. Not the silver, not the gold, not the possessions, but the promise.
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The promise. Lord God, what will you give me? What is your abundant reward, seeing as my wife is barren and I go childless?
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Haven't I served you? Haven't I walked with you? Haven't I sacrificed for you? Haven't I trusted you?
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I went to war because of you. Haven't I followed your ways? Haven't I learned from my mistakes?
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Lord, what will you give me now, if you haven't given me that which you've promised? Now, this verse here, it begins,
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I think, somewhat meekly. Abram first addresses God as Lord Yahweh, and this is an utterly unique phrase here.
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In the English, we miss it, Lord God, but in the Hebrew, it's very unique. It's very unique.
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In fact, it's very rare that we find the way the Hebrew is pointed here. Lord God, Lord Adonai, Lord Yahweh.
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This personal language, he's gone from the God most high in chapter 14 to getting at the very heart of who
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God is, getting at his name, the Lord I am, the Lord Yahweh. Lord Yahweh, what will you give me?
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Seeing I go childless, hint, hint, the heir of my house is
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Eliezer of Damascus. So, Abram is pleading the promise. He's pleading the promise.
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What will you give me as an abundant reward, seeing as I go childless? He's pleading the promise. Childless as a term, it heightens the situation here.
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Childless in terms of Leviticus 20 is a curse. Childlessness in Jeremiah 22 is a picture of divine judgment.
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Now, let me be very clear as we talk about this, and I'm very sensitive to this. That does not mean that God is blessing and rewarding people when he gives them children, and so they must know him and be on good terms with him.
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And if there's people who are seeking to live by faith and they're not able to conceive or they're not given children or children are taken away, that somehow his wrath or disfavor rests upon them.
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You get the exact opposite picture of that in Scripture when we look at the patriarchs upon whom all of the promises and purposes of God are resting upon and every one of their wives is barren.
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Interesting, isn't it? And so God takes that theme, talks about the barren woman who weeps in the night, but joy comes in the morning,
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Rachel weeping for her children. And all of this has to do with the fulfillment of the gospel, that which seemed to give birth to the wind now being realized as the gospel and the kingdom of, the gospel of the kingdom comes forth.
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So that's a very important caveat. We don't want to have a simple black and white equation to childbearing and childlessness.
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But all things being equal in the ancient Near Eastern mindset, the fact that you're barren or your land is barren or anything in your life is barren means that God's favor is not upon you.
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So for God to say, I'm your shield, Abram, I'm going to give you an abundant reward.
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Reward is going to be your life. Abram goes, reward, blessing, I am cursed.
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What is my reward? I have no offspring. I'm dwelling in a land not my own.
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I don't even have an heir for my house. My heir is someone born in my house, Eliezer of Damascus. Now he mentions this man and we know nothing about him other than his name and perhaps the fact that he comes from Damascus.
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Even that is up in the air. It could be the house of Masech or it could be
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Damascus and there seems to be some wordplay here. There's an irony in the way that Abram has appointed this to be his current heir, seeing as he goes childless.
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The phrase son of Masech or son, Ben Masech, that would be like son of my acquiring, son, you know, like a purchased property or as it's often translated, one born in my house.
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And then it's Eliezer of Damascus, so Ben Masech, Damascus. There's wordplay here and he's saying, in other words, the only heir that I have, the only reward that has been given me according to your promise is something that I already acquired, an heir that's not my own that was born into my house.
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One of many, we already saw last chapter, just the young men that were trained, born into his house, numbered 318.
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So here's Eliezer, this little wordplay, and he's saying, Lord, this is all I have, an unfulfilled promise and no, no reward.
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To us, this seems like a rather strange grievance, but we haven't received the promise and we don't understand the connotation of how a house and a dynasty go together.
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If you don't have a son, you don't have a house, you don't have a dynasty. In other words, without a son, there is no promise.
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God's promise will fall to nothing. Abram will not be a great nation.
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The earth will not be blessed through him. Most importantly, the serpent crushing seed will not come.
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And yet all around Abram, children are being born. When we read that little phrase, the one born in my house, here's his wife, she's barren.
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Here's Abram, he's trying to trust God even though he feels out of favor. And yet, 318 are born in his house.
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All his servants, they have little families and children crawling around the feet. Abram and Sarah picking up these ones that are born in their house, sending them on their way, providing for them, all the while being outside of that.
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This is his grievance. And so he repeats the claim and now it's not so meek, frankly.
