Well, we continue our study tonight after a few weeks, coming back to the book of Romans. And the Heidelberg was based on the book of Romans, guilt, grace, and gratitude, and how beautiful it is to see these put together. Because the book of Romans is not a systematic theology, it is very pastoral. It's very pastoral with people who are struggling with how they're right with God, and to make very clearly, make very clear known the doctrines of grace and, of course, how we should live. And that's all coming as we move on through Romans. So Romans chapter 4 tonight, we're concluding our study in the section with Abraham. We will look at verses 13 through 25. It's a bit thick, but I believe, as you'll see by the end of this, so pastoral and helpful for the Christian life. Romans chapter 4, beginning at 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 adherents of the law who are to be the 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 adherent 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 had been told, so shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. This is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also it will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification may the lord bless the hearing of his word i want you to remember tonight what the apostle paul is doing here what his purpose is. He is proving one great truth, that Abraham was justified by faith alone. Faith alone was the operating principle that governed faith, Abraham's life. He lived by faith. And Paul is showing us tonight that the testimony of Abraham proves this. The Apostle is driving home this point to make by the end of this section that the same faith that justified Father Abraham by grace is the very same way that we share in these promises, in the same promises, in the same gospel, with the same salvation by which we can be assured that Abraham is our spiritual father. Now this is a big point tonight. This is a very big point tonight because this chapter is painfully exposing and showing how hard this is for people to accept, how hard this is for people to believe, to receive this message. In the previous section, Paul made the point that it was not circumcision that secured this blessing for Abraham. To prove that, Paul went in to explain that Abraham was circumcised years after he was declared righteous in Genesis 15. Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. That was the moment of his justification before God. Forever acquitted before the tribunal and throne of God. So Paul has been laying this before the Jews who have struggled with this. And now tonight, in verse 13, he advances this argument even further to close it on out, and he says something really powerful in verse 13. Notice what it says. 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. What promise? what was the promise that god made to abraham you remember the lord had had come to abraham and he had made this glorious promise and paul is putting this in summary statement here that abraham received the promise to be the heir of the world and if you go back to genesis you will notice that there were three great blessings in that abrahamic promise that the lord made to him and remember what they were number one was he rehearsed and he assured him that the seed would come from him and so remember back in genesis 3 when the lord had promised through the seed of the woman there would be deliverance he takes that and applies it right to abraham in you abraham that's happening through you that the seed of the woman promised in genesis 3 would come through him And we know, as Galatians will tell us, that's a direct promise of Christ. Second, that in Abraham, all the Gentiles, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Second, that's what the Lord said to Abraham. Every single nation that exists on the face of the earth through you is going to be blessed, Abraham. And then three, you're going to inherit the land of Canaan. and we know from the book of Hebrews that it wasn't that land that he looked for. It was the heavenly land. That land was a shadow of the glorious land of heaven. And so we could summarize here what Paul says. Abraham received this promise as heir of the world. We could summarize it that Abraham received the promise of salvation, that God had promised to Abraham a Savior and eternal life, and he had promised, as our Heidelberg says, it's such a beautiful statement in the Heidelberg, that he has promised the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. What wonderful promise, huh? It included everything. Now, Paul's great concern tonight is simply the question, how did Abraham receive all this? That's the issue. That's the question that he's wrestling with. It's a simple question. How did Abraham receive all of this? In other words, Hebrews said God did two immutable things. According to Hebrews, he made a promise and then he came and he made an oath. Remember, passed through the pieces. But the question that Paul is concerned to raise in front of the Jews and all of us is the simple question whether Abraham secured any of these blessings that were promised to him, any of everything that was promised to Abraham, that he secured any of that. through the works of his own life and hands. It's as simple as that. That's all Paul's answering tonight and showing us how Abraham received this so that we might see, we share in that. And so Paul makes a direct, clear, hard-hitting statement in verse 13 to lay this whole thing to rest. And