ROMANS 4:13-25 LEARN FROM THE FATHER OF FAITH2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Romans 4:13-25 Learn From The Father Of Faith

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. For the rest of us, we are here in Romans chapter 4. We'll be looking at verses 13 through 25. And so we'll start out the evening by reading through this passage. Romans chapter 4, verse 13 says...

For the promise that he would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect. Because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression.

Verse 17. Verse 18.

As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope in hope believed so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken. So shall your descendants be.

And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

Verse 23. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us.

It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who is delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. We have an awesome passage before us this evening here in Romans chapter 4, where we look at Abraham as the model of faith. And so we're going to be learning from

from the father of faith, learning from the best model that we have. He's looking back to Abraham as the model to follow after, to have the faith that Abraham had. And so there's five lessons we'll learn from Abraham this evening about faith and what that should look like in our lives. The first lesson we find in verses 13 through 15, and that is that God's promises are fulfilled through faith.

The promises of God are fulfilled by faith. Look again at verse 13. It says,

The Apostle Paul is going to be talking about the promise all throughout this passage. He's basing these lessons of faith based on this promise that was given to Abraham.

And what was the promise? The promise was that he would be the heir of the world, that he would be the father of many nations was part of that promise. But the ultimate point of that promise was that the Savior would come from the line of Abraham, that the Savior would be a descendant of Abraham.

And so through that, Abraham was going to be a blessing to the whole world because one of his descendants was going to be the Savior. This was a promise that God gave to Abraham. He promised that he would give Abraham a son. He promised that he would be the father of many nations as a result of that. And he promised that as a result of that, he would be the father or the ancestor to the Messiah.

Now Paul is making the point here in verse 13 that this promise that God gave to Abraham was not based on the law. The promise of blessing that God gave to Abraham for Abraham to be blessed, but then also for the world to be blessed through Abraham, Paul says that was not based on the law.

We talked about this a little bit last week. These promises that God gave to Abraham were given, well, this is given 14 years before circumcision was given to Abraham. And so before that ritual was introduced, before that covenant was introduced, God had already given this promise to Abraham. And so it wasn't given to Abraham because of circumcision.

The law, as Paul is referring to it here, given by Moses, that wasn't given until 430 years after this promise was made to Abraham. And so this promise to Abraham happens before circumcision and happens before the law. And so this promise was not based on either of those things. Instead, he says that the promise was made

Based on the righteousness of faith. This promise was given to Abraham based on his faith in God. Now faith and promise go hand in hand because faith is always a response to God speaking.

Faith is always a response to God. We talked about this on Sunday, that God is always the initiator of our relationship with him. Whatever we think we want to do for God, whatever we are excited about for God, whatever it is regarding us and God, it's never our idea first. It's always God's idea. God reached out to Abraham. God gave this promise to Abraham. And Abraham's response was faith.

And so faith and promise go hand in hand. I usually define faith as obedience to God at his word. That there's this permanent connection to God speaking and then faith is us believing what he said and then living accordingly, living according to what God has said. Sometimes we think about faith as, well, it's faith because I don't know what the end result will be.

Now, many times when God calls us to go forward in faith, we don't know what the end result will be. But it's not faith because we don't know the outcome. It's faith because we are responding to what God has spoken. And so we can't just do things that we don't know how it's going to work out and think that's faith. No, it's got to be God speaking first. It's a response to his word.

Sometimes we think that faith is trying things that are impossible. And many times when God calls us to go forward in faith, the things that he's calling us to do by all considerations would be impossible, but that God's going to do the work. But just because we're trying the impossible doesn't mean it's faith. The thing that makes it faith is when God speaks and then we respond to that. And so God gave Abraham this promise that

And Abraham believed the promise and lived accordingly. That's faith. And so this promise is given to Abraham based upon or through the righteousness of faith. Verse 14, he says, for if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect. And so Paul is making the case here. This has nothing to do with the law. The promise to Abraham is,

He's pointing out here that faith and law are really opposites.

