By Faith - Whats Faith

Grabo bibles, grabo bibles and turn to Romans chapter four. Romans four,

because I got this one. And if you don't have a Bible with you,

just raise your hand. We're passing those out right now. Just raise

your hand, keep it up. And if you don't have a bulletin,

that's also going to be really helpful for you. So just raise your hand

if you don't have a Bible with you or a bulletin in front of you,

so you can track along with all that God has for us in Romans

the fourth chapter. And while you're turning there, yeah, we're gonna be

the whole chapter this morning. While you're turning there, let me just say

it's the most wonderful time of the year. I prefer this summer, really,

but I'm just splitting the church every morning. But hey, because it

is the nearing the year's end, I wanna, I wanna, I'm wanna

say something. There are many of you who are are thinking about year end

giving. There are a lot of a lot of places that have needs that

you could contribute your year end giving towards. And I just want to I

want to make sure that you know across my Bible church is one of them,

right, we we we need your year end giving. There there are

gonna be decisions that are getting made at the end of this year by our

elders, financial decisions, and that they're gonna need to know what they have

to work with. Right, So please, as you consider your end giving,

please consider your church as a place of need for your year end giving.

And likewise, some of you are rather new here, and I know

that when you come to a new church, you're like, I wonder if

it's time for me to start giving to this church as my church. Well,

I don't know the answer to that individually, but I know that if

this is your church and you're wondering if this is a good time, I'll

tell you on our side, it's a good time, all right. The

year end is again when we make a lot of decisions, and for us

to know that these this is your giving, this is that you're here,

that's really helpful for us. If I just want you to know that at

year's end. So Romans chapter four, Romans chapter four, and before our

sister comes to read our text, let me just say this, Let me

ask this, what do you think of as the basis of your relationship with

God. Right, you have a relationship with God. I hope that you

do. You certainly can. And on your side of things, how do

you consider that you have stepped into or would step into? How is it

that you have entered into a relationship with God? How is it that you

are accounted righteous and in relationship with God? You probably know the Sunday School

answer, and if you don't, it's up on the big board. The

answer is by faith, though I know that functionally we lose sight of that

often all and in fact, in some cases we lose sight of the truth

of it altogether. And here in Romans chapter four, this is the climax

of the Bible's argument that your relationship with God is based on is founded in

the ground, and establishment of your relationlationship with God is faith and faith alone.

Here's the Bible's basic argument. If any of us are counted righteous by

God, it's only by faithulone. And Paul says, I'm going to prove

that to my objectors. And there were objectors andre people here in the Roman

Church who we're quite sure about that. And he says, okay, those

of you who object to this idea, right, you know that Abraham was

a friend of God. Abraham had a relationship with God. And I'm going

to prove to you that Abraham's relationship with God, contrary to your thinking,

was never based on Abraham's faithfulness. Who's based on Abraham's faith. It was

never based on Abraham's faithful works. It was always based on the fact that

he believed God. Faithful works, circumcision, obedience, those were the results

of his relationship with God. And so likewise, he's saying to the Romans,

So like Abraham, long before you, Romans, you're counter righteous by

faith. So I'll say to you, like the Romans, before you crossway,

you're count of righteous by faith. Not your faithfulness, not outward signs,

not adherence to a certain set of rules. Your relationship with God is

based on believing Him. Like I already know that it's good. I'm going

to go out on a limb. And this is a pastoral guess. But

if we do this a lot pastoral guests, ninety percent of the people in

this room already know and believe in the doctrine of justification with faith, and

the ten percent of you who don't, I just want to instruct and persuade

you this morning of that doctrine. But I also wager a pastoral guest that

of the ninety percent of you who already know and believe that justification is by

faith alone, you have that doctrine in your hand. I get. I

guess only ten percent of you understand the biblical argument. So you have the

doctrine, but you don't have a very firm grasp of it. You don't

know why, You don't know what the Bible teaches as to why that's true.

And I guarantee you that the devil's going to try to pull that doctrine

out of your hand. So I want to give you a better grasp.

Furthermore, here's a pastoral non gas. One hundred percent of us functionally forget

this doctrine regularly. I know because I do. And spiritual illnesses of pride,

obsessions about performance, insecurity, about salvation. So many maladies are rooted

in a weak grasp of this doctrine. Sound doctrine is life giving in particular,

sound doctrine that goes from the head down to the heart. So,

sister, why don't you come and read for us our sermon text Romans chapter

four. It's the hold in Schilada this morning four, What then, shall

we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh. For if

Abraham was justified by works, is he has something to boast about? But

not before God? For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God,

and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works,

his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his do And

to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the

ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of

the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness. Apart from works.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed

is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Is this

blessing then, only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised. For

we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness, How then was it

counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It

was not after, But before he was circumcised. He received the sign of

circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was

still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe

without being circumcised, so that the righteousness would be counted to them as well,

and to make him the father of the circumcised, who are not merely

circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father

Abraham had before he was circumcised. 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 adherents of the law, but also to the ones who

share 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 one 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.

