Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's continue to hear God's word,
now from Romans four, of verses one
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through eight. Romans Four. If
you're able, please remain standing as we
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hear God's word and give your undivided
attention to it. Romans four, verses
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one through eight. What, then, shall we say was gained by Abraham,
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our father, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by
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works, he has something to boast
about, but not before God. For
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what does the Scripture say? Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him
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as righteousness. Now, to the
one who works, his wages are not
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counted as a gift, but as
his due. And to the one who
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does not work but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith
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is counted as righteousness, just as
David also speaks of the blessing of the
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one to whom God counts righteousness.
Apart from works, blessed are those whose
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lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins
are covered. Blessed is the man against
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whom the Lord Will Not Count His
sin. You may be seated. We
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come to a passage this morning that
is in many ways very straightforward and has
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a very simple point the point of
the passage is one that God has been
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making throughout these pages enrollments so far
and we'll continue to make, and it's
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simply this. You're justified by faith
and not by works. It's a simple
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point and it's one that should amaze
us and cause us to fall to our
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knees and thankfulness and praise. It's
one that should encourage our hearts give strength
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to the way we live our lives. It has deep and lasting impacts when
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God calls to work in us,
but it often seems in some ways so
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simple that we simply forget it or
we don't pay much attention to it,
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or we kind of check a box
and say, well, they are now.
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I understand that, but it's much
more important than that. Paul it's
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been mentioning this in various ways,
arguing for this point, and he's going
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to press the point even further here. It's right for us to consider it
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and consider this per this particular example
that he gives in Abraham. I'll explain
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why in a moment, but let's
begin by just remembering Paul's basic argument.
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Paul has been arguing so far that
there is no way that our good works
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could ever possibly earn us anything good
before God. Are Good works can't earn
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us anything good before God because our
good works aren't good, because they're tainted
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and broken and come from evil hearts, hearts that were born and corruption and
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sin, because of our fall and
Adam they also create a situation in which
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we don't start from a blank slate
and simply need to do good things to
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earn God's blessing, but we start
from debt, we start from a negative
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kind of situation. That's why we
call it salvation. What we seek from
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God and his blessing is not only
blessing, but it's the blessing of salvation.
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It's something that God does for us
and bringing us out of our sins.
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Now, the reason Paul has been
describing it in this way, telling
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us that our good works aren't all
as good as we think they are and
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that in fact, we have evil
works, a cure accruing to us,
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works that are worthy of the wrath
of God, is because he wants to
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tell us something about that salvation,
about the blessing that comes from God through
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Jesus. What Paul has been arguing
is that it's not our good works,
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but it's his that save us,
good works done by the son of God,
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which are imputed to us. You
remember Paul's words back in Romans Chapter
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One, where he says, for
I am not ashamed of the Gospel,
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for it is the power of God
for salvation to everyone who believes, to
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the Jew first, and also to
the Greek, for in it, that
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is in the Gospel, the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith for faith.
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As it is written, the righteous
shall live by faith. This is
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Christianity all summed up in just a
couple verses. It is how we begin
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our lives. It is the way
we live our lives. Life Living,
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all the parts of it, beginning, middle and end, happened by faith.
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And it happens not by our righteousness, our good works, but by
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God's righteousness. We live by the
righteousness of God. Now, just before
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Romans, for Paul has described this
kind of salvation and very particular ways.
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He described it as justification, as
propitiation, as redemption, these technical big
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words perhaps that mean these specific things. He described our salvation of receiving,
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receiving the righteousness of God as justification. He described our salvation as God's wrath
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being turned away, as a propitiation. He described our being set free from
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sin and death, being released from
that bond as redemption. All of these
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things adding up to this single point
that God saves us not by our good
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works but by his so that brings
us to Romans for thank you for tracking
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so far. Romans for one,
through a God, adds further strength to
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this argument by showing how this is
worked out in the particular example of Abraham.
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In other words, Abraham is justified
by faith and not by works.
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Now, if you don't know much
about Abraham, I suspect that this point
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feels somewhat minor. A valid point, but not really a big deal.
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Okay, God justifies everyone by faith. Abraham belongs to the category of everyone.
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So yes, of course Abraham was
justified by faith. Move On.