The idea of approaching God based on the law is that you approach God according to your faithfulness in keeping God's commandments, your faithfulness in following his instructions. It's about you performing according to the standards that he has set. That's what the law is all about. But approaching God by faith is something else entirely.

Approaching God by faith, well, you could think about it as something that's free versus something that is earned. The law is something that you use to try to earn your way to have right standing before God. But approaching God by faith is something that is free. Think about it this way. I will give you this phone as a gift. It's free to you if you'll pay me $500.

That's not really making sense, right? That's a contradiction. It's free to you for $500. That's, well, you're saying it's free, but then you're also saying there's a cost. That's the difference. The law versus faith. The law is there's a cost. You have to earn it. You have to pay for it. And if you pay for it, if you do good enough, enough good things, then you can stand before God. But if it's free, then it's free.

And when it's faith, it's free. It's not based on your performance. You don't have to earn it. You don't have to measure up. You just have to believe God at his word. And so if those who are of the law are heirs, well, then faith is made void. Because if you have to pay for it, it's not free. If you have to earn it, it's not faith.

And that's what Paul is highlighting here. There's a difference between the two. And the two are opposite of each other. He says, if those who are of the law are heirs, if by performing, by keeping the law, they receive the blessing promised to Abraham, he says, well, then the promise is made of no effect. So if by keeping the law, you can receive the promise, then he says the promise has no effect.

Or the New Living Translation says it this way, the promise is pointless. If you have to keep the law to receive the blessing, then the promise is pointless because, verse 15, because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression. Paul says, if you have to keep the law, well, that negates faith. Then it's not free. You have to earn it. And if you have to earn it,

By keeping the law, well, then there's really no promise of blessing because what the law does is the law brings wrath. We've talked about it a couple of times over the past couple of chapters. Paul's been making the point ever since Romans chapter 3. In Romans chapter 3, verse 20, he says, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The whole point and purpose of the law is not to receive a blessing. The point and purpose of the law is to know that we need a savior, to know that we sin, to know that we fall short of the glory of God, that we don't measure up. And so if you have to use the law to measure up, but the law's whole purpose is to show you that you don't measure up, you'll never receive the blessing because you'll never keep the law.

And so if the promise of blessing is by keeping the law, then he says the promise is pointless. Because as you try to follow the law, all you do is you realize you can't keep the law. All the law does is reveal that to you and then bring about the wrath of God as a result. The law brings wrath. It brings judgment for breaking God's law. Now, the Jews...

Of Paul's day, the Jews of Jesus' day, they were convinced that the law brought blessing. You can see a glimpse of this in John 7, verse 49, where the religious leaders had sent some people to try to grab Jesus and take him into custody.

But the people that they sent, they didn't bring him in. And when they came back to the religious leaders, they said, hey, why didn't you bring him? And they said, well, this guy speaks like no one else. And the crowd's all captivated by him. They're all amazed at what he's saying. And the religious leaders say in John 7, 49, this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. The law is a blessing. They don't know the law. They're accursed was their idea.

But we're blessed because we know the law. And they thought that you receive the promise given to Abraham, that you receive the promise of blessing, that you receive right standing with God. They thought you receive that by keeping the law. But Paul is saying, no way. That's not how Abraham received the promise.

And he's going to be applying that to us. That's not how we receive the promise because the law does not bring blessing. The law can never fulfill the promise of blessing because we can never keep the law perfectly. And so God's promises are fulfilled through faith. The promise that was given to Abraham was not based on his performance. It was based on his faith. He believed God.

God counted him righteous, and so he carried out his promise because Abraham was counted righteous. The same goes for us. We need to believe God. And of course, that begins with salvation, believing what God has secured for us by Jesus dying upon the cross for our sin.

And the promise of salvation is fulfilled not by us doing good, not by us keeping a law, not by us going to church or being religious, but it's by faith. It's by faith that we receive the promise of salvation, believing in what Christ has done for us upon the cross.