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It's kind of like Job, starts out right, but as the chapters go on and as the advice of his friends begins to fail, he starts to get a little more bold in his grievance against God.
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And this takes place almost between verse 2 and verse 3. Abram said, look, behold, you have given me no offspring.
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Let's not beat around the bush. Let me be direct. Seeing as I go childless, Lord, now it's look, you have given me no offspring.
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One born in my house is my heir. This is your fault. You're in control.
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You're filled promise. Look, look Lord, you have failed.
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Look Lord, you have given me no offspring. Look Lord, you say you're going to reward me and I see no reward.
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This is a protest. And the thing that ought to amaze us is that God invites his people to protest.
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We'll see that with Jacob down the lineage of Abram at Peniel in chapter 32 when he contends with God, when he wrestles with God through the night.
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God invites his people to contend, to protest, to wrestle. It's an amazing thing.
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You could not read the book of Psalms without noticing this. That we're not to put on a stiff upper lip like the queen's guard and just stand to attention and sort of take our lots.
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That he gives us the language that we feel shy to pray. He says no, I'm going to put it in my book for you.
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I want you to sing and to pray and to read and to grieve over these words.
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Come at me. Contend with me. Wrestle with me. Work it out.
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Let me respond to you in my own way. Let me condescend to come to your level.
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Help you to see the things you cannot see in yourself and the things you refuse to see of me. So this is what
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God often does with his people and we should just be amazed by that. He allows that sense of anxiety or loss or sacrifice to begin to turn us and make us sour toward the things of the
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Lord. And we want to become distant and say no, no, bring that to me. Bring that to me. Come to me.
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Protest. Bring out your complaints. But know that if you bring out your complaint against me,
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I'm going to say eventually a chapter 38 is going to come and I'm going to say gird yourself like a man. Now I'm going to speak to you.
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So he invites his people to contend but we know that his response is coming. Abram is contentious here.
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There's another side of it that really is from faith. As we've said, Abram is pleading the promises. Look, you've given me no offspring but it's you that promised me offspring.
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Are you going to be true to your word? You promised this but you haven't given it. In a way,
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Abram is saying there's nothing I can do. You control the womb.
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I cannot fulfill your promise. You must. It's all hanging on you. You've promised and now you must provide.
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That's essentially what Abram is saying in verse 3. And so then God responds.
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Behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one shall not be your heir but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.
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He doesn't say gird yourself like a man. He doesn't say who are you made of dust to respond to the
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God most high. He says, Abram, cheer up. Abram, be patient.
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Eliezer is not going to be your heir. My promise is sure. My word is true.
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One from your own body will be your heir. So Abram is unable to see
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God's timing, God's purpose, God's plan, things that must happen beforehand.
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In fact, even from this promise, we'll see that we have many chapters to go before this word is fulfilled.
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So God is cultivating Abram's faith. God is stretching out and testing
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Abram's patience and his perseverance. I was reminded of this just yesterday as we had made lunch plans and the day was rather going late and as we were driving, we were supposed to meet with my parents, and I was on the car phone talking to Elsie.
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She said, Dad, you said we were going to lunch. I said, I know, but the day is so late, I think we might have to cancel. But you said, you said we're going to lunch.
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You don't understand. It is the Father's goodwill to provide for you, little one. There's just a lot you don't understand about the way the day takes shape.
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Of course, we fulfilled that promise, and she was happy, and it was just a little picture of Abram to me.
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Come on, God, what's taking so long? You begin to doubt the will of the Father.
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Is it good? Is it sure? Is it sure? Is that word true? Does it look like it? Does it feel like it? And yet, more of my life is given over in surrender.
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More is being required of me, and so how can I keep walking when I'm not finding that reward? And then
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God comes in his own time with this reassurance, you've wrestled with me, here's the blessing, one from your own body.
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If there was any question in Abram's mind, we know from Ruth chapter 4 that you can adopt one and make him your legal son.
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This was common practice in the ancient world. There was any doubt that maybe someone like Eliezer was meant to be the heir of Abram.
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God settles that here. No, one from your own body, but as we'll see, as a little preview for chapter 16, as years go by, that promise begins to get shaky.
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One from my own body, but maybe not one from Sarah's body, and so the story of Hagar really begins here.
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But notice that, in the way that God reassures Abram, he doesn't just say, one from your own body will come from you.
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This will be your heir, and then just leave it at that, let Abram go on his merry way. God takes it a step further.
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God goes abundantly beyond Abram's protest. Verse 5, then he brought him outside, don't you love that?