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But it's not quite right to move
on when we talk about Abraham. Abraham
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is not just someone else who was
also justified by faith. But in thinking
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about Abraham in particular, we begin
to understand certain aspects of our salvation.
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It's we begin to understand how important
it is that justification happens in this way.
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Important not just in a general sense, but important for you and for
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your lives. God chose to give
us this example of Abraham in Romans for
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precisely because Abraham was a very big
deal. He was a big deal two
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thousand years before Christ came and he
is a big deal two thousand years after
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Christ has come. Think about what
the Scriptures say in regards to Abraham and
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why he in particular might be selected
as an example to prove that justification comes
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by faith alone. Consider how the
book of Genesis Begins. Consider how the
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Bible begins. It begins, of
course, in the garden of Eden and
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moves through a series of genealogies up
to Abraham and in then at that point
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that the story in genesis really slows
down and focuses on him in particular.
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You think about the exodus and Moses
and the people of Ed, people coming
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out of Egypt. That was all
because of Abraham, because Abraham's children had
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multiplied. God brought them out of
Egypt because of his promises to Abraham.
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Even the prophets will appeal back to
him over and over again. You have
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sinned, you have disobeyed, God
says to his people, but because of
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my promises to Abraham, I will
bring you out of Babylon, I will
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bring you back and restore to you
a salvation and blessing as my people.
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Even Isaiah Fifty one two specifically tells
us, tells God's people, and Babylon
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says, look to Abraham, your
father, and to Sarah, who gave
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you birth. So why is Abraham
so important? Why does he receive a
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so much attention? Abraham is important
to God's people. He should be important
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to you because it's through Abraham that
God's blessings come. It's as simple as
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that. Abraham, God selects Abraham
and creates through him this chosen family,
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this special family, whom he has
decided to bless. That's something you should
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want to be a part of.
That's something that you should want to belong
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to. Some of you may be
in a position where you have considered a
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move before. You're trying to decide, do I move to this place or
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this place? Maybe you're moving your
family or maybe you're moving a company or
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something like that. How do you
typically make those decisions? You make them
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based on the opportunities often that are
offered there. The taxes are better here,
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the work environments here, the climate, whatever it may be. You
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go to a particular place because there's
good things there, you things that you
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want to have. Well, if
the salvation of God comes through this particular
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family, if the salvation of God
comes through a particular family, will you
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not want to belong to that family? Will you not want to be part
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of that particular family? You should, because that is what God has promised
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and what God has given. So
that creates a whole series of questions.
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Well, how do we belong to
that family? How can we belong to
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Abraham? How can he be our
father, especially when, I'm very few
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of us here can actually trace any
kind of lineage to Abraham? It creates
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somewhat of a conundrum, of a
problem. If blessing comes through Abraham will
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then how can I be blessed?
How can I be his child? Let's
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consider the blessing of Abraham as it
comes to us in genesis seventeen, where
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God makes these promises to him,
and you will hear why it's right to
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put it this way. First,
we remember that Abraham was ninety nine years
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old when these blessings came to him. He was an old man. Genesis
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Seventeen, when Abram was ninety nine
years old, Jehovah appeared to Abram and
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said to him I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.
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Genesis Seventeen two, that I may
make my covenant between me and you,
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and they multiply you greatly. Now, earlier God had called Abraham out of
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a very pagan environment. There's a
number of ways the scriptures paint that picture
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for us in the in the genealogy
itself, somewhat in the names that we
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have there. But he calls Abram
out of this environment, out of this
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sinful environment, and he says to
him I'm going to make a covenant with
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you. He says I am going
to multiply you greatly. Well, that's
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a good thing right in and of
itself, but there's ways in which God
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defines that root which make it really
good and which make it's in such a
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way that it's something we should want
to be a part of. Will read
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on. In verse three we see
read the Abraham fell on his face and
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God said to him, behold,
my covenant is with you, and you
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shall be the father of a multitude
of nations. No longer shall your name
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be called Abram, but your name
shall be called Abraham, for I have
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made you the father of a multitude
of nations. I will make you exceedingly
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fruitful and I will make you into
nations and kings shall come from you.