And so it starts there with salvation, but then also for the rest of our lives, as we desire blessing from God, as we desire for God to work in our lives, whatever we want to approach God, we must never try to approach God on the basis of our efforts or our performance. It's never going to work, whether it be laws that we read about or laws that people tell us about or laws that we invent.

We can never try to approach God on the basis of those things. And this is so important for us because we get sucked into this quite subtly. And we begin to try to approach God. And we think, well, God, I've been doing this. And so now I deserve blessing. Or we stay away from God because, well, God, I haven't been doing that. And so I don't deserve blessing. And Paul's trying to set us straight.

And let us know God's promises are fulfilled through faith. Believe God at his word. That's what he desires. That's what he requires. Believe God at his word and live accordingly. Well, going on into the second point, we go into verse 16. And the second lesson we learned from Abraham is that faith makes way for grace. This is beautiful. Faith makes way for grace. Look at verse 16. Amen.

This is one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. And I'm sure I say that a lot, but seriously, this is one of the top 10. This is awesome.

Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace. Paul is building this logical argument that he's making it solid. It is of faith, like we've just been talking about, so that it could be according to grace. It could be according to grace. Now, faith and law are opposites, but faith and grace, they go hand in hand.

The works and law go hand in hand, but those are opposite of faith and grace. When it comes to works and the law, that is, well, it's involving things that are earned, but grace is unearned. Usually we define grace this way, undeserved favor and kindness. You could also say that it's unearned favor and kindness.

Sometimes people are kind to us because we've earned it. We've been nice to them and so they're nice back to us. God doesn't work that way. He's kind to us. He provides kindness to us that we have never earned and could not deserve. It is absolutely impossible to earn grace because earning is

is exactly the opposite of what grace is all about. Grace is about God's goodness and his kindness that he gives to us willingly without us deserving it or earning it. And so as you look at this idea here that it's a faith that it might be according to grace, you see God's design in the gospel message. You see God's design in salvation. You see God's design in the way that he has chosen to relate to us as his people.

He's designed it in a brilliant way so that every one of us can have the opportunity to have complete and total access to God, complete and total forgiveness, righteousness accredited to our account, full blessings that God has in store for us. It's all based on faith so that God can just give it to us by his grace.

If it was based on works and law, even just partially, then we would always have to measure up. We would always have to work at it. And so some would measure up, some would be able to earn it, and some wouldn't be able to earn it. But God has designed it so that it's by grace, so that by faith we get to experience unearned, undeserved, unmerited favor and kindness from God.

And so he says, God designed it this way in verse 16, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. And so he said, God designed it this way so that for this reason, why? So that the promise would be sure to all seed.

He made it happen this way. He designed it this way so that the promise of blessing, the promise of salvation, the promise of forgiveness is sure, it's certain, not just to Abraham's seed, but to all seed, that is to everyone. And so whether a person is a Jew or Gentile, God designed it so that it does not matter what your nationality is. Whether it's those who have the law or those who do not have the law,

God's designed it so that that doesn't matter, so that your background doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter how good you've been or how bad you've been, how well you've done or how messed up you've made it. God's designed it so that the promise is certain for everyone, not just those who are of the law. If it was just for those who are of the law, then we would all have to become Jews in order to receive God's blessing.

But God's designed it so that it's by faith. And faith makes way for grace so that God can freely give it and make it certain for everyone who believes. It's a sure promise because anyone can believe God. It's a sure promise because it does not depend on your performance. It's a certain, rock-solid, absolute promise that

Because it does not depend on your performance. What if salvation was based on your performance? What if God's blessing and God's working in your life was based on your performance? What if forgiveness was based on your performance, my performance? We'd all be lost, dead, without any hope because we don't perform very well. But God designed it this way.

so that it's not based on our performance. I like what the commentator William MacDonald says about this. He says, When we approach God by faith, and by faith he gives us his grace, his goodness, his kindness towards us, we have full assurance that