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It's the same verb that would be used of a shepherd leading his cattle, to bring them out of the gate, or to bring them out of the valley.
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He brought him outside. He led him outside. Look now toward heaven.
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Count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be.
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So in responding to Abram's contentious, look, you've given me no offspring, what does
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God say? Look at the heavens. Look Lord, look down here.
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Look at my situation. Look how I'm struggling. Look how I'm doubting Lord, look, and God says no, you look.
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You look up. You look at who I am. You look at what my word is, and what my word has done.
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You look at my work on the earth, and you tremble. Now I don't look at you Abram, you look at me.
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I don't look down where you are, you look up where I am. God is not just saying, oh look at the stars, there's a lot of them, aren't there?
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That's kind of what you're going to be like. God is saying, very similar to what he said to Job, are you able to count these hosts?
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Let me know if you're able. Who is this who darkens counsel using words without rhyme?
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Do you think I'm unable to do this? Was I unable to create the stars that you can't count? Was I able to articulate a square inch on a star that no human eye will ever see?
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Abram, who are you complaining to? Who are you doubting? Look, look up.
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Look around you. Crisis and trial, and that sense of sacrifice with no return, it just brings our gaze downward and inward, doesn't it?
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Our whole world becomes our pain. Our whole world becomes our struggle. And God is very wise to pull
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Abram out of that. Are you sulking on the sofa in your little tent, Abram? Come outside. Get out of that place.
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Don't be sulking there. Come outside and look around. You've been living under a ceiling.
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You've been living in front of a screen. It's time to actually take a stalk at the world that I've made and be reminded of who
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I am. When we deny his power, his majesty, inevitably we deny his purpose.
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And soon after that, we deny his ability. And so God, almost as it were, gives
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Abram this sacrament, if we could use this language. It's a visible word, a visible representation, a means of grace.
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And the New Testament, as we'll see in Romans 4, will take this up and use this language to say the stars are us.
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Did you know you're a star? We're stars. We are the stars here in Genesis 15, the church, those bought by the precious blood of Christ.
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We are the seed that was promised to Abram. So how does
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Abram respond to this? And this is where we want to spend the rest of our time. Verse 6, and he believed in the
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Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. That's Abram's response.
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Notice verse 6 does not say, and he sold all of his possessions and moved into a convent and he started doing really good works for his neighbor, and soon the
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Lord noticed and the Lord decided to bless all of that effort with a righteous stent now. He believed in the
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Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. He had faith in the
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Lord and the Lord counted that to him as righteousness.
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So this word belief, here in the Hebrew, there's different ways of doing this, but when it was brought over to the
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Greek, it's what's translated as faith, or the verb to exercise faith, to have faith.
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If you could put it this way, it would be faithing in the Lord, so we just translate that as believing or believed in the Lord. But it's the same idea, the same picture, the same concept of faith, of belief.
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Here in the Hebrew, because you can put things in different stems, the significance is this, Abram depended upon the
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Lord, or Abram resolved his trust in the Lord, Abram established his outlook on the
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Lord, any of these things would do, we find the same usages elsewhere. So faith doesn't become this technical, super -spiritual word that no one can define, it means quite literally depending on the
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Lord, depending on what he's revealed in his promise, living your life established upon it, changing your life in accordance with it, all of this is what it means to believe the
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Lord, believe what he said and live according to that. Now, Genesis 15, 6, as I've said, is a tectonic plate for Scripture.
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This is such an important verse, I am embarrassed to only spend one Sunday on it, because it doesn't give you that sense of just how important it is.
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He believed in the Lord, and the Lord accounted it to him for righteousness, he reckoned it to him, he credited it to him, he imputed it to him as righteousness.
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In the events of Genesis 15, Abram has done nothing but perhaps grumble, that's about it.
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What work has he done in Genesis 15 but lay out a protest or a charge or a complaint against the
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Lord? He hasn't done anything. We're past all of the intrigue and drama of chapter 14, this is a time removed from that, and all
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Abram does is lay out, what's my reward, Lord, I go childless, you're the one preventing me from having offspring, and the
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Lord says, no, I'm going to give you an offspring from your own body, and then this is the only thing Abram does, he just responds, that's all he does.
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The only action, aside from protesting or grumbling, that Abram performs in chapter 15, verse 6, is responding.
