In the sermon 'A Monument For Us', Jason Dohm delves into Romans 4:23-25, emphasizing the significance of Abraham's faith as a monument of justification by faith. Dohm explains that Abraham's belief in God's promises was counted as righteousness, serving as an example for believers today. The sermon highlights that justification has always been through faith, not by works, underscoring the necessity of external righteousness that only God can provide through Jesus Christ. Dohm stresses that the resurrection of Jesus is central to the gospel as it confirms the acceptance of His sacrifice and the believers' justification. He addresses the importance of believing in a trinitarian God and the implications of faith not just in God, but specifically in the God who raised Jesus from the dead. The sermon also uses Old Testament references to illustrate how scriptures were given for our learning and hope. Ultimately, Dohm encourages believers to stand firm in faith, not wavering at the greatness of God's promises, and to find joy and confidence in the assurance of salvation through faith in Christ.

Our sermon text today is Romans 4 verses 23 through 25. For context, I'll be backing up to verse 19 and then going through to 5-2. I'm going to hit, in verse 19, I'm going to hit the pronoun he and it's referring to Abraham. Okay, so here's our text. And not Being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform, 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. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him, who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who is delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The title of the sermon this morning is a monument for us.

The saving faith of Abraham stands as a monument for me in the year 2023. A monument that if I believe in God, who is able to raise the dead, and call those things into existence that don't exist, because of the work of Jesus Christ, that like Abraham, a righteousness that I have no right to becomes my own by faith. So that's the monument that God has left for us through this testimony about Abraham and his faith. We're concluding an extended section where Paul has argued conclusively that justification, being declared innocent, being declared to be righteous, is by faith alone and that it always has been. No one's ever been declared innocent or declared righteous any other way.

Because in and of ourselves, we're not righteous. No all-knowing judge could ever declare me to be innocent or righteous unless I was trading places with someone else. I say argued conclusively because Paul has been linking together these ironclad arguments that are so devastatingly logical, building on Old Testament truths and promises, and he's just linking them together. So I'm calling, I'm saying that he's argued conclusively, meaning I don't think Paul leaves us any way to wiggle out of these truths. Beginning with chapter 5, so starting next week, Paul begins to teach about the implications of that justification for people who have been declared righteous because of Christ.

So next week we'll get into what does that mean for us. So our text this week is both a summary, it's the conclusion of this lengthy ironclad argument that justification is and always has been by faith. And it's also a transition point into what does that mean for me. Luther believed that these verses, the verses that we're in this week, summarize the whole of Christianity. Meaning, if you boil down all of our faith to the irreducible, You just can't boil it down any further.

This is what you end up with. And as I look at these verses, I have a hard time arguing with Martin Luther. If you read the biographies of Martin Luther, you know that it's a bad idea to argue with him anyway. Alright, let's pray. Him anyway.

Alright, let's pray. God, what a privilege to be here at this summation of a faith that saves. Of a trust in a person and a work that parts us from the guilt of our sins and leaves us spotless before you. Even though we have no right to claim that of our own, Because Jesus has offered himself in the place of sinners like me, it's possible. Pray that you would set our hearts rejoicing today, that we would just be swallowed up in the happiness of belonging to Jesus for all of us who have trusted in him.

I pray in Jesus' name, amen. We have three verses. I'm going to take the first two together. So hopefully your thumb is still in Romans chapter four, and you'll follow along as I reread Romans 4 verses 23 and 24. Paul writes this.

Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. But also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." In these two verses, Paul argues that the history of Abraham's faith was written for us. This is the monument that God has left for us, that a sinner can be declared innocent and declared righteous by faith in Jesus. This is the monument, Abraham's faith.

So why does Genesis 15-6 exist? What's Genesis 15-6? It's this verse that Paul has been quoting over and over and over again as we've worked through these chapters. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him or credited to him for righteousness. Why does that verse exist?

Abraham saved with or without that verse making it down through the ages to us. It was written so that we could read it. It was left as a monument. A monument to what? Is it a monument to Abraham, a great man who should be remembered, but who we can never be like?

No, it's exactly the opposite of that. It says a monument to the great truth that there is an external righteousness. Not a righteousness that is rooted in you and what you're like and what you've done. You don't need that kind of righteousness. Because what you're like and what you've done is nothing that God could accept as Paul has been arguing.

