Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Please remain standing, and let's give
our attention to Romans Chapter Four, verses
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thirteen through twenty five, Romans Four
thirteenth through twenty five. Here we conclude
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chapter four and Paul's Focus on Abraham
as the father of faith, Romans four,
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verse thirteen. For the promise to
Abraham and his offspring that he would
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be the heir of the world did
not come through the law, but through
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the righteousness of faith. For if
it is the adherence of the law who
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are to be heirs, faith is
null and the promise is void, for
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the law brings wrath, but where
there is no law, there is no
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transgression. That is why it depends
on faith in order that in order that
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the promise may rest on grace and
be guaranteed to all his offspring, not
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only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares
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the faith of Abraham, who is
the father of us all. As it
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is written, I have made you
the father of many nations, in the
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presence of God and whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and
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calls into existence the things that do
not exist. In Hope, he believed,
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against hope, that he should become
the father of many nations, as
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he had been told, so shall
your offspring be. He did not weaken
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in faith when he considered his own
body, which was as good as dead
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since he was about a hundred years
old, or when he considered the barrenness
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of Sarah's wound. No distrust made
him waver concerning the promise of God,
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but he grew strong in his faith
as he gave glory to God, fully
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convinced that God was able to do
what he had promised. That is why
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his faith was counted to him as
righteousness. But the words it was counted
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to Him we're not written for his
sake alone, but for ours also.
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It will be counted to us who
believe in Him who raised from the dead,
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Jesus, Our Lord, who was
delivered up for our trespasses and raised
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for our justification. Hey, God
bless his word to us. Please be
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seated. Well, if you are
familiar with this passage or if you've been
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tracking with us in the last several
sermons, you know what this passage is
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about. That our justification are standing
before God comes by faith alone and not
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by works, or even faith plus
works. But Paul has been making that
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point in particular through this example of
Abraham, as a way to connect us
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together, US being both Jew and
gentile, those who are brought under the
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law or adheres to the law,
those who are born according to according to
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the flesh, according to Abraham,
and those who are not, both Jew
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and gentile, belong to God through
faith in Jesus. Depends on faith,
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not on obedience to the law.
Now, this has all kinds of powerful
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implications, as we've been seeing,
all kinds of ways in which this impacts
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our life and speaks to our unity
in the church. But I confess that
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as much as we hear this and
as much as we know it, there's
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a way in which hearing it is
still hard. You hear that God promised
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the world to Abraham, that the
substance of those promises was received by faith
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and not by works, and it
always feels a little abstract. It always
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feels a little bit like a thesis
statement that you know you need to affirm,
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that you know you should live by
it in some sense, and yet
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it always feels a little bit distant. I feel fairly confident in using a
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word like always there, because I've
talked with you, I know you and
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I know my own heart as well. I know that believing by faith is
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not always easy. It's hard to
hear a promise and move forward, to
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believe in something that you cannot see, to trust God and his promises even
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while they don't seem to be happening
here and now, to put our faith
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in all his historical event, the
death and resurrection of Jesus, even when
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we weren't there, relying on the
testimony of witnesses and of God. Of
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course, this Christians. It feels
a little bit ridiculous to admit this.
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Who would doubt God? But right
do we have to doubt his word,
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to doubt his promises? Why in
the world would we struggle to walk according
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to a promise made by God?
And yet we do. We struggle.
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We struggle against all kinds of things. We struggle to see by faith.
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We struggle to give glory to God. We struggle to hope in the things
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that God has given us instead of
putting our trust in our current circumstances and
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situation. We struggle to feel like
we belong to God's family or that others
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should belong who have done terrible things. We desire continually to add something to
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contribute in some way to our salvation
and do not trust God for simply giving
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it to us. I know that
you are afraid. You're afraid that your
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sins will catch up to you,
that God saying that he has freely forgiven
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you and forgiven your trespasses on the
cross may not be true, that the
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regrets that you have, the sins
that you've committed, maybe even as recently
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as to day, we'll catch up
with you will destroy you, that the
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cross is not good enough, afraid
that God is angry with you, or
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you are filled with pride. You
prop yourself up with your plans, your
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career paths, your chaste hopes.
You pride yourselves on the things that you
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know, the things that you've done, the places you've been, the plans
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that you have. I know how
you feel. I feel these ways too.
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But more important than mean knowing how
you feel is that God knows how
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you feel. He knows who you
are, he knows the particulars of your
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life, just as he did when
he came to Abraham and promised him the
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world. When God came to Abraham
about this good news that he would make
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him and his offspring air of the
world. God already knew about the circumstances
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and sins and particulars of Abraham's life. God knew about the decades of Sarah's
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barrenness. He knew about every creek
and ache and every discomfort in Abraham's hundred
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year old body and Sarah's hundred year
old body. He knew about their particular
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spiritual upbringing, which was likely not
a happy one or God glorifying one.
