I'll be reading to the end of the chapter in Romans 4 beginning in verse 13 This is the inerrant all-sufficient Sweeter than honey word of God verse 13 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. For If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath, for where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you a father to 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, who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken.

So shall your descendants be. 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 delivered us up, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification.

Let's pray. Lord We thank you for your holy word, these remarkable things that are said about us. I pray, oh Lord, that you would come and give this congregation all of the blessings of this word that we would receive with meekness the implanted word. Amen. Be seated please.

Whenever you're bringing a text of scripture to a church you're always wondering why, why this text, why have these people come to hear such a thing at this time in their life? And I always come to the same conclusion and that is that we must need it. We must need every word. God ordains his word to fall upon his people like dew from heaven, and I pray it does today. What this passage tells us is that Abraham did not waver at the promises of God.

He did not, as the King James Version says, he did not stagger. I like that language. He did not stagger through unbelief, but he believed that he believed God. He believed God would do everything that he said he would do. Do you believe that?

I mean, are you resting in that today, actually? It's one thing to have it as an intellectual proposition, but are you resting on the promises of God, carried along by the promises of God? The focus of this text is trusting in the promises of God. And Abraham, who is the father of us all, was kept by one thing, the promises of God. And he did not stagger at the promises of God, even though with everything that he could see around him, it seemed impossible.

So God came to Abraham and he offered him a promise. And Abraham said, yes, I take the promise for my own. He said, yes, Lord. And I think it's a little bit like Abraham, you know, was saying, Lord do you have grace for me? Yes.

Will you heal me? Yes. Will you guide me? Yes. Will you be with me?

Yes. Will you be my God? Yes. Will you never leave me or forsake me? No, I will never leave you or forsake you.

I think it's that kind of trust in the promise. He had faith in the promise. Now as you've been with us, you know that the apostle Paul is shooting down false gospels. He's taking aim at them one by one. And in this chapter alone, this is the fourth false gospel that he shoots down.

And this is that man is justified by law keeping. He's already said in the first five verses that salvation is not by works. And then in verses six through 12, that salvation is not through religious rights or ordinances, particularly circumcision. And now he's telling us that salvation is not gained by keeping the law, it's secured by the promises of God. So it's very simple in that way.

But I want us to look very carefully at the heart of this text, what I believe is the heart of this text, it's verses 20 and 22. I'm gonna look at that briefly right now, but then we're gonna come back to it later as we walk through the passage. Look at verse 20. He did not waver. That means that he did not doubt.

He wasn't double-minded. He wasn't like that person in James who's driven like the waves of the sea. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief. Now that word that he uses is the negative of belief or faith, unfaith, unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. In other words, he was strengthened in his faith by the promises and then He was fully convinced.

He was utterly completely convinced That what he had promised he was also able to perform and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. Those are the verses I have not been able to get out of my mind over the last several days. But Abraham's salvation rested on the promises of God and the promises of God alone. You know when Trent was preaching through 2 Peter, he brought us to 2 Peter, verse one and two, where it says that our faith is precious. And then it says, which we have been given exceedingly great and precious promises.

Maybe that's why you're here, you need to hear some promises of God. We're gonna spend the day doing this. Trent will come in the afternoon and we'll continue to talk about the promises of God. But this is what held Abraham. This is what carried him along.

He was carried along by the promises of God. You know, what keeps you going? What's carrying you? Is it good news, the things that you like, or are you being carried along by something greater even than the circumstances, even greater than the things that you can see with your eyes? Paul uses the word promise more than any other New Testament writer.

There are 52 uses of it in the New Testament. Paul uses them 26 times. And so Abraham's promise is that he would have seed even though his body was dead. He was promised offspring, even though he had no hope of offspring. This is a predicament that God's people face all the time.

They have a promise but they don't see it yet. And God promised Abraham, if you read the various sections where these promises are delivered in in chapter 12 and chapter 15 chapter 18 and and other places, Abraham has promised three things. He's promised a land, a nation, and blessing of families. Those three things. And all of those things are the result of belief.

They're all the result of the gospel. When a person embraces the gospel, the land, the nation, and the families are blessed. That's the whole proposition that's here. And the main thrust of Abraham's faith is that he wasn't driven by the unknowns. He was carried along by the promises of God.

And his mind wasn't dominated by the negatives, his mind wasn't dominated by the fears and the contradictions that surrounded his whole life. We'll get to that later. He didn't fix his mind on the difficulties, trusted in the promises of God. He always understood that God is the rewarder of those who seek him. And so he held fast to the promises of God.