you would think that after all these years, people would see this and say, wow, that's so clear for us, you know. He says, this promise, all that it included for Abraham and his seed, his people, not one bit of the blessing was secured by his obedience to the what? The law. None of it. Not one single work of Abraham contributed in any way to the securing of the promise. Now, I don't know if we realize how strong an argument this is. It's a known fact that among the rabbis, they would run around teaching that Abraham fulfilled the law. That Abraham kept the law. That he obeyed the law in all of its details. And Paul knows that this is what was believed. And Paul is making the basic point here. You've not considered that there are two very different principles at work. very radical different principles and they can't be mingled they can't be confused because if you mingle these things you destroy what the promise how the promise was received and so he says in in in verse 5 remember he said in verse 5 he makes the distinction that to him this is a very important verse to always hold on to in this whole discussion that to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly his faith is accounted to him for righteousness so there it is you don't work you believe and he's going to come back in chapter 11 and say it very strongly when he says and if it is by grace then it is no longer of works otherwise grace is no longer grace but if it is of works it's no longer grace otherwise work is no longer work so the point he's making is you can't mingle these things it's one or the other it's either all grace or it's all works now paul has been presenting to us and showing us two kinds of righteousness hasn't he two kinds of righteousness the righteousness that comes by the law and the righteousness that comes by faith and so in verse 14 he plainly says that if this this great promise made to abraham that included all of these blessings that was salvation that was made to abraham if this great promise was made to abraham by the law in other words if it was through abraham's working to obtain this it completely throws out the operation of grace and he says faith means nothing and he says notice how he says it the promise is made of no effect well that makes sense because if the promise rests on man's obedience you've just made null the promise because no man can fulfill it so paul has already made that point in chapter three that the principle it's not the principle upon which the promise operated i'm going to show you that lord willing here in a moment so if the promise if that were the arrangement that it were by anything we did you could never have certainty do you notice how many times reading through this section there was the emphasis on certainty assurance a certainty certainty do you know that there are very few i i as far as i understand that the reformed doctrines are the only ones that present a doctrine of assurance my mother grew up in the church of christ and she'll tell you what that was like it was all rules it was all what you had to do and they believed you were saved by works this is very real to people this is what people are taught this is the system that rome was built upon so he's raising the question tonight what then i ask paul paul asked the question well what then was the purpose of the law let me ask this question what did israel end up doing with the law that's how you kind of approach that question well paul says in chapter 10 he says that israel desperately tried to establish their own righteousness by pursuing and i quote the law of righteousness in other words they thought by trying to do all of these what the lord commanded they would achieve eternal life and paul says very plainly they've not submitted to the righteousness of god they've not listened to what god has announced the righteousness that comes by faith israel seems to have forgotten what it was like when the law was given do you think we forget what it was like when the law of god was given what do you think it was like when the law of god came on sinai do you think that was a nice pleasant experience what do you think well here's what happened we're going to look at this here in a moment here's what was the mentality in israel israel began to think that because they were specifically given god's law as his own special people they began to think that in the covenant of grace with abraham since the law had been added that meant they had to fulfill their part hey as in a covenant there are two parts right we've heard that language that means that there's a responsibility on my part they thought to fulfill the covenant now i want to remind us tonight we're not talking about sanctification are we we're not talking about as the heidelberg places the law in the third use we call third use means that the gratitude section that's not what we're talking about tonight there's a way of gratitude as a christian there's a way that we live and we are instructed as christians we're not there yet we'll get there they looked at abraham the jews and they said oh a abraham kept the law he fulfilled his part paul is dealing with this immense problem in romans and the immense problem that still is around today and he states plainly what was the general nature of the law and why the purpose of the law in general so i come back to the question what do you think it was like when israel received the law on mount sinai you know we um i read the ten commandments this morning boys and girls and we're