The Faith of Father Abraham | Gospel Revealed - #9 | Pastor David Lindell

[Music] this morning we jump back into if you've been with us through the fall then you know we have been in a series on a letter in the New Testament called Romans the letter to the Romans and it's written by a guy named Paul and we find on so I'm gonna ask you if you've got your Bible go ahead and grab it and I hope you brought your Bible I hope you're planning on taking notes because as we're exploring this letter we're exploring perhaps the greatest letter ever wit written and today we come to the end of part 1 of our series through the book of Romans because we're taking it in four parts and part one ends today at the end of chapter 4 where if you've been with us than you know we've been talking about justification by faith justification by faith and to remind all of us what we mean when we say justification I want to quickly revisit a definition that we looked at several weeks ago a couple of times and the justification is this justification is the act of God whereby he forgives the unsaved person sin and imputes credits or assigns to them the righteousness of Christ win through faith they believe win through faith they believe somebody say believe believe so we've been talking about what it looks like to be justified what it means to be justified before a holy righteous God and so if you missed those last couple messages in our series on Romans you'll definitely want to jump on the podcast or go online and watch those but today we begin further exploring or finish exploring what Paul has to say about this in Romans chapter 4 because when a person gets saved when a person is saved by God when a person surrenders their life to Christ the moment of salvation three things take place number one our sins are forgiven our sins are forgiven most people if you ask them they would say yeah when when a person is saved if they're Christian they would say well that your sins are forgiven but also we are given Christ's righteousness Christ's righteousness is credited or imputed to our account it's not our righteousness it's his righteousness that we are given and then number three we are given faith to believe and it's that faith that today we're going to begin exploring beginning in verse 13 of Romans chapter 4 which it's significant that we would come to Paul's portion of this chapter that deals with faith today because today we're just a few days away from the 500th anniversary of a 33 year old monk in Germany in 1517 nailing a document called the 95 theses on the door at the church Whittenburg and you're some of you are saying what does that have to do with anything that's the beginning of the Protestant Reformation that's the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and that is the beginning of people rediscovering the beauty of what we're talking about today because there are hundreds of years of darkness through that period leading up to 1517 where people have forgotten and the church has not been teaching the beauty of this truth and instead what is crept in is a is a religion of works based on trying to measure up and appease God as opposed to what the Bible teaches that there is a faith that justifies or the faith that brings about a justification before a holy righteous God and it's not built on anything I do it's built on what Jesus did so this is justification by faith and in fact one of the primary cries of the Reformation was Sola fidei faith alone Martin Luther writing said the doc this doctrine well he called this doctrine one by which the church either stands or falls it's one by which the church either stands or falls and this morning as we look at these verses what you're gonna find is what we read about faith in these verses is not only just about the church standing and falling it's also about you it's about me that what we read here directly affects whether we stand or fall whether we stand in our relationship with God this is sin true to it and that issue in this path the passage that we come to this morning is what does justifying faith look like and maybe you could even say it this way what what is true about faith this justifying faith when it is lived out and as a test case for that Paul looks at he takes us to the life of a man named Abraham who showed up at other places so far in chapter 4 but he's a test case for it because Paul doesn't want this to remain in the area of abstraction this isn't some ivory tower theological concept that we say well glad I know about that I can you know forget now it's something that he's saying when you get a hold of this it fundamentally changes the way that you see God in the way that you do life fundamentally and so as we explore this there are three truths about faith that Paul wants us to see and the first truth about faith is that faith receives God's promise faith receives God's promise look at verse 13 for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith for if it is adherence of the law who are to be heirs faith is no promise is void for the law brings wrath but where there is no law there is no transgression now before we dive into that something that he talks about here as he says for the promise is to Abraham and his offspring so the first question that we have to settle as we get into this okay we know who Abraham is but who is his offspring and you don't know this but for all of those who grew up in Sunday school you were learning the answer to this question way back then for those of you who weren't lucky enough to grow up in Sunday school you're gonna learn a new song today now not all of kids church songs have good theology but this one does actually which is awesome because we're teaching it to our children so all the songs we sing here do but there are songs that you might have sung that you're going to it's