So you need a true righteousness, a genuine righteousness from outside of yourself, because You've already missed that boat in within yourself. You need an external righteousness that can be laid hold of by faith and only by faith. And that is attainable. Internal righteousness for everybody in this room is no longer attainable. Because one sin against God makes you guilty against God, and You can't even remember when you'd only committed one sin against God.

And you don't even know the number from today because we're so insensitive to our own pride and self-sufficiency. So we need this external righteousness, but a righteousness by faith is attainable. So the monument that has been left isn't a monument to a man, it's a monument to the simple saving faith of a man, Abraham. That's why he's the father of all who have faith, because Abraham has been left as a monument that you can be saved by faith like Abraham has been saved by faith. Simple saving faith which is within the grasp of everyone alive.

This is the glory of the gospel. That it is simple trust that is within the grasp of everyone living. Doesn't this make you just want to be a gospel preacher? That you can say, this is within your grasp. A faith that takes a sinner who deserves the condemnation of God, but a righteousness will be given to you, external to you, but given to you to become your own righteousness, your own innocent verdict, declared righteous, is within your grasp.

It is glorious to be a gospel preacher because the gospel is glorious. The perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ will be imputed, or accounted, or reckoned to you. Jesus' perfect righteousness will be put into your account if you believe in him and believe him as Abraham believed in God and believed God. Now why do I make this distinction? Because Abraham believed in God and so he believed God.

In other words, when God spoke, he said, because this God is trustworthy, because I know that this God always keeps his promise, what he says must be true. So his word gets believed because the source of the promise is completely faithful. So what's true of Abraham, he believed in God, so he believed God when he spoke, can be true and will be true of you as well. If you believe in God, say, this is a God who can never lie, can only be faithful to the promises that he has made and he has promised that any who trust in his son will be parted from their sins by virtue of substitution. Jesus becomes the sin bearer for me and takes the penalty for my sins and pays off my debt in full and his righteousness becomes mine.

I stand in his place, he stands in mine. Paul makes the same point about the purpose behind Old Testament scripture in a couple of other places. So he's making that point here. Abraham stands as a monument, not to himself as a great man, but the monument is that what his faith did for him, the same faith will do for you. Paul makes the same point of the purpose behind Old Testament scripture in a couple of other places.

Listen to Romans chapter 15. I don't know how long it will be before we get to Romans chapter 15, so I can't wait. Romans chapter 15 verse 4, Paul says this, For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. The Old Testament Scriptures don't exist to satisfy our curiosity about every little thing. Therefore, our learning that we might have hope.

Hope in the Bible isn't wishful thinking. It's a confident expectation about things not seen. So the Old Testament Scriptures have been given to us so that we could learn to teach us things that would give us a confident expectation of good for the future. Does that sound good? You want that?

I want that. Or this, 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verse 11. Listen to 1st Corinthians 10, verse 11. Here Paul writes to the Corinthians, Now all these things happened to them as examples. So he's just talking about how the people cross the Red Sea and he's laying out Old Testament history.

So when he says, now all these things happened, he's talking about Old Testament history. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. So why the Old Testament histories? As examples to us, they were written for our admonition to admonish us. So doesn't this text that we're in in Romans chapter 4 fit that description?

Does this give you hope that Abraham, with the histories that we have, with the imperfections and sins that we see in Abraham, can still be declared innocent and righteous by faith it is handed to us to teach us that though we're guilty of sins weakness that we can be declared innocent and righteous to because Abraham was. It's an example that we can be as well. Does that give you hope? Yes. Does this admonish you?

Admonish you to what? To believe! When I have any kind of baptism interview, membership interview, and I'm wanting to make sure that whoever is being interviewed understands the Gospel. I've got it etched in my brain. You know what I'm going to say, by the way.

Four words. Are these present in this person's understanding of the Gospel? And if they're not, then I start asking questions, leading questions, just to make sure that all these things are really present in their understanding of the gospel. God, man, Christ, response. I'm a simple man, but I can remember four words in sequence.

And if I can remember those four words in sequence I can remember the gospel. God, who is he? What is he like? Man, who are we and what are we like? Christ, How this solves the problem, the terrible problem that exists between what God is like and what we're like.