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And how he responds is believing. It's a believing response, it's a response of faith,
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Lord, I believe you and my life will change now accordingly, Lord, I'm depending upon what you've revealed,
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I can't do it myself, you have to bring it about, I'm depending upon you. He believed, and when he believed, we have this mysterious phrase, the
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Lord accounted it to him for righteousness. Genesis 15, 6 is the core text for our doctrine of justification by faith alone.
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It's the core, it's the first born, the first fruits.
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Genesis 15, 6 is what the rest of Scripture builds upon to demonstrate that a sinner is justified by faith apart from works.
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That was central, not only to the Reformation, the Protestant Reformation, as believers following in the wake of Luther and Zwingli and Calvin realized that this precious truth was so precious, so freeing, that they gave their own blood to preserve it and to pass it down.
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And so they willingly were tied to stakes and burnt, willingly tortured, willingly went to their deaths because they would not lose this precious pearl.
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That a sinner is brought near by the blood, justified by faith in what
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God has done and not by works. Now that wasn't true just of the Reformation, it was also true of the early church.
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Most of the letters that Paul writes have the fingerprints of this controversy over how one is made right with God.
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How is one justified? By works of the law or by faith? So Galatians and Romans, many other places we could turn to where Paul addresses this head on.
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There were controversies, Acts 15 is settling very much an issue related to this controversy.
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How is one right with God? Now in our own day, there's still debate, controversy, movements that have developed to try to sidestep what the early church possessed through the apostolic preaching, what the reformers recovered through the distortion of the medieval
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Catholic church, what liberals and skeptics in every quarter today are trying to marginalize and put astray.
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We hold on to this as the core of justification apart from works, sola fide, but sometimes we have a tendency to say the gospel is being justified by faith alone, that's equivalent to the gospel.
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So let me make two statements about that real quick, if this means something to you it's important. It's wrong to reduce the gospel to justification.
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There's more to the gospel than being justified, but I don't think it's wrong to say justification is the heart of the gospel.
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It's wrong to reduce it to justification, but I don't think it's wrong to say that justification is the heart of the gospel.
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How Christ's work gives His people a righteous standing before an almighty
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God. I think that is at the very heart of the gospel. What have we seen in Genesis so far?
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We've seen that through Adam's sin the whole world was plunged into unrighteousness.
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And we have confirmed all the way through what Romans 3 explains, there are no righteous, no not one.
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Adam was not righteous, but he was covered in the skins that God provided.
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Noah was not righteous, but he was declared a righteous man as he sacrificed at the altar of God.
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All of these things are pointing us forward to that sinless one who must come who alone is righteous, that great exchange of the gospel.
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And so this verse totally rejects the idea of any crowning merit that renders one acceptable to God.
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As though there was anything you could do, any way you could live, that somehow that would become the basis of being righteous in God's sight.
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In Adam we've already blown it. Day by day we only compound that guilt and that shame.
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Now let me say as a caveat before we take a look at righteousness, when we look at the places in Scripture where Genesis 15 verse 6 is quoted, 98 % of them have to do with everything we'll say this morning.
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That 2 % or whatever it would be, the one place I know where it could be used in a different way would be
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James chapter 2 verse 23. There James quotes Genesis 15 6 in a very different context that a lot have said is against what
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Paul teaches and how Paul presents Genesis 15 6. Now I don't want to disappoint, but we are not going to touch
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James 2 today because we are going to touch it in Genesis 22 because that's what
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James is referencing. And so we're going to be reminded when Genesis 22 comes our way of how
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Genesis 15 6 relates to that. And I think if you can understand that relationship, you'll understand why
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James 2, not faith alone but faith and works, is best friends with Paul's gospel of being justified by faith alone apart from works.
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Genesis 15 6 is the key even to that. So let's move on. Three points, three points in the time we have left about this righteousness that was imputed or reckoned to Abram.
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The first point is this, this righteousness is God's righteousness.
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This is God's righteousness. Abram is not righteous and so the righteousness is not
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Abram's. The righteousness that is credited to Abram is God's righteousness. There is what we would call a righteousness by faith, that's the heart of this verse.
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And if Genesis 15 6 is the text for justification by faith alone, then the best man of that text is
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Habakkuk 2 4, behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.
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Paul will bounce between Habakkuk 2 4 and Genesis 15 6. The just or the righteous shall live by faith.
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Now when Paul takes Habakkuk 2 4, you'll notice I just read it for you, the righteous, same translation for the just, same word, the righteous shall live by his faith.
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You'll notice that Paul does not say by his faith in Romans 1 17.
