God's Promise

When I was a sophomore in high school, I was what some might call wisdom challenged. I'm told I should be more politically correct, so that just means I was foolish. One day in February, we had a school delay because, well, I was in South Carolina, so it was flurrying, so we needed to have a school delay. Some friends and I decided we would gather and do our typical foolishness. We were doing some things recreational that, well, caused us not to think so clearly the rest of the day. There we are, 9 a.m., it's flurrying, it's freezing, and we notice a frozen pond. So, of course, we're gonna go throw rocks at that frozen pond. And we notice the ice didn't break. So the next step is to think, I wonder if it'll hold us. So we started hanging out on the edge to see who would kind of go out farthest. And somebody said, who's going to go across? And so I began. The pond is about twice the length of our building here, and about halfway. So I'm here, and I still have this far to go. I can see the ice breaking, starting to see cracks, dead center. And so I start trying to veer off to see if I can get closer to the land, and then I fell through. So I start climbing back up on the ice, and it keeps breaking as I'm trying to climb, and a couple times I actually laid flat on the ice, and then it would just crack right through, and that was as disturbing as the first time. Finally I decided I've just got to swim for it. So I'm just breaking ice with my forearms, swimming for it, bruises, blood everywhere on my arms. I get there, I'm safe, here I am today. I have a question. I tell you this foolish story for a reason. Was I incredibly foolish or did I have great faith? Was I incredibly foolish or did I have great faith? I think the answer is yes. I had incredible faith. I was a very confident sophomore in high school. I fully believed that I could run across that pond. I had complete confidence that I could do it. The problem is, I was a fool because my faith was in the wrong place. I had great confidence, but it was foolish. I did not have faith in the proper place. You see, I wanna present today is we're really thinking about faith. I hope you picked that up from the scripture reading and the songs. We're talking about faith today, and I actually wanna say everybody has faith. That's not a uniquely Christian thing. Everybody has faith. The key question is, where is it? In whom do you trust? As Jesus says, is your life built upon the sand? or on the rock? Is your faith building your life up on what is secure and trustworthy and with a strong foundation? Or is it in something else? Who do you trust? Where is your faith? This morning we're in Romans 4. which is a continuation of our text from last week. If you're turning in a Pew Bible, this is found on page 941. If you don't have a Bible, please take that with you. These are the words of truth upon which you should build your life. This morning we're looking at Romans 4, and if we go back to Romans 321, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there's no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also. Since God is one, he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. Paul's been establishing This is Romans 1, 16 through 17. Let me just read verses 17. For in it, the righteousness of God, the gospel, God's power of salvation, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. Faith is essential to our salvation. He's trying to help the Jews of this church realize, the Israelites of this church to realize, you have nothing to boast of other than Christ. Because we all come in unrighteous. We all come in a complete need of something to help us, to save us. We all come together by faith. Now we look to our text, which is Romans 4. I want to show you a couple things before we read it, just so you hear it. so that you can appreciate what Paul's doing. Paul just gave the key theological declaration, verses 21 through 26. It's the chief point of Romans, Luther says. It's the main point. God declares those who are unrighteous, righteous. Those of us who exchanged his glory, he exchanges our unrighteousness for Christ's righteousness. We'll talk about that a little bit more later. It's the key declaration of salvation and he's trying to drive home faith. And what happens in Romans 4 is he goes to the father of faith. He goes to the first man we see in scripture who is ascribed faith and also counted righteous. So one, I want you to hear from the word faith in Romans four, but two, I want you to see something else. Look at verse three. What does scripture say? That's always a very important question. What does scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. We referenced that text last week with justification. God declaring us innocent. Abraham believed and God counted it as righteousness, counted to him as righteous. You can see there that this old text, I think, is actually expositing that one verse. This text is using Abraham as the pattern, the first man to be blessed, the first man to have faith as a scribe to him in scripture, rather, and the first one to be counted as righteous. You can see counted to him in verse 10. Righteousness will be counted to them, verse 11. And then verse 22. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. So I want you to see that is the driving theme. Abraham, which we're gonna explain why he is so important more in detail. But I want you to see he's using Abraham as the rule as to why faith alone Grace alone. Here are the word of the Lord, Romans 4. I also point out here the four parts that you can see. It's faith versus works, faith versus circumcision, faith versus law, faith versus circumstances. