Please turn with me in the Word of God to Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 4, taking up our reading at verse 13 and reading down through chapter 5, verse 11. Romans chapter 4, beginning our reading at verse 13. Let us hear God's own Word. It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless because law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed, so he became the father of many nations. Just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness. The words, it was credited to him, were not written for him only, But also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness. For us who believe in him, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, When we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we now live through his life? Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. So far the reading of God's Word. Well, we are just completing a Thanksgiving season, and I don't know how it was at your house, but it was very good at my house. And it's a time, a wonderful time, a time of getting together to reflect, getting together to give thanks, getting together to enjoy the good things of this world. The original focus of Thanksgiving, of course, was particularly on God's material blessings. It was a harvest home celebration. It was a celebration that after months of toil through spring planting and summer care at last in the early fall, harvest was gathered and it meant winter could be faced with safety because food had been gathered in and God had provided to sustain physical life. Most of us aren't farmers anymore. We don't live in that cycle of life. We don't recognize quite so immediately how important and precious that cycle is to us. But it is good that we pause to give thanks for the material blessings that surround us. And it is good in that Thanksgiving to remember our spiritual blessings as well. That we are a favored people, the covenant people of God who know the promises and the provision of God in Jesus Christ for us. And we give thanks for that as well. But it does seem to me that there is always a little bit of danger. The danger that we may reflect so much on what we have been given that we may not think quite enough about the giver. we are so prone to self-centeredness that even in thinking of the material gifts we've been given, even in thinking of the spiritual gifts we've been given, we may just focus on what we have been given or focus on what we have been given and forget to focus as much as we really ought on the one who is given. The constant struggle of our lives, I think, is to be genuinely and truly God-centered, God-focused, God-recognizing. And so that's what I'd like us to turn our attention to this morning as I preach on this theme, A God to Trust. And I want us to approach that theme through the perspective of what Paul is writing to the Romans, as we just read in chapters 4 and 5. Now, Romans is a book that we return to again and again and again because Paul presents so carefully, so fully the message of salvation, the way in which God works for our salvation. And particularly in chapters 3 through 4 and 5, he lays out with the greatest possible care how it is that God has acted in Jesus Christ to save His people. And we must return again and again to that section of Scripture because so frequently it has been misrepresented and misunderstood. So frequently in the history of the church, people have distorted God's way of salvation. We've seen that way of salvation attacked over and over again. It's attacked again in our time by those who would claim to have a new perspective on Paul that turned his argument on its head. So it is good that we should give attention to this passage of Scripture. But again, we want to avoid the temptation of focusing so much on what God is doing for us that we lose our focus on the fact that it's God doing for us. And so we want to focus in looking at Romans 4 and 5 today particularly on the character of God that is revealed here. Who is this God? This God of the Scriptures, this God of the Covenant, this God of our Lord Jesus Christ, this God who has been faithful to His people in all generations, This God who calls us to trust Him, to rely upon Him, to believe in Him, to rest in Him. He calls us to Himself. He calls us to Himself with the assurance that He is the provider of what we need. And it's remarkable when you think about that, Because the gods of the nations, the gods of this world, are really not much like that. The gods of this world are demanding. They demand worship. They demand service. They demand fear. They are often indifferent. They are often fickle. They are often unpredictable. They are often unreliable. But the God of the Scripture stands out with a uniqueness in human experience, in human history, in saying, I am a God that you can trust. I am a God you can rely on. And so through these chapters of Romans 3 through 5, we hear that echo of faith, Of believing, of trusting, of relying upon our God because He is utterly reliable in who He is and what He does. And I'd like to look just at four things with you this morning. As we think about who our God is. As we reflect on how He is a God to trust. And one of the things that comes through powerfully in this text is that our God is a life-giving God. He is a life-giving God. Paul makes that point with particular force relative to Abraham in this text. Abraham had been given a promise by God. He had grown old waiting for the fulfillment of that promise. He thought his body was dead. He thought his wife's body was good as dead. And he thought this promise may never come to fulfillment. But God, Paul says, the God who calls things that are not into being, the God of creation, but brought life into Abraham and into Sarah so that they had a child. The Lord is able to call life out of death. That's the promise. That's the declaration of the character of our God. He did it in Abraham. He is a life-giving God. And Paul reminds us