That 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 him from the dead, Jesus, our Lord, who is delivered up

for our chrespasses and raised for our justifications. It's the word of the Lord.

Amen. So here it is again you are counted righteous. Your relationship

with God is based in faith, faith, trusting the one who has made

his promises, receiving, resting in, and trusting the one who is flawlessly

faithful, not by faithfulness, not by works, not by adherence to a

set of rules, not by signs on the outside, by faith. So

we're just gonna walk through this passage sort of paragraph by paragraph. That'll be

our structure this morning. And except for I've worded it into questions, questions

like are you counted righteous by faithful works or by faith? Are you counted

righteous by outward signs or by faith? Are you counted righteous by being an

adherent or by faith? And those last two we're gonna do really quickly together.

Don't worry, I'm not going to keep you here till dinner time.

And then lastly, what is faith? What is faith? We're gonna look

at that closely. So let's jump number one. Are you counted righteous by

faithful works? Is your relationship with God based on your faithfulness? Right?

Because there was the thinking of a group of people here that Paul is writing

to who were pretty convinced that their relationship with God was at least in some

part connected to based on their faithfulness, and they thought of Abraham as a

model for that. Right, Abraham was called a friend of God. Okay,

Abraham has a relationship with God, and they considered Abraham to be a

model of faithfulness. He was an example of righteousness, and so he was

taken as proof positive that friendship with God is for the godly right. Put

your attention on verses one through five. What then, shall we say was

gained by Abraham? What was found by him our forefather? According to the

flesh, Abraham was justified, which is to say, made right before counted

righteous by works. He's got something to boast about, but not before God.

What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to

him as righteousness. None of the one who works, his wages aren't counted

as a gift, but as his doe. Ano the one who does not

work but believes in him who get this justifies the ungodly. His faith is

counted as righteousness. So Paul takes that, thinking that your relationship with God

is based on your faithful works, and he says, you've got it completely

upside down. You've made the fruit the root, he says. Genesis fifteen

says he believed God and it was counted to him. It was credited to

him. It was gifted to him. If something's based on your work,

it's not a gift. Your boss doesn't come in with your paycheck atter two

weeks he's like, I've got a special gift for you. You shut up,

dude, I worked for that. So Paul's case is this, you

have misunderstood the how and why of God establishing his relationship with Abraham. It

was never based on Abraham's faithfulness. It was always based on his faith.

And his point is that that's true for us too. Your relationship with God

was never based on your faithfulness. It's based on faith. He just believed

God and it was counted to you as righteousness. It's like Abraham, the

pagan idle worshiping dude in a pagan idle worshiping land and God comes to him

and says, I'm going to do something. I'm making you a promise,

and Abraham says, okay, I believe you, and that faith was counted,

credited, the word is imputed to him as righteousness. Let's look at

that specifically. Check it out. Verses six through eight. Scripture says,

just as David. So now he's going from Abraham, he's moving into David.

David also right, so this has always been the case all the way

back. David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts

righteousness apart from works, blessed to those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose

sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count

his sin right. So the theological term is imputed righteousness, right, not

made righteous, counted righteous. When when you come to Christ, your deeds

don't get a fresh look, they get forgiven right. Your sinfulness isn't curtailed,

it's covered. In other words, when you trust God and are justified

by faith, there are some things that happen instantly. You are forgiven,

you are redeemed, you are adopted, you are declared righteous. Good place

for an amen. But there are other things that didn't change in that instant.

You did not go from being a sinful person to being a righteous person.

God did not give you righteousness and make you good. He counted you

righteous and called you good. It's a good place for an amen too.

He gave you his spirit and said I'm going to start working good in you

by grace through faith. He instantly changed the root, but he is patiently

working on the fruit. And this is good news on two fronts. Well.

For one, you know that if you're counted righteous by God, you

have the basis of your relationship with Him. It's entirely by faith, you

have access into his grace, Praise the Lord. But it's also good news

because if you haven't been made righteous, but rather declared righteous, you can

stop obsessing over why you're still struggling with sin and your sinfulness. His justification

did not make you less of a sinner. It made you a forgiven sinner.

Right blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, who sins are are

covered. Because if you think your faithfulness is the basis, if you think

your faithfulness is the basis of your relationship with God, you will suffer all

kinds of perfectionism and performance mentality. It would be a joyless striving or a

joyless pride. And if you think that righteousness was or should have been infused

into you at conversion, you will suffer with all kinds of imposter syndrome and

insecurity about your salvation because you know better, you're seeing it, and you're

like God, I know you're patiently working fruit in my life. Could you

be a little less patient? I need a sense of urgency here, God,

I have a sense of urgency. You know what. God's sense of

urgency is perfect, His patience is perfect, his gentleness with you is perfect.