How can you even ever bridge that gap? Christ is the answer to that question. And what's that final part of the Gospel? Response! If God really is what the Bible says He is, and has done what the Bible says He has done, and if we're really like the Bible says we are, and if Christ really has come to give his life that whoever would trust in him would be saved no matter where they're from, no matter what they've done, they'll be saved and they'll be stand before God as if they had never sinned, as if they had lived the life that Christ lived, that demands a response.

It's not enough to just describe God, to just describe what mankind is like, to just describe that Jesus left heaven and what he did on this earth, that demands a response. You must choose. That Jesus came and died for sinners means nothing to you, for you, until you trust him. So these Old Testament texts that set forth a sinner who was saved, Abraham, admonishes us. You must believe.

You can be saved like Abraham, but you must believe like Abraham. They're examples for us to admonish us to trust God and his son, Jesus Christ. Now, Paul doesn't stop with a Generic statement about faith He gets specific It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead So he could have stopped with the generic, trust God, but he gets more specific than that. He says that this righteousness that Abraham enjoyed shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead." So it's a specific call to faith in God the Father who raised up Jesus, God the Son, from the dead. Let me say three things here.

Number one, the root of saving faith is trinitarian. I started out in my notes by saying saving faith is trinitarian. Then I thought, no that's a mistake because we often don't have this clarity on the day that we're saved and we grow a lot in our understanding of it and we grow a lot in our ability to to articulate it to speak about it in an intelligible way but but The root of our faith is Trinitarian. So only the beginnings of this truth is here. But the Father and Son are brought into this together.

It is a faith in Him who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. So it has to be God the Father who raised up Jesus, God the Son, from the dead. Our salvation is rooted in the work of the Father who chooses a people before the world was ever made, he knew who would live and who he would save and the work of the Father Sending His Son to do the saving work. And our salvation is rooted in the work of the Son who gave up the glory that was rightfully His in heaven in order to come and live and suffer and die for sinners and do this saving work and our salvation is rooted in the work of the Holy Spirit convicting us of sin, convincing us that we are sinners and convincing us that Jesus is both willing and able to save sinners like me and you. In other words, if the Father had done his part and the Son had done His part, but the Spirit didn't come and convince you that you needed it, and convince you that Jesus was willing and able to be your Savior, you would never be saved.

So all have a part of this saving work of sinners. And Paul at least starts down that road here, the root of saving faith is Trinitarian. And you might not have understood that at all the day you were saved, and you might not have been able to articulate it when you were saved, or maybe even now, but the roots of our faith is in a three in one God who are working together to save sinners. Number two. This joins us with the faith of Abraham in kind though not in exact specifics.

So saying this, it shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, this faith in one who resurrected the Savior, joins us with the faith of Abraham in kind, though not in exact specifics. What in the world do I mean by that? Here's the question, did Abraham trust in the person and work of Jesus on the cross? No, Certainly not with that level of specificity. He believed that God would send a savior, but It wouldn't be precisely accurate to say that Abraham trusted in the person and work of Jesus that he would accomplish on the cross thousands of years later.

Then what did Abraham believe? Paul just told us what Abraham believed. Look back to verse 17. So we're in Romans chapter 4. Let's just look back into last week's text.

This is what Abraham believed starting in verse 17. Starting in chapter 4 verse 17. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed, God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. That's what Abraham believed and who Abraham thought rightfully that he was believing in. God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did." And now skip down to verse 19.

And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb, he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform. And therefore, it was accounted to him for righteousness. So we actually get a really good definition of Abraham's faith. He believed in A God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. His body was dead.

He was almost literally dead. He's towards the end of life. He's about a hundred years old. Certainly in the sense of fathering children, this is a dead man. Sarah's womb's been dead.

She's lived a long life. There's never been any conception in that womb. She has a dead womb. What is Abraham thinking? No matter.

God promised those things are no obstacle to this God who can bring the dead to life and call those things into existence which aren't in existence as if they always were. He can just speak about them as if they had already happened because there's nothing that he can't do. That's what we believe about Jesus. Only with greater specificity. Meaning We can define it more precisely, but that God gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did is exactly what we think God has done in His Son Jesus Christ for sinners.