somewhat used to that aren't we we stand up and i read and and you sit and listen and I pray you don't tune it out, but it's a thing that we can easily do, can't we? I read the Ten Commandments and nothing really happens. What does God think? How do we approach that? What is the feeling through the whole thing? How do you think Israel experienced that? Imagine the first worship service up on Mount Sinai and God comes down. You ever read that first worship service in Exodus 19? Here's the Lord. I want you, Moses, to set bounds around the whole mountain. In other words, boys and girls, you would see no trespassing signs. Yellow tape all the way around. And you would read big signs that said, keep out. Authorized access only. Moses, I want bounds around all the mountain. And if anyone, even a beast, so much as takes a finger and touches the mountain, I want you to place archers over there, and I want you to shoot them with bows. They are to be killed. They are to immediately be shot or stoned. You shoot arrows. So the Lord says, when the trumpet sounds, just come near the mountain. Just come near. This is what we read in Exodus 19. It came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and the sound of the trumpet was very loud so that all the people who were in the camp trembled and Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly. I don't know if I can really communicate the horror of this. The Lord descended upon it, and it was a beautiful, sunny Southern California day, and all of a sudden everything went black. And this black, ominous cloud comes down, and the whole sky turns black. And what you saw when you looked up was like the smoke of a furnace on the top of the mountain. It was awesome. And this column of fire is blazing up. This is what they're seeing. Lightning is flashing everywhere. Add to this, all of a sudden the trumpet begins to sound and it gets louder and it gets louder to the point where they can barely endure the sound of it. And then it begins to thunder and the earth starts shaking under their feet. And they are, if I can describe it, in holy terror this moment. Hebrews describes this in chapter 12, and it says that the sound of the trumpet and the voice of words made the hearers beg that no messages be spoken to them, for they could not endure what was, lo and behold, commanded. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. They shook violently. What did God come to do on Sinai? give the law immediately after the giving of the ten commandments you know what you have immediately after that exodus 20 they cry out don't let god speak to us lest we die moses you speak and the amazing thing before the giving of the law was remember what israel swore the oath all the words of the covenant we will do and before they've even departed to the promised land they're already holding up a calf breaking the first and the second commandment saying this is the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt now i raise all that tonight and i go through that quickly um because if we could ever say that god's promises are based on human works according to the law what's the problem paul says it in verse 15 the law brings wrath the law brings wrath why well because the basic purpose for which god gave his law was to expose what sin this is what paul's been saying the whole time this is why paul said i i wouldn't even have known covetousness unless the law had said thou shall not covet this is the woman at the well where jesus comes and he exposes idolatry she didn't see it until she was confronted with don't do that and it awakened it and paul will say that god put israel under the law to stop the mouth of the world in its own righteousness you see this is where the galatian church got all messed up and i believe they look carefully at the Sinai phenomenon of the giving of God's law and they do what many well-meaning Christians do today and they started saying, well, hey, in the covenant of grace, we've got to do our part. And then we come to the Apostle Paul and what we find is shocking. He sees these two covenants and two different principles operating in these covenants, doesn't he? Radically different between what happened with Abraham and what happened on Sinai. And he addresses what he knows would be the objection in galatians 3 says and he knows he goes back to abraham to abraham and his seed were the promises made he does not say to seeds as of many but as of one and to your seed who is christ and listen to this and this i say that the law which was 430 years later after abraham cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ. Notice what he says. That it should make the promise of no effect. What does that mean? I know you're struggling, Paul says to the Galatians, to accept what I'm saying, that no one is justified by the law, for the just shall live by faith. But you see, the law is not of faith. the law made on Sinai 430 years later, after the covenant of grace was cut with Abraham, that law doesn't annul what was done. It doesn't throw out the gracious, unconditional covenant that God made with Abraham, the covenant of grace. For if the inheritance is of the law, well, this is what he says, it's no longer a promise. See the distinction? god gave it to abraham paul says by promise this is so beautiful tonight i know it's a little heavy but this is the basic point paul says in verse 15 the law brings wrath for where there's no law there's no transgression the law came 430 years later and what paul just said