Because it's certain. The promise is certain. Because God's relating to us based on his goodness, not based on our goodness. But anytime we try to come to God based on our performance, when we try to earn salvation or to earn God's blessing, we will never have full assurance. We can never be certain because we're never going to know if we did good enough. We're

We're never going to know if we did the right things. It's always going to be uncertain. I don't know if I have God's blessing, if I have salvation, if I have forgiveness. I don't know because I'm basing it on my performance. But if I approach God by faith, it makes way for grace. And now God is able to give to me his goodness, his forgiveness. He's able to fulfill his promises based on what he has done and who he is.

and not based on our performance. Believe God for salvation. Believe God for blessing. Believe God for forgiveness. Believe God according to his word and live accordingly. Live in obedience. That's what faith is all about. Never try to approach God on the basis of your efforts. We cannot earn it. And if we could earn it, we would never have certainty because we would never know if we were good enough.

The only thing that we could know for certain if we were trying to earn it is that we aren't good enough because that's what the law was designed to do, to show us that we sin, that we need a savior. The point wasn't to try to approach God by the law. The point was that the law shows us that we need God's grace, that we need a savior. And so faith makes way for grace.

Then going on in verse 17 through 19, we see the third lesson from Abraham. And that is that faith believes contrary to hope. Faith believes contrary to hope. In verse 16, he ends the verse talking about Abraham being the father of us all.

And then he explains what he means by that in verse 17. He says, as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. And so Abraham is the ancestor, the predecessor. He is the best model of faith in the way that Paul is presenting him. God told him that he would make him a father of many nations in Genesis chapter 17, verse 5.

That was when he changed his name. He said, no longer are you going to be Abraham, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. And so Abraham is the father of many nations, not just the Jewish people, but he's a father of all people because he is the model of faith. And so those who follow the example of Abraham and have faith in God as Abraham did, they

He is the father of us all. He continues on in verse 17. He says, in the presence of him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. So he's pointing back to Genesis chapter 17. He's talking about how Abraham was there in the presence of God. And there in the presence of God, Abraham acknowledged the power of God.

Abraham acknowledged that God gives life to the dead and that God calls things into existence. They don't exist yet, but God speaks about them as if they already existed. He gives life to the dead. He calls things into existence. That is power that only God has. And so he talks about Abraham acknowledging God's power as he is there in his presence.

And the idea here, Abraham's thinking is, if God can do that, what is too hard for him? If God can give life to the dead, what could be impossible for him? If God can bring things into existence that have never existed, he can talk about them ahead of time and bring them into existence. What is it that God is not able to do? And so Abraham is acknowledging, he's recognizing, he's looking at the power of God and saying, wow,

God is big. God is powerful. Now, this is important because a lot of times we get focused on problems instead of the power of God. And so we can look at God and say, wow, God is big. He gives life to the dead. He brings things into existence. Or we can look at the problem and say, oh, that's a big problem. And I don't know how God ever could solve that problem.

We're focused on the problem and pretty soon we think the problem is bigger than God. We've lost focus, looking at the wrong thing. Abraham's looking at God and saying, God's powerful. He gives life to the dead. He brings things into existence. And as he's focusing on God, he's realizing God can do whatever he wants. And so verse 18, it says, "...who, contrary to hope, in hope, believed."

Abraham believed contrary to hope. The New Living Translation puts it this way. Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping, believing that he would become the father of many nations. Even when there's no reason to hope. When God is giving this promise to Abraham, he's an old man.

He's well beyond normal years for childbearing. Not only that, but his wife Sarah is as well. He had no reason to hope. They'd been married for the majority of their life, let's say 75 years by this point, no children. They had no reason to hope. There was lots of reasons to doubt, lots of reasons to not hope, except God told him, I'm going to make you the father of many nations.

And so contrary to hope, even though there was no evidence, even though there was no reason for him to look and say, there's a reason to hope, he believed God at his word. Even though he couldn't see any evidence, even though he couldn't see anything that would give him hope, there was no hope from his perspective. There was no hope from anybody else's perspective, except that God said, I'm going to make you the father of many nations.