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I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe, for the
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Jew first and also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
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Habakkuk 2 4 says the just shall live by his faith. But when
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Paul quotes the Old Testament, he's often quoting the Greek and the Greek says the just shall live by my faith, that is
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God's faith. So there we would understand that as God's faithfulness. Paul doesn't say his faith and he doesn't say my faith, he just says by faith, which
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I think is Paul's way of saying yes, the sinner lives by his faith in God and he has that faith in God because of God's faithfulness.
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And so here I think you have this wonderful picture of both of these statements being true just from a different translation.
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The righteous lives by his faith. But that faith, as James says, is a gift and I live by faith because I live by God's faithfulness.
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That's exactly what we see in Genesis 15. And so we recognize that the righteousness is never ours even when our faith acquires it and we're going to talk about how our faith acquires it.
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The righteousness is always God's righteousness and that righteousness is ours by God's faithfulness.
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And so Paul himself can say in Philippians 3 9 that there is a righteousness which is from God by faith.
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Very important verse. The righteousness from God by faith.
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This is not a righteousness that Abram can establish. This is not a righteousness that Abram can stumble into.
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This is a righteousness which is from God by faith. Israel reverses this.
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They think they can stumble into a righteousness. They can establish their own way of being accepted to God.
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They can do enough and earn enough and live a certain way to gain God's favor and earn
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God's reward. In stumbling into that righteousness, they stumbled. Paul says that in Romans 10.
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They, Israel, being ignorant of God's righteousness, notice again, God's righteousness, in seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
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For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to all who believe. So righteousness is
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God's righteousness. Israel, unlike Abram, tried to establish their own righteousness, their own standing before God.
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How did they try to do that? By the works of the law. How do you and I try to do that in the same way?
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Our little efforts, our strivings, the things that make us better than our neighbors in our eyes, always only in our eyes.
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Things that make us a little bit different and unique, the things that we're good at, the gifts that we have. This is the way that we try to establish our own righteousness.
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And Paul says that's a stumbling stone. You either are in your own righteousness, which is no righteousness at all, or you're in God's righteousness, which comes by faith.
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Paul says this very clearly in Galatians 2. If righteousness could come from the law, Christ died for nothing.
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By the deeds of the law, Romans 3 .20, no flesh will be justified in God's sight. It's amazing to me.
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We've had these conversations on the streets in Worcester, haven't we? We said, you know, oh, you know, we're
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Christians here. Oh, yes, oh, yeah. You know, I, you know, I obey the commandments. And it's like, what?
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No, you don't. I don't. You definitely don't. I try to obey the commandments until the
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Lord reveals just how deep those commandments go. And then I realized that my whole life, as Luther said, as a
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Christian is a life of repentance. But now, the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed.
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Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Now, law and prophets there does not mean the
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Mosaic law and then the prophets, and Genesis is just kind of here doing its own thing. The Hebrew scriptures are broken down according to the law, the prophets, and the writings, or sometimes just the law and the prophets.
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So, Genesis is part of the law as it would have been understood. So, when
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Paul says, there's a righteousness which is now revealed, that's the gospel.
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And it was being witnessed by the law, that's Genesis 15, 6 and following.
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This is the righteousness of God, which is through faith in Jesus Christ.
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God's righteousness is God's righteousness, ours by faith.
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That's the second point. So, first point, righteousness is God's righteousness. Second point,
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God's righteousness is ours. He doesn't give that righteousness to himself. It's ours by faith.
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And now, let's look at Romans 4. You could turn there. We're going to read the whole thing. Romans 4, and I want you to follow the logic of Genesis 15, 6 as we see it, as Paul is interacting with it.
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And you'll notice one other thing. We talked about this idea of crediting, or reckoning, or imputing righteousness to the sinner who believes.
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Well, that's a positive imputation. That's a positive credit, a positive reckoning. Paul doesn't just say, and he will say, that God credits righteousness, or reckons righteousness to the sinner who believes in Christ.
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He also says there's also a negative, a withdrawal, a taking away. There's another kind of reckoning, and it's another kind of imputation, and it's about not imputing guilt, not counting guilt, and we'll see that in Psalm 32, as Paul quotes it.
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Romans 4, beginning in verse 1, what then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?
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What did he do in chapter 15? All he did was respond. What did he do in the flesh? Nothing. All he did was believe.
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That was Paul's point. If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
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He's just doing what he's required to do. But what does Scripture say? Abraham believed
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God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt.