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speak to the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised. so that righteousness would be counted to them as well. And to make him the father of the circumcised who were not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherence of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring. Not only do the adherents not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. In the presence of God, in whom we believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope, he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations. As he had been told, so shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old, or when he considered the bareness of Sarah's womb. No, unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. but the words that was counted to him were not written for his sake only, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised him from the dead, Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you, Lord, that you have said so much. You've told us who you are. You've told us who we were meant to be. You've revealed our sin. Most of all, Lord, you've revealed your righteousness, that in Christ, we can be declared righteous. In Christ, our sin can be forgiven, we can be washed. I pray, Lord, that you would strengthen our faith as we look to your word, that we see the power of your declaration, we see the power of the gospel to save sinners, Build our confidence in You. Help us, Lord, to forsake the things that we believe and trust in that are lies and are foolish and are sand. Help us, Lord, to build our lives upon the rock, Christ Jesus and what He's done and what He has said. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. First, let's look at faith. versus works. This is verses one through eight, and really, this is Paul making his primary point. Here we have a church that's Jew and Gentile, and they have a problem. They're not united, they're divided, and he's wanting to make sure that the Jews who are causing division because they're boasting of the circumcision, they're boasting of the law, well, let's just go right to the source. go right to the first man of faith, the father, Abraham. Again, this Genesis 15.6 is the primary text, and Paul's basic point is making sure they understand this. Abraham was justified by faith, and so are all of his children. That's the basic declaration of Romans 4, so we can cut through all the complications of it. Abraham was justified by faith, and so are all of his children. Now, the question is this. Am I one of his children? What gives me confidence that I am one of Abraham's children? What we're going to see here has nothing to do with birth. It has nothing to do with works. It has everything to do with faith. To be a child of Abraham is to be a child of faith because he's the father of faith. So we see here, Abraham was counted righteous by faith. That legal declaration. Abraham was a pagan. That may not be so obvious to everybody. If you look at Joshua 24, verses one to two, it actually talks about Abraham and his family. They were idol worshipers. They were Romans 1, 18 through 32. They suppressed the truth. They exchanged the glory of God for a lie. God called him out of that. God said, I see you, I see how you've rejected me, I see your sin, but I'm going to declare you innocent, not guilty, because when God gave him his promise, Abraham believed. It's a legal declaration that God gives Abraham, and it's in Christ, because Abraham's sin was counted towards Christ, and Christ's righteousness was counted towards Abraham, that God is able to do that. So Abraham, He's the pattern for salvation. This is why Paul's saying all of this in Romans 4 about Abraham. He's the pattern of salvation. It's grace alone, it's a gift. It's by faith alone, it's received by trust in Christ. Now, let's ask the question, why Abraham? Well, to say he's important is an understatement. He's bound up with the promise of God because in Genesis 3, well, we destroyed the goodness and the order of God's creation, right? We introduced chaos, we introduced sin, we started undoing all the good things God had created. And then you just see progression, you see murder. Because everyone had gone so wicked and ran against God and refused him, God destroyed the earth. Then after he had started over with Noah after decreating the earth, that's what the flood is. He's decreating. He's destroying life because it was so wicked. You have the Tower of Babel where we actually do unite together, but we decided we're going to unite together to rebel against God and we're going to show God that we can build ourselves up to Him. The great irony of that story is God has to come down to see it. Genesis 3-11, it's wicked, wicked, wicked, wicked. Cursed, cursed, cursed. Then we turn to Genesis 12. Hear Genesis 12. Now the Lord said to Avram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now, Abraham obviously got a name change later on, but did you hear the word bless? Three through 11 is nothing but seeing the effects of the curse. Our sin fully in effect brings destruction, brings chaos, brings confusion. And then God steps in, blessing. Blessing enters the scene because God says, this isn't the way it's supposed to be. So I will