So we're in Romans chapter 4, and we'll be reading verses 13 through 18, entitled the sermon, Father Abraham Has Many Sons. Romans chapter 4, starting with verse 13. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the inherits of the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath. But where there is no law, there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherents of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. As he's been told, so shall your offspring be. Lord, we pray that your word may go forth to your people. Give us ears to hear, eyes to see, minds to comprehend, hearts to love you and to know you, wills that bend to you in joy. May you be glorified in your work. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Please be seated. As we look at this text this evening, we are on the same general theme as this morning, which is this idea of salvation by faith alone. And I do understand preaching to the choir. But the price of knowledge is constant review. That whatever you don't go over and review, you have a tendency to forget. Martin Luther said that we are to preach the gospel to ourselves daily because we forget it daily. And so we go back to this idea of how are we saved. We're saved by God. in Christ and His work alone. Because a salvation by faith alone means this, I don't look to me, I look to Christ. If you think about a salvation by faith alone is this, salvation by faith alone means that I look to God alone for my salvation. And I believe that He has done it all. A salvation by faith plus works. This means that I believe by faith that I can do enough works to make Him like me. A salvation by faith plus works is really simply a salvation by works. I will do what I need to do. The faith part is I believe that he'll accept it. But a salvation by faith plus works is a salvation is a self-salvation by nature. And so we want to flee from that because it robs God of worship and his glory. And let us never be guilty of that. I remember years ago when I was a chemist, I remember working with a good friend of mine, a nice guy, I enjoyed him. He had grown up in the church, not necessarily very involved in the church. And we were talking, I don't remember how we got in this conversation, but he knew I was a Christian, going to church, and so we were talking about the Bible. And I remember us having a long and fairly intense argument while I was in the midst of mixing together some fairly dangerous chemicals about whether the nature of God had changed, the nature of salvation had changed, and we're having this very heated argument. where he was saying, God has changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And it's changed from how we're saved in the Old Testament by following the law, and God is very severe and harsh in the Old Testament, to how we're saved in the New Testament, said by grace, and God is very nice in the New Testament. And I remember having this argument with him. In fact, it blew my mind that he could say that the immutable, unchanging God has changed. I was like, no He hasn't. And so, we're mixing chemicals, and I'm going, no He has not. My friends over there in Mexico was going, yes he has. That was the extent of our argument. It's not the most philosophical argument. The uh-uh argument. But remember it's going back and forth. And many people had the idea, my friend. God has changed this idea of even a salvation by faith alone, being saved by grace. That this is a new idea. That in the Old Testament, Abraham, the Jews, they're saved one way. And that we here in the New Testament age, if you will, New Testament church, we're saved another way. In fact, even within Christendom, there are groups who believe that Jews in general will be saved by following the law. They're a separate group as God's people. And the church, us Gentiles mostly, will be saved another way. That there are two distinct peoples of God. As we look at this text this evening, not that I expect y'all to have this idea, but hopefully as we go through this text this evening, if that was ever a part of our thinking, and again, the price of knowledge is constant review. If you don't do anything, you'll slip into some error. The Bible teaches us out of error. It brings us out of a hole. It brings us out of darkness. It is truth. It changes our mind. that there is but one people of God, and this idea of being saved by faith alone. The instrument of faith alone. Technically we say by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, through the glory of God alone. But as we look at this text, Paul brings up, because he brings up this idea to this Roman church, Jews and Gentiles, And of course, he hits on this idea in Ephesians and different Galatians, different books of the Bible, that there are not two peoples of God. The Jews, and then these Gentiles who have this other way of being right with God, but there is but one people of God. Justification by faith alone, it is no new idea as if God has changed. It has always been this way. Abraham is given, which Paul gives us as an example here, to show how it's by faith alone and not by works. So that Paul, as he is writing this letter to this church in Rome, he's like, duh, it's