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And here we go into David with Psalm 32. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David describes the blessedness of the man to whom
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God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
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Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Do you see? If you're being counted as righteous in Christ, you are at the same time by that same reckoning not having your guilt counted, not having your sins counted.
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There is no other way to count you as righteous. And so he explains that God's imputing of righteousness apart from works is the same thing as the blessed man not having his sins imputed.
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Now we go back to Abraham. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only? Now he's talking about the way the
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Gentiles fit into this plan in relationship to the law. Or upon the uncircumcised also, for we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
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How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? We're in 15.
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He hasn't been circumcised yet. Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
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And he received a sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised.
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That is just an explosive verse. What does Genesis 17 in that picture of circumcision show?
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The faith he already had before he did that work, before he obeyed that law. If Israel is conditioned by a covenant of circumcision and all of the work and all of the covenantal obligations are bound to that circumcision,
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Abraham was righteous by faith before all that. Not after it. That's Paul's reasoning.
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That he might be the father of all those who believe.
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Who's the all? Both Jew and Gentile, whoever the Lord God calls. Though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also in the father of circumcision.
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To those who are not only of the circumcision, but also those who walk in the steps of the faith which our father
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Abraham had while still uncircumcised. For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
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That's Genesis 15. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is made no effect.
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Because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, it is of faith.
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Why? That it might be according to grace. So that the promise might be sure to all the seed.
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Not only to those who are of the law, the Jews, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. Who is the father of us all.
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As it is written, I've made you a father of many nations. In the presence of him whom he believed,
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God, who gives life to the dead and who calls those things which do not exist as though they did.
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Who contrary to hope and hope believed. So that your descendants, so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken.
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So shall your descendants be. And not being weak in faith. He did not consider his own body already dead since he was about 100 years old.
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This is getting to chapter 22 in Genesis. And the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief.
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But he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. Being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform.
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And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us.
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It shall be imputed to us. Who believe in him who raised up Jesus our
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Lord from the dead. Who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised for our justification.
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Genesis 15 -6 is the text of the blessed man whose sin and guilt is not counted.
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But the righteousness of God is counted to him. Why? By faith. Faith in whom?
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Faith in the one who raised his son from the dead. Oh foolish
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Galatians. Who has bewitched you? That you should not obey the truth. Before whose eyes
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Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. This only I want to learn from you.
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Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law? Or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish?
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Having begun in the spirit. Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain?
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If indeed it was in vain. Therefore he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you.
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Does he do it by the works of the law? Or by the hearing of faith? Just as Abraham believed
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God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Therefore know that only those who have faith are the sons of Abraham.
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You see God's righteousness is ours by faith. Christ's faithfulness is ours by faith.
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And so Philippians 3 .9 again. Where Paul says not having my own righteousness.
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God forbid I have my own righteousness. That's no righteousness at all. That's hell damning if I try to establish that in my own life.
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I need God's righteousness. And all I can do is respond to him. So what do the early apostles preach but repent and believe.
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That's all you can do is respond to him. Acknowledge where you are. Feel the shame and the guilt of where you are.
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Recognize the helplessness of where you are. You can't pluck yourself up. You can't pull yourself out. Repent.
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Stop. Turn around. Acknowledge where you are. Cry out. And then what? Believe. That's all you can do. There's no conditions following that.
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There's no footnote. There's no other actions. It's repent and believe the gospel and you will be saved.
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Not having my own righteousness which is from the law. But that which is through faith in Christ.
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The righteousness which is from God by faith. The righteousness of God by responding in a way of depending upon him.
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By saying, Amen, Lord. Amen. I'm guilty, vile, helpless, needy.
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You're holy, righteous, good, merciful. Amen, I need you. Amen, I deserve hell.
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Amen, you will save me if I trust in Christ. That's what it means to have faith that makes you righteous.
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And so Paul says, I make no provision for the flesh. I won't boast in my flesh. I boast in Christ Jesus, my
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Lord. Who loved me. Gave himself for me. That's what I boast in. I don't want a righteousness of my own anymore.
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I want his righteousness. And it's mine by faith. Christ's faithfulness is the ground of the righteousness of God.
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So how does our faith play into that? This is kind of a point as we move toward a conclusion here. I think it's important.
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Because some almost turn faith into a work. You don't have to do any works but believe.
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As though believing is the work. And since your belief is ebbing and flowing, going up and down, your justification is ebbing and flowing.
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Maybe you're saved, maybe you're not. Maybe you're righteous, maybe you're not. Are you believing enough? Is it strong enough?