kind of iffy on that this one is good and it goes like this and if you know it sing it with me father Abraham had many sons oh come on yeah many sons out father Abraham and I am one of them and so are you so let's just praise the Lord right arm left arm right foot left foot nod your head turn around sit down hey you're really good at this some of your like I am glad I missed that day in kids church but I am hoping that that song gets stuck in your head because that song communicates a truth that is very relevant to this passage of Scripture that if you are in Christ if you are a follower of Jesus then you have been adopted into the family you're an heir to the promise and therefore when Paul says Abraham's offspring he's actually talking about you now lest you think that I'm building my case just based off that song I'm not this is from the Bible verse 413 says the promise to Abraham or to his offspring is that he would be heir of the world and we know this from verse we know from verse 11 and 12 that offspring or the offspring or descendants of Abraham are not just Jewish people but they're all those who have put their faith in the God of Abraham they're everyone who have anyone who has Abraham's faith they're an heir to the promise and they're a descendant in Paul's language of Abraham and Paul reiterates this in in Galatians another part of the New Testament chapter 3 verse 29 he says and if you are Christ then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to the promise so if you would say hey you know what I surrendered my life to Jesus I'm a Christian I'm following him Paul says well then you're Abraham you're one of Abraham's descendants you're an heir to the promise did you know that that's pretty awesome news and and as we look at these verses in Romans chapter 4 verses 13 through 15 part of what we find here is that there are two possible futures for anybody sitting in this room and actually two possible futures for many one sitting or anyone on this planet right now no matter where they find themselves what their background is doesn't matter there are two possible futures and Paul says and this is what the whole Bible teaches as well that you have two possible futures and one is to receive the same promises Abraham namely - Paul says inherit the world which is code for meaning eternal life all that God's and all of God's goodness that accompanies that and the other option is inheriting wrath and we did a four-week series in the book of Romans kind of became its own miniseries exploring what the Bible means when it talks about the wrath of God but Paul says there are two possible futures for me two possible futures for you and that is either you inherit the promised inherit eternal life and Herot all of God's goodness stored up for his people or you inherit wrath and and catch this because this is really important Paul set what Paul is saying here is that not only is that true but that the law or holy living or obedience to the commandments is actually no help and you're receiving God's promise which is that sounds strange Paul says it's the the law is no help in you receiving God's promise and it's not just that it's no help in fact the law actually brings wrath it brings judgment it brings punishment look at this in verse 15 for the law brings wrath why would Paul say that why would he write that why would he say that the law brings that how could it be that obeying the commandments not only doesn't bring God's promise but when it's relied on to receive the promise notice I didn't say that the law was bad or that obeying the commandments was unnecessary I just said that for receiving the promise it's not how the promise is received but when somebody says okay what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna leverage my obedience so that I can be right with God so that I can have eternal life Paul says that leveraging brings wrath that leveraging is is pushed away by God that leveraging is not received Gunn amélie's it not received by God but God responds in Wrath to that action on our part in the answer to why that would be would cause us to have to go back a little bit in Romans because from Romans chapter 1 verse 18 all the way to chapter 3 in verse 20 what Paul did is Paul decisively laid out for us that we're all sinners were all lawbreakers and we all just least and under the condemnation and wrath of a holy righteous God because by nature we are lawbreakers by nature we are bent toward rebellion against God we're bent toward rebellion against the commandments of God by nature we don't love God and but apart from grace our hearts are stone and when a stone heart comes up against the perfect holy righteous standards of a holy righteous perfect God it crushes it crushes it there was the the the the impact from that punishment it's God's wrath is displayed against that it results in punishment and Paul adds in verse 15 look at the end of the verse he says but where there is no law there is no transgression now that doesn't mean that before the law there wasn't any sin we know that all you have to do is go back to the beginning of Genesis and you find out it takes three whole chapters for humanity to fall into sin it happens very very quickly but what Paul is saying is that sin lies dormant until it is aggravating the law actually aggravates and exposes what is quietly resident within the human heart so that when the law aggravates it what happens is that sin explodes into action like and we honestly you know this is the case because the moment somebody tells you don't do that what do you immediately think well I'd like to do that you didn't you didn't want to do it before you totally disinterested in it until you found out that you weren't supposed to said oh that sounds like fun I would like to do that and you know eight years of parenting have