is this Abraham was placed in a situation when God made His promise in the covenant of grace, the law hadn't even yet come. And why is that important? It demonstrates to all of us tonight that the promise that He would inherit the world, the promise of gospel, the promise of Christ, the promise of salvation was all by faith according to the principle of grace. so that we'll never look to the law to try to fulfill it. And that's why when you have this strange covenant in Genesis 15, if you can imagine that animals were broke open and there was a row cut in the middle. And what did Abraham do? Did he swear anything in that? Abraham's asleep. And the Lord passes through to declare He will fulfill everything that needs to be accomplished for our righteousness. And that's the Gospel. God made this promise to Abraham. The question that Paul is saying is, after all that, it didn't come by the law, how did he receive it? He says in verse 16 that the way this promise was received was by faith. That it might be according to grace so that the promise might be what? Sure. I love that. You can't say sure if you put law in there. But you can say sure when you have grace there and faith. That is so beautiful. If you get that, you understand the gospel so powerfully. And Paul wants us tonight to look at Abraham and say, okay, brothers and sisters, what do we really learn from the life of Abraham? What does faith look like? What does God desire of us? What is the kind of response that gives Him the most glory? Well, I did my dictionary lookup of faith and I was amazed at what I saw. One man said, a man consists of the faith that is in him. Whatever his faith is, he is. Another man wrote, what is faith but a kind of begetting or a speculation after all? Another one wrote, faith is a stiffening process of a sort of mental starch which ought to be applied as sparingly as possible. Another said this, faith is before all and above all wishing that God may exist. What does Father Abraham show us? What does Father Abraham teach us about how he received the promise of eternal life and was sure. I want you to notice verse 20 tonight. He grew strong in his faith and he gave glory to God. I believe it's amazing that Paul raises the issue of God's glory here that gets right passed over in this discussion. What is the way that brings God the most glory? God comes to Abraham makes this promise. With all appearances, the promise was an impossibility, by the way. Look at the sand of the seashore, the stars of the heaven. That's going to be your descendants. What? Faith, the Heidelberg says, is what? Oh, we study this, don't we? It's a knowledge and a conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true. It's a deep-rooted what? Assurance created in me by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel that out of sheer grace earned for me by Christ, not only others, but I too have had my sins forgiven and have been forever made right with God and have been granted salvation. Promise. Whenever we believe His promises, you know what we're saying about Him? We're saying something about Him. We're saying something about Him, His power, His ability, His provision. We would know nothing of salvation, the cross, Christ, redemption, the character of God if He had not spoken because of the awful predicament of the human race. Had God not taken it upon Himself to give this by promise that it might be according to grace, none of us would be saved. So what glorifies Him? You know what glorifies God the most in your life? Believing Him at His bare word. Boys and girls, believing Him. Paul says, look at Abraham. Let me show you this for just a second. We'll close. What was promised to Abraham was far beyond what reality seemed to say. Two things should deeply move you about what it says about Abraham. Verse 18. Abraham, contrary to hope, believed. He became the father of many nations according to what was spoken. How does Paul characterize Abraham? Here's a man who in that culture had no children. He was a nobody. It was actually a very shameful thing. Abraham had come from pagan Ur of the Chaldeans. God changes his name, calls him Abraham. He did not waver in unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. Why? Because he was fully convinced. Notice this. That God was able to perform what He promised. And it was accounted to Him for righteousness. If you were to go through the life of Abraham, you see this life that's just tested. We're going to do that, Lord willing, down the road. Humanly speaking, everything God promised to Abraham seemed impossible. From him the seed would come. He's how old? His wife is how old? They're dead. Her womb is dead. Yet Abraham believed God. Isaac came. The Lord says, I want you to take him. I want you to sacrifice him. Abraham doesn't say what? He goes and Hebrews tells us that Abraham believed that if God did allow that to happen, he would raise him from the dead. Because that promise was sure. And Paul says in verse 20, that he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief. I believe this is the kind of childlike faith that makes no sense to the world that God is after. You may think, I don't feel very victorious in the Christian life. I read this and I think, boy, I complain. I mean, you know, I complain about everything. And I seem to stumble easy. Well, if you look carefully at the life of Abraham, he did a lot of stupid things. But Paul is saying here, and I want you to understand that not wavering at the promise, not weakening