So Abraham's faith might not be exactly like ours in the exact specifics, but it's the same kind. Number three, Anyone who denies the resurrection of Jesus is not a Christian and cannot be saved unless they reverse course and embrace that truth. The righteousness of God is imputed, accounted, reckoned by faith to those who believe in Him, who raised up Jesus from the dead. And it is simply a sleight of hand to say that you believe in God but you don't believe God's word. Meaning you're just playing word games.

You say, yes I trust God, yes I believe God, and I don't know about that resurrection thing. The miracle things in the Bible, I'm not so sure about that. You do not believe in God if you don't believe God. He has spoken, here is His word. Now this is not controversial in these walls at all.

In fact, you might think it's strange that I extend to a third point even to say it, but I want you to know that J.C. Ryle in the Church of England, or the Anglican Church, or the Episcopal Church, they're the same, and Charles Spurgeon in the Baptist Union, they were contemporaries, and in the mid to late 1800s, they were both fighting this within their groups, where men who denied the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus, fundamentals of our faith were saying, yes, but I believe in God, I'm your brother, and they were saying, no you're not. Historic biblical Christianity has never embraced people who deny the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul himself couldn't be more clear. In months we're coming to Romans 10.

Listen to Romans 10 verse 9. Paul in Romans 10 verse 9 says, If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. No complex language there. Nothing that ought to be controversial there. Nothing unclear there.

If you confess Jesus and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So that is the faith of Abraham, a man who believed that God gives life to the dead. It's written, the faith of Abraham is written as a monument for us. Now let's look at this final verse. The last verse in chapter 4, chapter 4 verse 25, Paul writes, Who was delivered up, we're reaching back into verse 24 now, is Jesus our Lord.

Jesus our Lord was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Here Paul gives us the implications of the death and resurrection of Jesus. If you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, it's death and resurrection. He gives us the implications of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Simply put, Jesus was delivered up to death because of our sins against God, and He was raised up from death so that we could be declared innocent of those sins.

Why was He delivered up to death? My sins. Why was he raised up from death? So that I could be declared innocent of those sins. Now, we have to notice here that Jesus was acted upon.

He was delivered up. Someone delivered him up. Who? He was raised from the dead. Someone raised him from the dead.

Who? It's implied, the answer is obvious, but early chapters of Acts are very clear on this point. Meaning, early church preachers made this a part of their preaching of the Gospel. Turn to Acts chapter 2. Turn to Acts chapter 2.

This is the day of Pentecost and people have gathered because of the wonders that are happening and Peter is preaching to them and here's what we read of Peter's preaching in Acts chapter 2 verses 22 through 24. Acts 2 22 through 24. Peter says, Men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Look at verse 23. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

So here the question is asked and answered. Who delivered up Jesus? Verse 23. Jesus being delivered by the determined purpose, God determined to do it beforehand. It was his purpose, his determined purpose and foreknowledge of God.

And then he says, you took him and killed him. So there's an acknowledgement that there were secondary causes here. People entered into the plan of God and physically put Jesus to death, but really he was delivered up by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, his Father delivered him up to die in the place of sinners. And then in verse 24, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death. So who delivered up Jesus?

God the Father. Who raised up Jesus? God the Father. This means of course that we must never think of Jesus and God the Father as good cop, bad cop. Whenever you catch yourself thinking of Jesus and God the Father as good cop bad cop tenderhearted Jesus coming to save sinners from a father who was just ready to crush them.

Just don't let yourself think that. Jesus hates sin in equal measure to his father. And God the Father loves sinners and is tenderhearted towards sinners as Jesus. They are one. They are one.

Listen again after Peter and John, a couple of chapters later, Peter and John, they are going to the temple at the time of prayer. They heal a man. So a wonder has happened. So a crowd gathers. They preach to the crowd.

They get in trouble for the preaching. And they're threatened about their preaching. And they're released. And after that, here is the united testimony of the brethren. The brethren on hearing what has happened, here is their united testimony.

It's Acts chapter 4, verses 27 and 28. The brethren say this, for truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done." So the united testimony of the brethren in the early church was that what happened was done according to whatever God's purpose determined beforehand to do. God delivered up Jesus. God raised up Jesus. Now it may seem strange to us that Paul links our justification to the resurrection.