And so he says here in verse 18, contrary to hope, in hope believed, and then notice, so that he became the father of many nations. Abraham believed, and because Abraham believed, God fulfilled his promise. And so Genesis chapter 15, verse 5 is where he gives the promise. It's when he brings Abraham outside. He says, look up to the heavens, count the stars if you're able to number them. And he says, that's how many descendants you're going to have.

so shall your descendants be. No reason to believe that. No physical evidence. Nothing he could grasp hold of. No reason to hope. But because he believed God as he said that, God fulfilled his promise. And so he became the father of many nations just exactly as God told him. Faith believes contrary to hope. Faith believes God at his word, even if there's no reason externally to have hope in what God has said.

Now again, Abraham's looking at God's power. He's acknowledging God's strength. He gives life to the dead. He brings things into existence. What's too hard for him? Nothing's too hard for him. And so if he says, I'm going to be the father of many nations, if he says I'm going to have a son, Abraham says, well, I'm going to believe him because God's able to give life to the dead and bring things into existence. He's focused.

on the power of God. And he believes God at his word. Verse 19, and not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. And so he says he's not weak in faith because he did not consider his own body. In other words, Abraham did not look at the obstacles of

He refused to focus on the obstacles. He didn't consider his own body and think, wow, look at me. I'm 100 years old. How could God's promise come true? Because I'm old. And he didn't look at his wife, Sarah, and say, she's old. And she was barren before, but even if she hadn't been, she's past the years of childbearing. He could have looked at his body. He could have looked at her body and said, pfft.

That's never going to happen. He could have talked himself out of it. He could have discouraged himself. He could have brought all kinds of doubts. He could have, but he did not. He would not consider his own body. He would not focus on the obstacles. It made me think about Peter. You remember in Matthew chapter 14, when Jesus is walking on the Sea of Galilee, he's walking on the water to his disciples who are there in the boat.

They're freaked out. They think it's maybe a ghost. And Jesus says, no, guys, calm down. It's me. And Peter says, if it's you, Lord, then beckon me to come out on the water with you. So Jesus says, come on out. And so Peter takes a step outside the boat. And he takes a couple steps. He's walking on the water. Pretty incredible. I mean, he's trusting God and walking on water in the midst of this sea, in the midst of a storm.

But then it tells us in Matthew chapter 14, verse 30, when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out saying, Lord, save me. What happened to Peter? At first, he was looking at Jesus. Jesus is walking on water. He's looking at the power of God. He's looking at what God can do. You're walking on water? Well, if you're walking on water, call me out too. I want to walk on water with you. And as long as he was looking at the power of God, he was looking at what God can do.

He was walking on water. But when he began to focus on the waves, he began to see the wind was boisterous. He began to focus on the obstacles and he began to sink. Now he did the right thing at that point. As he began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. And it tells us in Matthew 14, 31, immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? Here's another reminder that

why we should be exceedingly grateful that nothing in relation to God is based on our performance. If it was based completely on Peter's performance, he might have done good a couple of steps walking on the water. But then when he sank and he cried out, Lord, save me, the Lord would be like, well, you didn't perform. And he would say, I know I'm sinking. Yeah, that's why I can't save you because you're sinking. That would eliminate him from salvation, from the Lord's work in his life.

if it was based on his performance. So even when he lacked in faith, he cried out, Lord, save me. And it's based on God's grace. Jesus grasped hold of him and said, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? Even when we do have those lapses, even when we do focus on the obstacles, we can still cry out, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Faith believes contrary to hope. You can focus on the power of God,

or you can focus on the impossibility of the problem. Which one will you look to? Which one will you be consumed with? Abraham acknowledged the power of God. God gives life to the dead, and God calls things into existence. If God can do that, what's too hard for him? What is there that he could not do? And so instead of being focused on our problems, instead of being focused on these issues, we need to turn our attention to the power of God.

to help us believe God at his word and trust God in his promises. Again, faith and promise go hand in hand. Abraham believed God's promise. He believed what God said because he looked at God and said, there's nothing too hard for God. Believe God at his word, even if there's no evidence, even if there's no reason for you to have hope. Faith believes contrary to hope.