always been this way. And for the Jewish believers, he's pointing them to the fact, Abraham, your father in the faith, is like this. And then, and we'll cover this towards the end of the sermon, an encouraging thought for us believers. Abraham, your father in the faith. We are more Jewish because Abraham is our father. For those who have the faith of Abraham, then most ethnic Jews today, most ethnic Jews are agnostic or atheist, or even Orthodox Jews who follow the law, what did Jesus say? If you do not know the Son, then you do not know the Father. You are the people of God if you have faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. As we look at this text, three ideas. How is Abraham justified? He's the example given to us by Paul for a purpose. How was Abraham justified? What was the means by which he was justified? And why this means. And then what do we get? by having Abraham as our father. As we look here at the first section, how is Abraham justified, Paul makes it very clear that the law, and when Paul here is talking about the law, he's probably specifically talking about circumcision, that ceremonial part of the law where you become set apart as God's people by circumcision, the sign of circumcision. The law did not bring Abraham righteousness or the blessings of being a right relationship God. You see this in verse 15. Paul very clearly says, for the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression. That was the purpose of the law. It brings wrath. It doesn't bring salvation. It doesn't bring a right relationship with God. It doesn't bring justification. Now, I would say this. It does if you perfectly obey it. The law is good. The problem is not with the law. We like the law. The law of God is simply the standard of righteousness and that we as God's people, well, anyone can go, yep, it's a good law. We should not be committing adultery. We should not be murdering people. We should not be lying. The law is a good thing. But that's the problem. It is good because God is good. I'm not good. And it condemns us. This is why the law brings wrath. Because if we do not perfectly obey the law, then it shows us to be a lawbreaker and a sinner. It shows us our unrighteousness. The law brings wrath, because no one can perfectly keep it. In fact, Paul in Galatians, when he talks about the law, and he's talking, of course, in the book of Galatians, that you have the Jewish Christians, we'll trust they were Christians, they were trying to teach the Gentiles, no, you must follow the ceremonial law, you must be circumcised, become Jewish, before you can have the Jewish Messiah, Jesus. You must do this, before you can have justification. Works plus faith equals salvation. And Paul, talking to these Jews, he tells them, you who wish to be made right by the law, by all means. I'll paraphrase. He says, go ahead. You want to be made right by the law? Knock yourselves out. But just remember, you've got to do it all. If you break a single one of the laws of God, you are a law breaker. And Jonathan Edwards, when he talks about, sorry, skipping many, many centuries, the great theologian, Jonathan Edwards, probably the greatest theologian America has ever put out, talks about the waviness of our sins depends upon the one whom we sin against. And so when you sin against an infinitely holy, righteous, majestic God, that if you commit just one sin, that that one sin carries an infinite weightiness of unrighteousness and rebellion against Him. Is it no wonder that hell is eternal? The law simply shows us what it is that we're not obeying. It makes it specific. Before the law was given, people still disobeyed. Otherwise, there would have been no flood to destroy the earth. The law of God had not been given at that time. The law of God is not when he started being moral and righteous. He just, in his graciousness, makes it very clear and explicit what he expects. But it's always been known. Cain knew killing his brother was wicked. The law brings wrath because no one perfectly keeps it. It just simply shows us our disobedience and righteousness. So if we're not made right by the law, then what are we made right by? Well, Romans chapter 4, verse 3, a little earlier in this passage, Like I said, it was hard not doing the whole chapter. But Romans 4, 3 says, for what did the scripture say? Always a good place to go to. Abraham believed God, faith, and was counted to him for righteousness. So why faith? And what is faith? Faith is a reliance upon God and His work in Christ, not us. Again, we talked about some this morning of why faith, it leads us far away from idolatry. But what is faith? It is a rest and reliance upon Him and His works. It is a not me. Horatius Bonar, great Scottish Presbyterian, said, have I then no work to work in this great matter of my pardon? None. What work can you work? What work of yours could by forgiveness or make you fit for the divine favor? What work has God bidden you to work in order to obtain your salvation? None. His word is very plain and easy to understand. To him that works not, but believes in him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Romans 4-5. There is but one work by which a man can be saved, and