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Imagine if God said something like something
like this to you, if God came
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to you and said, Victor Bruce
Kate, I am going to make you
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into a great multitude. From you
are going to come nations and kings,
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you are going to be exceedingly great. Wow, can you imagine what it
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would feel like to hear that kind
of promise from one who can actually deliver
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that kind of promise? No wonder
Abraham fell on his face. But he
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goes on and he says, I
will establish my covenants between me and you
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and your offspring after you, throughout
their generations, for an everlasting covenant to
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be God to you and to your
offspring after you. So God not only
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promises to do this great thing and
to supervise it all to make sure that
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it happens, but he is going
to be up God to these people.
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He is going to be there,
he is going to provide for them,
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he's going to take care of them, he's going to be their ruler and
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their king. Earlier we saying,
God of Abram, praise, ever,
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God of Abraham, praise. That's
why we praise him, because he has
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Abraham's God. Verse Eight. I
will give to you and to your offspring
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after you, the land of your
sojourneys, all the land of Canaan for
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an everlasting possession, and I will
be their God. These are amazing promises
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in remind us that God is pointing
to sort of something with two levels.
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On the one hand, he's going
to bring them into the land of Canaan,
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he's going to give them this beautiful
land, what the Bible calls almost
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glorious land, flowing with milk and
honey. He's not just going to expand
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his people, but he's going to
provide a place for them to live.
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You see the details, you see
the way in which and ways in which
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God takes care of his people,
and so God gives promises these things.
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But it's not only earthly he promises
him in everlasting possession. Indeed, that
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inheritance that we read about in First
Peter, and Abraham knew this in Hebrews
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Eleven. The the the Bible says
that Abraham looked toward a heavenly city.
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He knew that there was something that
he was waiting for. So when God
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is making these promises, he's not
only making them in a kind of earthly
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blessed way, but in an altimate, heavenly kind of way, a way
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in which they don't just have a
family of many, many people, with
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kings and rulers and glory and land, but one that is united and together
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and loving one another and do you
ut, and called around a singular purpose
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and worshiping God, the only True
God. This is what God is promising
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to Abraham. This is the kind
of blessing that comes to Abraham and his
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family. Well, as we continue
on in Jenesen's genesis seventeen, we read
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that this comes in particular through a
son. In Verse Fifteen, God said
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to Abraham, as for Sarah,
your wife, you shall not call her
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name Sarah, but Sarah shall be
her name. I will bless her and,
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moreover, I will give you a
son by her. I will bless
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her and she shall become nations,
kings of people shall come from her.
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Well, the Neighbraham doesn't believe.
The NEBRAHAM fell on his face, not
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out of thankfulness, but he laughs
and says to himself. Shall a child
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be born to a man who's a
hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who
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is ninety years old, bear a
child? Well, that we see here
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a kind of lack of faith.
But ultimately Abraham will believe, for God
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has promised. And Verse Twenty One
we read, but I will establish my
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covenant with Isaac, with Whom Share
Sarah shall bear to you at this time
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next year. So this is the
promise God gives. Now, sandwich between
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these two things, we have this
sign of circumcisions, which will consider next
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time from Romans, a sign of
circumcision. But what we see here,
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and the main point I want to
make in reading these verses this is it.
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God is making these spectacular promises to
Abraham. So, going back to
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the earlier point, if we want
to belong to the salvation of God,
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if we want to belong to the
family of God and have the promises of
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God and the blessings of God,
it's going to come through Abraham. It's
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going to come through him. That's
something that ruth understood when she clung to
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Naomi and said your God will be
my God. I want to be where
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you are. It's a truth that
ray have understood when she hid the spies
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and and helped Israel, and it's
something that the gentiles in the new testaments
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understood least, sometimes struggled with as
well. They had this question. God
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had been the god of Abraham since
Genesis. How do we relate to that?
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We who are not of Abraham,
according to the flesh, how can
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we have these blessings? This is
why Abraham is important and this is why
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Paul brings him up in Romans,
for the answer is in the way that
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God called Abraham, in the way
that he saved him. Earlier, I
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quoted Isaiah fifty one. Look to
Abraham, your father, and to Sarah,
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your mother. The verse continues on. When I called him, he
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was but one and I blessed him
and made him many. Look to Abraham,
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look to Sarah, because when I
called him, he was one and
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I blessed him and made him many. Why does God and Isaiah want his
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people to look to Abraham? Because
in Abraham we see the promises of God
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fulfilled. In Abraham we see God
doing a amazing things. I called him
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and he was one, I blessed
him and he was many. This is
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Paul's message to us in Romans Chapter
Four. He begins by asking this question.