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He knew about the century, now
that it happened, of sin and rebellion
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against God, things that you and
I know nothing about, things that aren't
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recorded in scriptures, all kinds of
stories and events that they could go on
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hours and hours and hours about.
We don't know. But God knew.
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When God came to Abraham and promised
him the world, he knew. But
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none of those things, none of
those circumstances, none of those sins,
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had any effect on God's plans when
he promised eternal blessing to this couple and
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to their offspring. It didn't have
any effect on him in the sense that
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he was unaware of them and just
sort of moved forward without thinking. But
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it didn't have any effects effect on
his promises. Because he was ultimate and
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in control of their circumstances, of
the lives. He would give Abraham and
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Sarah and their children the world in
a eternal and completely blessed sense, not
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because of what they had or didn't
have, or would or wouldn't do,
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but simply because he wanted to give
it to them. It wasn't based on
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some kind of good works that they
had done or or based on a certain
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amount of sin that they had accumulated. It was simply in His grace and
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him his love and in the particulars
of their lives that he came and he
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spoke to Abraham and said, through
your offspring, I will bless you and
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all the nations of the world will
be blessed through you and I will give
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you a heavenly country. This is
what Abraham believed. Abraham would come to
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see things in this particular way,
and it's seeing things in this particular way
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that we call faith, trusting in
God and the ultimate decrees that he has
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made, even, as we have
confessed this morning in the shorter catechism,
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the for ordained things that he has
planned and promises to fulfill, believing those
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as alternate, even over the circumstances
and things that we see right now.
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That's what faith is. Faith looks
past the secondary circumstances of our lives to
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the primary cause of all things,
God, and trusts his word above everything.
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So if God says you're going to
have a child, even though you're
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barren and have been for on a
years, you start getting a nursery ready,
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you throw a baby shower, you
gather your friends around and you say,
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Hey, I'm going to have a
baby. I don't know about you,
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but I like the idea of Sarah
and her friends have a good baby
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shower, eighty, ninety a hundred
year old women gathering to gather and tasting
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baby food, putting on diapers quickly. But it be kind of like Noah,
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wouldn't it, building an arc in
the desert without any rain because of
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the promise of God? They acted
because they believed. That's what faith is.
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Faith isn't doing this kind of calculus
and saying well, there's this plus
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this, mine is this. Well, okay, faith is saying God is
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God and I am not, and
God has promised me something. He has
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said he will give me something,
so I'm going to believe it and thank
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him for it and be grateful for
it and be filled with joy and act
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accordingly. And that's what Abraham and
that's what Sarah did. Faith believes God.
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It believes that he's not constrained by
the things in this world, by
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our disabilities, by our sins,
by our fears. Are there are things
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in your life that you believe God
is constrained by? Are there things that
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you don't trust him about because you
think that there are things that you have
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or don't have, physical or spiritual, that God is not capable of overcoming?
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Put that kind of thinking to death, because God can overcome it.
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And if you need an example,
there are hundreds. We can consider the
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one Paul has given us this morning
of Abraham and Sarah. They didn't believe
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an empty promise, did they?
Do you know what happened to Sarah's baron
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womb? A child was born and
through him whole family was born. Eventually,
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our Savior was born, Jesus Christ
himself, who would come and fulfill,
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in an ultimate and final sense,
all of these things that God had
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promised. Hundreds thousands of miracles lining
that road, signpost after signpost after sign
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post pointing to God and his promises, a sale to our faith, over
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and over and over again, of
God saying yes, I can, yes,
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I can, yes, I can, I will, I will,
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I will, I have, I
have, I have. That's the road
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on which we walk, billboards,
placard all the way, placarded all the
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way, showing us what it means
to live by faith. Well, that's
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how Abraham heard this promised and received
it, and it's how he would one
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day enjoy its fulfillment. But just
as God knew Abraham and his particular circumstances,
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the challenges, the difficulties, the
physical impossibilities, he also knows you.
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And this is good news, because
did you hear what God said in
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his word? He says that this
promises that were made to Abraham were also
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made to you. So when we
think about God going to Abraham and saying
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to this, are to you,
this I promise, it's not a great
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leap to say to this, to
me, God has also promised the same
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thing. Why is that not a
leap? Because that's exactly what the Bible
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says right here. These promises that
God made to Abraham, these amazing,
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spectacular promises that, through this child, Jesus all the nations in the world
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would be blessed, nations and people's
that include even us who have believed on
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him. Let me read it to
you, he says. But the word,
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this is verse twenty three. But
the words, it was counted to
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him, were not written for his
sake alone. This is a remarkable thing.
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This is scripture commenting on scripture.