Does that seem strange to you? Listen again to verse 25. Who was delivered up because of our offenses, So Jesus went to the cross because of our offenses. So far, so good. And was raised because of our justification.

We tend to think of our justification, our being declared innocent, our being declared righteous, we link it to the cross. And it's not wrong to link it to the cross, I'm just observing that that's not what Paul does here. He links the declaration of believers being innocent and of being righteous to the resurrection, not the cross. That it seems strange to us might be because we're disconnected from the theology of the apostles. We think consistently about the cross, but don't think consistently about the importance of the resurrection.

I know we think about the resurrection, but I'm not sure we think about the importance of the resurrection, but the Apostles never forgot about it. Listen to Paul's summary of the gospel in 1st Corinthians 15. So in 1st Corinthians 15 verses 1 through 4 is so important because Paul says, this is my gospel and gives you a summary. Okay, so 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 through 4, Paul writes, Moreover, brethren, I declare to you, the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which you also are saved if you hold fast that word which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. So here it is.

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that he was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." So this is the Gospel in short form. Yes, that Christ was delivered up for our sins and went to the cross according to the Scriptures, but Paul doesn't stop there. He says he was buried and that he was raised from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures. So the apostles always kept the resurrection right at the core of the gospel. It is the death and resurrection of Jesus that is this saving glad tidings.

Why is the resurrection so essential? Why should we never be content to just say, Jesus died on the cross for sinners and let that be it? Because we don't need a martyr, we need a death conquering Savior. There are a lot of martyrs, they're inspiring, that's not what we need. We need a Savior who conquers sin and death on our behalf and is alive to plead our cause with God.

To sit at his right hand and intercede for his people as long as human history exists until the time when he comes back for us. Paul ends the same chapter, so 1 Corinthians 15 starts with this summary of the Gospel, including the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, but it ends by saying that The sting and victory of sin and death has been gobbled up, swallowed up in Jesus' victory. He overwhelmed sin and death, and the sting of these things for mankind, and the victory over mankind of these things, He swallowed them up in His own victory by conquering death, by dying and being raised from the dead. Remember how Paul began this letter. Just flip back a couple of pages just to the beginning of chapter 1.

How did he begin the letter? Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets and the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh." Look at verse 4. And declared to be the son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness by the resurrection from the dead. It is the resurrection from the dead that is the declaration of God, is the declaration with power that Jesus is the Son of God, anointed for the work of saving sinners. If Jesus isn't raised from the dead, you have no basis for confidence that his sacrifice has been accepted and that Jesus is now in the favor of his father and if you are joined to him you are in the favor of his father.

All of that is declared by the resurrection from the dead. It is part and parcel. It is integral. It is essential to the glad tidings. Finally, almost all of the commentators note that this, verse 25, is a paraphrase of Isaiah 53-12 in the Septuagint.

What in the world is the Septuagint? Old Testament scriptures were written in Hebrew. The people in Jesus's time were mostly speaking Greek. It was the international language of learning. So the Old Testament scriptures written in Hebrew had been translated into Greek.

That's the Septuagint. So it's just their language, the language of learning translation of the Bible. So if you look at the phrases of Isaiah 53, particularly Isaiah 53 verse 12, if you look at those words and phrases in the Greek translation, you find those words and phrases here in Romans chapter 4 verse 25. It's really a paraphrase of that drawing on these words and phrases. What's the implication of that?

The implication is that, once again, Paul is grounding the New Testament Gospel in the Old Testament promises of God, and saying by implication, this is just the fulfillment of all the things that God promised to us. If you'd like, you can turn to Isaiah 53. I'm going to read verse 12. Wow, I'd like to spend more time in Isaiah 53, but we're not going to. I'm going to try to stay disciplined and limit myself to Isaiah 53, 12.

It's the last verse actually of the whole chapter, but you're very familiar with it. It's about the suffering servant and it's about substitutionary atonement, a sacrifice of the innocent on behalf of the guilty and of course fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Here's how that chapter ends, Isaiah 53-12. This is the voice of God. He is the I, the first person here.

Therefore I, God, will divide him, the suffering servant, a portion with the great. And he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and he made intercession for the transgressors. What this verse is saying is that the spoils of war are given to this one who died on our behalf. That there's an innocent one who died for the guilty and that God honored him by giving him the spoils of war. The suffering servant conquered sin and death on behalf of those he stood as a substitute for, and he won the victory, and the spoils of war are his to give to his people, to share with his people.