bring a people who will be blessed. Abraham is turned from pagan worship to true worship. He believed God later in Genesis 15 and it was counted him as righteousness. Now Paul's point is that faith alone is what saved Abraham. Now for the Jews, this is what's confusing. They're saying we are descendants, offspring of Abraham because we've got circumcision. Paul's saying, okay, that makes you a kind of offspring of Abraham, but the true children of Abraham are those who have faith. Circumcision is the mark of the national Israel, the offspring of Israel, but those who are children who can call Abraham father, they are children of faith. We can actually get more focused here because if you look down at verse 13, one of the key questions is this. Who gets to inherit the promises of God? Who gets to inherit the blessing? Is it those who obey with circumcision? No. Inheritance is a gift by faith. What interests us in Romans 4 is that great declaration. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteous. He wasn't righteous. He was not righteous, but God counted that to him. So as they sing the song, Father Abraham, I am one of them, and so are you, that's not a very good kid's song. Because the only people who can really say that are when only believers are gathered together. I think it's confusing whenever non-believers sing that song to one another, because the only true children of Abraham, and this is the main point of Paul in Romans 4, are children of faith. The blessings of Abraham are all found by faith. Now, Romans 3 is important, and that's why I read it, because as you heard, I hope, Faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus. Go to Ephesians 1, Paul says this, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. You hear that word blessing? The blessing that Abraham was promised in Genesis 12 are only received when we believe in Christ. He is the fulfillment of every promise that God's ever made. That's why we must place our faith in Him. Now, we keep using the word faith, and I think we need to define this word. What is faith? What is faith? And really there's, faith is a big word, so it's gonna take a few words to kind of capture it. At one level, faith is acknowledgement. Faith says, that is true. Faith says, that is true. Secondly, faith has to say, I trust that truth. We all know there's certain truths that we say, okay, that's true, but I'm not really sure I'm gonna trust that. So faith not only says it's true, but says, I'm going to trust. Faith is also dependence. Faith in the way that Paul is speaking of, it's dependence. It's true. I'll trust it. I actually depend upon it. And then faith is confidence. It's assurance. Faith, it isn't some blind leap. Faith is saying this is the God who has spoken. I believe. It's good. It's right. Now, some people will say, you know, when I'm going to put my faith in, I need to see a sign. I need to see something to believe it. Seeing is believing for me. Others will say, you know, I need to know what it is and it needs to sound good. I need to be impressed by the wisdom of whatever I'm going to believe in. Others will say, I need to be able to understand what I can accomplish. That's what I believe in. This is what God provides. I said it. That's why you believe it. That's what scripture says. We believe it only because God says it. He doesn't feel the need to declare to you signs and wonders. He doesn't even come to you with great wisdom, Paul says, in the way that we typically want to hear in our ears. He doesn't tickle our ears, I should say. God simply says, I'm God, I said it, believe it. Do we have that kind of faith? That whatever God says, I'm going to believe. You see, He speaks, we should be listening. He keeps promises, we should trust Him. He commands us, we should obey Him. Faith means we listen, we trust, we obey. It should be transforming our thoughts, our desires, and our actions. Faith takes God's word for what it is. There's two things I want us to see. When God speaks, he has the power to save us from our sins. That's why that declaration of righteousness is so important. Do you believe that God can say you're forgiven? That changes everything. Does God, in his word, have the power to save sinners? The second one, does God have authority to rule our lives? Faith says yes. He has the power to save. He has the authority to rule. Again, we all have faith, but what is it in? We're called a childlike faith. Now, some people confuse this with childish thinking. Some people say, well, I'm gonna have childlike faith. I'm not gonna really dig into the depths of God's word. I'm just gonna kind of keep it simple. That's not what childlike faith is. That's childish thinking, not childlike faith. Childlike faith says, I'm going to trust what he says because of who he is. When a child hears a parent and the parent says, you need to do this, a proper child faith does it. They don't ask why. They shouldn't ask why. They just say, yes. Yes, yes, ma'am, yes, yes, sir. That's what childlike faith is supposed to be like. That's what our relationship to God is supposed to be like. We say, yes, sir, yes, yes, God. Here I am, Lord. You see, we like to sing the song, I Know Whom I Believe In, after saying all these things we don't understand. I know not why, I know not how, I know not how, I know not when. Faith is supposed to lead to understanding. We oftentimes want to say to God, you know, as soon as I understand, I'll obey. As soon as I can comprehend what