provided empirical evidence to me ample empirical evidence that this in fact is the status of the human heart you know I've talked about my children before we have four of them Owen Elliot Hindley and Calvin so have three boys and one baby girl one baby girl and I love all of my children equally but how many of you know a baby girl gets loved differently so you know she's just she's so sweet and she's you know she's she's my boo I call her the boom baby boo choo so she has a lot of nicknames actually this is just a couple of them I won't bore you with the rest but she is just this sweet lovable little girl in and when I held her in my arms at the hospital I didn't this thought did not immediately come to me with any of the any of the boys but when I held her in my arms I it took me two seconds to think someday I'm gonna have to walk her down the aisle which is really disabled izing to me emotionally which might have meant I cried this is a little as a you know it's baby girl but even that baby girl even that baby girl has a heart that is bent towards sin as cute as Louisville in fact let's put a picture of her up on the screen there she is in her heart and soul shirt she looks like she's upset but she's actually smiling she's that's Hindley that's boo but you know not too long ago boo was struggling with with hitting people namely two boys her older brothers oh and an Elliot and one of the first times I don't know that I had ever caught her hitting like like I'd seen the impact it's always different when you see the impact if you hear one of them screaming in the other room you just assume something happened it'll be okay but when you see it happen it's like oh that's a whole new ball game so I pulled her aside and I I got down on her level and I said Henley you cannot hit you cannot hit Elliott can't hear your little bro you can't big brother you can't hear big brother get your little brother either that's happened you can't do that I mean that's that's an affront to a holy righteous God it was a perfect standard I didn't say any of that to her thinking it can't do that she's a sinner in need of a savior so pray for her but she said I said baby why did you hit your brother and she looked at me with a smile and a glint in her eye and said because I wanted to that is the unfettered honesty of the human heart on display she she is giving voice to what we wouldn't dare give voice to namely that our proclivity apart from Christ is sin and not only to do sin but to delight in sin that sin is pleasurable for a while and then the end leads to death but we we glory in it and it's funny but it's tragically realistic Paul says the law not only doesn't empower us to receive the promise but in fact the law exposes our condition and on earth our unworthiness the law actually demonstrates back to us how unworthy we are of the promise that's why Paul would say don't ever ever ever ever base your position or your right standing before God on your performance don't ever do that don't ever do that because it won't hold they can't hold it it cannot hold it how is the promise received if it's not received through the law how then is it received and Paul tells us in verse 16 that is why it depends on oh come on it depends on it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on Grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring not only to the adherence of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all faith alone Paul says receives the promise faith alone receives the promise God's grace through faith guarantees any person God's promise so the first truth about faith that we see in this passage is that faith receives God's promise but now look at this second truth that we see begin and before we get there one of the one of the questions I think is interesting and I don't know if you've ever pondered this but why is faith the God ordained vehicle to deliver justification we're thought about that we say justification by faith if you've never heard that before you're hearing it now perhaps you haven't had time to wonder about that but if you've been a Christian for any length of time have you ever wondered why it is why did God choose faith why is it faith through which we are justified Paul begins to explore this with us in verse 17 where he says as it is written you have been you have made I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of God of the God in whom he believed who's he Abraham Abraham 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 a hundred years old or when he considered the barrenness 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 and here in these verses Paul moves to answer two questions one the question that I've already I've already hinted out why does God choose faith as that vehicle but also where does faith come from where does faith come from and he does this by unearthing the second truth about faith and that is that faith calls attention to God's character faith calls attention to God's character now as I was as I was wrestling with this passage this week I initially was going to take these verses and I was going to talk about principles for you know principles things that you know what is faith enable what is faith enable to you to do or how does faith grow but here's the problem with that that's not what the text is about so it's never good to preach something that is in contradiction to what you're talking about from the Bible that's not good but sometimes what you do is you you're you're studying a text of Scripture and you're going okay I think there are principles about faith that can be drawn out of this but that's not Paul's big idea Paul what what's what's actually important to you here what do we what are we supposed to get out of this about faith what does this tell us about faith what's important to the Apostle Paul