that work is not yours, but the work of the Son of God. That work is finished. That's what faith is. That work is finished. He has done it all. There was a story of a particular general who went to a Caesar. his leader, his emperor, to ask for a wedding gift for his daughter. It was traditional that, you know, when the generals under this emperor or the Caesar, when their children get married, they ask a request. And so this particular general made a request at his child's wedding. And it was astronomical. It was huge. Beyond the normal. And some of the people around the emperor, they were up in arms, well how dare he ask for so much and such a great gift, etc. And the emperor turned to them and said, give it to him. And they're like, but why? We're thinking about punishing him for asking such a great gift. And the emperor said, he has given me two great compliments. One, He says that I am rich, and two, that I am generous. When we come to God in faith, we worship Him for many reasons, but one, that He is able. As wicked as I am, I have been born in sin. My sin carries an infinite weight. I have been lost in Adam. You realize, hypothetically, That if you never personally sinned, it's hypothetical because none of you have done it. But hypothetically, if you never personally sinned, you would still be condemned to hell. For your representative, Adam, sunk your boat for you. I'm condemned in Adam, even before I was born, for my representative sunk us all. And then I just pour gasoline upon this fire with every personal sin when I break His law. Every sin where I do not do everything He tells me to do. Sins of omission, not doing all the good I should be doing. And then sins of commission, doing things which He's clearly told me not to do. And it's not just my actions, my thoughts, He knows them all. The affections of my heart. Jesus talks and emphasizes in this point to the Pharisees who thought they'd be keeping the law. He goes, if you have a lustful thought in your heart towards a woman, you've committed adultery in your heart. God sees. If you have a hateful thought in your heart towards a person, you've committed murder. God sees the intents of the hearts and He keeps record. Who can save me? When we trust in God for our salvation, we worship Him. In this, He is able to save this wretch. His righteousness is greater than my wickedness. Or to quote the great Puritan Richard Sibbes, there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. It's worship. Faith is worship. He is this good. He is this capable. He is this able. His righteousness is so much greater than all my wickedness. Sometimes you run into people, I'm sure, who go, you don't know my past. You don't know what I've done. God could never forgive me of my sins. If you happen to be sharing the gospel with someone, and they bring up, God could never forgive me of my sins, you make sure you point out to them, there is one more sin you need to ask forgiveness for. Your arrogance. Say it nicer than that. But it is arrogance. I think I am so good at sinning, or bad at sinning, but I'm so capable at sinning, that I am capable as a finite creature to out-sin the righteousness of the infinite, holy Creator of the universe. I can go toe-to-toe with Him, and He doesn't have enough righteousness to take care of me, or enough mercy to forgive this sin. That's the sin they need forgiveness of. Arrogance. God is greater. I am a finite creature. I can only sin so much. Now mind you, it's a lot. I'm really good at sin. He is better at righteousness and he is more willing to forgive than we are even willing to sin. He is that good. Abraham is not just an example of our father in the faith, but he is our father in the faith. We are true children of Abraham when we have the faith of Abraham. Verse 16 says, this is why it depends upon faith. In order that the promises, and he's talking about all the promises that were promised to Abraham, promised that God would be his shield and very great reward. God would protect him, would reward him, that God would give him a land, that he would give him offspring, nations, that God would be his God, that he would have a right relationship with the God of the universe, that God would go before him, hedge him in, This is why it depends on faith in order that the promises, those promises, may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all His offspring. Not only to the herents of the law, the Jews, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham. That's you, who is the father of us all. As Paul is having this letter read to this Roman church, which has Jews and Gentiles worshiping together, his point is, you are all one people. That great blessings have been given to the Jews. They had not been left in the darkness, but God had reached out and snatched Abraham from idolatry. and had called Abraham to be His, and had given Abraham offspring, the Jewish nation, the twelve tribes, had given them land, the land of Canaan, had given them great blessings, and had given them the prophets that the Jews had received the Word of God, the Law. But now, He had brought in the nations. Actually, you could word it this way. You people, because looking about, most