in what he believed does not translate to a sinless life. He struggled. I think Calvin is so helpful here when he says, even though we experience weakness from sin, this does not extinguish faith itself. For the mind is never so illuminated, but that many relics of ignorance remain. The heart is never so strengthened, but that much doubting clings to it. Hence, with these vices of the flesh, ignorance and doubt, the faithful, you guys are going to have a continual conflict, and in the conflict of their faith, it is often dreadfully shaken and distressed. Listen to what he says. But at length, it comes forth victorious, so that it may be said, it may be said to be strong even in weakness. Every time Abraham struggled, you know what God would do for him? And this is where we come back to the issue of God sending his son who is our chief prophet. You know what God would do? He would come to Abraham when Abraham messed up and he would assure him and confirm his word every time. And isn't that what the Lord's done for you today? You come out of these weeks and you've done stupid things and here the lord comes to you and he assures you in his word and he speaks words of promise to you he assures you of his grace and his love and what does that incite in us it holds us it keeps us this is what the lord was constantly showing us in the gospels when we feel like nothing's happening when we feel like daily life is mundane and we're tired of the routine of it all when it seems that everything is contrary to hope and we feel like giving up when it seems that God's promises are not coming to pass the Lord is telling us what delights him and that he helps us that we would live in trust in childlike faith in his promises that are so sure that he has said that we have the forgiveness of sins we're justified by faith and we have everlasting life Do you believe that tonight? Do you believe that? I want to close with this. You don't know the name of Derek Tolstma. He's the young man who I went to Linden to do his funeral. 28 years old, he died. Family, two kids, wife. It was a tough funeral. He, from birth, had a lung issue. And it just slowly kept getting worse and worse and worse. Derek Tulsma had nothing. Derek Tulsma, by the time he was 28, his body was out. He had the body of a 90-year-old. Derek Tulsma, his mind, because he couldn't get oxygen to the brain, couldn't memorize much of anything. I worked with him to do a profession of faith. He had no money, no body. The mind was limited. And every year, he would get thrown in the sickness. He would go in the hospital. And in that hospital, he would really wrestle with why the Lord had to let this happen to him. But I'll never forget that at the very end of his life, before I'd left to come here, that Derek said, you know, the doctors were in there and the family was really worried because they thought that was it. And this happened for five or six years. And the nurses were standing there. And he says, are you scared? This is a man who had nothing. He was a nobody. And he said, no. Because I know that Jesus has saved me. And I know where I'm going. And I look at Derek Toltzman and I think, childlike. He didn't come trying to offer up works. He couldn't do anything. But that life told us a story of the gospel. No strength in himself. simple, childlike trust in God's promises. And 1 John says that's so important for you. This is the victory that overcomes the world. Know what it is? Our faith. That gift of God. Who is He who overcomes the world? But He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Here's what I love about how all this ends tonight. Paul has said, great father Abraham, great hero of the faith, is an example and teaches us about justification by faith alone. And then he says, but you know what? I'm not telling you that for his sake. I'm telling you that for you. Pastorally, isn't it? He says, but the words, verse 23, it was accounted to him, were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus, our lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification you didn't see that done you don't see the physical body but those who believe by faith the lord wants you to know tonight that you share in the same faith of father abraham and you are counted as righteous never to know his judgment paul wants you to believe that the lord is calling you to believe that and not to work for it it's hard for us to simply rest and trust in the son that is the life beloved that glorifies him that alone is the greatest way we can glorify him by his grace trusting his promises you believe then i say tonight that you share in the same promises as father Abraham which the Lord has said to you they're all yes and amen because they come to us solely by his wonderful grace amen oh Lord our God we are thankful that you care to teach us and instruct us in the way of salvation and we have seen this problem we see it in our own hearts of trying to work for our salvation. Thinking that by fulfilling the law or doing our part in the covenant that we've earned it, we know that Christ has satisfied and come to be the mediator and come to satisfy the demands and take on and fulfill all righteousness that we today might enjoy a covenant of grace. Thank you for the wonderful news of salvation. And as we are tried and tested and afflicted, may we always believe and not lose heart, not doubting, knowing that you are faithful to accomplish all that you have said in your word. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.