So this section speaks of the blessings that flow to the land, to the nation, to the family that believe in the promises of God. But not to stagger before the promises, but to stand on the promises, being fully convinced that what he had promised he was able to perform, verse 21. Being fully convinced that what he had promised he was able to perform. Congregation, let's be like that, let's believe that. Let's be a congregation where God says these people have the faith of Abraham.

So he's proving here that there's no justification by the law in verses 13 through 25 and there are five illustrations. There's an outline that you have that gives you a sense of the order as we'll walk through this passage verse by verse. And the first illustration that there's no justification by the law of these five illustrations is that Abraham's salvation was secured by a promise, verses 13 through 15. This identifies the whole subject of this section, promise. For the promise that, verse 13, 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.

You know, on our Wednesday night prayer meeting, Paul Carrington was talking about the promises of God. He told us there are 8,810 promises in the Bible. 7,487 of them are made by God to man. And that there are 31,102 verses in the Bible and one out of every four verses in the Bible is a promise of God to man. Do you get the idea?

Salvation is by grace through faith resting on the promises of God. Now you remember that Abraham did not know where he was going. He was called to leave Ur, but he did not know where he was going. Do you always think that you need to know everything about where you're going? Are you obsessed, stressed, discouraged because you don't know where you're going?

By the way, you don't know where you're going Because God is in control, He will move you. And God is wise, He knows the steps that you are going to take. He knows your thoughts before you have them. He knows where you're going. You know, in Genesis 15 that we read, there's that remarkable statement, do not fear Abraham.

I am your shield. I am your great reward, your exceedingly great reward. I am your reward. What that means is it doesn't matter where you're going, as long as you have God. But he's saying here in verse 14 that salvation is by a promise not by keeping the law.

Verse 14, for if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is made of no effect. Because the law brings about wrath, for where there is no law, there is no transgression. So, faith is made void, and the promises are made void if you earn your salvation. That's the logic that he has here. And then he says, for where there is no law, there's no transgression.

What does that mean? Well, if you have, for example, Gentiles who don't know the law, there's no opportunity to break those laws because the law reveals our sin and the law is opposed to our lust and it shows our lusts to us. But the purpose of the law was to show us our sin to lead us to Christ. And so that's what he's saying here, is that if salvation was by the law, then the promise would not be necessary, because you could do it all by yourself every day, and you could fulfill all righteousness. Congratulations.

But if salvation is upon a promise of God, then the law cannot save. That's the logic of verses 13 and 14. And then the second illustration is that Abraham's salvation was according to grace, that's verse 16. Look at verse 16. Therefore, that means that there's like a conclusion of an argument, therefore, therefore it is a faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

So if salvation was by law keeping then it would be impossible for a non-Jew to have a relationship with God. So this has to be the way it is if the whole world, if all the nations of the earth would be blessed, then salvation cannot be by the law. Not only is it a problem because The Christian cannot keep the law, no one can keep the law perfectly, but the person who doesn't know the law can't keep what they don't know. And there are Two main things here, and that is that it's grace that makes the promise sure. And secondly, that Abraham is our spiritual father.

We follow in the footsteps of Abraham and his faith. And that gives us a sense of the continuity of the New and the Old Testament. There's continuity. Old Testament saints were saved by faith, just like Abraham, and not by the law. And New Testament saints are saved by grace as well, apart from the law.

And so this explains that, It explains God's faithfulness in the face of Abraham's partial obedience. You know, it says that he did not stagger at the promises of God, but you can think of times when it looked like he staggered. And there were failures along the way. God called him to leave his family. He left, but he took his father with him.

That was partial obedience. He went to Heron, which was only halfway to the promised land and he spent 15 years in Heron. And then he became impatient. He was promised a child and he listened to his wife's suggestion and had a son through Hagar So that Abraham did not stagger at the promises of God through unbelief does not mean that he was perfect. It's a general statement very much like David whose heart was before God.

He had a heart like God, but he was not a perfect man. Abraham was the same way, and His general walk of life was by faith, having full confidence in the promises of God. And the temporary, momentary lacks of faith were really part of his sanctification. And I think a way to say is that he did not stagger but he grew stronger even through his failures. Because you can see what the text says that he grew in faith throughout the time.

And what God does is he brings us trials to grow us. And there are times when our faith seems to fail. And then we come back around and we see how foolish that was. But our temptations and our trials, even when we fail, are designed by God to strengthen us. Because Abraham's journeys strengthened him.