You're not counting righteous by your faithfulness, it's by your faith. Now,

these next two points I'm gonna I'm gonna do in quick succession because they're

really making the same point, right. So here's the issue they're squabbling from

the Jewish Christians, who they're like, Okay, well, we're the legitimate

people of God, are or were at least the superior people of God.

We have Abraham as our father, we have circumcision as the sign of right

standing with God. We adhere to the law which secures our right standing with

God. And again Paul says, you're reading your Old Testament backwards. You're

not counted righteous by outward signs, You're counted righteous by faith examined starting in

verse nine. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, for the Jewish

Christians, or for the uncircumcised the gentile Christians? For we say that faith

was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then, in what manner was it

counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised. It

was not after, But before he was circumcised. He received the sign of

circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was

still uncircumcised. In the purpose, the objective, the reason for that was

to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, without having

the sign, without the outside, so that righteousness would be counted to them

as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised, who are

not merely circumcised, but also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our

father Abraham had before he was circumcised. Right. So Paul's like, so

you have circumcision like Abraham, big deal. That wasn't the source of his

being counted righteous. He was kind of righteous before the sign. The source

was faith. What really makes Abraham your father is having the kind of faith

that he had. And so he's the father of those who have faith if

they're circumcised. He's the father of those who have faith if they're not circumcised.

That's the deface line. That's what makes you his heerrs. That's what

makes you one people, it's faith. Furthermore, he makes the same point

in this way, and you're not counted righteous by being an adherent of the

law, but by faith, says in verse look at thirteen and following.

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be the heir of

the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if it is the adherence of the law, who are to be

the heirs? Faith is null and the promise is void. It was a

promise that he was given. For the law brings wrath. The law puts

you under the microscope and in good ways. But the law does not bring

about the promise. And then where there is no law, there is no

transgression. That's why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest

on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, the adherent of the law,

but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who isn't

an adherent of the law, who is the father of us all as it

is written, I have made you the father of many nations, many nations.

Was already embedded in the promise. It was already there. It was

a part of the plan. It's always been a part of the plan.

So you don't have to be an adherent of the law. You don't have

the outward sign of circumcision. You have to have faith. You have to

trust that God will do what he said he will do. That's the dividing

line. I threatened the sermon preparation team this week that I might sing Father

Abraham has many sons from the platform, and many sons has Father Abraham,

and I am one of them, so are you. So let's just praise

the Lord. And I have already recited the entire song, so I'm gonna

say check to that. I've made good on my threat. But it is

a profound It's a children's song, and if you don't know it, you're

not missing much in one sense. But in another sense, it is a

It is a theologically profound children's song because this is the climax of the Bible's

argument of justification by faith for all peoples. And we're not quite done with

Paul's case here. In some sense, we have the most important part yet

to go. But I just want to stop and like underscore this argument from

Romans, the Bible is saying that fundamentally, foundationally, essentially, the people

of God have always been the people of God based on just trusting God,

praise the Lord, believing God, not just believing in a God, but

putting faith in God's promise, maybe even just a mustard seed kind of faith.

With the Pharisees, they had works, they had circumcision, they had

adherence to the law, but they did not trust God as he stood right

in front of them. For all of history, faith has been the essence

of what made God's people God's people, And in twenty twenty three, it's

no different. You stand in the same family line as one who trusts the

promised One to deliver all the promised blessings, your child of Abraham, along

with a great multitude that has gone before you. And I'm one of them,

so are you. So let's just praise the Lord. But what is

faith? Because I think I know that we use the term faith in a

lot of different ways, a lot of different ways other than with the way

the Bible uses the term faith, The world uses the term faith in all

kinds of weird ways. So if faith isn't the same thing as faithfulness?

What is it? And I don't mean to give a comprehensive theological definition this

morning. Rather, let's look at this passage and look at the elements the

facets of faith that Paul puts forward here. And I don't have slides for

these. There's three three observations I want to make, and so you'll just

have to be more sophisticated note takers for these. How does Paul characterize faith

here? Well? Number one, Faith is believing God's promises, even considering

your limitation. Faith is believing God's promises, even considering your limitations. Put

your eyes on middle of seventeen, 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 is

to say, in hope he believed against the limitations of his own that he

could observe 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 one hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's

womb. Right, So he looked at his own body. He's like,

I don't think I'm having a kid. God, do you realize the limitations

that you're working with with me here? And he looked at his wife,

He's like, I love her, but do you realize the limitations that you're

working with? God? And yet he hoped against the limitations that were obvious

to himself and everybody else. He believed. Does that sound familiar for you?