Well, the fourth lesson found in verses 20 through 22 that we learned from Abraham is that faith is being fully convinced. In verse 20, it says, I think verse 20 is interesting because it says, You and I, we might object to this. Wait a minute, Paul.

Didn't Abraham waver? And we would point back to Genesis chapter 16. There was this issue with Hagar, Sarah's handmaiden. And Sarah said, you know, God promised a son, but it doesn't seem like it's happening. So how about you take Hagar, my handmaiden, you have a child through her, and that'll fulfill God's promise. And Abraham listened to his wife, and Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. Now later on, God said, that's not the son of promise.

That's not the son I promised you. I'm still going to give you a son. But we often point back to that. That's a reference to or kind of an example of trying to do things in our strength. We can't see how God's going to do it. So we try to do it ourselves and fix it ourselves. And you and I might look at Genesis 16 and say, Abraham wavered at the promise. He wasn't sure that God could do it. So he tried to do it himself. I think this should be very encouraging for us. Much like Peter. He did really good at first.

Then he started to sink, but then he did the right thing and he called out, Lord, save me. And Jesus reached out and grabbed his hand and saved him. Abraham believed God, but he also made mistakes. But in his mistakes, he didn't stop trusting God. And so you have Genesis 15, where God gives him the promise that he would be, or that he would have many descendants. Then you have Genesis 16, where he gets married to Hagar. Ishmael is born.

And then you have Genesis 17. And in Genesis 17, God makes this covenant with Abraham. And it's here where God gives him the promise that he would be the father of many nations. And so still not having the son of promise, Abraham believed God. He believed God. He made mistakes, but he believed God. The point is, yes, you're going to make mistakes. You're going to be like Peter, right?

You're going to start to focus on the problems and start to sink. But that's not a turning away from God because then when we sink, we call out to God and say, oh my goodness, God, I started looking at the problems again. I got overwhelmed by the issues, the difficulties. And I began to let those things dominate my life instead of looking at you and trusting in your strength and your power and your word and your grace. Lord, save me.

And so he says, Abraham, he didn't waver at the promise of God through unbelief. He didn't turn away and stop believing in God, but he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. Even though he made mistakes, he was strengthened in faith. God gives us that opportunity to be strengthened in faith. Now, how does God give us that opportunity to be strengthened in faith? We may not like that part so much because to give us the opportunity to be strengthened in faith, many times the fulfillment of the promise is delayed.

And as it's delayed, we have the option to look at the problem, look how much longer it's been, look how much time has passed, and we begin to doubt because we're focused on the problem, or we can continue to trust God and be strengthened in faith, even though we have not yet seen the promise fulfilled. And so Abraham was strengthened in faith. And then verse 21, and being fully convinced that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

And so this is faith. Faith is being fully convinced that what God said, he is able to do. God said it and he is able to perform it. And so Abraham is fully convinced of this. Now, he's fully convinced and so he's living accordingly. He's living according to what he believes. And this is really important because faith is not just performance.

Acknowledging intellectually and saying, okay, I agree. Those are the facts. But faith is then living according to those facts. And Abraham had to do that because you have to think about it. Being fully convinced that what God promised he was able to perform, Abraham had to take action.

Rather than me give you the birds and the bees talk, I'll let David Guzik share. He says, Abraham and Sarah had marital relations and trusted God for a miraculous result. They had to participate in order for this promise to be fulfilled. They had to believe God and act accordingly. And so they had to have marital relations. Believing God, trusting God for the miraculous. They believed God and so...