you're doing and how it's going to benefit me, then I'll believe you. But until then, you really have to help me understand. God doesn't play that game. God says, believe me and then you'll understand. God doesn't say, let me give you enough information so you can understand, and then you can trust me. He says, no, what more can he say than he's already said? He calls us to trust him. So if you're not a Christian here this morning, or if you're a Christian wrestling with your salvation and your assurance, God says he will forgive you. God says that if you place your faith in Christ, You're forgiven. Do you believe Him? First, there's a couple things you gotta believe here, isn't there? One, I have sinned against God. I haven't worshiped Him as He deserves. I have offended a holy God, and that holy God had to send His Son to die in my place because the effect of my sin, the consequence of my sin is His wrath. He's a holy and righteous God and I am an unrighteous person. I have to believe that. I have to believe He's a God of mercy that looks upon me and says, I'm hopeless. I'm helpless apart from His grace. And so He sent His Son to die in my place so that my sins are counted towards Him. That's how I can be forgiven because God is just. He punishes every sin. Will He be punished for our sin or Christ? He says He will forgive us if we confess our sins. Do you believe Him? Do you confess your sins and say, God in Christ, forgive me? He also calls us to forgive one another. He calls us to forgive one another. Now, this is more for the Christian because a lot of times we want to say to God, surely not me, Lord, because you know what happened, right? He says, I'll forgive you of everything. He says, forgive anything. See, we nailed his son to the cross and murdered him. And he said, I forgive you. There's nothing we can do to qualify a lack of forgiveness for others. See, this is what we like to do to God. God, I hear you, but. That's not childlike faith, that's sophomore faith. Sophomore means a foolish, wise person. Sophomore means somebody who's learned enough to be extremely dangerously foolish. They've learned enough to argue back. Whenever you give one of God's clear words a but, it's sophomore-like. You know just enough to argue back. No, it's not childlike. It's not recognize He's Almighty God and we're submitting to Him. Whatever He says is true. I believe He has the power to save sinners. I believe He has the authority to rule my life. We need to ask for the grace to have childlike faith. So verses one through three, that's all establishing, what about Abraham? What he gained, it was by faith. Now, verse four actually brings us to something that's, well, a little more kind of common day. We can relate to this. a little easier. Now the one who works, his wages are counted on him as a gift, not as a gift, but as his due. And the one who does not work, but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted on him as righteousness. He's making an observation. So if we work 40 hours a week, and if you have a manager who still gives you a physical paycheck, I don't know if he actually does that anymore, but back in the day, you used to work and then you'd get a physical paycheck, right? It's because you expected it. I worked these hours. I'm going to go to the manager, whoever gives out the checks at the end of the week, and I'm going to take the check. And you know what I'm gonna do when I take the check? I'm gonna say thank you. I earned it, but it's still polite to say thank you. Thank you for the fair agreement that I can work and then get these wages. Thank you for the opportunity to earn a living for myself and my family. So there is a sense in which we have to be thankful for that opportunity, but even though you're gonna go and be thankful, what if you show up to your boss and you say, you know, I need my check, it's the end of the week. You know, I thought those 40 hours, I'm just gonna take those as a gift, thank you, have a good weekend. What if he denied your right to what you earned? How would you respond? I'd be furious. I gave you 40 hours of my life. You are breaking the agreement? You see, we expect our wages. What God gives us is a gift. Here's a problem that I personally have with gifts, and I think our culture does. Our problem is that I fear we expect gifts now. I fear we've lost the beauty and the glory of gift because we've gotten to the point where we're so consumeristic and, well, holidays now demand gifts. We've kind of lost the beauty of the gift. I mean, think about it. What if your spouse doesn't give you a gift on your anniversary? What if children didn't get gifts at Christmas? Can you imagine the anarchy that would be on our hands? We expect gifts, and if we don't get them when we expect them, we're disappointed and even angry. I think we've lost the beauty of a gift. We think we deserve something, we expect it, and when we don't get it, We're not thankful. We have to remember something. God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He is gracious. The most important thing we have to remember about God, He is free to give as He desires. His gift is a free decision from Him to bless those who don't deserve it. We haven't done anything to deserve it. Paul's addressed a few times where we take God's graciousness, his gift, his giving gifts, his freedom to give gifts, for granted. He spoke earlier in Romans 2 about how we presume upon his grace. We take for granted God's grace, that he's always going to be giving us grace to repent and be forgiven. He's always gonna give us grace that we can continue in life pursuing sin. Do we take God's gifts for granted? Do we expect them or do we realize it's mercy? And praise Him. See, the greatest gift is that He declares us righteous when we're unrighteous. This is what Luther called a passive righteousness. It's received. It's not earned. It's a gift. By faith in what Christ has done, we receive the greatest gift. a right relationship with God, a love from God. It's a foreign righteousness given to us. It's not ours, it's not earned. God is the great giver. Look at verse six. Paul wants to again point out another great figure who's declared the same truth. Now it's David, just as David also spoke. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. You see, we're either gonna be people of faith that are thankful for the blessings and we pray for more grace to be more thankful, or we're gonna be frustrated in our futility, grumbling. Whenever we don't get what we want, we're gonna get out our ledger, we're gonna say, God, I think you missed something. You see, if we think we earn something, if we think we do anything to please God, if we think we do anything to earn favor or mercy, we get our ledger out and we start saying to God, I'm frustrated, God, this wasn't supposed to happen. But if we actually see everything we have as a gift, Bend our knee and we say, thank you, God. I do not get what I deserve. I've received so much I do not deserve. Faith changes how we live. We can only live by faith. Let's look to the next section. The first section was the most attention because it is the main point. We are only declared right before God. We are only given this great gift by faith. It is not but what we do. Now Paul, like he has before, he's going to start walking through the typical problems that the Jewish Christians were presenting. Oh, but what about my circumcision? What about the law? He's going to explain to both of these, no. It's by faith. He's going through the same, he's expecting what his audience is going to throw back at him. Verse nine makes it very clear, but the blessing then, remember that blessing of Abraham, the blessing of the psalm from David, is the blessing then only for the circumcised? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? I tried to make sure I emphasized this as I read it, but look at the particular kind of argument he makes. How then was it counted to Abraham? Was it before or after he was circumcised? It was not after, but before. Paul's making sure we get that there's a particular kind of argument he's trying to make that is very significant. It's a before and after argument. The sequence of events matter. Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision. Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision. So those of you who are boasting your circumcision, you're boasting in something that did not justify Abraham and does not justify you. Instead, verse 11, he received the sign as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith. Circumcision is only a sign of what was given to him. There's a few things that we can draw out of this text very quickly and clearly, and one, the story matters. The Bible is not an encyclopedia. You don't just get to look up your favorite word and yank it out and say, this is truth at this point, and it's the same at all times. That isn't how the Bible works. It's a story that develops. There's a storyline that's beautiful and glorious, and quite frankly, it takes a lot of work to understand, but it's worth it because it is God's story. It's especially important for us because we have a very unique place in the story. All those promises to Abraham, all the blessings that he was looking forward to, we have a unique place in the story because we get to look back and see how he fulfilled them. We can look back and see how Christ is the fulfillment. It matters that the sign of circumcision comes after the promise of faith because all those promises that Abraham believed in, they were fulfilled when Jesus cried on the cross, it is finished. He accomplished a lot when he said it was finished, but it is significant that the veil of the curtain of the temple of the Holy of Holies, it was torn in two. All the promises that forgiveness would truly and finally come were fulfilled when Christ gave up his life on the cross for us. It's finished. You see, circumcision, it was looking forward. It was a sign that was looking forward to promises that would be fulfilled. Circumcision is no longer an ordinance for God's people. It has been replaced by baptism. Baptism is now that ordinance for God's people and baptism is not forward looking, it looks backwards. Because when we baptize, we're saying Christ died on the cross, He was crushed for our sins so we might be forgiven. He was buried to take away our death. He was risen again to new life. That's why we immerse, we put you down to show you're dead. Your old life, it's dead. You're given new life in Christ. More so, baptism, it's not for a nation, it's for people who believe. Baptism looks back and says, we see the faith you have in Christ. That's what makes baptism a significant symbol. That's why baptism is for the true children of Abraham. It's for those who believe. Believe and be baptized. Faith saves you, baptism doesn't. Faith saves you, baptism doesn't. This is important for us because we like to build up the same kind of