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What, then, shall we say, was gained by Abraham, our
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forefather, according to the flesh?
For if Abraham was justified by works,
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he had something to boast about,
but not before God. What does the
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Scripture say? And then it quotes
from Genesis hundred and twenty six. Abraham
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believed God and it was counted to
him as righteousness. Paul makes a biblical
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argument. He says, how do
we know Abraham was saved? Not by
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his works, but by simply believing
and receiving God's goods works. He says
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it happened. We know this because
the scripture proves it, because before we
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read of circumcision in genesis seventeen,
we have Abraham believing before Abraham did anything,
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before Abraham circumcised his children, before
Abraham went and in faith obeyed God
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in many different ways, he simply
believed the promises of God and they were
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counted to him as righteousness. This
corresponds well to the point that Isaiah makes.
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We look at Abraham as this example
and we see this one who has
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been blessed in all these ways.
We see the promises of God being fulfilled
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in him. How because Abraham walked
in a certain path, a certain godly
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example, and if we follow him
in his footsteps, then we can be
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like him and also receive the promises
of God. No, we look at
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Abraham and we see God doing this
work and if we belong, if we
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want to belong to those promises,
if we want to enjoy that blessing,
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if we want to belong to that
family, then likewise we must believe and
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in that we belong to that family. It's a simple point. God saves
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not by works, are works,
but by his Abraham didn't become the father
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of a multitude at age ninety nine
because he was so fertile and so powerful
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and so great. He was weak. He laughed at the fact that God
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promised these things. Abraham became what
he became because of who God was and
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what God did. The same is
to for us. If we want these
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blessings, if we want to enjoy
this salvation that's promised to Abraham, we
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can't trust in our works like Abraham. We must believe God and have his
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good works, his power, credited
to us. Paul emphasizes all this in
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verse four by saying now to the
one who works his wages are not counted
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as a gift, but as his
due. But what is he said about
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our works, our wages? What
gets counted to us is our due,
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our sins. Our due is the
wrath of God, the wages of sin.
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Paul has said, it's death.
We don't want to live life according
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to that formula. We don't want
to stand before God and say, just
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give me what's my due. That's
all I ask, because we will die.
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What is David say? Paul says
blessed are those whose lawless deeds are
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forgiven. Blessing comes not to the
one who stands before God and says,
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look at all the great things that
I've done for you this week, look
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at all my good intentions, look
at the life that I've lived. Blessing
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doesn't come to the one who stands
himself on his good works. Blessing comes
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to the one who's lawless deeds are
forgiven. That's how we have blessing,
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who sins are covered. So God
makes this point to us in Romans,
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for he tells us that justification comes
to us not by our works, because
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in our works we need forgiveness.
Justification comes to us by God's works.
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But when we're justified, we receive
not just a theological term that we can
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remember, we receive the plot promises
that are given to Abraham. We become
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princes and princesses, kings and Queens. God becomes our God and we are
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not bound to worshiping rocks and trees
and dirt and gold, but the living
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and True God who watches over us, who protects us, who gives us
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gifts, who treats us as his
children. To belong to the family of
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Abraham is to belong to the family
of God. For those who love to
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stand by their works and Trumpet Their
Deeds, this message is infuriating, obnoxious,
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irrelevant. The one who wants to
stand on his works, who wants
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to be treated according to his due, the one who is prideful. This
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is all, as I say,
irrelevant, maybe even I'm hateful. But
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if, instead, you find yourself
in a position of humility, if you
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know the turmoils in your soul,
if you know the wages that you have
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earned are not life but death,
if you know your sins, if you're
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aware of your regrets and your sorrows, then this message is hope. God
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has provided a salvation that is for
you a salvation that is abundant and rich,
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that is filled with life and goodness, that belongs to a heavenly country,
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surrounded by a heavenly people, in
a heavenly family. This is God's
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gift to you in Jesus Christ.
Receive it by setting aside your works and
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your pride and trusting in him and
his power to save. May God help
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us to understand these things and to
live by them. Let us pray