They had fellowship with one another. Now, David Guzik goes on to say, this shows us that faith does not mean doing nothing, but doing all with trust and reliance on God and his miraculous work. And so faith is not just sitting there passively doing nothing, but it's believing God at his word and then taking steps of faith.

taking steps to say, well, God said he's going to do this. And so I'm going to go towards that. I'm going to work towards that. I'm going to do what God's asked me to do because God said he's going to do this work. And so whether that be of salvation, and so we're going to draw near to God, and we're going to walk with God, and we're going to worship God and spend time in his word because he said we believe in him. We have forgiveness. We have access to God and fellowship with God. And so we need to live accordingly.

Now, you can acknowledge that Jesus is God and that he died upon the cross and that he is the savior of the world. You can acknowledge all those facts and never act on them. And that's not faith. Faith is acknowledging those facts and then living accordingly. And so drawing near to God and walking with God. And that's true of salvation. Faith involves us turning from sin to follow the Lord. But it also involves every promise of God.

It's believing God at his word and then living accordingly, living according to what God has said. And he is fully convinced. God promised it and he is able to perform it. And then verse 22 says, and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. This is a quotation from Genesis chapter 15, verse six, when God said that he would have many descendants. Abraham believed and

that God is able to perform it. He was fully convinced, and so he lived accordingly, and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. Therefore God counted Abraham as righteous, not because he performed, not because he earned it, but because he believed. Because he believed, he lived it out. And because he believed, God counted him righteous. And so faith is being fully convinced that

Not of any random thing. You can be fully convinced about all kinds of nonsense. But faith is being fully convinced that what God said, he is able to do. And God said he's able to save you. God said he's able to forgive you. God said he's able to bless you. God says he has eternity in store for you. Any promise of God, believe now.

what God has said. Be fully convinced that what God has said, he is able to perform. Be fully convinced and live your life accordingly. Live your life according to what that means, to what those promises are. Again, Guzik says, faith is not doing nothing, but doing all with trust and reliance on God and his miraculous work. Believe God and live that out. Be fully convinced.

Well, the final lesson we learn from Abraham in verse 23 through 25 is that righteousness is imputed by faith. Verse 23 says, Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Paul says, look, God recorded all this about Abraham's life

for our benefit. It wasn't just so we would know the story about Abraham, but God recorded this for us. He preserved this account in his word so that we could have Abraham as a model for us. He's the model of faith. It was not written for him alone that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He says, it's written so that we can know, in verse 24, it shall be imputed to us who believe.

that we can be accounted righteous just as Abraham was accounted righteous. And that means it's not based on our performance. It's not based on how good we do. And it's not based on whether or not we've made any mistakes, but it's based on whether or not we've believed God at his word. He says it shall be imputed to us. Righteousness shall be imputed. Now, this word imputed, it's the word we looked at last week as we talked about righteous accounting.

Imputed, it means to be accounted. It involves a calculation. And God does this kind of math. First off, you see, Abraham started with nothing. He had nothing to offer God. No performance, nothing he had earned, nothing. And he had no accounts receivable. That is, he didn't have anything coming in. He didn't have anything that he could do to earn righteousness. But he did have debts that he owed. That's accounts payable. He had sin. He had mistakes.

Those mistakes were forgiven. His debts were canceled because he believed. And as he believed God, God accounted for him as righteousness. Not only did he cancel the debts, but then he deposited full measure of righteousness to Abraham's account because he believed God at his word. God made him a promise. Abraham believed. He's fully convinced God is able to do what he said he could do.

This isn't all written just so that we can understand how Abraham had right access to God or had these great blessings from God. This is all written, Paul says, so that you would know that you can have the same access to God, the same relationship with God, the same ability to receive from God all that God has. And it's not because you have something different to bring to God, not because you can perform in a better way or a different way than Abraham, but because you have the same

Now, because you owe less than Abraham, we all have sinned. We all fall short of the glory of God. We all owe the debt of sin. But by believing God at his word, he wipes out that debt and he gives us full credit for righteousness so that we stand before God as if we've always been perfect and flawless and righteous when we believe God. And this is possible because of verse 25. Verse 25.