God's promises to you and the limitations of your life, limitations of your

heart? I mean like, God says, I am going to forgive you

based on the person and work of Christ. I am going to forgive you.

And you're like, do you realize what you have to work with here?

Do you realize the chut choo train of baggage that I'm bringing into this?

Do you realize the selfishness? Have you been inside this head? But

I'm going to believe you, God says, I am going to patiently work

fruit in your life. You are going to be a story of spiritual change.

Like, do you realize the limitations that you're working with here? Do

you know how lazy I am? Do you know how easily I fall back

into old habits. I want to believe your promises. I'm looking at these

limitations. I'm staring at my wrinkly old body, and I'm going to hope

against hope that what you say is true. I am going to receive that

promise. I'm going to rest now, promise. I am going to trust

in the one who is flawlessly faithful, and that is faith. And God

says to you, I am counting that as righteousness. Faith is believing God's

promises, even considering your limitations, and it's believing genuinely on the inside.

Here's number two. Faith is believing genuinely on the inside, even if it's

clumsy on the outside. Believing genuinely on the inside, even if it's clumsy

on the outside. Let's take a look starting in verse twenty, 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. Those are pretty powerful words. That's a pretty

glorious assessment of a faith that looked pretty clumsy on the outside. I mean

this is. This is the Abraham and Sarah who, after having received this

promise, they're like, we don't really know exactly how God is gonna work

this out. How about the maid? How about the maid. Let's let's

have Hagar. She will be the child. She will be the mother of

your first child, Abraham, Maybe this is this is the way we're gonna

get things worked out. And God's like that, ain't it. And and

this is the Abraham who lied multiple times about Abram, about Sarah even being

his wife, because he was scared. He was scared, and he manipulated

the situation. This is the Abraham and Sarah who both laughed at God.

God made them a promise, and they're like, ah ah, I mean

they actually named their son Isaac, which means laughter, saying God has made

us laugh. And everybody else is going to think this is hilarious. Go

look it up. It's clumsy, it doesn't doesn't look doesn't look on the

outside like faith, but it was genuine. Look how God speaks of Abraham's

faith. The Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul has strong words for the genuineness

of his faith, even when Abraham was getting it wrong about how it was

all going to get worked out. So also with you don't mistake the clumsiness

of your spiritual walk so as to discourage you into thinking your faith isn't real

And things may be falling apart in all sorts of ways for you, and

you may have gotten scared, like scared in the way that makes your you're

you're scared, the way you're scared. It is not your proudest moment.

That doesn't mean your faith isn't real. God may be calling you to step

out into something completely new and you don't know how to do it, and

really, truly emotionally, you're scrambling around like crazy trying to figure out how

in the world we're gonna step out and do this thing that you feel like

God has called you to. And they're like, I don't know. I

don't feel like I've got faith. It's clumsy. That doesn't mean your faith

is in genuine. Faith is believing on the inside even if it's clumsy ugly

on the outside. Lastly, this number three. Faith is believing that is

counted to you even though it's fixed on him. Faith is believing that is

counted to you even though it's fixed on him. Put your eyes on twenty

two. That 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. 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. All right, So so

what is counted to us as righteousness? What is it that has counted to

us as righteousness? Believing that God is able to do what he promised?

He is lopsided right right. He's the one who's flawlessly faithful, and it's

credit to you is righteousness. He's the one who does the promising. He's

the able one. He raised Jesus from the dead, he made payment for

our trespasses, He raised Christ up for your justification. He is the flawlessly

faithful one. It's all fixed on him, and by faith righteousness is counted

to you. This means really good news, depending on your perspective. I

mean, it's not really good news if from your perspective, what you really

want is to be able to pat yourself on the back in comparison to others.

If that's your perspective, then Scripture has cut every leg out from underneath

you, whether you were standing on pedigree or performance. I gotta tell you,

God's blessing is for all who believe. But it's really good news.

If what, from your perspective, what you really want is to stand shoulder

to shoulder right on level ground, counted, righteous, rich or poor,

cleaner, dirty, red, yellow, black or white, all standing in

the one and same righteousness because of the One who made us to stand in

it my faith, then it's good news. If that's what you want.

Is maybe it's not good news if what you want is to be able to

boast before God. If your perspective is that what you want is to be

able to stand before God in a righteousness of your own based on your faithfulness,

this is not good news for a self justifying project. But it's really

good news. If your perspective is that what you really want is a righteousness

that is not your own, because you've seen your own, that instead of

a fundamental posture of striving to measure up, you're ready for a fundamental posture

of receiving and resting in and trusting the one who is flawlessly faithful, receiving

and resting in and trusting the one who is flawlessly faithful. That's faithful,

and it is counted to you as righteousness.