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Is it consistent enough? How did faith become a work? I thought faith apart from works.
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Works are what go up and down. Works are what ebb and flow. Works are what are inconsistent in the flesh.
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This is not the picture we have of faith. So how do we understand the way that faith relates to the faithfulness of Christ and the righteousness which that provides us?
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Well, we would say it this way. Christ's faithfulness is the ground of God's righteousness.
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The righteousness that we get as believers is Christ's righteousness, more specifically. It's his faithfulness to all that God called him to do, all that we could not do.
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We couldn't do any of it. He did all of it. So then what is our faith?
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It's not a work. It's the instrument. It's the instrument. It's the hand. This is the way that the
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Puritans often spoke of it. Listen to this. This is so helpful. This is from an old Princeton theologian named
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A .A. Hodge. He says, The faith which truly justifies is a faith fixed on Christ, on his blood and sacrifice, on the promises of God.
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In its very essence, therefore, faith involves trust and denying its own justifying value.
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It affirms the sole merit of that on which it trusts. In the sense that faith is called a condition, it can only be understood as non -meritorious.
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Now let me break that down for you. When we talk about faith involving trust or dependence, that trusting, that dependence is not a work.
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And if you're viewing it that way, then it's not a work that actually receives the righteousness of God. It's only as you deny that even your belief, even your trust, has any value to save you, that you can actually be saved.
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You are wholly in the position to respond to God. All you can do is receive. You cannot take by your faith.
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You cannot strive and consistently lay hold of by your faith. You receive with the hand of faith.
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That's what we mean by instrument. For by grace you have been saved through faith that not of yourselves.
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It's a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Not even those who have a lot of faith, who have very strong faith, who have never felt any doubts in their life.
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Not even those can boast. It's a gift of God. We deny the justifying value of even our own faith.
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It's important to be precise about this. Faith is not the ground of our righteousness. It's the instrument.
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It's the means. Christ's work is the ground. And so I'll give you an example. William Gurnall, speaking of the armor of God, he wrote sort of the book on the armor of God.
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He says this, With one hand, faith pulls off its own righteousness and throws it away.
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Is God enlightening your heart? Is God convicting you of sin? You want to know what faith does? Faith is that hand that pulls all your own pretended virtue and righteousness away.
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There goes all the things I claimed that made me good. What about the other hand?
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With the other, it puts on Christ's righteousness. I know that's music to my brother's ears. He loves the putting on, putting off.
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Thomas Manton, another Puritan. With one hand, faith stretches out for Christ.
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With the other, it pushes away anything that comes between Christ and the soul. Faith is a renunciation of anything but Christ.
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Faith is an open hand that all it can do is be open to receive what God provides. Horatius Bonner.
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Faith is not work. It's not merit. It's not effort. It's stopping from all these things.
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It's the acceptance in the place of these things what God has done completely and forever.
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So why does this matter to us? We're not the Reformers. We're not the Puritans.
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We're not fighting the battles of the Protestant Reformation or of the early church. Why does it matter that righteousness is
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God's righteousness, specifically the righteousness of Christ and that it is ours by faith?
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Why does it matter? Because the understanding of God's righteousness from Genesis 15, 6, being received by faith alone, apart from works, is nothing less than the gospel itself.
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And that's why it's important. Because it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.
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And it begs the question, if you have not experienced or felt the power of God to save you, that you have not understood the gospel.
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You have not understood what we mean by the righteousness of God by faith. We live by mercy.
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We live by grace. We live by the cross. We live by the blood. We live by faith in the
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Son of God. And so God's righteousness is the most comforting, splendid, joyful truth there is.
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There's nothing more liberating than the truth that you are righteous apart from your works.
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That you are blessed. David says, blessed is the man because his guilt isn't counted.
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His sin is not held to him. And then having no righteousness of his own, God's righteousness is counted to him.
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And all he does is receive it by depending on God. By looking to God and knowing how much he needs
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God. And not wanting to be apart from God. That's it. Blessed is that man. Brothers and sisters, are you feeling blessed this morning?
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Are you still feeling guilty? Like, yeah, I know it's so wonderful, and if I just clean up a little bit more, then maybe
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I'll be that blessed man. Do you hear what we're saying? Yeah, no, amen, justification, you know, by God's righteousness, amen.
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Boy, it makes me really want to work hard this week. You know, there's so much I've got to straighten. Do you hear what we're saying?