At the end of verse 24, he says, This is all possible because of what Christ has done for us. Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses. That's how those debts have been paid.

Because Jesus on the cross received the penalty. He paid the price for sin. And so because of our offenses, he was delivered up. He was crucified. But then he was raised because of our justification or for our justification. He was raised for our righteousness, for us to have not just a forgiven debt, but to have a full account of righteousness.

so that God can relate to us in the same way that he relates to the only begotten son. Your account is accredited his righteousness. You're accounted as righteous as Jesus when you believe God, when you believe in what Christ has done for us upon the cross. You're accounted as righteous as Jesus.

If that doesn't blow your mind, nothing will. I mean, that is incredible that God would consider you, he would relate to you as if you were as perfect as Jesus. How is this promise received? Going back to the beginning, God's promises are fulfilled through faith. If you want God to relate to you as if you are perfect, relate to you with the righteousness of Christ, you can't earn that. There's no kind of performance that you can do. There's no kind of good works that you can fulfill.

It's by faith. And because it's by faith, it makes way for grace so that you don't earn it. You can't earn it. You don't even try to earn it. You just receive what God has done for you. You receive God's goodness in your life. You receive his promises. You receive his blessings. You receive his forgiveness. Faith makes way for grace. But you're not always going to see the evidence right in front of you.

And so faith believes contrary to hope. You need to believe even when you don't have it figured out how God's going to do the work. You need to believe and trust God. He's able to bring the dead to life. He's able to bring things that don't exist into existence. So don't focus on the problems. Don't get caught up in that. Even if you don't see the evidence, you don't see reason to hope. Believe God at his word. Be steadfast in that. Trust God.

He is able to do what he said he would do. And so you need to be fully convinced like Abraham was and live it out. Live accordingly. Be fully convinced. God is able. There's nothing too hard for God. He is able to fulfill every single one of his promises. He is able to do every single thing he has declared that he will do. He is able. He is powerful.

And it begins with us having right relationship with God. And that is given to us by faith. Righteousness is imputed to your account so that he accounts you righteous by believing, believing God at his word, believing in what Christ has done for us. And as we do that, we have right standing with God. We're still gonna have reasons to doubt if we want them. We could still focus on all kinds of problems today,

We're all gonna have problems. We're all gonna have mountains that we have to face. And we're all gonna have those moments where we focus on the wind and the waves and begin to sink. But we have the opportunity to call out to Jesus. It's not the end because we focused on the problems. We have the opportunity to call out to Jesus and still believe and still trust him and still receive all that he has for us. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you.

for your amazing grace, your great goodness. And Lord, that you deliver these things to us, not on the basis of our merit, of our earning or deserving. Lord, you deliver these things on the basis of your goodness and your merit and how deserving and glorious you are. And so God, I pray that you would help us to glorify you just as Abraham did by believing you at your word.

taking you, Lord, at your word and trusting that you are able to do what you said you would do. And no matter what we think about that, no matter what the world says about that, no matter what people around us think about that, you are able to do what you said you will do. And so help us to believe that. Help us to trust in you. Help us to be steadfast, believing you at your word. Thank you, God, for your goodness.

Help us to live accordingly. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. At this time, the worship team's gonna come up and close us in a couple songs. And as they do, we wanna encourage you to spend some time with God. Spend some time in worship. Enjoy this time in the presence of God. You have full access to God by faith in him and by faith in what he has done for us. Also at this time, as we're in this time of worship, we wanna open it up and give you the opportunity to pray.

to not just spend time with God between you and him alone, but to minister to one another and to enjoy the presence of God together. And so if God would put upon your heart a scripture, a prayer for somebody or some way that he wants you to minister to someone around you, we want to give you the freedom and the opportunity to do that. Anytime during these songs, you can go ahead and get up and move and connect with one another and pray together and enjoy what God has provided for us. And so let's trust God.

Let's celebrate what He has done for us as we worship Him and receive by faith all that He has for us. Let's worship Him together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.