that he did it supremely in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ given over to death, but called forth to life in his resurrection. Our God is a life-giving God. Death could not hold his Son. But in his Son we see revealed the power of life, the reality of life, the triumph of life over death. this is a world that so often seems surrounded by death and yet wants to deny the reality of death doesn't want to think about death but the character of our God is that he comes to his people and says you can trust me to be a life giving God I gave it to Abraham I gave it to my son I'll give it to you new life in this world and eternal life in the life of the world to come God has promised us life remember those words of Romans 5 verse 10 for if when we were God's enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his son how much more being reconciled shall we be saved through his life Jesus is alive today And His life is for us, His people, so that we might be restored to a living fellowship with God. That's the promise. Because our God is a life-giving God. Sin entered this world to kill. We read in Romans that the wages of sin is death. But sin does not have the last word. Sin will not have the last word because we have a God who is life-giving. A God to trust. But our God is not only life-giving, Paul tells us. Our God is burden-bearing. Psalm 65, verse 3 reads, When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. What an amazing statement. Psalm 65 doesn't say, when iniquities prevail against me, you tell me to try harder. It doesn't say, when iniquities prevail against me, you tell me to give up. It doesn't say, when iniquities prevail against me, you say you should have done better, and I don't care about you anymore. No, what Psalm 65 says is, when iniquities prevail against me, you, O God, atone for our transgressions. You bear the burden. You take it on yourself. This is the character of our God. It's amazing. While we were yet enemies, Christ died for us. And so Jesus came to bear our burdens. He came, first of all, to bear the burden of keeping the law for us. That was a burden we could not bear. Isn't it amazing? We hear the law read week by week. Does it ever strike you? Why haven't I gotten a lot better? Someone, I've known you for 25 years. You've heard the law read every Sunday morning. I'm not saying you're so very bad as the world would count it. But doesn't it strike you as the law is read, as the Holy Spirit brings that law into our minds and into our hearts? I hope you listen. Don't just sit there and not listen, because you've heard it before. But isn't it remarkable that we cannot keep that law? But Jesus came to bear the burden of keeping the law in our place. Romans 5, verse 18, we're told by his one act we are justified. What's that one act? His whole life of perfect obedience. a seamless whole a oneness to it a completeness to it he bears the burden for us Paul had said in Romans 2 verse 13 doers of the law are justified whoever did the law to be justified only one only one our Lord Jesus Christ he kept the law for us and then he died to bear the burden of our curse. To bear the burden of our judgment. He died on the cross to take away our sins. He died, the scripture says, for the ungodly. He didn't die for good people. He didn't die for sort of good people. He didn't die for generally good people. He died for the ungodly. He died for those who were anti-God. He died for those who are self-centered and living for themselves. That's what's amazing here. This is the incredible character of our God, that He's the burden bearer of His enemies. That's you and me. That's not somebody else. That's you and me. He was delivered up for our transgressions. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He bore on that cross the terrible judgment for sin that should have been ours, that we might be delivered. He is the burden bearer. That's the character of our God. Sin came to crush and to enslave, to weigh down and to destroy. But Jesus came to liberate, to bear our burden, that we might be free. What an amazing God. And thirdly, Paul tells us that our God is righteous making. He not only is life-giving and burden-bearing, but He makes us righteous in His Son. We're told that over and over again. In this text, it's as if Paul knew it's a theme the church would have trouble understanding. It's as if Paul knew it's an idea that would be hard to get straight in our minds. And so he comes at it from one angle and then another over and over and over again in Romans 3 through 5, that it might get home to us that in Jesus Christ and by the work of Jesus Christ, you are no longer counted by God as sinful people, but you are counted a perfectly righteous people. A perfectly righteous people. When God comes to meet with us on the Sabbath day, when He is here with us in the power of His Holy Spirit, when He contemplates us in His Son, what does He see? Well, he does see our individual foibles. That's why we have to continue to repent of our sins. But more foundationally, he looks at us. In the Escondido United Reformed Church, he looks at us and he sees us as perfect in Jesus Christ. As holy, righteous in Jesus Christ. As complete in Jesus Christ. That's too good to be true, isn't it? But it is true. It is true. Yes, we have to continue to struggle to become more holy. We would like to be more holy. If we really belong to Jesus Christ, we long to be more holy. But He comes with this comforting word to us and He says, I am a righteous making God. I have made you righteous in my Son. For the purposes of law keeping, I count you as perfect before me. As 100% righteous. As lacking nothing. As my Son lacked nothing. It's amazing, isn't it? That we would have such a God that we would be counted, reckoned, calculated as righteous before him? That's what so many interpreters of Scripture have never understood. But listen to how Paul summarizes that, to press the point, Romans 4, verses 