of y'all look pretty Gentile to me. You are the fulfillment of that prophecy that God would bring in the nations. Hebrew word is the goyim, which is where they get the idea of the Gentiles from. The nations. And Jews even to this day talk about the goyim. If you're not Jewish, you're the goyim. You're the Gentiles. God promised He would give nations to Abraham. Give Gentiles to Abraham. He would bring the Gentiles in. And the Gentiles have been brought in. We're in the last times. You're the fulfillment and all the promises. given to Abraham to his offspring, and Paul is here saying, you, even if you are a Gentile, you are an offspring of Abraham, if you have the faith of Abraham, you are his spiritual children, that you receive all these promises. Abraham's not just an example of a father in our faith, he is our father. And thus, all the promises our father in the faith receives, we receive by faith also. John Calvin in his Institute of Christian Religion, he talks about, for what is more consonant with faith than to recognize that we are naked of all virtue, in order to be clothed by God, that we are empty of all good to be filled by Him, that we are slaves of sin to be freed by Him, blind to be illuminated by Him, lame to be made straight by Him, weak to be sustained by Him, to take away from us all occasions for glory, Emphasis, glory in himself. That he alone may stand forth gloriously, and we give glory to him. Faith in Christ means that we take our eyes off self. And you don't take your eyes off self until you see something more glorious. Christ did not come to save the righteous. He came to save sinners. He did not come to save the strong. He came to save the weak. He did not come to save the wise. He came to save the foolish. And the Word of God points to us our foolishness, our weakness, our sinfulness, not in order just to make sure that we're good and depressed. He shows us our emptiness so that we may be filled. He shows us our poverty so that He may give us lavishly out of His treasure troves. He shows us our need of salvation so that He may provide what we need. He breaks us so that He may put us together right, and sometimes even crushes us to dust in order to mold something beautiful out of us. So, what do we apply from this passage? We're like Abraham. We're like every believer who has ever been saved. We're saved by faith, for the law has never saved anyone. Our good works, anything in of ourself has never saved anyone, even our faithfulness. We're like our father in faith, Abraham. And in so, we receive all the promises as true children. There's a story of a young man who grew up the only child of his father, the apple of his eye. The mother had passed away, and so the father, very rich art collector, doted upon his son. And this particular father had a great art collection. People came from all over the world to see it. He was very proud of it. But he was most proud of his son. In fact, his son, as he's growing up in his younger years, took some art classes, would do paintings, and the father would ooh and ah. And the son, one day in one art class, he did a self-portrait. And for his father's birthday, he kind of Bastardly gave it to his father and his father beautiful and to the son's embarrassment The father put this self-portrait up in this art gallery with these multi-million world famous pieces of art and so when people would come to the mansion and they would go through the father's art gallery, they would see these works of art done by these master artists, and the father would stop and show his son's self-portrait in the middle. Son grows up, war breaks out, son goes to war, and son perishes. When the father gets the news of the son's death, he closes up the art gallery, he closes up his home, he becomes a recluse, stops inviting people in, and the father one day dies. And the Father, in His will, has in there that all of the pieces of art, they'll be auctioned off. And so people from all over the world come traveling in for this auction, because these are wonderful masterpieces. The envy of the world. And so, on the day of the auction, people come in, chairs are set up, people are ready, they're dressed to the nines, these beautiful pieces are all ready to be auctioned off, and the auctioneer walks up front, the lawyer is there with the will, and the lawyer stands up and says, it was the owner of this, it was his will to have all these pieces auctioned off. He sits down, the auctioneer stands up and says, our first piece of art to be auctioned off will be the self-portrait of the sun. Silence. As people have come, rich, millionaires, art collectors from all over the world have come to get their hands on some of these beautiful pieces of art, and the first thing to be auctioned off is this self-portrait of the sun, done by the sun. And so it's this silence. Looking around, when do we get to the real art? And in the back of the room, there is the main servant of the house, who'd been there practically his entire life, an old man who had helped raise this boy. Seen the boy grow up, who loved the son, had been a surrogate mother in some ways because the mother had passed away. And so he walks down the aisle and goes, I would