And we should always look for how our failure would become a strength. I think that these were years of growth from the time that God called Abraham. He's a towering figure. He really is a supreme man of faith. God devotes, you know, Genesis 12 to 25 exclusively to Abraham and he's spoken of all throughout the Bible.

So he definitely is a godly man. He's a holy man who did not waver at the promises of God. But if you think about the timeline of his life you can see how difficult his life really was. You know Jewish writers believe that Abraham lived in a cave for the first 10 years of his life, and then from age 10 to verse 49 that He lived with Noah. He was alive during the time of Noah.

He was, I believe, 58 when Noah died. He had a front row seat to the building of the Tower of Babel and the scattering of the nations. He saw all that upheaval in the world. Now this is according to Jewish writings. It's not from the Bible.

But at age 50 he took a wife, Sarai, and it's recorded in Genesis 11, 29, and at 75 he received God's call and then he left Ur, going halfway, taking his father. Then at the same time, near that same time frame, there was a famine in the land and he went down to Egypt. Nothing good happens when you go down to Egypt for advice in the Bible. That's why Isaiah says do not go down to Egypt for advice. But Abraham I think he flagged in his faith and he got scared because there was a famine in the land.

It was there that he met Hagar who was an Egyptian slave. And then because he lied to Pharaoh about his beautiful wife it was discovered and there was there's a plague on Pharaoh's house and Abraham was ejected from Egypt. And then at age 76 he has conflict with his nephew, somebody else he should have left back in Ur and they their herdsmen were in conflict and they had to separate and of course Lot goes to Sodom you know the story And then Lot was always a problem for Abraham. Abraham had to rescue him from captivity and he deployed his 318 warriors to go get him back and they got him back. And then at age 78 God appears to Abraham at Hebron in Genesis 15 and he says, I am your shield.

I am your exceeding great reward. And then at 85 God, Abraham took Hagar and they had a child named Ishmael. At age 99, recorded in Genesis 17, this everlasting covenant is repeated to Abraham, I am Almighty God, walk before me and be blameless and I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. Even in the face of that promise, then Abraham goes to Gerar and he lies to Abimelech about Sarah in Genesis 20. At age 100, Isaac is born.

At age 103, Hagar is sent away. At age 125, there's a conflict with Abimelek, and he makes a covenant with him at the whelf in Beersheba, four wells in Beersheba. At age 137 Abraham takes Isaac to Mount Moriah in Genesis 22 and then at age 175 Abraham died in Genesis 25 7. So you can see the conflict and the difficulty. There were so many troubles.

God made promises to Abraham and Sarah, but they experienced tremendous trials and temptations. They experienced social upheaval. They experienced family upheaval. They had a front row seat in the dividing of the languages of the nations. Can you imagine that?

How chaotic that was? He experienced the hostility of foreign governments, the insecurity of powerful leaders when he was in their land. He didn't know where he was going. Sometimes he struggled to provide and he needed to buy a well, dig a well. He had to enter into a contract with a foreign governor.

He lived in a broken world. But he lived by faith in his broken world. That's the only way to live. And he also lived in the midst of his weaknesses. But what I have thought about this week so much is just how important it is that our predicaments are softened by the promises of God.

That we know that God knows where we're going. So the second illustration is that Abraham's salvation was according to grace. The third illustration is Abraham's salvation is believing that God gives life to the dead, verses 17 through 19. Salvation is that which gives life to the hopeless dead. We were dead in our trespasses and sins and the deadness of Abraham's wife's womb was a picture of deadness.

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 you do not exist as Though they did So in hope he believed even though there was no visible manifestation of hope. He believed the unbelievable in hope. He believed what he could not see. These words, those things which do not exist as though they did. He believed even though he had no way of making them happen by his own power.

And these promises were made to Abraham over and over again. And I thought of listing them, but let me just, in Genesis 22 toward the end of his life, in verse 17 and 18, in verse 18 he says, "'In your seed all the nations of the earth "'shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.' "'So Abraham returned to his young men "'and they arose and went together to Beersheba and Abraham dwelt in Beersheba. You know, can you imagine in the places Abraham lived? His name is Abram, exalted father. And then God changed his name to Abraham, father of multitudes.

Can you imagine the conversations Abraham was having? Somebody drops by the tent, because Abraham always lived in tents. Somebody drops by the tent in Beersheba. Hello. Greetings.

What is your name? My name is Abraham, father of multitudes. Oh, you must have so many children. Well, no, no, I don't. Well, where is your wife?

She's in the tent. How old are you? Well I'm a hundred. How old is your wife? She's in her 90s.

You're the father of many children, Abraham? His whole life was a contradiction in that sense. He believed what he could not see, and he walked as if it were true. But God's promise was unbelievable. Abraham was as good as dead.