4 through 6. Now, when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. Anybody knows that, right? If you work all day, you have earned your wages. However, to the man who does not work, but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. How are you righteous? Not by your works. Not even by your faith, if by faith you're talking about the virtue you have within you of believing. You're righteous by faith because your faith looks away from yourself to Jesus Christ, the righteous. You're righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. In a sense, we should never use the word faith without adding to it the words in Jesus. Faith is never something in itself. Faith is only something as it looks to Jesus Christ and rests in Jesus Christ. and the word of the gospel, the good news that comes from a God we can trust is that in Jesus Christ we are counted, reckoned, as perfectly righteous. Everything Jesus Christ has done and accomplished has been credited to your account. What a God. A God who in making us righteous declares that then he has peace with us and we have peace with him. Romans 5 verse 1, therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you have peace with God? Do you know that God is at peace with you? Do you know He's no longer at war with you? Do you know that He reigns in heaven as your heavenly Father? That all things will work together for you? Work together for good for you? And that that promise is not only for the present, but it's for the future. Look again at Romans 5 verse 10. For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved through His life? Jesus is alive, and that life is life-saving for you and for me. As long as Jesus lives, those who belong to him will never be abandoned, will never be lost, will never be cast out. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have a God to trust who is righteous making, life-giving, burden-bearing, righteous making. And last, he is promise-keeping. We have a God to trust who is promise-keeping. We go back to Abraham and to the promise made to him. Not only that he would have a child, but from that child would come a great people. And not only from that child would come a great people, but from that great people would come a Savior who would bless the whole earth. That was the promise made to Abraham. But as he got older and older and older, one would think it was an increasingly difficult promise to believe. But look what Paul writes about Abraham and his faith. Romans 4 verse 19. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet, he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he promised. Isn't that wonderful? But it's not just wonderful to know that God has the power to do what he promised, But it's even more wonderful to know that God has always done and always will do what He's promised. Our God is a promise-keeping God. And when He promises His people to save them, to preserve them, to use them, He keeps that promise. For the Scripture is very clear, Paul wants to underscore it, just in case we're in danger of missing it, that what was said to Abraham was not just said to him for him, but was said for us. God is a promise-keeping God for us. And one of the great verses, it seems to me, in this whole text is Romans 4, verse 16. Therefore, the promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring. You have a promise. If you turn to that promise in faith, it is guaranteed by the grace, the love, the mercy, and the power of God to be fulfilled for you. That's what Paul is saying here. You have a guarantee. Not like the guarantee you get on the big screen TV that you have to pay 10 or 20% more for. So it will be fixed. This is a guarantee where the fix is in from the beginning and you didn't pay for it. It's the grace of God that guarantees this promise. It's the grace of God, that irresistible grace, that God will accomplish his purpose and his people to save them. And glorify them at the last day. Sin leads to despair and to hopelessness. But we have a God to trust who is promise-keeping. Are you thankful for that God? That unique God of the Scriptures? That God who does indeed deserve service and obedience and fear, but even more, calls upon his people to trust him. Trust him to be life-giving, burden-bearing, righteous-making, promise-keeping. Do you trust him? You'd be a fool not to. It's the fool who says in his heart, there is no God. And yet our tragedy is we're tempted to foolishness. But our God comes to us in the words of his apostles. And he pleads with us. He reaches out to us. He says, I have come that you might live. I have come that you might be delivered from your sins. I have come that you might be counted righteous in the suffering and burden of my Son. I have come that you might know I am a promise-keeping God. Do you trust me? Do you trust me for this life and the life of the world to come? Do you trust me when I say that today you are reconciled with me and have peace? And do you trust me when I say tomorrow I will keep hold of you? And do you trust me when I say one day the fullness of glory will be revealed when all things are made new and all sin is taken away and every tear is dried? Do you trust me? The righteousness of God, Paul says, is for all those believing. We have a God to believe in. A God to trust. A God to rely on. Trust Him. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we marvel that you, the great and eternal one, you, the infinite and almighty one, you, the holy one, should care for us. That you should provide a salvation so costly to you and so amazing and free and full for us. Oh, Lord, let us be thankful for you and for how you have provided so wonderfully for us. Fill our hearts, oh, Lord, with faith. Help us, each one here, to see how great is the goodness that you manifest to us. Help each one of us here to say, we praise you, O Lord, for being a God to trust. Hear us, for we pray in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.