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That won't make you righteous. Doesn't mean don't do it. Please do it. Ask others to help you do it, but know this.
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You'll rob all the power and all the joy and all the freedom, the momentum, the desire to do that in the first place, if you think that somehow will make you righteous.
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God has made you righteous by faith. He has not counted your guilt against you.
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If you believe that this morning in the way that Abram believed God, if you're depending upon that this morning, you ought to have big smiles on your face because you're blessed.
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And blessed are those. What does David say by the end of Psalm 32? Stand up and rejoice, you righteous.
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Righteous, you began the psalm eight verses ago by saying, it's really good if God doesn't count guilt.
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There's nothing more freeing, more empowering, more exciting. This is what we're about.
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This is the gospel. This is what Christ has done. This is why he has done it. To make us righteous in his sight, blameless, pure, spotless,
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Lamb of God making his bride pure, spotless, bright, in the eyes of the
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Father. That by his blood we would be purified, brought near, when we were afar off, though we once ran in the putrid flood of the world, now we've been cleansed, sanctified, washed.
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So when you're discouraged because you're being tempted, when you're despairing because you feel like you've been sacrificing and the rewards aren't there and the promise seems so far off, when you're tried, when you're, as the hymn says, prone to wander, and you feel it, you feel it, like I feel it.
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I feel my proneness to wander. Don't you hate that? I have to be reminded that then
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I don't go from that place to establish my standing before God, because I cannot do that. That I don't go to try to pull the guilt and the shame off of myself, because I cannot do that.
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I only make it worse when I try to do that. I cannot establish my own righteousness. I can only depend and believe upon God and be counted righteous and rejoice as righteous.
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I can only believe what he said is true of me and what is true of the gospel. There is a direct correlation to your sense of blessedness in the gospel and your sense of believing
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God. There is no other way. If you're not feeling blessed this morning, brothers and sisters,
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I question, I question, have you really understood what it means to receive the righteousness of God by faith?
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When you're brought to that place where the devil begins to interrogate you about your meager list of fruits, the things that you promised to do that have been left undone, the things that you always thought would be in place that have never been put in place, the virtues that have become vices, the stains that have only gotten worse, the stench of your life that you've tried to so carefully hide but you can only hide it so much it invariably comes out and exposes you and makes you feel humiliated and ashamed, and the devil presses upon that and says,
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Abandon and run and hide and reject and pretend until you completely depart from the faith.
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What do you do? You say, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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For what the law could not do because it was weak in the flesh, God did by sending
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His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. That's the gospel. So I don't set aside the righteousness of God because if works could come through the law, if works could come from my striving, if works could come from me being compared to others, then
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Christ died for nothing. We believe, and it's counted to us as righteousness.
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Sola Fide. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this truth of your gospel,
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Lord. As we've said, it's the heart of your gospel. It is the power of your gospel. For what else,
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Lord, can set the captive free? What else, as the hymn says, can break the power of canceled sin other than being reminded and renewing our dependence upon the righteousness that is ours by faith alone, apart from works?
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Lord, what is the barrier? What is the hindrance to us seeing ourselves, recognizing, feeling that we are blessed men and women this morning?
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Reveal that to us, Lord. Where have we not held on to what's been revealed?
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Where are we doubting your promise and your word? Where are we not depending upon it? Where are we turning so quickly aside from what you've given to what we might be able to do, as though that will make the difference and that will lead to blessedness?
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God, forgive us. Let us not approach the Christian life as though Christ's death was in vain, as though it was unnecessary.
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Let us remember that there is no Christian life unless there's a cross. And let us then live under the shadow of that cross and live by the blood of that cross and worship at the foot of that cross.
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Lord, I pray if there is any in this room that have not known your righteousness, they have not received it by faith, they've still been so deluded and self -deceived to try to establish themselves in your sight, to try to make changes and pull something together to somehow be close to you or acceptable to you.
01:06:40
May it never be. May they see all around them as tax collectors and prostitutes enter the kingdom ahead of them because they've understood what is so hard for the worldly wise to understand.
01:06:53
They've understood the foolishness of the cross, that is, the wisdom of God. They've understood that by simply owning up to their guilt and their shame before you, being honest about where they are before you, honest about their need of you, honest about their helplessness,
01:07:09
Lord, that only then can they have the faith they need, the place they need to receive what you will do for all those who come to Christ.
01:07:17
Lord, you've promised that you will never turn away those who come to the physician, who come to the shepherd and seeker of their souls, and so we pray that would be true even now in your