on this about faith in the issue at stake here are not the mechanics of Abraham's faith it's the faith God's or Abraham's faith in God do you understand that it's not the mechanics of Abraham's faith it's the God that Abraham worships that's Paul's best calls point that's what Paul wants us to see this isn't about Abraham did one two three did you know XYZ it's not about that primarily it's about the God who Abraham's faith was in a totally different thing verse 21 hints at that Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised he was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised in other words what would be the word - if just as an aside if you're wrestling with faith if you're struggling in your faith if your faith feels weak and not strong then what should you be doing to strengthen and embolden and build your faith the answer is not try harder believe more you know just really work at it the answer is a person the answer is a person the answer the writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrew chapter 12 in verse 2 he says this fixing our eyes on Jesus the Pioneer and perfecter of our faith this passage is well that we're looking at this morning in Romans 4 doesn't place the accent on more effort and it doesn't say faith is found in looking inward it says fix your eyes outside yourself fix your eyes on the God that Abraham fixed his eyes on because he was fully convinced that God would do what he said he would do and he was powerful enough to bring it about it's about him it's about God's power it's about God's character it's about God's nature that's what builds faith it's fixing your eyes on him the source for and the strength for faith come from the author of faith primary focus on the author faith so if that's where faith comes from now why is that there so it's important only because we answer the second question which is why does God choose faith to begin with why is faith so necessary why is faith this unique vehicle for delivering our justification before God and here's the reality that other other people have grappled with this question before in history in fact 350 years ago a Prada Protestant Puritan pastor wrote a book his name is Thomas Watson he wrote a book called a body of divinity which is a really catchy title so just as a joke it's actually not is it he wrote a book called the body of divinity which is and in this book he's exploring in one portion this whole question why does God choose faith why is faith the vehicle and he says this because of God's purpose he has appointed this grace to be justifying and he does it because faith is a grace that takes man off himself faith is a grace that takes man off himself and it gives all the honor to Christ and free grace and he then following that he says and he quotes chapter um scepter 4 and verse 20 strong in faith giving glory to God what does it mean to give glory to God if you're giving glory to God is not you adding glory to God like maybe you you know you've heard that and you've wondered well ok give glory to God well doesn't he have all the glory that he needs yeah he he does so how do you give glory to him you give glory to him by showing how glorious he is the song that says in Psalm 34 Oh magnify the Lord with me what does that mean it means that you can live in such a way that magnifies and enlarges God to the people around you that you can walk in a way and that is what faith does when you walk by faith when you exercise faith faith calls attention to God's character and it makes him look marvelous as he is marvelous that's what it does but you can also live in such a way that your faith makes God look small but if we're not careful what can happen is that in our faith in our exercise of faith we can actually diminish the creator of the entire universe and we can bring him down in the eyes of people around us and the Apostle Paul says here's the thing when faith is properly exercised namely through its it's justifying of us or it's bringing about our justification faith makes God look big faith makes God look awesome faith puts his glory on display faith calls attention to his character so what ways did Abraham's faith do that because all of us are called to do that I don't know if you know that but the reason I'm breathing in and out this morning and that you're breathing in and out this morning that you're sitting in this room and that we're all in this place together the reason that we're here and the reason for every second and nanosecond you have on this planet is all to bring glory to God that's the purpose that you were wired and created to fulfill fundamentally at the core in in going to work in at home with your kids in your marriage to your spouse in all of it you're meant to bring glory to God in fact Paul writes later in Romans chapter 11 and verse 36 these words he says for from him and through him and for him are all things to him be the glory forever amen amen that your life is about bringing glory to God Abraham's life was about bringing glory to God faith is the vehicle that brings glory it's uniquely suited to bring glory to God and how did Abraham's faith do that in verse 18 it says 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 first it tells us that he hoped against hope this kind of came up in Life Group a couple of weeks ago we were talking about what does it mean to hope against hope here's what it means to hope again so that there are some situations that you have no reason to hope for there are some diagnoses that you don't have reason to hope in there's some times where the situation is so bad and the feedback you're getting is so grim that there is nothing that you can percieve with any of your senses but namely that you can see with your eyes that would give you any reason to hope and it's against that backdrop that you do what