That's what those verses actually say, as good as dead. But what's so remarkable, and I think this is so instructive for anybody who is hearing this and has some difficulty or trial upon them, he was not weakened in faith, verse 19, and not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He was not weakened in faith, his faith was strengthened by his trials. Because he believed that God could do something out of nothing, that God was going to do something out of nothing. Well, we already believe that God created the world out of nothing.

We believe that God raises the dead. We believe that God can save the chief of sinners. We believe that God can do the impossible, but even though we don't see God, we believe that he's invisible, but he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And he believed that his family would bless the nations and that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. He believed that even though there was every contradiction you can imagine.

It's important that as you're growing up in this life, that you learn one of the most important skills in life, and that is to give thanks for God's promises even before you see the evidence of them. To be a thankful person before the evidence. A mark of a Christian is that he's thankful. We already covered that in Romans chapter one. He's thankful.

The fourth illustration is Abraham's salvation is proven by not wavering from the promise. Verses 20 through 21, we already covered this right at the beginning. 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. What he had promised, he was also able to perform. Do you believe that?

I hope you believe that. And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. And then the fifth illustration is that salvation is for all who believe. Verses 23 through 25. In these last verses of this chapter, the apostle, after giving all these arguments, salvation is not by law keeping, it's not by ceremonial observances, it's by faith through grace, He now, and after saying it's not by law keeping the law, He now in these last verses sums it all up.

Now it was not written, verse 23, for this sake alone, that it was, for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but also for us. So all these things are for us. Everything you've just written is for you, if you're a believer. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. So Abraham's faith is for us, it applies to us.

It says again here that it was imputed. This word imputed is scattered all throughout this chapter. It is imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Now this word imputed that is used here really marks a very sharp dividing line between the Protestant faith and the Roman Catholic Church. Because the Roman Catholic Church embraces the idea of infusion of righteousness, not imputation.

And it's a very important distinction. In Roman Catholicism, righteousness is infused grace at baptism and the Lord's Supper. Grace is infused when you take the Lord's Supper. You get another infusion and then you go out and you sin, but you've got to come back and get another infusion. So in this sense, you know, justification can be lost until you get your next infusion.

And then it has to be regained and maintained, you know, by those good works, by the ceremonies, by the rites, by the rituals. But What the Apostle Paul is teaching here is imputation, that it's an accounting term, you are counted righteous. There is wealth that is transferred into your account, you are bankrupt, and there's an accounting process where you are accounted as righteous and to account is not the same thing as to as infusion the The Roman Catholic doctrine of infusion is like pouring Christ's righteousness to correct the fall and make you literally righteous. But instead, imputation is a judicial judgment that you're not guilty. It's justification is a legal declaration and it cannot be lost.

It's a forensic pronouncement over the sinner, not on the basis of anything that he has done, not any rites or ceremonies or ordinances, not by any works of the law, not by anything. That's the difference. Because justification is by the three free grace of God through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Lewis Burcov says that justification takes place outside the sinner in behalf of the sinner. So it's not infusion, it's imputation.

And it says here at the very last verse in this chapter, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. In other words, salvation can only come when someone else suffers for our sins. And it was Jesus Christ who suffered for all of our sins. He received the wrath that we deserved for our sins. If you walk through the sufferings of Jesus Christ all his life long.

Every suffering that he received, we deserved. Do you remember when he was mocked? You and I deserve to be mocked for our frailties and our fakeness. He was slapped. We deserve to be slapped.

Somebody put a crown of thorns and smashed it on his head and he bled. That's what we deserved to happen. He was lied about. We deserve to be lied about. He was stripped naked and exposed on a cross and he was spat upon.

Because I deserve to be spat upon. I deserve to be stripped naked and bare before everyone and embarrassed completely and slandered. But Jesus Christ took the penalty because he loves his children. And that's what this means, he was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Praise God for such a remarkable gospel.

So you've seen these five illustrations of Abraham's salvation and ours. That first of all it was secured by a promise and second it was according to grace and third it gives life to the dead and fourth it's proven by not wavering at the promise and it's for all who believe, number five. So that's the argument that flows in these verses at the very end of chapter four. We'll head to chapter five next week. I wanna give you some applications.

And of course, the promise of Abraham is the promise of the gospel. All the blessings that flow are they flow from the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know I think it would be wrong to try to apply this without asking, you know, do you believe that God is, and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him? Do you believe the promises of God? Do you believe the promises of God in Jesus Christ?