like that picture of the son. I love that boy. And so the auctioneer, they do a little bidding. The servant, not a rich man, but he gives a good price for it. Picture is given to him and he's walking to the back. And the auctioneer slams his gavel down and says, auction is now over. Everyone's looking around, people come from all over the world for this. And the lawyer stands up and reads the next part of the will. He who gets the son gets it all. He who gets the son gets it all. You are children of Abraham. Because you believe in the one that Abraham believed in. Remember when Abraham was going up to sacrifice his son Isaac? And Isaac's, um, we got the wood, we have the fire, where's the sacrifice? And Abraham, God will provide the sacrifice son. He believed that God would fulfill his promises. That God would provide. That even though it seemed impossible, he hoped against hope, that God would be able to give him these promises. How are you going to give me a child? Earlier promise. I'm as good as dead and my wife has been barren and she's way past childbearing years. But he believed that God would do what God said he would do. That God would provide what God promised to provide. That God would do what he could never do. He did not know the sacrifice's name. You do. He believed in the same thing you believe in, he just didn't have all the details. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. How were we saved as Christians? We believed God that He would provide the Lamb, the sacrifice, so that we may not die. We believed that He would do what seems impossible. Forgive me of my sins? This filth? Make me whiter than snow? Give me a kingdom. You'll protect me. You'll go with me. You have every hair on my head numbered. Impossible that you would care for me when I sometimes despise myself. You love me like no one else ever has. When you know everything I've ever done. We hope against hope, but You said it, O Lord, that whoever calls upon Your name will be saved, that You will wash away all our sins, that You will take our sins, and that You will clothe us in Your righteousness, that God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Impossible it seems, but I trust that God will provide." We believe the Son. And when you have the Son, you get it all. All the promises. The land promises to Israel. They're yours. In fact, more. You get it all. Not just this little piece of ground in the Mideast. But we get the world. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. He'll remake the heavens and the earth, and all sin will be removed, and every tear wiped away, and He will renew all things. We get it all? A right relationship with God? Not just that we don't get death, but life eternal? Peace with our Maker? All the promises, our shield, and our very great reward will be God. He gives us Himself. It's yours, children of Abraham, by faith. And it's always been this way. For there has never been anyone since Adam who has obeyed the law. We all stand condemned. It has always been the means of salvation. He must do it. Think about Adam and Eve in the garden. Standing, waiting for the judgment of God. God tells them, all this is yours. Didn't deserve it, but I give it as a gift. Just one thing I command. You are not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You must trust me. You must obey me. For I am the great king. I've made you kings upon the earth, but I am the great king. You must obey. And they chose to rebel against the righteous king. And when God comes down, What do they do? They run and hide. Why? Because they're not stupid. Judgment comes. We are going to die. And God calls them out because they know they cannot hide from the judge, and they're standing there, and I would imagine the trembling. We don't know what this death thing is, but we know it's not good. We've sinned against the righteous king standing there. And judgment comes down and it moves to another, a substitute. God covers over their sins with the death. He strips the skin from an animal. Covers them because they tried to cover their own nakedness with fig leaves or works. God must do it. He covers them. And then he promises there will be one to come. I promise you. His heel will be bruised, but he shall crush the serpent's head. He is the seed to make it right. You cannot cover yourself. I will do it. And I will send one who will pay for it all. That's what our faith is in. And we receive all the promises given to Abraham, all the promises given to Adam. All this is yours. Fellowship with God. God would come down the cool of day, would walk with them, fellowship with them, teach them. We will see Him face to face, Christian. More than you can comprehend. New heavens, new earth. Death is taken away. At the end of Revelation, you have the same wording used at the beginning in Genesis. You see the tree of life once again. Only now we have it. Forbidden at one point in time. Taken away from us. It is given to us for we'll have life. You get it all. Is it no reason that we worship? Is it no reason that we sing? Rest and rely upon Him alone for your salvation as He's offered to you in the gospel. When you have the Son, you get it all. Let me close us in prayer.