Abraham did and what does it say that Abraham did he was told and he believed he was so hey I'm a hundred year old dude said Abraham it's over kids aren't in the cards for me my wife has never had a child we're my body is as good as dead and yet God said it so I'll believe it that's hope against hope God said it I believe it well why would you believe that because God said it well no no don't you understand don't you think that's a little unrealistic no it's not unrealistic in fact it says that Abraham considered when he considered his body and he considered his wife sir meaning Abraham wasn't walking through life like this Abraham didn't deny the reality of his situation he didn't put sugar coating on the grim facts of what he was walking through he said no this is how how bad things are but that's how good god is and so it doesn't matter what I'm walking through I don't live under my circumstances I trust in a God who is above my circumstances and he is able hope against hope hope against so when you live like that when you process life like that you what happens in your life is the same thing that happened in Abraham's life verse 20 no belief made him unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God but he grew strong in faith he grew strong in faith why because he hoped to get us hope and what happens is when you live hoping against hope when in any situation where there is no hope where this facts and the reality of the situation are dark and you say no no no no I trust in an all-powerful almighty omnipotent God of all heaven and earth he is the creator and in him all things hold together this is not too big for him to care about and it's not too small for him to think about I look to him when you do that and you live that way here's what happens the more you walk by faith the stronger your faith grows the stronger your faith grows the more that you're able to trust God the more that you trust God the more that you put his glory on display the more that you put his glory on display the more that you live in the sweet spot of what you were created to do and you sense the fulfillment of that faith puts God's character on display faith secures God's promise but faith also does this I love this look at this in verse 21 first he was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised that is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness but it was in just Abraham's faith well the third thing we're gonna third truth about faith that we're gonna see is that faith counts us in on God's goodness faith counts you in on God's goodness well I don't think I deserve God's goodness it's not because you deserve it it's by faith God didn't set it up that way when you do that when you think that way what you do is you go back to law what you do and you do that way now you're relating to God based on some sort of merit system but Paul says in verse 23 but the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone Abraham's not in some special class it's not for some sort of really great person or some unique individual Paul says they were not for his sake alone but for ours also the people in this room the people in this place the people hearing my voice right now why does it say it was for our sake also what are we counted in on look at verse 24 it will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification do you realize that when Jesus went to the cross he was dying in your place for your sin sometimes they have to go back to that reality and say okay it was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished [Music] it was my thoughts it was my words [Music] it's my actions that's what I do it's what I've done with my what you've done with your eyes you've done with your ears and you've done with your mouth it was my sin that held him there he was delivered up he was nailed to the cross his side was pierced with a spear for you he was delivered out for my trespasses but not only was he delivered up for my trespasses your sin and my sin is dark enough but it would take the perfect son of God going and dying or horrific death to purchase your freedom my sin is horrific enough that Jesus had to go and die but Paul says he was raised for your justification you are loved enough you are perfectly loved by a holy infinitely righteous God that he willingly not only sent Jesus to die but raised him in victory over Satan sin and death for your justification and he took Christ's righteousness and he said I've got a gift for you [Music] theologians call it the great exchange Jesus perfection for my sin Jesus faultless miss for my failures Jesus bleeding dying breaths for my freedom this morning God has a gift for you God has a gift for you he wants to count you in on all of his goodness he wants to count you in you up in the stadium he wants to count you in on his goodness on the floor he wants to count you in on his goodness over he wants to count you in on his goodness there's nothing you could say well what about this or what about that and he says quiet I have something for you don't try to earn it don't try to persuade me that you deserve it I've already sent Jesus to the cross to die in your place for your sin to give you his righteousness so that you can be right with me and you can experience all that I have for you receive it receive and receive it receive it all you need to do is believe all you need to do is believe faith receives the promise faith highlights the character of God and faith counts us in on his goodness

Channel: James River Church

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Keywords: gospel revealed, david lindell, james river church, study of romans, romans, God's character, christianity, Bible, sermon, book of romans

Id: YX5d0zBmTeU

Length: 35min 55sec (2155 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 30 2017