If you've ever watched a DVD and
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you've turned on the special features right
where the directors or producers, actors talking
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behind the thing, describing what's going
on in the thing itself, that's what's
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going on here, God commenting on
Holy Scripture itself as you're listening to it.
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He says, that's why it was
written. Righteousness was counted to Abraham
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by faith, not just so Abraham
would hear it, but for you.
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It's not written for our sake,
of loan, but or for his sake
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alone, but for all hours also. It. That is righteousness, the
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righteousness which justifies, the righteousness which
saves US, which declares makes us innocent
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before God. That righteousness will be
counted to us who work, who do
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good things, know to those who
believe in Him who raised Jesus from the
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dead, our Lord he was delivered
up for our trespasses and raised for our
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justification. See, Jesus didn't go
to the cross. Jesus didn't die this
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terrible death because you lived a great
life. Does that make any sense?
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Would God send his only son into
the world to die on a cross at
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the hands of evil men and for
sin, because you pulled your act together?
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No, God sent his son to
come as a sacrifice because your sin
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needed to be sacrificed for, because
you needed to be saved. These promises
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are not just for Abraham, but
for you. How do we know?
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Because of the original promise and for
his offspring, and because of what it
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says about Abraham, the father of
us all, both Jews and gentiles,
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because of what scripture says now and
back in Genesis. But it is for
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US only. These promises and gifts
are far US only, in the way
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it was for Abraham. God will
not give this gift to those who will
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not receive it, to those who
will not believe it, to be offered
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the gift of God and say no, thanks, I don't want it,
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I'm not interested, I've got other
plans. Whatever the excuse. Maybe I'm
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too scared, I'm not worthy is
to act just like the people and Jesus,
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as parables, who are offered gifts
and turned them away and who ended
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up being cut off and cut out
and remaining under God's wrath and curse.
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To reject God's gift is not to
stand in some kind of neutral place and
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say, well, I'll be all
right. It is to remain in sin,
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it is to remain under the law, it is to remain under the
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curse of God. And that's why
it is so critical that, while God's
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grace is being extended to you,
you open up your arms and you embrace
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it by faith. Those who do
not trust in him but choose their own
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obedience to the law will find,
as Paul says here in Romans for that
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the promise is voided. Why?
Because the law brings about wrath. When
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you choose to turn away from the
gift and say I'm going to earn it,
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I'm going to merit my salvation,
I'm going to go and please God
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by pleasing him or pleasing men or
pleasing myself, Paul says that's a dead
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end. As he's shown to us, the law only brings wrath, it
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only brings us under condemnation, and
that's true for both Jew and gentile,
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as he's been pointing out. But
the promise is different. It's also for
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Jew and gentile, but it rests
on grace. Where the law guarantees death,
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grace guarantees life. This promise overcomes
all the things. This promise overcomes
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all the things that usually overcome us. God's word, his promise to give
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this gift, overcomes our sin,
it overcomes our fears, it overcomes our
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deaths, the flesh that is so
strong in us, the circumstances, these
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particular circumstances of wrath and curse and
disobedience. That's what God overcomes by His
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grace, by these powers. God
puts death to death and he does it
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on the Cross. That's why he
gives us Jesus. Do you remember what
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he says? They're at the end
verse Twenty Five. Who was delivered up
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for our trespasses and raised for our
justification? That's why Jesus came, to
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make sure that that promise that God
gave to Abraham all those years before would
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be fulfilled. God didn't leave it
to chance. God didn't leave it to
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sinful men. God sent his perfect
and only and righteous and holy and good
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son who went to death so that
our death would die, so that our
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sins would be overcome. Through Jesus
Christ, God brings about all of these
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promises. He makes us worthy,
through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, received
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by faith, to belong to the
family of Abraham, to receive the blessings
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promised to Abraham. So what do
you believe? Do you trust and hope
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and fear the Lord God who has
sent his son to accomplish these things?
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Or is your greater trust in the
circumstances and particulars of your life, the
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sins of your past, the troubles
of your present, the your worries about
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the future? Is that where your
hope is? Is that where your faith
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is? Or are you a child
of Abrahm, an air of the promise?
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Does the world belong to you?
If you put your faith in Jesus
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if you trust in him as Abraham
did, and look past all of these
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things to trust the word of God
beyond all else, then these promises are
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for you and I pray that you
will believe that the spirit of God either
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has worked in you or will work
in you even today to make you be
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able to see the world in a
New Light, to be able to see
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things according to God's word, above
all things in every particular circumstance and every
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particular trial. And I pray that
if that light has already been given to
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you, that if you already see
things in that way, that you will
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continue to walk in that way,
even as Abraham did, because God promises
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that he will work in us according
to his promise. And so let us
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live in that way and trust God
to strengthen us according to faith, as
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only he knows how. Let us
turn and pray and ask that God would
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give us these kinds of gifts and
this kind of faith.