Are they yours? Do you believe that he died for sinners, that you're a sinner and you want to follow him? Are you fully convinced that what he had promised he was able to perform? That's what it means to be a believer. And Jesus Christ fulfills all the promises of Abraham.

And he works them out in his church. It's such a wonderful thing. You know, we looked at the life of Abraham, sort of his timeline briefly, but don't forget Abraham lived his whole life long in tents. He's not like you, who have these wonderful climate controlled technology infested houses that take out so much of your labor, you know. He lived in tents.

He was a sojourner. He wasn't a drifter. He was looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. But we often get a little bit too attached to our brick and mortar. But Abraham lived in tents.

You can live gloriously in a tent all your life long. Now notice too that in applying all this, the promises are made to families and nations. Embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest blessing to a nation. Embracing of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest blessing to a family. And it's the way that families and nations are blessed.

And I would just say, don't forget how critical it is that the gospel of Jesus Christ and his word saturates your family. Continue the recovery of the family. It's so critical that in this nation, we recover holy families for God. And raise children up in the training and the admonition of the Lord. And this really, this begins with making the word of God central, and to have a true Christian family.

Most families today in evangelicalism, they have the name a Christian family, but they don't actually have the practices of Christian families. They take their kids to church, but they don't have the practices of the worship of God in their homes. It's a critical recovery. Keep on the recovery. Go for it.

Have you kind of fallen off it? That's easy to happen. Get back on it. Work hard for the recovery of the family in this nation. It's so important that you do such a thing.

We could go on and on about the damage that's done because of the collapse of the family. And come together and pray together and saturate your family with God. And don't let anything contradict God in your family. Set no unclean thing before your eyes in your family. Be holy.

Build your family. And it you know it starts with celebrating the goodness of God in your family. It starts with all the things, it's like Psalm 127 and 28, there you are, this family gathered around the table and the olive plants are there and your wife is like a fruitful vine in your household and you're raising a family, you're not afraid in Psalm 127 and 128. You're enjoying life, because God is so good. Let the goodness of God be the builder of your family.

And then establishing the worship of God. You know, it's the worship of God in families and it's the worship of God in the Church of Jesus Christ. It's so critical. Returning to the centrality of the worship of God where the people of God actually make the worship of God the center of their life, not the thing that's just convenient, but it's the center of everything in their life. To recover the true worship of God, regulated by God alone, is such a pivotal thing.

You should devote the central focus of your life on the worship of God and The fellowship of the Saints and frankly and the direction of the elders of your church You should listen to the elders of your church. We're leading you to rivers of living water. Every time, everything we plan is for that, and we want you there. But recover the worship of God. We live in a, we have a covenantal community together.

And we come together and what do we do? We're always celebrating, we're always singing, we're always giving thanks, we're feasting, we're gonna break up in a few minutes and have a fellowship meal where we're gonna recount the things of God that were in this passage, and we're gonna love one another and know one another and care for one another and bear one another's burdens. That's what we're gonna do. And This is how the families and the nations are blessed, is when the worship of God is reestablished. These two great institutions, the church and the family, these are the chief discipleship and evangelistic institutions that God has created.

Now you should give your whole life to them. That's what I plan to do. And then consider the rising generation. I'll close with this. I'm gonna close with a prayer that Charles Spurgeon prayed for his children, his grandchildren, and his great-grandchildren.

Because all of us ought to have our eyes on the rising generation. That's why we have a family integrated church where the older teach the younger and the generations are gathered together. Because that's the way it is in the Bible, actually. And so a generational community is so critical. Charles Spurgeon understood that, but he uttered this prayer that I wanna close with for his own children and great grandchildren.

Oh Lord, thou hast made a covenant with me, thy servant in Jesus Christ my Lord, and now I beseech thee, let my children be included in its gracious provisions. Permit me to believe this promise as made to me as well as to Abraham. I know that My children are born in sin and shape and in iniquity, even as those of other men. Therefore, I ask nothing on the ground of their birth, for well I know that which is born of the flesh is flesh and nothing more. Lord, make them to be born under thy covenant of grace by thy Holy Spirit.

I pray for my descendants throughout all generations be their God as thou art mine. I pray that was fulfilled in this congregation as we take up the whole armor of God and we believe in the promises of God in the days that are ahead. Would you pray with me? Lord, Lord we are so thankful for your promises. And Lord, let it be so in us that deep within our hearts, with all that we are and have, that we're fully convinced that what you have promised, you are also able to perform, that you would create a congregation that is so anointed and blessed by the promises of God so that all the families on the earth all the nations of the earth would be blessed Amen.