idols that Paul's audience does. We can look back and say, you know, I was baptized at that point of that day and, you know, I've been a faithful attender all my life. I must be saved. Paul says you're saying you did something and you earned something. You're pretending that you earned something. by faith in Christ alone were saved. Baptism is a symbol of what happened. It isn't your assurance. Faith in Christ alone is your ultimate assurance. God gives you these little signs of assurance, but the ultimate assurance is do you believe in Jesus? To use a non-biblical example, take your wedding ring. Baptism's like your wedding ring. It's a sign that reminds you But you can take your wedding ring off, you can even lose it, you're still married. Right, that commitment you made when you said, I do, before you exchanged rings. The ring's a symbol. Circumcision was a symbol. Baptism's a symbol. The commitment that Christ makes to you and your faith in Him is what saves you. Don't trust the symbol. Don't be disobedient to the symbol. Don't trust the symbol. Trust Christ. Let's look at verse 11. Notice there's a change here. It's nice to get to a purpose. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe. This is very provocative. It may not appear to be so to you, but it's very provocative. Because the Jews would have said, Father Abraham had many sons. I am one of them, and you're not. You had to be born into it. It was a special privilege. It was a special class. God says, no. By faith, you're a child of Abraham. It's not earned. It's not a privileged position that you're born into. No. This is so essential for us to understand who we are as a church. The Jews were coming in and saying, we have a special privileged position, look at us. Sorry you're not as good as us. Okay, Jesus is great, but we've got Abraham. A church is divided when members boast of anything else but Christ. A church is divided when members boast of anything other than Christ. A church is united when we come in realizing we're all zeros. I'm sorry. I have to say that. We're all zeros. Okay, in the world, you may have a special place. In the world, you may have others that answer to you. In the world, you may have position and privilege and position. But we come to Christ. We come together, we come by faith as zeros. Because we come with nothing. but our filthy hands, covered in sin, saying, Christ, wash me. We come all together as nobodies who Christ adopted into the family of God so that we can, by faith, be children of God, brothers and sisters. You see, United Church is the one that says, nobody belongs here. Nobody deserves to be here, but we all belong to be here. Sorry, no one deserves to be here, but we all belong here. Nobody's earned the right to be here. By faith, Christ calls us. As a people of faith, I wanna challenge us in one way. Nothing demonstrates faith like prayer. Nothing demonstrates faith like prayer. Because literally what you're doing when you pray is you say, I'm going to stop trying to do something, and I'm going to say, God, you have to do something. Nothing demonstrates faith like prayer. That's why we have set aside our Wednesday night to be a prayer meeting. We need to be a church of faith. We need to be a church united in faith. This is why we are trying to commit ourselves to being a praying church. It is prescribed for a reason. Abraham is the father of all who believe. Now let's look to our next point, the faith versus the law. Very clear, very simple. For if it is the adherence of the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. Abraham, then Moses. Again, we have a sequence. The promise came, it was received by faith. Obeying the law doesn't give you the promise. The law is an addition, it doesn't improve upon the promise. What we have to realize is that the law is there to help us see one who God is. and how we do not live up to His glory. We're all sinners, we miss the mark, we fall short. The law is there so that we can see we exchange the glory of God for a lie, therefore the wrath of God is upon us. So that when we see Christ, we can see that God is exchanging His righteousness for our unrighteousness. Because we exchanged His glory and His truth for a lie, God has to then exchange His righteousness for our unrighteousness, and Christ has to suffer for us. I want to say something else about the law. The law does three things. The law reveals God, reveals our sin, and it shows us how we're supposed to worship. Faith fulfills the law. We uphold the law. Look at chapter three, verse 31. By faith we uphold the law. Salvation by faith alone does not mean that we just now go and sin. By no means, Paul is going to say in Romans six. I want you to see something from the very beginning, Paul has been setting up to say, God designed us and created us to be worshipers. We suppress that truth. We say we're not gonna worship you. Christ came to redeem us so that we'd once again worship. One of the greatest distinction, the most important distinction in Christianity is between justification and sanctification. Justification is God declaring us righteous. Sanctification is where we're supposed to be desiring righteousness. We're supposed to be desiring righteousness. Because God has declared us righteous, we now have a new life and we're supposed to pursue that life. He declares us righteous, not so we can continue in sin, by no means. He declares us righteous so that we can now enjoy the righteousness of God. Let's look to our final point. Faith versus circumstances. Verses 18 through 25. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body How would you like this description? Forever written in scripture. Which was as good as dead. Now, if I'm Abraham, I'm thinking, hey, I hiked a mountain 15 years later. This seems a little unfair. Unless we see what he's saying here is his body's no longer producing life. He's to the age where his body is no longer producing life. She's barren. But here we have God, so too your offspring. The promise was built around offspring of Abraham. His wife is barren, he's old, he should not have any hope. But in hope, he believed against hope. His circumstances said no. His circumstances were all giving testimony, don't believe God. But he knew he should trust God. He knew that God's word was greater than all the circumstances around him. Notice how he grew in faith. Verse 20, no unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in faith as he gave glory to God. We sang earlier a song that kept referencing how, I know not how you gave me faith. Faith isn't something that's natural to the sinner, faith in Christ. Trying to dig deeper down into our gut is not the source of faith. If you want to go stronger in faith, you look up to God and you say how great you are. Your faith grows as you see how great and trustworthy and reliable God is. If you have wavering faith, if you have weak faith, it's not how do I get more gut? It's how do I see the glory of God? When we glorify God, we grow in faith. So if you're wavering, if you're easily tossed to and fro, if you're in the midst of circumstances where you're thinking, how is this ever going to be resolved? Trying to fix it yourself isn't the solution. Trying to dig down deep in the gut is not the solution. It's getting on your knees and looking up to God and saying, I will glorify you, have your will with me. Faith comes when we see how great God is. He was fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised. This is His Word. We get to live on the side where we can say we fulfilled all of these promises so beautifully, so powerfully. Will we believe Him? It's considered as one promise that God has made. All things will work together for the good of those who love God. This is Romans 8. This is in the midst of him talking about the creation crying out, in the midst of being persecuted. He has to say nothing's gonna separate from the love of Christ, not sword, not famine, not persecution. All things means all things. Our circumstances should not cause us to waver in faith if we are focused on loving God. Now, I told you the story about the ice earlier. I want you to notice something about this. For those who love God, I don't think while I'm running across a frozen pond I can call out, all things God, Because I had put myself in such a circumstance, I'm not loving God. Bless my sin, God. Bless my foolishness, God. No, for those who are pursuing Christ, for those who trust in his declaration of righteousness, for those who are pursuing righteousness, all things work for the good. But when we sin, we can't say, God, bless this. We can say, God, free me from it, redeem it, use it for your glory. But we need to be careful here. When we're pursuing the love of God, he works out all things. We too often want to say, I'll sin and God will fix it. I'll sin and God will just work it out. We wanna pretend that I'm gonna sin and I'm gonna contain it and I'm gonna just let it go this far. When we try to master sin, it's already got us. It masters us. Do we trust this promise? That if we get on our knees and we look up to God and we say, you are great and worthy to be glorified, work this out. I'm going to stop trying. I'm going to wait upon you. Do we believe He'll do it? Is He that big? Is He bigger than your circumstances? Is He bigger than your sin? Yes. Believe Him. Christ died, he rose again. Let's look at verse 23 to conclude. But the words that was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, they were written for us. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord. He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Friends, if he did not spare his own son, what will he hold back from us? We have to believe that this is the greatest act of God, sending his son to die for us. This is the greatest declaration that he loves us. Are we confident? And that God is for us. God's with us. God loves us. That confidence leads us to say, whatever you say now, God, I, Whatever you say, God, because I know what you've done for me in Christ, I will trust you. I will wait. You are the God who saves sinners. He has the power to save sinners. He has authority to direct us. Let us trust him. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you that you have given us promises to which we don't deserve. You've given us grace to believe them and to hear them. You've given us grace to know of Jesus Christ and his death and his resurrection. Lord, I pray that if someone here does not trust you as their savior, that you would change their heart. Lord, there are many that are going through very difficult trials. Help us learn to know how to give them hope. Help us learn to know how to exalt Christ, their hope. Give them eyes to see and knees to bend to trust you in faith. Lord, I thank you that you are the God who resolves our sin, who heals us, who saves us. Lord, help us to trust you. Help us to follow you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.