Applications, I'll give you two. Applications, I'll give you two. Application one, God has erected a monument for you. Don't you dare miss it. The faith of Abraham.

Not Abraham, he's not the monument. Oh, look at the great man. No, no, no. Study the old scriptures. Not that great.

But his faith stands as a monument that what his faith did for him, your faith can do for you because the object of his faith, this God, still rules in heaven and is still willing to save sinners and give his righteousness to people who will trust in his son. That's the monument. Don't miss it. Sinners, this monument stands to crush any pride and self-righteousness. A declaration of innocence, a declaration of righteousness can only come by faith.

If you stand in your own merit and acting as if you have a righteousness of your own that God must accept, God will crush you. So this monument is a happy monument in some ways, but know this, it crushes pride and self-sufficiency, and God means it to. But it also crushes hopelessness. You thought, my path doesn't pave a way for me to be saved. My path makes it impossible for me to be saved.

God says, no! I've given you a monument that salvation isn't about that stuff. Salvation is about trust in the work of my son. My son's sacrifice can take care of all of those things, can clear all of that debt, can leave none of that debt. So the monument does crush pride and self-righteousness, but it also crushes hopelessness.

Saints, it stands to give you joy and confidence. Look back to last week, verse 16. I'll just read the first part of verse 16. Therefore it is of faith, salvation is of faith. The accounting of righteousness is of faith, that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed.

I know James thundered about this last Sunday and he was right to do so. What would you think if you thought it depended on your resolve? What would your personal history tell you of the likelihood that you would ever make it to the finish line? Do you have a personal history that would give you confidence that you would make it to the finish line if it depended on your resolve, your strength, you not faltering, you not falling. God saved us from that.

God has saved us from that. He has made it of faith by grace so that the promise would be sure he secured it himself because he knew you wouldn't secure it for yourself. Number two. Here I'm going to borrow a phrase from Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones.

So, I'll give you the second application, but I want you to know it originated with Lloyd-Jones. Don't stagger at the greatness of the promise. So I'll let him explain himself here. But the application is, don't stagger at the greatness of the promise. Lloyd-Jones says this, Faith is this confident protest against every voice that assails us from within and from hell.

It stands with Paul in chapter 8 and says, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? In the light of that, there is no one. There is nothing.

It is in spite of what we know about ourselves. Of what the law knows about us. Of what hell knows about us. That is the final word. Abraham did not stagger at the greatness of the promise.

Friends, it isn't too good to be true because God says it is true. You might be tempted to think, it's too good to be true. I don't stand on my own merits, but I get the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to be my righteousness, and all of my debts are discharged. It's too good to be true. Well, you might think that, except for that God says it's true.

Don't stagger at the greatness of the promise. I want you to know this confident protest that Lloyd-Jones speaks of. Do you know this confident protest that assails us from within and from hell? Listen again. It is in spite of what we know about ourselves.

You know things about yourself that tell you, I shouldn't be saved. This is a confident protest in spite of what you know about yourself. It is in spite of what the law knows about you. The law knows things about you that say, you shouldn't be saved, you can't be saved. It is a protest against that.

It is in spite of what hell knows about us. Hell knows things about you. There is an accuser of the brethren who whispers to you, you can't be saved. You don't deserve to be saved. Well, just concede the point.

You sure don't deserve to be saved? That isn't the point. The point of the Gospel is that those who don't deserve to be saved are saved of God's free grace. Simply by faith. Know the confident protest against the things you know about yourself, against the things that the law knows about you, about the things the accuser of the brethren whispers to you.

Protest because of the promises of God and what He has said to sinners about the sufficiency of the work of His Son. God, thank you for the glory of the Gospel. I pinch myself when I think of the privilege that it is to stand before your people and people who need to be brought into your kingdom to preach the great truths of the faith and the glories of who your son is and what he's done, and how willing and how able he is to save any sinner. Thank you that you've set a monument before us in the faith of Abraham, that though we might not believe exactly what he believed in kind, it's exactly the same. We believe that you are a God who brings life out of death and calls those things into existence as though they already existed because nothing is too hard for you.

Thank you Lord in Jesus name, amen.